Tag Archives: hallowe'en

October 23, 2014 · 9:40 pm

Ouija

Ouija board, Ouija board, can you help me?

Ouija board, Ouija board, can you help me?

Introduction

I first wrote this in February 2011. Since then a number of things have prompted me to expand upon my original article, not least of which is a film entitled Ouija coming out for Hallowe’en. Anyway, my basic thoughts are these:

I am suspicious of Ouija boards, not because they are too occult and hence evil, but because they are not occult enough!

I shall explain. The way that Ouija boards are marketed is so egregious it ought to make a serious occultist cringe. Whenever I see an Ouija board, I cannot help but think of what real Mediums go through to be in a position to communicate with the departed. The traditional method of becoming a Medium has always been to join a “development circle” – membership of which being usually only open to members of a Spiritualist Church – thus ensuring that one is in sympathy with the aims of the circle from the outset. The Development Circle forms a sympathetic environment in which a trainee medium can learn how to practice their art in a safe, sensible and respectful manner – respectful to oneself, to the bereaved, and to the spirit being contacted – and all the while being supported by those of like-mind. Going through a development circle like this might take a couple of years at the very least.

Ouija boards, however, are marketed like “Hey! You and your friends can chat with the dead at your party tonight!!!” No mention of training, but a lot of helpful advice like “Why not make the atmosphere spooky by dimming the lights and lighting some candles? Woooo!”

Ironically, it is theoretically possible to turn an Ouija board into a serious method of spirit communication, if only its users used the same sort of care that a trained Medium would use. It so happens that the techniques of the Medium also have their analogue with those of the Ceremonial Magician – which I describe below. For example, the Pentagram ritual is equivalent to the forming of the circle, and the use of prayer to prepare the Seance. Moreover the Guardian Angel in the process serves the same purpose as Medium’s “Spirit Guide.” The Pentagram Ritual has the effect of banishing all unwanted influences; whilst the Guardian Angel will ensure that only the desired spirit is contacted, and that it speaks the truth whilst doing so.

Anywho: here’s my original article:

Ouija Boards

During the week, I came across a post at patheos.com by some Christian fundamentalist about how evil ouija boards were, and that they were leading children into the occult etc.

NB: As always when trying to claim the moral high ground in cases like this, the writer inevitably invoked a “think about the children” mentality.

I therefore decided to lend my assistance – by explaining how an ouija board may be used safely with minimal risk to the user. A sort of how to contact spirits and have fun doing so, if you were.

Then within the past day or so I find that the site underwent maintenance, after which all the comments (including mine) conveniently ahem I mean mysteriously disappeared! Luckily I had saved what I wrote, so I present it here for your delectation.

An Ouija board can be made safe with the following simple 3 step procedure:

  1. Firstly: perform the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.
  2. Before attempting to contact any other spirit, invoke a “Guardian Angel” to come down and watch over the board. Ask the Guardian Angel to ensure that only the spirits you desire contact you through the board, and that they speak the truth when they do so. Assuming the Guardian Angel says yes, proceed to …
  3. Contact the desired spirit – get it to acknowledge the Guardian Angel, and provide some proof that it is who it says it is.

Any spirit communication that happens and at least one of these rules hasn’t been observed can and indeed should be discarded. Too much caution cannot be exercised – not necessarily because it is dangerous, but because believing any old rubbish that a passing entity happens to send over detracts from the value of receiving genuine messages.

Also, one should be particularly aware when trying to contact departed loved ones, and they start talking about stuff they would not have known whilst alive. This is highly suspicious. As it is said: “Just because someone is dead, doesn’t make them any more intelligent.”

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September 25, 2013 · 5:15 pm

Alex Sumner: Media Pundit

Halloween is fast creeping up on us! In this video resumé I appeal to the world’s television and radio producers, journalists and creators of online content, offering my services as a Media Pundit. I can provide expert opinion for your forthcoming Halloween stories! And I am willing to do so free of charge (in return for publicity for my work as a novelist, that is). Please use the Contact Alex page to send me a private message.

(NB: This is a repost of a video I made last year for last Halloween, so I thought I’d do it again this year!)

