1982 HANDMADE CERAMIC JACK-O-LANTERN Halloween planter flower pot fangs 80s RARE

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Seller: sidewaysstairsco ✉️ (1,180) 100%, Location: Santa Ana, California, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 204711028640 1982 HANDMADE CERAMIC JACK-O-LANTERN Halloween planter flower pot fangs 80s RARE. Check out our store for more great vintage, new, and used items! FOR SALE: A one-of-a-kind vintage Halloween decoration from the '80s 1982 HANDMADE CERAMIC JACK-O'-LANTERN DETAILS: Halloween decoration and flower pot? Step into the world of vintage handmade goods with this enchanting rare find - a 9" ceramic jack-o'-lantern from 1982. Crafted with care and attention to detail, this classic style jack-o'-lantern was created by a talented but mysterious artist whose handiwork exudes a sense of whimsy and sophistication that sets it apart from the rest.  What sets this ceramic pumpkin apart from the rest? It's all in the details applied by artist "B.J.S." - from the unique vampire-like fangs that serve as its 4-toothed grin, to the sophisticated minimal design that shows a level of restraint not often seen in Halloween decorations. This weighty gem's origins are unknown but it was likely made right here in the United States, adding a touch of Americana to your seasonal display. Weighing over 3 pounds and measuring approximately 9" in diameter and 7" in height, this ceramic jack-o'-lantern is the perfect size to make a statement without overwhelming your space. The inner diameter is about 6", allowing ample room for a large candle, battery-powered light, or decorative filler. And with a 1-13/16" hole at the bottom, you can easily place this pumpkin over a candle stick for a flickering, spooky glow. But wait, there's more! The bottom opening also doubles as a drain hole, making this ceramic jack-o'-lantern a versatile piece that can be used as a planter or flower pot with ease. Imagine the delight of seeing flowers or succulents sprouting out the top of this charming jack-o'-lantern, adding a touch of Halloween spirit to your home year-round. Let the timeless charm and creative flair of this vintage ceramic jack-o'-lantern bring joy and wonder to your Halloween celebrations. Add this positively delightful pumpkin to your collection today! Vintage and extremely rare one-of-a-kind! We scoured the online world in search of another handmade piece from "B.J.S." and came up empty-handed, confirming its extreme rarity. Whether you're looking to add a touch of nostalgia to your Halloween decor, or simply appreciate the craftsmanship of a bygone era, this handmade ceramic jack-o'-lantern from 1982 is a must-have for Halloween fanatics and collectors alike. Don't miss your chance to bring a piece of handmade Halloween history into your home! Dimensions & Weight: Height: approx. 7" (7 inches) Diameter: approx. 9" (9 inches) Inner Rim Diameter: approx. 6" (6 inches) Outer Rim Diameter: apporx. 6-5/8" (6.625 inches) Weight: approx. 3 lb. 5 oz. (53 ounces) CONDITION: In very good, pre-owned condition. Light crazing throughout. Other than some bottom and rim wear there are no major cracks or chips. Light(s) not included. Please see photos. To ensure safe delivery all items are carefully packaged before shipping out. THANK YOU FOR LOOKING. QUESTIONS? JUST ASK. *ALL PHOTOS AND TEXT ARE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF SIDEWAYS STAIRS CO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.* "A jack-o'-lantern (or jack o'lantern) is a carved lantern, most commonly made from a pumpkin, or formerly a root vegetable such as a mangelwurzel, rutabaga or turnip.[1] Jack-o'-lanterns are associated with the Halloween holiday. Its name comes from the phenomenon of strange lights flickering over peat bogs, called jack-o'-lanterns (also known as, will-o'-the-wisps). It is suggested that the name also has ties to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a drunkard who bargains with Satan and is doomed to roam the Earth with only a hollowed turnip to light his way. Jack-o'-lanterns carved from pumpkins are a yearly Halloween tradition that developed in the United States when Irish, Cornish, Scottish and other Celtic influenced immigrants brought their root vegetable carving traditions with them.[2] It is common to see jack-o'-lanterns used as external and interior decorations prior to and on Halloween. To make a jack-o'-lantern, the top of a pumpkin is cut off to form a lid, the inside flesh is scooped out, and an image—usually a "scary" or "funny" face—is carved out of the rind exposing the hollow interior. A light source, traditionally a candle flame or tealight, is placed within before the lid is closed. Artificial jack-o'-lanterns with electric lights are also marketed. Etymology An assortment of carved pumpkins. The term jack-o'-lantern was originally used to describe the visual phenomenon ignis fatuus (lit., "foolish fire") known as a will-o'-the-wisp in English folklore.[3] Used especially in East England, its earliest known use dates to the 1660s.[4] The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) records use of the term in Britain from 1658 in reference to ignis fatuus, and from 1663 to 1704 in reference to a man with a lantern or to a night watchman. The OED gives 1837 as the earliest date for when the term was used to refer to a lantern carved from a turnip or pumpkin.[5] History Origin The carving of vegetables has been a common practice in many parts of the world. It is believed that the custom of making jack-o'-lanterns at Halloween time began in Ireland and Britain.[6][7][8] In the 19th century, "turnips or mangel wurzels, hollowed out to act as lanterns and often carved with grotesque faces," were used on Halloween in parts of Ireland, Wales and the Scottish Highlands.[9] In Gaelic speaking regions, Halloween was also the festival of Samhain and was seen as a time when supernatural beings (the Aos Sí) walked the earth. In Wales such nights were known as Ysbrydnosau (spirit nights), with Calan Gaeaf being the one which occurred on the night of 31 October. Jack-o'-lanterns were also made at Halloween time in Somerset, England (see Punkie Night) during the 19th century.[9] By those who made them, the lanterns were said to represent either spirits or supernatural beings,[9] or were used to ward off evil spirits.[10] For example, sometimes they were used by Halloween participants to frighten people,[10][11][12] and sometimes they were set on windowsills to keep harmful spirits out of one's home.[11] It has also been suggested that the jack-o'-lanterns originally represented Christian souls in purgatory, as Halloween is the eve of All Saints' Day (1 November)/All Souls' Day (2 November).[13] On January 16, 1836, the Dublin Penny Journal published a long story on the legend of "Jack-o'-the-Lantern", although this does not mention the lantern being carved from a vegetable.[14] In 1837, the Limerick Chronicle refers to a local pub holding a carved gourd competition and presenting a prize to "the best crown of Jack McLantern". The term "McLantern" also appears in an 1841 publication of the same paper.[citation needed] There is also evidence that turnips were used to carve what was called a "Hoberdy's Lantern" in Worcestershire, England, at the end of the 18th century. The folklorist Jabez Allies outlines other derivations of the name, "Hobany's", which is most likely derived from "Hob and his", with other variations including "Hob-o'-Lantern", "Hobbedy's Lantern" and "Hobbady-lantern".[15] In North America The application of the term to carved pumpkins in American English is first seen in 1837. In the United States, the carved pumpkin was first associated with the harvest season in general before it became a symbol of Halloween.[17] In 1895, an article on Thanksgiving entertaining recommended giving a lit jack-o'-lantern as a child's prize in Thanksgiving games.[17][18] The poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who was born in Massachusetts in 1807, wrote the poem "The Pumpkin" (1850), which mentions Thanksgiving but not Halloween:[19]     Oh!—fruit loved of boyhood!—the old days recalling,     When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling! When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,     Glaring out through the dark with a candle within! The carved pumpkin lantern's association with Halloween is recorded in the 1 November 1866 edition of the Daily News (Kingston, Ontario):     The old time custom of keeping up Hallowe'en was not forgotten last night by the youngsters of the city. They had their maskings and their merry-makings, and perambulated the streets after dark in a way which was no doubt amusing to themselves. There was a great sacrifice of pumpkins from which to make transparent heads and face, lighted up by the unfailing two inches of tallow candle.[20] In 1879's Funny Nursery Rhymes, a poem admonishes children to avoid being similar to untrustworthy "Master Jack o' Lantern," described as a "wicked, deceiving boy" similar to a will-o'-the-wisp who "dances, and jumps, and gambols." He is humorously illustrated as a personification of a lantern.[21] An 1885 article "Halloween Sports and Customs" contrasts the American jack-o'-lantern custom with the British bonfire custom:[22]     It is an ancient British custom to light great bonfires (Bone-fire to clear before Winter froze the ground) on Hallowe'en, and carry blazing fagots about on long poles; but in place of this, American boys delight in the funny grinning jack-o'-lanterns made of huge yellow pumpkins with a candle inside. Adaptations of Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820) often show the Headless Horseman with a jack-o'-lantern in place of his severed head. In the original story, a shattered pumpkin is discovered next to Ichabod Crane's abandoned hat on the morning after Crane's supposed encounter with the Horseman, but the story does not reference jack-o'-lanterns or Halloween.[23][24] Folklore A commercial "R.I.P." pattern. Halloween jack-o'-lantern. Pumpkin carving projected onto the wall. The story of the jack-o'-lantern comes in many forms and is similar to the story of Will-o'-the-wisp[25] retold in different forms across Western Europe,[26] including, Italy, Norway, Spain and Sweden.[27] In Switzerland, children will leave bowls of milk or cream out for mythical house spirits called Jack o' the bowl.[28] An old Irish folk tale from the mid-18th century tells of Stingy Jack, a lazy yet shrewd blacksmith who uses a cross to trap Satan. One story says that Jack tricked Satan into climbing an apple tree, and once he was up there, Jack quickly placed crosses around the trunk or carved a cross into the bark, so that Satan could not get down.