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October 31, 2012 · 7:57 pm

The Truth About Dracula: A Halloween Special

Bela Lugosi as Dracula

So, everyone knows that Dracula is the most awesome vampire ever in English literature. And before anyone dares to mention Ed Cullen, I should point out that he fails to qualify both in terms of “awesome” and indeed “literature.” 😛 I actually have a niggling problem with Dracula though: it is this –

Dracula represents the fear of the outsider – fear of the foreigner. As a rich man he also represents the poor man’s fear that the upper classes are screwing him over. Given that he attempts to steal Jonathan Harker’s fiancée, he represents the fear of every man, that some stranger is giving your woman a far better time than you could possibly hope to achieve. He is, not to put to fine a point on it, Castration Anxiety personified.

Count Dracula is thus a perfect monster, but what he is not is a character. I say this because Dracula is aristocratic, rich, owns vast tracts of land, has a coterie of sexy lady Vampires with whom to share his enormous castle, and can snack on any of the local peasants whenever he feels hungry. Yet nowhere in Bram Stoker’s original novel is there any explanation as to why he would want to give all of this up, and move to Whitby – of all places!

Winona Ryder

Francis Ford Coppola sensed this fundamental flaw in the novel which is why he invented a back-story for Dracula for his film, namely that the Count was searching for his lost love. Given that she was played by Winona Ryder, he could have just done this by staying in Transylvania and following police-reports and in-store CCTV footage!

But was this what Bram Stoker originally intended? I mean about searching for a lost love, not about Winona Ryder, obviously. I discussed my concerns about Dracula with my fellow members of the Illuminati in the pub one afternoon. After recounting all the details to them, I asked: “So why would he want to move to Whitby?”

Inspiration seized one of my drinking companions. “They do nice fish and chips there!” he said.

“What?” I replied.

“They do nice fish and chips in Whitby! That’s why Count Dracula upped and moved to Yorkshire.”

So there you have it! For all the delights that rural Carpathia has to offer, the one thing that they have not is tasty battered (locally sourced) cod with chunky chips served with le purée de petit pois. I must say that given that I like a Fish Supper every once in a while – as well as liking Fish & Chips – I can to a certain extent sympathise with the old Count!

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October 25, 2012 · 10:51 am

The Paradox of Christianity and Occultism

An intriguing use of the chequered pavement!

It’s getting to that time of year again when certain types of Christian pastor pop out of the wood-work and alternatively rail against the supposed pagan and / or satanic origins of Halloween, or more creatively try to put on their own alternate events. Mind you I did find it ironic that one town in Pennsylvania was putting on a series of events apparently without realising there is already a Christian holiday associated with the day (All Saints’ Day) – “Fall Family Fun,” anyone?

I would like to give away one of the “greatest secrets” of occultism at this point. It’s not actually a great secret as far as occultists are concerned, but it is to many Fundamentalist preachers judging from their ravings, and even to some of the fluffier types of pagans. It is this: many occultists are in fact Christians themselves. Not Christopagans, nor even Gnostic Christians, but actual Christians. They tend not to draw attention to themselves, but they are there. These are the sort of people who join organisations like the Martinists, the Elus Cohens, the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross and other Qabalistic organisations which are sympathetic to Jesus Christ.

Reading the Hebrew letters from Fire going anti-clockwise spells “Yeheshuah.”

These are the sort of people who point out that the Pentagram is the symbol of the Pentagrammaton (“Yeheshuah”), the Qabalistic-spelling of Jesus: hence each time one performs the LBRP, one is actually invoking Jesus in the four quarters without realising it!

In fact, given that Neo-Paganism is predominantly a movement dating from the latter half of the twentieth century, the vast majority of the members of the original Golden Dawn and its offshoots were themselves Christian, and sought to incorporate Christian symbology into their Qabalistic practices.

I appreciate this will probably sound like the most outrageous heresy to Fundamentalist Christians. I believe the common attitude amongst such people is typified by the following:

The extent of occult involvement is universal.  Spiritual warfare is all around us, and if Satan cannot keep us from knowing Christ he will try containing us by drawing us into deception.  The Enemy is a deceiver, liar, tempter, and devourer of human souls…..

[…]

Actually, occultists’ practices are a counterfeit of God’s power, and as such they do reveal some amazing things — but these things are not the ultimate truth.  … [A]n increase in demonic activity is to be expected as a sign of the end times.

What is the Occult?