[29] Another version[citation needed] of the story says that Jack was getting chased by some villagers from whom he had stolen. He then met Satan, who claimed it was time for him to die. However, the thief stalled his death by tempting Satan with a chance to bedevil the church-going villagers chasing him. Jack told Satan to turn into a coin with which he would pay for the stolen goods (Satan could take on any shape he wanted); later, when the coin (Satan) disappeared, the Christian villagers would fight over who had stolen it. The Devil agreed to this plan. He turned himself into a silver coin and jumped into Jack's wallet, only to find himself next to a cross Jack had also picked up in the village. Jack closed the wallet tight, and the cross stripped the Devil of his powers; and so he was trapped. In both folktales, Jack lets Satan go only after he agrees to never take his soul. Many years later, the thief died, as all living things do. Of course, Jack's life had been too sinful for him to go to Heaven; however, Satan had promised not to take his soul, and so he was barred from Hell as well.[30] Jack now had nowhere to go. He asked how he would see where to go, as he had no light, and Satan mockingly tossed him a burning coal, to light his way. Jack carved out one of his turnips (which were his favorite food), put the coal inside it, and began endlessly wandering the Earth for a resting place.[30] He became known as "Jack of the Lantern", or jack o'lantern. Cornish folklorist Dr. Thomas Quiller Couch (d. 1884) recorded the use of the term in a rhyme used in Polperro, Cornwall, in conjunction with Joan the Wad, the Cornish version of Will-o'-the-wisp. The people of Polperro regarded them both as pixies. The rhyme goes:[31]     Jack o' the lantern! Joan the wad,     Who tickled the maid and made her mad     Light me home, the weather's bad. Jack-o-lanterns were also a way of protecting one's home against the undead. Superstitious people[32] used them specifically to ward off vampires. They thought this because it was said that the jack-o-lantern's light was a way of identifying vampires who, once their identity was known, would give up their hunt for you. Pumpkin craft Jack-o'-lanterns in the process of creation Sections of the pumpkin or turnip are cut out to make holes, often depicting a face, which may be either cheerful, scary, or comical.[33] Jack-o'-lanterns are typically made from Connecticut field pumpkins, which are described as "the original commercial jack-o'-lantern pumpkin".[34][35] World records For a long time, Keene, New Hampshire, held the world record for most jack-o'-lanterns carved and lit in one place. The Life is Good Company teamed up with Camp Sunshine,[36] a camp for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families, to break the record. A record was set on October 21, 2006, when 30,128 jack-o'-lanterns were simultaneously lit on Boston Common in downtown Boston, Massachusetts.[37] Highwood, Illinois, tried to set the record on October 31, 2011, with an unofficial count of 30,919 but did not follow the Guinness regulations, so the achievement did not count.[38] On October 19, 2013, Keene broke the Boston record and reclaimed the world record for most lit jack-o'-lanterns on display (30,581). The town has now broken the record eight times since the original attempt." (wikipedia.org) "A pumpkin, in English-language vernacular, is a cultivated winter squash in the genus Cucurbita.[1][2] The term is most commonly applied to round, orange-colored squash varieties, though it does not possess a scientific definition and may be used in reference to many different squashes of varied appearance.[3] The use of the word "pumpkin" is thought to have originated in New England in North America, derived from a word for melon, or a native word for round. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with "squash" or "winter squash", and is commonly used for some cultivars of Cucurbita argyrosperma, Cucurbita ficifolia, Cucurbita maxima, Cucurbita moschata, and Cucurbita pepo.[1] C. pepo pumpkins are among the oldest known domesticated plants, with evidence of their cultivation dating to between 7000 BCE and 5500 BCE. Wild species of Cucurbita and the earliest domesticated species are native to North America (parts of present-day northeastern Mexico and the southern United States), but cultivars are now grown globally for culinary, decorative, and other culturally-specific purposes.[4] The pumpkin's thick shell contains edible seeds and pulp. Pumpkin pie is a traditional part of Thanksgiving meals in Canada and the United States and pumpkins are frequently used as autumnal seasonal decorations and carved as jack-o'-lanterns for decoration around Halloween. Commercially canned pumpkin purée and pie fillings are usually made of different pumpkin varieties from those intended for decorative use.[5] Etymology and terminology According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the English word pumpkin derives from the Ancient Greek word πέπων (romanized pepōn), meaning 'melon'.[6][7] Under this theory, the term transitioned through the Latin word peponem and the Middle French word pompon to the Early Modern English pompion, which was changed to pumpkin by 17th-century English colonists, shortly after encountering pumpkins upon their arrival in what is now the northeastern United States.[6] There is a proposed alternate derivation for pumpkin from the Massachusett word pôhpukun, meaning 'grows forth round'.[8] This term could have been used by the Wampanoag people (who speak the Wôpanâak dialect of Massachusett) when introducing pumpkins to English Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony, located in present-day Massachusetts.[9] (The English word squash is derived from a Massachusett word, variously transcribed as askꝏtasquash,[10] ashk8tasqash, or, in the closely related Narragansett language, askútasquash.)[11] Researchers have noted that the term pumpkin and related terms like ayote and calabaza are applied to a range of winter squash with varying size and shape.[1] The term tropical pumpkin is sometimes used for pumpkin cultivars of the species Cucurbita moschata.[12] Description Cross section of a Cucurbita maxima pumpkin Pumpkin fruits are a type of berry known as a pepo.[13] Characteristics commonly used to define pumpkin include smooth and slightly ribbed skin[14] and deep yellow to orange color,[14] although white, green, and other pumpkin colors also exist.[15] While Cucurbita pepo pumpkins generally weigh between 3 and 8 kilograms (6 and 18 lb), giant pumpkins can exceed a tonne in mass.[16][17] Most are varieties of C. maxima that were developed through the efforts of botanical societies and enthusiast farmers.[16] The largest cultivars frequently reach weights of over 34 kg (75 lb). In October 2023, the record for heaviest pumpkin was set at 1,246.9 kg (2,749 lbs.)....Culture Halloween Main article: Jack o' lantern A pumpkin carved into a jack-o'-lantern for Halloween In the United States, the carved pumpkin was first associated with the harvest season in general, long before it became an emblem of Halloween.[47] The practice of carving produce for Halloween originated from an Irish myth about a man named "Stingy Jack".[4] The practice of carving pumpkin jack-o'-lanterns for the Halloween season developed from a traditional practice in Ireland as well as Scotland and other parts of the United Kingdom of carving lanterns from the turnip, mangelwurzel, or swede (rutabaga).[48][49] These vegetables continue to be popular choices today as carved lanterns in Scotland and Northern Ireland, although the British purchased a million pumpkins for Halloween in 2004 reflecting the spread of pumpkin carving in the United Kingdom.[50] Immigrants to North America began using the native pumpkins for carving, which are both readily available and much larger – making them easier to carve than turnips.[49] Not until 1837 does jack-o'-lantern appear as a term for a carved vegetable lantern,[51] and the carved pumpkin lantern association with Halloween is recorded in 1866.[52] The traditional American pumpkin used for jack-o-lanterns is the Connecticut field variety.[4][53][54][55] Kentucky field pumpkin is also among the pumpkin cultivars grown specifically for jack-o-lantern carving.[13] Chunking Pumpkin chunking is a competitive activity in which teams build various mechanical devices designed to throw a pumpkin as far as possible. Catapults, trebuchets, ballistas and air cannons are the most common mechanisms.[56] Pumpkin festivals and competitions Giant Cucurbita maxima pumpkins Growers of giant pumpkins often compete to grow the most massive pumpkins. Festivals may be dedicated to the pumpkin and these competitions. In the United States, the town of Half Moon Bay, California, holds an annual Art and Pumpkin Festival, including the World Champion Pumpkin Weigh-Off.[57] The record for the world's heaviest pumpkin, 1,226 kg (2,703 lb), was established in Italy in 2021.[17] Folk medicine Pumpkins have been used as folk medicine by Native Americans to treat intestinal worms and urinary ailments, and this Native American remedy was adopted by American doctors in the early nineteenth century as an anthelmintic for the expulsion of worms.[58][qualify evidence] In Germany and southeastern Europe, seeds of C. pepo were also used as folk remedies to treat irritable bladder and benign prostatic hyperplasia.[59][60][qualify evidence] In China, C. moschata seeds were also used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of the parasitic disease schistosomiasis[61] and for the expulsion of tape worms.[62][qualify evidence] Folklore and fiction There is a connection in folklore and popular culture between pumpkins and the supernatural, such as:     The custom of carving jack-o-lanterns from pumpkins derives from folklore about a lost soul wandering the earth.     In the fairy tale Cinderella, the fairy godmother turns a pumpkin into a carriage for the title character, but at midnight it reverts to a pumpkin.     In some adaptations of Washington Irving's ghost story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the headless horseman is said to use a pumpkin as a substitute head. In most folklore the carved pumpkin is meant to scare away evil spirits on All Hallows' Eve (that is, Halloween), when the dead were purported to walk the earth." (wikipedia.org) "A lantern is an often portable source of lighting, typically featuring a protective enclosure for the light source – historically usually a candle, a wick in oil, or a thermoluminescent mesh, and often a battery-powered light in modern times – to make it easier to carry and hang up, and make it more reliable outdoors or in drafty interiors. Lanterns may also be used for signaling, as torches, or as general light-sources outdoors. Uses The lantern enclosure was primarily used to prevent a burning candle or wick being extinguished from wind, rain or other causes. Some antique lanterns have only a metal grid, indicating their function was to protect the candle or wick during transportation and avoid the excess heat from the top to avoid unexpected fires. Another important function was to reduce the risk of fire should a spark leap from the flame or the light be dropped. This was especially important below deck on ships: a fire on a wooden ship was a major catastrophe. Use of unguarded lights was taken so seriously that obligatory use of lanterns, rather than unprotected flames, below decks was written into one of the few known remaining examples of a pirate code, on pain of severe punishment.