Pity the poor occultist! He or she is trapped in a real dilemma! If one invokes Satan, one is obviously Satanists, and if one invokes God, His Angels, or Jesus, etc – even in all apparent sincerity – one is still invoking Satan because the Father of Lies is pulling the wool over their eyes. One cannot win!

What these Fundamentalist Christians don’t realise – or they conveniently forget – is that Jesus Himself was accused of dabbling in the occult when He was alive! To wit:

And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebub,” and, “By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons.”

So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.

“Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”— because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Mark 3:22 – 30

Replace “Scribes” in this passage with “Fundamentalist preachers” and you basically have the entire plight of the modern occultist who nevertheless professes to be a Christian. Logic would suggest – and Jesus Himself explicitly states here – that one cannot perform something which is objectively good and still be in thrall to the powers of Evil. So to address the quote from “What is the occult?” I would say it is seriously unwise to accuse an occultist of being deceived by Satan, because one might just be blaspheming against the Holy Spirit, i.e. committing the unforgiveable sin.

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October 31, 2011 · 12:55 pm

The Halloween Conspiracy – An exposé!

Merry Samhain!

There is a sinister Halloween conspiracy afoot. It is a truly insidious attempt to subvert this traditional holiday and turn it into something evil. As far as I am aware, this has never been talked about publicly before, so powerful is the wall of silence surrounding this dastardly scheme. This conspiracy is so disturbing it makes the members of the Warren Commission look like pillars of rectitude, and the extraordinary renditions of British citizens to Libya during Tony Blair’s time in office as UK Prime Minister nothing more than an attempt to send these people on holiday.

However, that is all about to change as I, Alex Sumner, the World’s Greatest Conspiracy Theorist, now blow the gaffe on the great Halloween Conspiracy. What is fundamental to understand is that this particular conspiracy is being perpetrated by an unholy partnership of Christians and secular groups on Wiccan, Pagans, Occultists  – and indeed other Christians.

I shit ye not! This all occurred to me when I was pondering why there has been a move away from traditional Halloween costumes in recent years towards costumes which are not particularly scary at all. Heidi Klum’s effort to look like a dead-body is probably the worthiest Halloween costume that your humble blogmaster has seen this year: it is not only a highly artistic effort, but splendidly enters into the macabre spirit of things. Other costumes however seem to be missing the point of Halloween, with a lot of people under the impression that all that is required is “fancy dress.”

I have said this before, but for the avoidance of doubt I will say it again: a costume is only an authentic Halloween costume if it amounts to a disguise – i.e. so that if an evil spirit came along, it would not recognise you. This is how the tradition of wearing costumes Halloween derives from the pagan celebration of Samhain.

That’s when it hit me: the move from traditional scary costumes to non-traditional fancy dress is a deliberate ploy to take the “Samhain” out of “Halloween” ! Now a lot of Christian Fundamentalists simply come out and say: “Don’t celebrate Halloween, because it’s Satanic,” and all they achieve is they manage to publicise the pagan festival which is its origin. However: the Halloween Conspiracy seeks to spread the idea that Halloween is not about scary costumes but about fancy dress – and hence subtly sever the associations to Samhain. It is in fact the Pagan equivalent of All Souls’ Day, the day of honouring ones deceased relatives. I believe the ancient Church recognised this and deliberately chose to mark All Souls’ Day as close to Samhain as possible (November 2nd) for this very reason.

By severing the connection between Halloween and Samhain, it plays partly into Christian hands who find a secular fancy dress holiday more palatable than one associated with wrongly-so-called Satanic imagery. However, far more pernicious is the fact that it also plays into the hands of secular-politically-correct-atheistic-liberal-consensus that is uncomfortable with any mention of spirituality whatsoever.

Hence: what Christians and Pagans should be doing is, instead of fighting each other, join forces to combat the growing rise of secularism. This can only be done by Christians embracing the scary imagery, and by pagans realising that Christians are not necessarily the enemy but potential allies in the cause of Keeping Samhain Spiritual.

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October 31, 2011 · 11:46 am

Places to celebrate Halloween

  • Glastonbury – it having the highest concentration of pagans in any one place in England, it comes as no surprise that Samhain is very popular here.
  • Whitby – Traditional hang out for Goths, owing to its association with Count Dracula. This, incidentally, reminds me of one of the bugbears I have with Dracula, the original Bram Stoker novel. If you were an aristocratic vampire, with a big castle, abundant wealth, three hot mistresses, and a nearby peasant population in case you needed a snack – why on Earth would you want to move to Whitby in North Yorkshire? I was discussing this in the pub the other day, and we came to the conclusion that Dracula moved to Whitby because they do nice fish and chips there – this being the only good thing they could think of saying about the town. Needless to say, Francis Ford Coppola spotted this plot-hole when he made his film version, but decided to reject the fish and chips angle and go with something implausible about searching for the reincarnation of Dracula’s long-lost lover. (But again: this begs the question – why did she reincarnate in Whitby, if not for the Fish Suppers?)
  • Cordoba, Spain. Apparently there is a bar called Oculto Cafe which as its name suggests is an occult-themed bar in Cordoba, which sounds like a nice place. Unfortunately, when I read a review about it, the reviewer got so freaked out about the “Satanic” decor that he forgot to say whereabouts in Cordoba it actually is! Fortunately this is not a problem for the resourceful magician like yours truly, as if I ever go there I will surely find it by using my powers of dowsing – either that or going on a pub-crawl of all the bars in the town just to check if it’s the right one.

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October 28, 2011 · 10:18 am

Which Witch?

Halloween is rapidly creeping up on us, so I was interested to read to day of a researcher who has collated a list of every single person who was ever tried for Witchcraft in Britain (including the Channel Islands) during the so-called “Burning Times,” (nb kids, most of them were hung!) i.e. from 1289 to 1712. A certain amount of circumspection must be taken with this list, as a significant number of people had their charges demonstrably trumped up: either because they were political enemies of the King of the time; or they were some other Undesirable e.g. being a Roman Catholic in Protestant Britain. However, here are the numbers suitably crunched.

The grand total of people tried was 320.

Of these the total number of people known to have received a “Fatal Sentence” – in which I have included both being executed and dying in prison – was 199 (62.2%). Of these,

  • 108 were hanged (33.8%)
  • 49 were burnt (15.3%)
  • 8 died in prison (2.5%)
  • 1 was hung, drawn and quartered (0.3%)
  • Whilst 33 (10.3%) were executed in an unspecified manner.

Of the remainder,

  • 2 (0.6%) escaped execution by fleeing the country;
  • 15 (4.7%) were given a Non-Fatal sentence (e.g. banishment, the pillory, imprisonment, dismissal from service, miscellaneous);
  • 6 (1.9%) were either pardoned or reprieved;
  • 36 (11.3%) were acquitted altogether;
  • Whilst the fate of 62 (19.4%) is unclear from the records available.

Source: http://www.fancydress.com/content/Witch_List

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November 1, 2010 · 9:04 pm

All Saints Day

“Dressed in hooded gowns, women were seen standing in a circle around a cauldron while ritualistic acts were conducted.” Shock! Horror!

A news report in the Daily Mail has criticised the BBC for devoting time to paganism on Halloween. Note that this is the Daily Mail, of which I have had choice words to say in the past.Just in case my comment conveniently gets lost in the ether, I shall repost it here:

Halloween is not a Christian festival. *All Saints Day” (November 1st) is, so is *All Souls Day* (November 2nd). Indeed the latter is in fact the Christian version of Samhain – i.e. the true Samhain, not the crassly commercialised entity known as Halloween.

The fact is that both Christians and Pagans used the end of October / beginning of November for the same purpose – honouring the souls of departed loved ones.

I say let the pagans have their air-time on 31st October – as long as the Christians can have their air-time on November 1st. Criticising the BBC for lack of Christian coverage on Samhain itself is premature. Only if the Christians don’t get coverage on All Saints Day can one begin to complain that they are being marginalised by the BBC.

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October 25, 2010 · 1:29 pm

Halloween 2010

Hallowe’en – the crazy costumes! The fundamentalist Christians going all miserable and saying bah, humbug! The razor-blades in the apples! Yes, it’s that time of year again: so I shall do my annual round-up of where to go to celebrate Samhain this Sunday.