[1] Lanterns may also be used for signaling. In naval operations, ships used lights to communicate at least as far back as the Middle Ages;[2] the use of a lantern that blinks code to transmit a message dates to the mid-1800s.[3] In railroad operations, lanterns have multiple uses. Permanent lanterns on poles are used to signal trains about the operational status of the track ahead, sometimes with color gels in front of the light to signify stop, etc.[4] Historically, a flagman at a level crossing used a lantern to stop cars and other vehicular traffic before a train arrived.[5] Lanterns also provided a means to signal from train-to-train or from station-to-train.[6] A "dark lantern" was a candle lantern with a sliding shutter so that a space could be conveniently made dark without extinguishing the candle. For example, in the Sherlock Holmes story "The Red-Headed League", the detective and police make their way down to a bank vault by lantern light but then put a 'screen over that dark lantern' in order to wait in the dark for thieves to finish tunneling.[7] This type of lantern could also preserve the light source for sudden use when needed. Lanterns may be used in religious observances. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, lanterns are used in religious processions and liturgical entrances, usually coming before the processional cross. Lanterns are also used to transport the Holy Fire from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Great Saturday during Holy Week. Lanterns are used in many Asian festivals. During the Ghost Festival, lotus shaped lanterns are set afloat in rivers and seas to symbolically guide the lost souls of forgotten ancestors to the afterlife. During the Lantern Festival, the displaying of many lanterns is still a common sight on the 15th day of the first lunar month throughout China. During other Chinese festivities, kongming lanterns (sky lanterns) can be seen floating high into the air. However, some jurisdictions, such as in Canada, some states in the U.S., and parts of India, as well as some organizations, ban the use of sky lanterns because of concerns about fire and safety.[8][9][10][11][12] [13] The term "lantern" can be used more generically to mean a light source, or the enclosure for a light source, even if it is not portable. Decorative lanterns exist in a wide range of designs. Some hang from buildings, such as street lights enclosed in glass panes. Others are placed on or just above the ground; low-light varieties can function as decoration or landscape lighting and can be a variety of colours and sizes. The housing for the top lamp and lens section of a lighthouse may be called a lantern.[14] Etymology The word lantern comes via French[15] from Latin lanterna meaning "lamp, torch,"[16] possibly itself derived from Greek.[17] An alternate historical spelling was "lanthorn", believed to derive from the early use of horn windows.[17] Construction Lanterns were usually made from a metal frame with several sides (usually four, but up to eight) or round, commonly with a hook or a hoop of metal on top. Windows of some translucent material may be fitted in the sides; these are now usually glass or plastic but formerly were thin sheets of animal horn, or tinplate punched with holes or decorative patterns. Paper lanterns are made in societies around the world." (wikipedia.org) "In works of art, the adjective macabre (US: /məˈkɑːb/ or UK: /məˈkɑːbrə/; French: [makabʁ]) means "having the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere". The macabre works to emphasize the details and symbols of death. The term also refers to works particularly gruesome in nature. History Early traces of macabre can be found in Ancient Greek and Latin writers such as the Roman writer Petronius, author of the Satyricon (late 1st century CE), and the Numidian writer Apuleius, author of The Golden Ass (late 2nd century CE). Outstanding instances of macabre themes in English literature include the works of John Webster, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mervyn Peake, Charles Dickens, Roald Dahl, Thomas Hardy, and Cyril Tourneur.[3] In American literature, authors whose work feature this quality include Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, and Stephen King. The word has gained its significance from its use in French as la danse macabre for the allegorical representation of the ever-present and universal power of death, known in German as Totentanz and later in English as the Dance of the Dead. The typical form which the allegory takes is that of a series of images in which Death appears, either as a dancing skeleton or as a shrunken shrouded corpse, to people representing every age and condition of life, and leads them all in a dance to the grave. Of the numerous examples painted or sculptured on the walls of cloisters or church yards through medieval Europe, few remain except in woodcuts and engravings....The theme continued to inspire artists and musicians long after the medieval period, Schubert's string quartet Death and the Maiden (1824) being one example, and Camille Saint-Saëns' tone poem Danse macabre, op. 40 (1847). In the 20th century, Ingmar Bergman's 1957 film The Seventh Seal has a personified Death, and could thus count as macabre. The origin of this allegory in painting and sculpture is disputed. It occurs as early as the 14th century, and has often been attributed to the overpowering consciousness of the presence of death due to the Black Death and the miseries of the Hundred Years' War. It has also been attributed to a form of the Morality, a dramatic dialogue between Death and his victims in every station of life, ending in a dance off the stage.[4] The origin of the peculiar form the allegory has taken has also been found in the dancing skeletons on late Roman sarcophagi and mural paintings at Cumae or Pompeii, and a false connection has been traced with the fresco Trionfo della Morte ("Triumph of Death"), painted by the Italian Renaissance artist Buonamico Buffalmacco (c. 1330s–1350, disputed),[2] and currently preserved in the Campo Santo of Pisa.[1] Etymology The etymology of the word "macabre" is uncertain. According to Gaston Paris, French scholar of Romance studies, it first occurs in the form "macabree" in a poem, Respit de la mort (1376), written by the medieval Burgundian chronicler Jean Le Fèvre de Saint-Remy:[5]     Je fis de Macabree la dance,     Qui toute gent maine a sa trace     Et a la fosse les adresse.[5] The more usual explanation is based on the Latin name, Machabaeorum chorea ("Dance of the Maccabees"). The seven tortured brothers, with their mother and Eleazar (2 Maccabees 6 and 7) are prominent figures in the dramatic dialogues.[6] Other connections have been suggested, as for example with St. Macarius the Great, an Egyptian Coptic monk and hermit who is to be identified with the figure pointing to the decaying corpses in the fresco Trionfo della Morte ("Triumph of Death") painted by the Italian Renaissance artist Buonamico Buffalmacco, according to the Italian art historian Giorgio Vasari;[citation needed] or with the Arabic word maqābir (مقابر, plural of maqbara) which means "cemeteries"." (wikipedia.org) "A fang is a long, pointed tooth.[1] In mammals, a fang is a modified maxillary tooth, used for biting and tearing flesh. In snakes, it is a specialized tooth that is associated with a venom gland (see snake venom).[2] Spiders also have external fangs, which are part of the chelicerae. Fangs are most common in carnivores or omnivores, but some herbivores, such as fruit bats, have them as well. They are generally used to hold or swiftly kill prey, such as in large cats. Omnivorous animals, such as bears, use their fangs when hunting fish or other prey, but they are not needed for consuming fruit. Some apes also have fangs, which they use for threats and fighting. However, the relatively short canines of humans are not considered to be fangs. Fangs in religion, mythology and legend Certain mythological and legendary creatures such as dragons, gargoyles, demons and yakshas are commonly depicted with prominent fangs. The fangs of vampires are one of their defining characteristics. The iconographic representation of some Hindu deities include fangs, to symbolize the ability to hunt and kill. Two examples are fierce warrior goddess Chamunda and god of death Yama in some iconographic representations. Fangs are also common among guardian figures such as Verupaksha in Buddhism art in China and East Asia,[3] as well as Rangda in Balinese Hinduism." (wikipedia.org) "Count Dracula (/ˈdrækjʊlə, -jə-/) is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel Dracula. He is considered the prototypical and archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by some to have been inspired by the 15th-century Wallachian prince Vlad the Impaler, who was also known as Vlad Dracula, and by Sir Henry Irving, an actor for whom Stoker was a personal assistant.[12] One of Dracula's most iconic powers is his ability to turn others into vampires by biting them and infecting them with the vampiric disease. Other characteristics have been added or altered in subsequent popular fictional works, including films, cartoons and breakfast cereals. Stoker's creation Bram Stoker's novel takes the form of an epistolary tale, in which Count Dracula's characteristics, powers, abilities, and weaknesses are narrated by multiple narrators, from different perspectives.[13] Count Dracula is an undead, centuries-old vampire, and a Transylvanian nobleman who claims to be a Székely descended from Attila the Hun.[14] He inhabits a decaying castle in the Carpathian Mountains near the Borgo Pass. Unlike the vampires of Eastern European folklore, which are portrayed as repulsive, corpse-like creatures, Dracula is handsome and charismatic, with a veneer of aristocratic charm. In his conversations with Jonathan Harker, he reveals himself as deeply proud of his boyar heritage and nostalgic for the past, which he admits has become only a memory of heroism, honour, and valour in modern times. Early life Details of his early life are undisclosed, but it is mentioned that     he was in life a most wonderful man. Soldier, statesman, and alchemist. Which latter was the highest development of the scientific knowledge of his time. He had a mighty brain, a learning beyond compare, and a heart that knew no fear and no remorse... there was no branch of knowledge of his time that he did not essay.[15] Dracula studied the black arts at the academy of Scholomance in the Carpathian Mountains, overlooking the town of Sibiu (also known as Hermannstadt) and has a deep knowledge of alchemy and magic.[16] Taking up arms, as befitting his rank and status as a voivode, he led troops against the Turks across the Danube. According to his nemesis Abraham Van Helsing, "He must indeed have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land. If it be so, then was he no common man: for in that time, and for centuries after, he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well as the bravest of the sons of the land beyond the forest."[17] Dead and buried in a great tomb in the chapel of his castle, Dracula returns from death as a vampire and lives for several centuries in his castle with three terrifyingly beautiful female vampires beside him.[18] Narrative Short story In "Dracula's Guest", the narrative follows an unnamed Englishman traveller as he wanders around Munich before leaving for Transylvania. It is Walpurgis Night and the young Englishman foolishly leaves his hotel, in spite of the coachman's warnings, and wanders through a dense forest alone. Along the way, he feels that he is being watched by a tall and thin stranger. The short story climaxes in an old graveyard, where the Englishman encounters a sleeping female vampire called Countess Dolingen in a marble tomb with a large iron stake driven into it. This malevolent beautiful vampire awakens from her marble bier to conjure a snowstorm before being struck by lightning and returning to her eternal prison. The Englishman's troubles are not quite over, as he is dragged away by an unseen force and rendered unconscious. He awakens to find a gigantic wolf lying on his chest and licking his throat. It keeps him warm and protects him until help arrives. When the Englishman is finally taken back to his hotel, a telegram awaits him from his expectant host Dracula, with a warning about "dangers from snow and wolves and night". Novel In Dracula, the eponymous vampire has decided to move from Transylvania to London. He summons Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, to provide legal support for a real estate transaction overseen by Harker's employer. Dracula at first charms Harker with his cordiality and historical knowledge, and even rescues him from the clutches of the three female vampires in the castle. In truth, Dracula wishes to keep Harker alive long enough to complete the legal transaction and to learn as much as possible about England. Dracula leaves his castle and boards a Russian ship, the Demeter, taking along with him 50 boxes of Transylvanian soil, which he needs to regain his strength and rest during daylight. During the voyage to Whitby, a coastal town in northern England, he sustains himself on the ship's crew members. Only one body is later found, that of the captain, who is found tied up to the ship's helm. The captain's log is recovered and tells of strange events that had taken place during the ship's journey. Dracula leaves the ship in the form of a dog and runs up the 199 steps to the graveyard of St Mary's Church in the shadow of the Whitby Abbey ruins. Soon, the Count begins menacing Harker's fiancée, Wilhelmina "Mina" Murray, and her friend, Lucy Westenra. There is also a notable link between Dracula and Renfield, a patient in an insane asylum overseen by John Seward, who is compelled to consume spiders, birds, and other creatures—in ascending order of size—to absorb their "life force". Renfield acts as a kind of sensor, reacting to Dracula's proximity and supplying clues accordingly. Dracula visits Lucy's bed chamber on a nightly basis, draining her of blood while simultaneously infecting her with the curse of vampirism. Not knowing the cause for Lucy's deterioration, her three suitors – Seward, Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris – call upon Seward's mentor, the Dutch doctor Abraham Van Helsing. Van Helsing soon deduces her condition's supernatural origins, and tries to keep the vampire at bay with garlic. Nevertheless, Dracula attacks Lucy's house one final time, killing her mother and transforming Lucy herself into one of the undead after which Van Helsing and her suitors help lay Lucy's soul to rest by driving a stake through her heart. Harker escapes Dracula's castle and returns to England, barely alive and deeply traumatized. On Seward's suggestion, Mina seeks Van Helsing's assistance in assessing Harker's health. She reads his journal and passes it along to Van Helsing. This unfolds the first clue to the identity of Lucy's assailant, which later prompts Mina to collect all of the events of Dracula's appearance in news articles, saved letters, newspaper clippings and the journals of each member of the group. This assists the group in investigating Dracula's movements and later discovering that Renfield's behaviour is directly influenced by Dracula. They then discover that Dracula has purchased a residence next door to Seward's. The group gathers intelligence to track down Dracula and destroy him. After the undead Lucy attacks several children, Van Helsing, Seward, Holmwood and Morris enter her crypt and destroy her to save her soul. Later, Harker joins them, and the party works to discover Dracula's intentions. Harker aids the party in tracking down the locations of the boxes to the various residences of Dracula and discovers that Dracula purchased multiple real estate properties throughout London[19] under the alias 'Count De Ville'.[20] Dracula's main plan was to move each of his 50 boxes of earth to his various properties in order to arrange multiple lairs throughout and around the perimeter of London.[19] The party pries open each of the graves, places sacramental wafers within each of them, and seals them shut. This deprives Dracula of his ability to seek safety in those boxes.[21] Dracula gains entry into Seward's residence by coercing an invitation out of Renfield. As he attempts to enter the room in which Harker and Mina are staying, Renfield tries to stop him; Dracula then mortally wounds him. With his dying breath, Renfield tells Seward and Van Helsing that Dracula is after Mina. Van Helsing and Seward discover Dracula biting Mina and forcing her to drink his blood. The group repels Dracula using crucifixes and sacramental bread, forcing him to flee by turning into a dark vapour. The party continues to hunt Dracula to search for his remaining lairs.[22] Although Dracula's 'baptism' of Mina grants him a telepathic link to her, it backfires when Van Helsing hypnotizes Mina and uses her supernatural link with Dracula to track him as he flees back to Transylvania. The heroes follow Dracula back to Transylvania, and in a climactic battle with Dracula's Romani bodyguards, finally destroy him. Despite the popular image of Dracula having a stake driven through his heart to kill him, Mina's narrative describes his decapitation by Harker's kukri while Morris simultaneously pierces his heart with a Bowie knife (Mina Harker's Journal, 6 November, Dracula Chapter 27). His body then turns into dust, but not before Mina sees an expression of peace on his face. Characteristics     "Listen to them—the children of the night. What music they make!". — Count Dracula to Jonathan Harker, referring to the howling of the wolves. Dracula, Chapter 2.[23] Although early in the novel Dracula dons a mask of cordiality, he often flies into fits of rage when his plans are frustrated. When Dracula's brides attempt to seduce Jonathan Harker, Dracula physically assaults one and ferociously berates them for their insubordination. Dracula has an appreciation for ancient architecture prefers purchasing old houses, saying "a new home would kill me" and that it takes a century to make one habitable.[24] Dracula is very proud of his warrior heritage, proclaiming his pride to Harker on how the Székely people are infused with the blood of heroes. He also expresses an interest in the history of the British Empire, speaking admiringly of its people. He has a somewhat primal and predatory worldview, pities ordinary humans for their revulsion to their darker impulses, feels human emotions and often says that he can love.[25] Though usually portrayed as having a strong Eastern European accent, the original novel only specifies that his spoken English is excellent, though strangely toned. His appearance varies in age. He is described early in the novel as thin, with a long white moustache, pointed ears and sharp teeth.[26] It is also noted later in the novel (Chapter 11 subsection "The Escaped Wolf") by a zookeeper who sees him that he has a hooked nose and a pointed beard with a streak of white in it. He is dressed all in black and has hair on his palms. Harker describes him as an old man, "cruel looking" and giving an effect of "extraordinary pallor".[26]     I saw... Count Dracula... with red light of triumph in his eyes, and with a smile that Judas in hell might be proud of.     — Jonathan Harker's journal, Dracula, Chapter 4 As the novel progresses, Dracula is described as taking on a more and more youthful appearance. After Harker strikes him with a shovel, he is left with a scar on his forehead which he bears throughout the course of the novel. Dracula also possesses great wealth, and has Romani people in his homeland who are loyal to him as servants and protectors. Powers and weaknesses Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula in 1931 Count Dracula is portrayed in the novel using many different supernatural abilities, and is believed to have gained his abilities through dealings with the devil. Chapter 18 of the novel describes many of the abilities, limitations and weaknesses of vampires and Dracula in particular. Dracula has superhuman strength which, according to Van Helsing, is equivalent to that of 20 strong men. He does not cast a shadow or have a reflection from mirrors. He is immune to conventional means of attack; a sailor tries to stab him in the back with a knife, but the blade goes through his body as though it is air.[27] He can defy gravity to a certain extent and possesses superhuman agility, able to climb vertical surfaces upside down in a reptilian manner. He can travel onto unhallowed ground, such as the graves of suicides and those of his victims. He has powerful hypnotic, telepathic and illusionary abilities. He also has the ability to "within limitations" vanish and reappear elsewhere at will. If he knows the path, he can come out from anything or into anything regardless of how close it is bound or even if it is soldered shut.[28] Dracula has amassed cunning and wisdom throughout centuries and is unable to die of senescence.[28] He can command animals such as rats, owls, bats, moths, foxes and wolves. His control is limited, as seen when the party first enters his house in London. He summons thousands of rats to swarm and attack the group and Holmwood summons his trio of terriers to battle them. The dogs prove very efficient rat killers. Terrified by their onslaught, the rats flee of their own volition.[29] Dracula can also manipulate the weather and, within his range, is able to direct the elements, such as storms, fog and mist.