1. Camden

Samhain is all about when the spirits of dead ancestors come back to haunt the living – and nowhere is this more reinforced than when Alice Cooper plays the Camden Roundhouse, with guests Jim Rose and Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction. Hey, I know it’s a cheap shot, but I thought Cooper himself would appreciate the triple-turned irony!

2. Whitby

Any Goths not in Camden will surely be in Whitby, North Yorkshire. One has to admire this quote from the official website of the Whitby Goth Weekend:

Swords

Whitby Police have asked me to remind WGW attendees that the carrying of genuine metal swords and bladed items would amount to a breach of the law and leave someone liable to arrest and possible prosecution.

Classic!

3. Las Vegas

Las Vegas as everyone knows was created by Satan, and seeing as it is the party capital of America it seems like an excellent place to have a good old debauched time. What I thought would be fun was to see whereabouts in Vegas to go, by consulting various fundamentalist Christian websites, and noting which events they condemn most strongly. This one says that apparently there will be a load of internationally-recognised spirit mediums performing. However, they were obviously a man short as they got in Derek Acorah as well! Derek, an unmitigated Scouser, has the uncanny ability to make any spirit he channels talk with a Liverpudlian accent. Oh well – there will be other things going on in Vegas at the same time, so it isn’t all bad.

Details of more events to be posted as I get hold of them…

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October 19, 2009 · 4:37 pm

Hallowe’en

In this blog post I shall present an overview of Hallowe’en, as well as a list of top five places to go and celebrate this special day.

Hallowe’en means so much to many people. For the Hollywood film industry it is the traditional time to release new horror movies. For children it is a time to dress in scary costumes and go trick or treating. For householders it is a time to insert razor-blades into apples. For a large number of adults in America it appears to be a time to dress up in bizarre costumes which seemingly do not have anything to do with the traditional theme of the day. For fundamentalist Christian ministers it is a time to complain about Satanism, black magic etc. For Pagans it means something else entirely, which I shall explain presently.

For me personally I usually spend the day doing Enochian work which is not really connected with the theme of the day except in a very recondite manner. I explain this fully elsewhere.

The Pagan view of Hallowe’en is that it is an ancient feast called “Samhain” (pronouned sa-ven or sa-wen). This is traditionally the time that the spirits of the dead are able to return to the land of the living to visit their descendants. It is really the reflection of the fact that it occurs around the time when the Sun enters Scorpio, which in astrology is associated with the House of Death (the eighth house).

The way people react to their deceased ancestors coming back to visit them is somewhat bemusing, to say the least.

My personal inclination would be that if I knew that the ancestral spirits were coming back to the land of the living on a certain day each year, I would set aside that day to honour them. And in fact, this is generally what Christians do. Yes you read correctly – Christians celebrate Samhain without knowing it! Only they don’t call it Samhain and they don’t celebrate it on October 31st. They call it “All Souls’ Day” and celebrate it two days later on November 2nd. “All Soul’s Day” is when Christians have masses to honour the souls of all deceased beings. It is thus a Christian form of a festival of the dead, like Samhain.

However the secular celebration of Hallowe’en derives from some traditional folk customs. These also acknowledge that the spirits of deceased people are coming back to the land of the living: however instead of conducting rituals to honour them, they dress up in masks and costumes so that the spirits do not recognise the pre-mortem beings and thus do not bother them. This incidentally explains the American practice of fancy dress on Hallowe’en – it is not necessary to dress up in horror-themed costumes, but it is necessary – in order to be strictly authentic – to have a costume which is some attempt at a disguise.

The actual practice of young children dressing up as goblins etc going out trick or treating is itself an old folk practice, which I believe can be traced to the Isle of Mann in the British Isles. There are in fact a number of folk practices associated with Hallowe’en which do not necessarily have anything to do with the idea of honouring the dead spirits but are just about having a good life-affirming community building merry-old time. Some sources allege that it was in fact the beginning of the Celtic New Year, which may explain a lot.

At this point I would like to say something to Christians reading this blog. I do not want to disrespect yer typical mild-mannered Christian who goes to church regularly and practices his or her faith in a modest manner. However, I shall not pull my punches with regards to the raving, bigoted, fundamentalist type of person who makes ordinary Christians embarassed to be associated with them. Dig this:

Christians invented “Hallowe’en.”