[28] Shapeshifting Dracula can change form at will, able to grow and become small, his featured forms in the novel being that of a bat, a wolf, a large dog and a fog or mist. When the moonlight is shining, he can travel as elemental dust within its rays. He is able to pass through tiny cracks or crevices while retaining his human form or in the form of a vapour; described by Van Helsing as the ability to slip through a hairbreadth space of a tomb door or coffin. This is also an ability used by his victim Lucy as a vampire. When the party breaks into her tomb, they open the sealed coffin to find her corpse is no longer located within.[30] Vampirism One of Dracula's powers is the ability to turn others into vampires by biting them. According to Van Helsing:     When they become such, there comes with the change the curse of immortality; they cannot die, but must go on age after age adding new victims and multiplying the evils of the world. For all that die from the preying of the Undead become themselves Undead, and prey on their kind. And so the circle goes on ever widening, like as the ripples from a stone thrown in the water. Friend Arthur, if you had met that kiss which you know of before poor Lucy die, or again, last night when you open your arms to her, you would in time, when you had died, have become nosferatu, as they call it in Eastern Europe, and would for all time make more of those Un-Deads that so have filled us with horror.     — Dr. Seward's journal, Dracula, Chapter 16 The vampire bite itself does not cause death. It is the method vampires use to drain blood of the victim and to increase their influence over them. This is described by Van Helsing:     The nosferatu do not die like the bee when he sting once. He is only stronger, and being stronger, have yet more power to work evil.     — Dr. Seward's journal, Dracula, Chapter 18 Victims who are bitten by a vampire and do not die, are hypnotically influenced by them:     Those children whose blood she suck are not yet so much worse; but if she live on, Un-Dead, more and more lose their blood and by her power over them they come to her.     — Mina Harker's journal, Dracula, Chapter 18 Van Helsing later describes the aftermath of a bitten victim when the vampire has been killed:     But if she die in truth, then all cease; the tiny wounds of the throats disappear, and they go back to their plays unknowing of whatever has been.     — Mina Harker's journal, Dracula, Chapter 18 As Dracula slowly drains Lucy's blood, she dies from acute blood loss and later transforms into a vampire, despite the efforts of Seward and Van Helsing to provide her with blood transfusions.[31] He is aided by powers of necromancy and divination of the dead, that all who die by his hand may reanimate and do his bidding.[28] Bloodletting Dracula requires no other sustenance but fresh human blood, which has the effect of rejuvenating him and allowing him to grow younger. His power is drawn from the blood of others, and he cannot survive without it.[28][32] Although drinking blood can rejuvenate his youth and strength, it does not give him the ability to regenerate; months after being struck on the head by a shovel, he still bears a scar from the impact.[33] Dracula's preferred victims are women.[34] Harker states that he believes Dracula has a state of fasting as well as a state of feeding.[35] He tells Mina exerting his abilities raises a desire to feed.[36] Vampire's Baptism of Blood Count Dracula is depicted as the "King Vampire", and can control other vampires. To punish Mina and the party for their efforts against him, Dracula bites her on at least three occasions. He also forces her to drink his blood; this act curses her with the effects of vampirism and gives him a telepathic link to her thoughts.[37] Hypnotism only work before dawn.[38] Van Helsing refers to the act of drinking blood by both the vampire and the victim "the Vampire's Baptism of Blood".[39]     you, their best beloved one, are now to me, flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood, kin of my kin, my bountiful wine-press for a while, and shall be later on my companion and my helper. You shall be avenged in turn, for not one of them but shall minister to your needs. But as yet you are to be punished for what you have done. You have aided in thwarting me. Now you shall come to my call. When my brain says 'Come!' to you, you shall cross land or sea to do my bidding.[40] The effects changes Mina physically and mentally over time. A few moments after Dracula attacks her, Van Helsing takes a wafer of sacramental bread and places it on her forehead to bless her; when the bread touches her skin, it burns her and leaves a scar on her forehead. Her teeth start growing longer but do not grow sharper. She begins to lose her appetite, feeling repulsed by normal food,[41] begins to sleep more and more during the day; cannot wake unless at sunset and stops writing in her diary. When Van Helsing later crumbles the same bread in a circle around her, she is unable to cross or leave the circle, discovering a new form of protection.[42] Dracula's death would release the curse on any living transformed vampire. Van Helsing reveals that even were he to escape, his continued existence would ensure whether or not he victimized Mina further, she would become a vampire upon her eventual natural death. Limitations of his powers Dracula is much less powerful in daylight and is only able to shift his form at dawn, noon, and dusk (he can shift his form freely at night or if he is at his grave). The sun is not fatal to him, as sunlight does not burn and destroy him upon contact, though most of his abilities cease.     The sun that rose on our sorrow this morning guards us in its course. Until it sets to-night, that monster must retain whatever form he now has. He is confined within the limitations of his earthly envelope. He cannot melt into thin air nor disappear through cracks or chinks or crannies. If he goes through a doorway, he must open the door like a mortal.     — Jonathan Harker's journal, Dracula, Chapter 22     His power ceases, as does that of all evil things, at the coming of the day. Only at certain times can he have limited freedom. If he be not at the place whither he is bound, he can only change himself at noon or exact sunrise or sunset.     — Mina Harker's journal, Dracula, Chapter 18 Later interpretations of the character, and vampires in general, would amplify this trait into an outright fatal weakness, making it so that even the first rays of sunrise are capable of reducing a vampire to ash.[citation needed] He is also limited in his ability to travel, as he can only cross running water at low or high tide. Owing to this, he is unable to fly across a river in the form of a bat or mist or even by himself board a boat or step off a boat onto a dock unless he is physically carried over with assistance. He is also unable to enter a place unless invited to do so by someone of the household, even a visitor; once invited, he can enter and leave the premises at will.[28] Weaknesses Thirst Dracula is commonly depicted with a bloodlust which he is seemingly unable to control. Adaptations sometimes call this uncontrollable state 'the thirst'. Religious symbolism There are items which afflict him to the point he has no power and can even calm him from his insatiable appetite for blood. He is repulsed by garlic, as well as sacred items and symbols such as crucifixes and sacramental bread.     ...at the instant I saw that the cut had bled a little, and the blood was trickling over my chin. I laid down the razor, turning as I did so half round to look for some sticking plaster. When the Count saw my face, his eyes blazed with a sort of demoniac fury, and he suddenly made a grab at my throat. I drew away and his hand touched the string of beads which held the crucifix. It made an instant change in him, for the fury passed so quickly that I could hardly believe that it was ever there.     — Jonathan Harker's journal, Dracula, Chapter 2 Placing the branch of a wild rose upon the top of his coffin will render him unable to escape it; a sacred bullet fired into the coffin could kill him so that he remain true-dead.[28] Mountain-ash is also described as a form of protection from a vampire, although the effects are unknown.[43] This was believed to be used as protection against evil spirits and witches during the Victorian era. Death-sleep The state of rest to which vampires are prone during the day is described in the novel as a deathlike sleep in which the vampire sleeps open-eyed, is unable to awaken or move, and also may be unaware of any presence of individuals who may be trespassing. Dracula is portrayed as being active in daylight at least once to pursue a victim. Dracula also purchases many properties throughout London 'over the counter' which shows that he does have the ability to have some type of presence in daylight.     on a pile of newly dug earth, lay the Count! He was either dead or asleep. I could not say which, for eyes were open and stony, but without the glassiness of death, and the cheeks had the warmth of life through all their pallor. The lips were as red as ever. But there was no sign of movement, no pulse, no breath, no beating of the heart. I bent over him, and tried to find any sign of life, but in vain... I thought he might have the keys on him, but when I went to search I saw the dead eyes, and in them dead though they were, such a look of hate, though unconscious of me or my presence, that I fled from the place, and leaving the Count's room by the window.[44] He requires Transylvanian soil to be nearby to him in a foreign land or to be entombed within his coffin within Transylvania in order to successfully rest; otherwise, he will be unable to recover his strength. This has forced him to transport many boxes of Transylvanian earth to each of his residences in London. He is most powerful when he is within his Earth-Home, Coffin-Home, Hell-Home, or any place unhallowed.[28][45] Further, if Dracula or any vampire has had their fill in blood upon feeding, they will be caused to rest in this dead state even longer than usual.[46] Other abilities While universally feared by the local people of Transylvania and even beyond, Dracula commands the loyalty of the Romani people, as well as a band of Slovaks who transport his boxes on their way to London and to serve as an armed convoy bringing his coffin back to his castle. The Slovaks and Romani appear to know his true nature, for they laugh at Harker when he tries to communicate his plight, and betray Harker's attempt to send a letter through them by giving it to the Count. Dracula seems to be able to hold influence over people with mental disorders, such as Renfield, who is never bitten but who worships Dracula, referring to him over the course of the novel as "Master" and "Lord". Dracula also afflicts Lucy with chronic sleepwalking, putting her into a trance-like state that allows them not only to submit to his will but also seek him and satisfy his need to feed. Dracula's powers and weaknesses vary greatly in the many adaptations. Previous and subsequent vampires from different legends have had similar vampire characteristics. Character development subsequent to the novel Main article: Count Dracula in popular culture Dracula has been portrayed by more actors in more visual media adaptations of the novel than any other horror character.[49] Actors who have played him include Max Schreck, Bela Lugosi, John Carradine, Lon Chaney Jr., Christopher Lee, Francis Lederer, Denholm Elliott, Jack Palance, Louis Jourdan, Rudolf Martin, Frank Langella, Klaus Kinski, Gary Oldman, Leslie Nielsen, George Hamilton, David Niven, Charles Macaulay, Keith-Lee Castle, Gerard Butler, Duncan Regehr, Richard Roxburgh, Marc Warren, Rutger Hauer, Stephen Billington, Thomas Kretschmann, Dominic Purcell, Luke Evans, Claes Bang, Nicolas Cage and Javier Botet. In 2003, Count Dracula, as portrayed by Lugosi in the 1931 film, was named as the 33rd greatest movie villain by the AFI.[50] In 2013, Empire magazine ranked Lee's portrayal as Dracula the 7th Greatest Horror Movie Character of All Time.[51] The character is closely associated with the western cultural archetype of the vampire, and remains a popular Halloween costume.     Count Dracula appears in Mad Monster Party? voiced by Allen Swift. This version is shown to be wearing a monocle. Count Dracula is among the monsters that Baron Boris von Frankenstein invites to the Isle of Evil to show off the secret of total destruction and announce his retirement from the Worldwide Organization of Monsters.     Sesame Street character Count von Count is based on Bela Lugosi's interpretation of Count Dracula and Jack Davis' design for Dracula from Mad Monster Party?.     Count Dracula appears in Mad Mad Mad Monsters (a "prequel of sorts" to Mad Monster Party?) voiced again by Allen Swift. He and his son are invited by Baron Henry von Frankenstein to attend the wedding of Frankenstein's monster and its mate at the Transylvania Astoria Hotel.     Dracula is the primary antagonist of the Castlevania video game series, the first two seasons of the Castlevania Netflix series, and the main protagonist of the Lords of Shadow reboot series.     Count Dracula appears in the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes episode "Spatula, Prinze of Dorkness", voiced by S. Scott Bullock. He relates a tale of how he once gave Dr. Putrid T. Gangreen a serum to transform tomatoes into vampire tomatoes. Though the doctor refused, Zoltan overheard their conversation and, mistaking the word serum for syrup, ingests the serum himself and renaming himself "Spatula, Prinze of Dorkness" who can turn people into vampires by kissing them in the neck (a stipulation that the Censor Lady put into place in fear of showing the biting and bloodshed associated with vampires on a Saturday morning cartoon). This spread to the other tomatoes and the entire town. When the Sun came up and disabled the vampires, Count Dracula in sunblock appears and deemed that the town is not worthy to be vampires. He then gives Chad Finletter the antidote to the vampirism and advises that the tomatoes be squashed immediately.     Dracula appears as the lead character of Dracula the Un-dead, a novel by Stoker's great-grand nephew Dacre presented as a sequel to the original.     In the Supernatural episode "Monster Movie", a shapeshifter that Sam and Dean Winchester fight considers his form of Count Dracula (portrayed by Todd Stashwick) his favourite form. It is in this form that Jamie killed him with Sam's gun loaded with silver bullets.     Count Dracula is the main character of the Hotel Transylvania franchise, voiced by Adam Sandler in the first three movies and by Brian Hull in the fourth movie.     Dracula, going by an inversion of his name, "Alucard", serves as the main character of the anime and manga series Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate, where he serves Integra Hellsing, Abraham's great-granddaughter, as an anti-vampire warrior devoted to the British Crown.     Dracula is the primary antagonist of the Showtime series Penny Dreadful, portrayed by Christian Camargo. This version of the character is the brother of Lucifer and, thus, a fallen angel. Modern and postmodern analyses of the character Already in 1958, Cecil Kirtly proposed that Count Dracula shared his personal past with the historical Transylvanian-born Voivode Vlad III Dracula of Wallachia, also known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Țepeș. Following the publication of In Search of Dracula by Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally in 1972, this supposed connection attracted much popular attention. This work argued that Bram Stoker based his Dracula on Vlad the Impaler.[52] Historically, the name "Dracula" is the family name of Vlad Țepeș' family, a name derived from a fraternal order of knights called the Order of the Dragon, founded by Sigismund of Luxembourg (king of Hungary and Bohemia, and Holy Roman Emperor) to uphold Christianity and defend the Empire against the Ottoman Turks. Vlad II Dracul, father of Vlad III, was admitted to the order around 1431 because of his bravery in fighting the Turks and was dubbed Dracul (dragon or devil), thus his son became Dracula (son of the dragon). From 1431 onward, Vlad II wore the emblem of the order and later, as ruler of Wallachia, his coinage bore the dragon symbol. Stoker came across the name Dracula in his reading on Romanian history, and chose this to replace the name (Count Wampyr) that he had originally intended to use for his villain. Some Dracula scholars, led by Elizabeth Miller, have questioned the depth of this connection as early as 1998. They argue that Stoker in fact knew little of the historic Vlad III, Vlad the Impaler, and that he used only the name "Dracula" and some miscellaneous scraps of Romanian history.[54] Also, there are no comments about Vlad III in the author's working notes.[55] While having a conversation with Jonathan Harker in Chapter 3, Dracula refers to his own background, and these speeches show elements which Stoker directly copied from An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia: With Various Political Observations Relating to Them by William Wilkinson.[56] Stoker mentions the Voivode of the Dracula race who fought against the Turks after the defeat in the Battle of Kosovo, and was later betrayed by his brother, historical facts which unequivocally point to Vlad III, described as "Voïvode Dracula" by Wilkinson:     Who was it but one of my own race who as Voivode crossed the Danube and beat the Turk on his own ground? This was a Dracula indeed! Woe was it that his own unworthy brother, when he had fallen, sold his people to the Turk and brought the shame of slavery on them! Was it not this Dracula, indeed, who inspired that other of his race who in a later age again and again brought his forces over the great river into Turkey-land; who, when he was beaten back, came again, and again, though he had to come alone from the bloody field where his troops were being slaughtered, since he knew that he alone could ultimately triumph! (Chapter 3, pp. 19) The Count's intended identity is later commented by Professor Van Helsing, referring to a letter from his friend Arminius:     He must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land. (Chapter 18, pp. 145) This indeed encourages the reader to identify the Count with the Voivode Dracula first mentioned by him in Chapter 3, the one betrayed by his brother: Vlad III Dracula, betrayed by his brother Radu the Handsome, who had chosen the side of the Turks. But as noted by the Dutch author Hans Corneel de Roos, in Chapter 25, Van Helsing and Mina drop this rudimentary connection to Vlad III and instead describe the Count's personal past as that of "that other of his race" who lived "in a later age". By smoothly exchanging Vlad III for a nameless double, Stoker avoided his main character being unambiguously linked to a historical person traceable in any history book. Similarly, the novelist did not want to disclose the precise site of the Count's residence, Castle Dracula. As confirmed by Stoker's own handwritten research notes, the novelist had a specific location for the Castle in mind while writing the narrative: an empty mountain top in the Transylvanian Kelemen alps near the former border with Moldavia.[57] Efforts to promote the Poenari Castle (ca. 200 km away from the novel's place of action near the Borgo Pass) as the "real Castle Dracula" have no basis in Stoker's writing; although it bears much similarity to the fictional Castle Dracula, no written evidence shows Stoker to have heard of it. Regarding the Bran Castle near Brașov, Stoker possibly saw an illustration of Castle Bran (Törzburg) in Charles Boner's 1865 book on Transylvania, Transylvania: Its Products and Its People.[58][59] Although Stoker may have been inspired by its romantic appearance, neither Boner, nor Mazuchelli nor Crosse (who also mention Terzburg or Törzburg) associate it with Vlad III; for the site of his fictitious Castle Dracula, Stoker preferred an empty mountain top. Stoker's detailed notes reveal he was well aware of the ethnic and geopolitical differences between the Roumanians/Wallachs/Wallachians, descendants of the Dacians, and the Székelys/Szeklers, allies of the Magyars or Hungarians, whose interests were opposed to that of the Wallachians. In the novel's original typewritten manuscript, the Count speaks of throwing off the "Austrian yoke", which corresponds to the Szekler political point of view. This expression is crossed out and replaced by "Hungarian yoke" (as appearing in the printed version), which matches the historical perspective of the Wallachians. Some take this to mean that Stoker opted for the Wallachian, not the Szekler interpretation, thus lending more consistency to his count's Romanian identity. Although not identical to Vlad III, the vampire is portrayed as one of the "Dracula race"." (wikipedia.org) "The character of Count Dracula from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, has remained popular over the years, and many forms of media have adopted the character in various forms. In their book Dracula in Visual Media, authors John Edgar Browning and Caroline Joan S. Picart declared that no other horror character or vampire has been emulated more times than Count Dracula.[1] Most variations of Dracula across film, comics, television and documentaries predominantly explore the character of Dracula as he was first portrayed in film, with only a few adapting Stoker's original narrative more closely. These including borrowing the look of Count Dracula in both the Universal's series of Dracula and Hammer's series of Dracula, including include the characters clothing, mannerisms, physical features hair style and his motivations such as wanting to be in a home away from Europe.[2] Stage Drama A limited stage adaptation of Stoker's story was performed to a small audience at the Lyceum Theatre in the year of the book's publication, in order to protect Stoker's copyright. The script for this four-hour performance is lost.[3] In 1924, the British producer Hamilton Deane premiered a stage version of Dracula at the Grand Theatre in Derby, England.