Yep, you read it correctly – Christians invented Hallowe’en. The word “Hallowe’en” refers to the fact that October 31st is the eve of All Hallows Day, i.e. All Saints Day on November 1st. October 31st was thus given the name Hallowe’en because it was the Church’s practice to assimilate old pagan feast days, not to alienate the pagans of old, but to get them on side.

What’s more: I hear fundamentalists saying that Hallowe’en glorifies the occult, to which I would respond with two things: firstly – what’s wrong with that? Secondly, and less flippantly – why do you suppose that the practices of dressing up in scary costumes and going trick or treating, and all the rest were allowed to flourish? Do you think it was because some sinister satanic conspiracy has been promoting them? No! It is because Christians themselves have been actively promoting the celebration of Hallowe’en all along, and encouraging the continuance of traditional folk practices, in order to demonstrate that they have nothing to fear from these old customs, and more importantly, any excuse for a party!

Fundamentalists by condemning Hallowe’en are therefore denying the tradition of two thousand years – which is just as much a Christian tradition as it is a pagan one.

My rant being over, I shall now present –

Alex’ Top Five Hallowe’en Destinations for 2009.

5
Canton, NC, USA
Apparently some sick Satanic cult are going to be celebrating Halloween by burning Bibles that night and then having a barbecue (over the embers of the burning bibles?). Oh wait – it’s not a Satanic cult, it is actually a fundamentalist Christian sect!!! Apparently they believe that all other versions of the Good Book apart from the King James Version are the work of Satan, on the grounds that if the KJV was good enough for Jesus and His disciples, it is good enough for them (!). Also they will be burning books by other authors as well.

This has set the Alex Sumner Astral Cash-Registers going.

It occurs to me that the Beatles’ record sales went up in the Deep South – because they were buying them before before burning them. Now, given that I am the author of an occult novel which is available on Amazon, maybe if I write to this crazy Pastor, he will burn my books as well? Unfortunately, this guy only has a congregation of just fourteen, so I won’t increase my sales that much.

NB: this town was put on my list just for the comedy value. I would not actually recommend going here on Hallowe’en or any other day if you look remotely pagan / gothy / black / jewish / asian / or even just like an ordinary Christian.

4
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
I have put this in the list firstly because there is an excellent supernatural tradition (e.g. Anne Rice’s novels) associated with this town, and secondly, because the local tourist board quite cheerfully says “why not set the mood for your Halloween party by visiting one of our historic cemetaries?” Top geezers!

People, I hate to contra-illusion you to the subject, but in real life no Vampire would ever go near New Orleans: and that is not because they do not like Jazz or Cajun food. As everyone knows, Vampires like darkness and hate sunlight. The places on this planet which have the most sunlight (longest days and shortest nights) are those nearest the Equator, whilst those nearest the Poles have the least sunlight (longest nights and shortest days). Therefore, if a Vampire would choose to live anywhere it would not be in the American South, but somewhere further north like Canada or New England. Note that HP Lovecraft long ago made the connection between cold places and horror by setting his stories either in New England or the Antarctic (At the Mountains of Madness) – he knew the score alright!

3
The Banks of the Foyle Hallowe’en Carnival, Derry, Northern Ireland.
According to press reports, this is “widely regarded as the biggest festival of its kind in Europe and a massive generator of revenue for the local economy.” Moreover, it is claimed that “We have heard reports of people having sex openly in the streets during and after the parade.” In case you are wondering, Derry has its own airport which has regular services to and from London Stansted and Luton, as well as some other places in Britain and Europe. Obviously I am not encouraging any licentious behaviour (i.e. because people who want to indulge in licentious behaviour generally need no encouragement whatsoever!), but because this got onto my radar from having a Methodist minister go on about Hallowe’en encouraging the triumph of evil, etc etc etc.

2
Whitby, North Yorkshire, England.
In the novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, the Count’s ship makes landfall in England at Whitby in North Yorkshire. Ever since then, the town has exercised a fascination for real-life Dracula fans. It is nowadays a mecca for the Goth crowd. This Hallowe’en sees the celebration of the Whitby Goth Weekend 2009.

1
A Cemetery Where Your Own Deceased Relatives Are Buried
But the one truly authentic way to celebrate Hallowe’en is to go and honour your deceased loved ones, for then you will be cutting through all the commercialism and really recognising the spirit of Samhain.

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