[4] This version of the play was a modernized retelling of Stoker's story.[4] The play's success led to Deane taking it on tour for the next three years.[4] The play opened in London's Little Theatre on 14 February 1927, where it sold well while not being critically well received.[4] After seeing the play in London, American producer Horace Liveright bought the rights for Broadway, and hired John L. Balderston to Americanize Deane's text.[4][5] The Broadway version featured actors who would later be cast into the Universal film, including Bela Lugosi as Dracula, Edward Van Sloan as Prof. Van Helsing, Herbert Bunston as Dr. Seward.[6][4] Dracula opened at New York's Fulton Theatre on 5 October 1927, where it ran for 265 performances finally closing in May 1928.[4] Gary Don Rhodes described the play as "taking America by storm", a statement backed up by a 1930 article in the Chicago Tribune claiming that the play "has been rolling around the country ever since its first vogue two or three seasons ago, coaxing money into box offices that had abandoned hope of the drama, and of the shriek-and-shudder plays of the last five years it easily leads the list."[7][8] O. D. Woodward purchased rights to present Dracula on the West Coast, and the play opened at the Biltmore Theater in Los Angeles on 25 June 1928. The play was originally booked for a four-week engagement, but proved so popular that it was held over, closing on 18 August 1928.[9] The play would continue in other countries in 1929 such as Australia.[10] Lugosi would return to act in the play in 1933 after his appearance in the film Dracula (1931) and would return again to the play in 1941 for a two-year tour and again later in 1947.[11][12] A revival of the play by Leo Shull called Genius, Inc., opened in December 1942 featuring a Dracula with a Toothbrush moustache.[11] John Carradine took to the stage as Dracula in the early 1950s. When the play performed in Detroit, several accidents happened on stage leading audiences to laugh at what were supposed to be scary moments.[12] Frank Langella took on the role of Count Dracula, beginning 7 August 1967, an adaptation that William Gibson, director of the Berkshire declared to be "the worst play of the season".[13] The Deane-Balderston adaptation of Dracula was described by Bruce Scivally as "seemingly in performance every year since its debut".[14] Variations involving Count Dracula were performed as plays in parody such as Fangs Ain't What They Used to Be in 1969 and I'm Sorry, the Bridge is Out, You'll Have to Spend the Night in 1970.[13] Other plays like Dracula Sabbat from 1970 was basically a scripted black mass featuring nudity and simulated sex acts.[14] For the plays 50th anniversary in America, it was developed again with Langella in the lead.[15] On the play's reveal it was praised for its sets designed by Edward Gorey and Langella's performance which Scivally proclaimed "reclaimed the vampire from a decade of camp and parody and presented Dracula with grace, dignity and a healthy dose of sex appeal."[16] It was sold out for the first two weeks leading to merchandizing of the play with Gorey-themed wallpaper, a toy theatre, and short-lived fashion of men wearing capes in Manhattan.[16][17] Scivally stated that after the 1970s ended an "explosion" of vampire plays continued into the next decades.[18] Other Dracula plays continued through the 1980s to the 21st century in Chicago and New York with several being variations on the Deane-Balderston adaptation, new stories or parodies featuring actors like Raul Julia, Daniel Day-Lewis and Martin Landau performing as Count Dracula.[19][18][20] Musical Early musical adaptions of Dracula played for camp.[21] At the Dublin Theater Festival in 1965, there was a musical comedy Dearest Dracula. The musical contained 15 songs and received a positive review from Robert B. Byrnes of the Los Angeles Times.[22] Other musical adaptions would follow such as Dracula, A Musical Nightmare (1978) starring Joe Spano.[22][21] Musical adaptations continued with Jack Sharkey's Dracula, The Musical? in 1982 which was written under the pen name of Rick Abbot.[21] Possessed, The Dracula Musical was produced off-Broadway with a production of $1 million.[23] The story is re-imagined inside a modern-day asylum. It received a negative review by Alvin Klein of The New York Times, who suggested that "Perhaps there are no bad ideas for musicals, only bad musicals, like this one."[23][24] The United Kingdom had Dracula, Another Bloody Musical which opened at the Westminster Theatre in London.[24] In 1998 Halifax's Neptune Theatre debuted Dracula: A Chamber Musical which ran for which ran for six months at Canada's Stratford Festival in 1999. This version was not a parody or based on the Deane-Balderston play, but more of an iteration of the original novel.[25] In 2001, Dracula, the Musical premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse where it was staged by Des McAnuff.[26] McAnuff stated believed that "there's been a tendency to parody [Dracula] or to not trust it. We all felt that if we really tapped into what made the book powerful, that really would translate on stage."[26] The musical received poor reviews from the Los Angeles Times, The San Diego Union-Tribune.[26] Joop van den Ende saw a workshop of Dracula, the Musical and opened it on Broadway in 2004 adding new songs and different staging.[27] This version was also not received well by critics.[28] The show closed after 154 performances, but proved to be a hit in Europe.[29] Opera Prior to Stoker's novel, there were operas based on vampire fiction such as Heinrich Marschner's Der Vampyr composed in 1828 based on John Polidori's short work "The Vampyre" (1819).[30] The later half of the 20th Century had Count Dracula had composers attempting vampire themed operas with Count Dracula, such as Sue-Ellen Case "non-opera" Johnny Appleseed/Dracula – The Universe in Infancy performed in April 1970 in Los Angeles.[31] John Deak of the New York Philharmonic presented two scenes of his Lucy and the Count for string quintet at Cooper Union in February 1983. A review in The New York Times declared the presentation as "amusing and a little more – intentionally absurd"[31] Composer Robert Moran was commissioned to create The Dracula Diary in 1994 which received a negative review in The New York Times by K. Robert Schwardz who found it to have "Generic chord progressions, clumsy text setting and cheesy synthesized sound effects"[32] In March 1999, David Del Tredici's Dracula premiered based on Alfred Corn's poem My Neighbor, the Distinguished Count.[32] Ballet     The popular and successful balletic Dracula adaptation by Michael Pink and Christopher Gable premiered in 1997, to commemorate the centenary publication of the novel. It was created for the Northern Ballet Theatre in the United Kingdom. The production stays as faithful to the book as possible in non-verbal theatre. Original music was composed by Philip Feeney, the Naxos recording of the score has remained a top seller. Sets and costumes were designed by Lez Brotherston, whose career as a designer for dance began with NBT. Lighting was by Paul Pyant. The production has been seen throughout the world, most companies presenting the work more than once during the last decade. It is the lure of the novel that makes this as popular in the dance world as the film industry. This same production team is responsible for many successful adaptations of popular novels.     Dracula, a balletic adaptation of Houston Ballet by choreographer Ben Stevenson, set to the music of Franz Liszt, with costumes by Judanna Lynn and set design by Thomas Boyd, premiered in 1997. The ballet saw many US productions since its premiere. The ballet's plot features a set of original characters and happens entirely in Transylvania.[33]     A new Northern Ballet Theatre production of Dracula was created by choreographer David Nixon in 2005 and has become popular at Halloween among many companies in the US and England. Originally Nixon choreographed his "Dracula" ballet in 1999 for Ballet Met, then redesigned production in 2005 for Northern Ballet. The ballet uses music of Alfred Schnittke and Sergei Rachmaninoff.     In November 2013, Turkish State Opera and Ballet premiered a new ballet adaptation entitled Kont Dracula at Ankara Opera House.[34] Live-action films Further information: Dracula (Universal film series) and Dracula (Hammer film series) It is rumored that an early Russian film adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula was theatrically released in 1920. The existence of this film adaptation is disputed, as there exists very little information or proof of its existence. The earliest provable source for it is the June, 1963 edition of Famous Monsters of Filmland, where it is written "Eric Jason, specialist in stage monsters, once told me he was sure there'd been a Russian version of DRACULA".[35] An early adaptation of Dracula is the Hungarian silent movie Dracula's Death; directed by Karoly Lajthay. The film allegedly premiered in 1921, though this has been questioned by some scholars who instead list 1923 as the earliest verifiable release date.[36] The film is currently considered lost in its entirety. Director F.W. Murnau made an adaptation of Dracula with Nosferatu (1922). Newman declared that this adaptation as "the only screen adaptation of Dracula to be primarily interested in horror, from the character's rat-like features and thin body, the film was, even more so than The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, "a template for the horror film."[37] In June 1930, Universal Studios officially purchased the rights to both the play and the novel Dracula.[4][38] Dracula premiered on 12 February 1931 at the Roxy Theatre in New York again with Lugosi in the title role.[39][6] Contemporary critical response to Dracula was described by Tom Weaver, Michael Brunas and John Brunas, the authors of the book Universal Horrors, as "uniformly positive, some even laudatory" and as "one of the best received critically of any of the Universal horror pictures."[40] Film historians have differed on what films belong to the series. Ken Hanke wrote in A Critical Guide to Horror Film Series that Universal produced only three films (Dracula, Dracula's Daughter, and Son of Dracula) that "can properly be called part of a loosely grouped Dracula series" though Son of Dracula is really a distant cousin and that the films where Dracula makes "token appearances" were more incorporated into the Frankenstein series.[41] Gary D. Rhodes wrote in his book Tod Browning's Dracula that Universal had produced five films in their classic era whose plotlines assume the audience would be familiar with the Count Dracula character from either viewing or being aware of the 1931 film.[42] Rhodes noted that the later films that include Dracula such as The House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula have the character portrayed differently, as a Southern gentleman with a moustache with only limited appearances in the films, such as his character only appearing for 15 minutes in The House of Frankenstein.[43][44] In the 1940s and 1950s, Dracula usually appeared as a supporting character in a handful of films.[45] Hammer originally began developing American-styled science fiction films in the early 1950s but later branched into horror with their colour films The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula (1958).[46][47] These films would birth two horror film stars: Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.[47] Hammer's Dracula series would continue up to the 1970s where it was updated to contemporary settings with Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) and its sequel The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973), after which, Lee retired from the Dracula role.[48] In the late 1970s, remakes of Dracula were made, including John Badham's Dracula (1979) and Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979).[49][50] Other European productions enhanced the eroticism of the Dracula story such as Paul Morrissey's Blood for Dracula (1974).[51] In the 1980s, Dracula rarely appeared in film outside nostalgia-themed films like The Monster Squad (1987) and Waxwork (1988).[52] Following the release of Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), a small wave of similar high-budgeted gothic horror romance films were released in the 1990s.[53] Gary Oldman's portrayal of Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's Dracula helped include new staples to the character such as long hair and a more prince-like appearance opposed to a Count-like one.[2] Pornography The character of Dracula has been an inspiration throughout the history of pornographic film in various high and low budget productions. The character is usually represented by emphasizing the combination his sexual and dangerous aspects. [54] Dracula and Dracula parodies has continued to appear in pornography as production of these films moved from theatres, to home video to the internet.[55] Dracula often appeared in various sexploitation and hardcore adaptations from the 1960s onward. In these films, Dracula is not always exclusively heterosexual or male.[56] During these periods, pornography films would often parody popular genres leading to Dracula making brief appearances in pseudo-documentary films like Kiss Me Quick! (1964) and later in narrative sexploitation films like Dracula (The Dirty Old Man) (1969) and Sex and the Single Vampire (1970).[56][57] Dracula appeared in the early hardcore pornography film Dracula and the Boys (1969) as the first homosexual vampire in film.[57] Television TV adaptations Dracula has been adapted for TV several times, with some adaptations taking many liberties and others trying to stay faithful more or less to original source.     Thames Television's (UK) anthology series Mystery and Imagination ran a Dracula episode based on the book in 1968. It featured Denholm Elliott as Dracula.     In 1971, Hrabe Drakula directed by Anna Procházková (the first adaptation to be directed by a woman), was broadcast on Czechoslovakia television. It was reasonably faithful to the novel, except for the exclusion of Renfield. It was the first adaptation to show on screen blood-exchange scene between Dracula and Mina. Ilja Racek played Dracula.     CBC-TV's (Canada) anthology series Purple Playhouse featured an hour-long adaptation, Dracula based on the book in 1973. It starred Norman Welsh as Dracula.     In 1973, Bram Stoker's Dracula, starring Jack Palance, was produced by Dan Curtis, best known for producing the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, and who worked from a script by sci-fi favorite Richard Matheson. Filmed in Yugoslavia and England, it was relatively faithful to the novel, though it tried to paint Dracula as a tragic, rather than evil, character in search of his lost love. It also drew the connection between Dracula and the historical figure of Vlad the Impaler, which was a popular notion at the time (see above). In these respects, it is also a close forerunner of Coppola's later film.     1977 saw a BBC television adaptation titled Count Dracula directed by Philip Saville. It starred Louis Jourdan as the Count and Frank Finlay as Van Helsing. This version is one of the more faithful adaptations of the book. It includes all of the main characters (only merging Arthur and Quincey into the same character) and has scenes of Jonathan recording events in his diary and Dr. Seward speaking into his dictaphone.     In 2002, the Italian telemovie Dracula was broadcast starring Patrick Bergin as Dracula. In the U.S., it was released on VHS and DVD as Dracula's Curse. It updates the events of the novel to the present day.     In 2005, an Indian Malayalam-language adaptation of the novel aired on Asianet, directed by Wins Dieus.[58]     Wins Dieus made another Indian television series in 2008, also titled Dracula, this time in Telugu which aired on Gemini TV.[59]     2006 saw a revisionist BBC TV adaptation of Dracula. It starred Marc Warren as Count Dracula, who was brought to England by Arthur Holmwood in attempt to cure his syphilis, which made it impossible for Arthur to consummate his marriage to Lucy Westenra.[60]     Dracula was portrayed as the lead character in NBC's 2013–2014 TV series Dracula. This reimagining depicted Dracula (played by Jonathan Rhys Myers) posing as Alexander Grayson, an American entrepreneur who is willing to bring modern science to the Victorian society. In reality, Dracula seeks revenge on those who had betrayed him centuries earlier. As his plans are set into motion, he falls in love with a woman who may be a reincarnation of his deceased wife.     A 2020 Dracula miniseries for the BBC in partnership with Netflix, from the creators of Sherlock, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss. Dracula is portrayed by Claes Bang. In this version Dracula draws plans against Victorian London, but he gets stuck in his coffin under the sea after destruction of the ship Demeter. Dracula finally reaches England in 2021, where he continues his battles with Van Helsing's descendant. This version of Dracula has a special ability to learn new skills by simply drinking the blood of people and it is revealed later that all his traditional vampire weaknesses are in fact linked to his deep feelings of shame and his death wish, and are entirely self-imposed. TV appearances     The Munsters (1964–1966) featured "Grandpa" Sam Dracula (played by Al Lewis), a vampire, who identifies himself as being the Count Dracula in one episode, although he has found a way to sustain himself without blood and is no longer vulnerable to sunlight. He is portrayed as a friendlier mad scientist-type. He still retains his abilities to turn into a wolf or a bat. Instead of the quasi-Eastern European accent usually associated with Dracula, Grandpa Munster speaks with a Brooklyn accent.     In the Doctor Who story "The Chase" (1965), the Doctor, his companions and the Daleks came across Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, although later both were shown to be robots.     Gilligan's Island, "Up At Bat" (1966) – After being bitten by a supposed vampire bat, Gilligan believes he is turning into a vampire. A dream sequence that spoofs Gothic horror films has Bob Denver portraying a Lugosi-like Dracula.     F Troop, "V is for Vampire" (1967) – Vincent Price does a humorously hammy turn as Transylvanian Count Sforza, who dresses and speaks like Bela Lugosi's Dracula. He travels by hearse, carries a pet crow on his arm and moves into a supposedly haunted mansion on the outskirts of town. Everyone is terrified of him, but in the end he turns out to be a harmless eccentric.     In the Sid and Marty Krofft series Lidsville (1971–1973), one of the evil HooDoo's Bad Hat Gang was Bela the Vampire Hat, a bat-eared top hat with a fanged cowl.     In the episode of The Brady Bunch "Two Petes in a Pod" (1974), Peter dresses up like Dracula for a costume party.     In 1976, Dracula appears in the Saturday morning series, Monster Squad and works with Frankenstein's Monster and the Wolfman as superhero crimefighters.     Draculas ring (1978) is a Danish TV miniseries, written and directed by Flemming la Cour and Edmondt Jensen, starring Bent Børgesen as Dracula, who journeys to Denmark on a quest to reclaim his stolen ring.     In 1979, Michael Nouri portrayed the Count in the "Curse of Dracula" segment of the NBC television series Cliffhangers.     At the end of the holiday TV special The Halloween That Almost Wasn't (1979), Count Dracula (Judd Hirsch) gets into a disco suit similar to Tony Manero from Saturday Night Fever after the witch (Mariette Hartley) transforms into a realistic person resembling Stephanie Mangano from the 1977 disco film of the same name.     British comedy legend Benny Hill played Dracula in a skit "Wondergran Meets Dracula" on his series, The Benny Hill Show.     The enormous house in the Nickelodeon game show Finders Keepers (1987–1989) occasionally featured a room titled "Dracula's Den", which was constructed to resemble a room in a castle with windows with boards nailed across them (presumably to keep out the sunlight), cobwebs, bats and a Gothic-style chair and roll-top desk. The room also featured a full-sized coffin, in which a cast or crew member usually hid dressed as a mummy or as Dracula himself.     Count Dracula made two appearances in the live-action superhero show Superboy (1988–1992).     Dracula appeared in the self-titled 1990 syndicated series Dracula: The Series. The series lasted only 21 episodes and featured the adventures of Gustav Van Helsing and family versus vampire/business tycoon Alexander Lucard.     Dracula appeared in one of the commercials for Energizer in 1993. He emerges from his casket to get the battery off the Energizer Bunny, only to be locked out of his castle when the wind blows the front door closed. When he gets his spare key, the sun comes up and Dracula is vanquished.     Dracula, renamed "General Mattias Targo" (Bob Peck), appears in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles "Transylvania, January 1918" (later edited into the second half of the film Masks of Evil, with the events being moved towards the end of the war). He is first mentioned as a Romanian General from Transylvania, who wants to crush the invaders of his country, before being revealed to be a vampire. The episode indicates that General Targo was once Vlad the Impaler, and is shown having impaled many of his victims like Vlad. General Targo is destroyed by Allied spies Indiana Jones and Maria Straussler, who drive a stake through his heart.[61]     Dracula (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) makes a one time guest appearance on Animaniacs in 1996.     Dracula has also appeared as a villain in the Season 5 of the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in an episode called "Buffy vs. Dracula" (2000) with Dracula portrayed by Rudolf Martin.[62] Dracula admits to Buffy Summers that he is intrigued and charmed by her legacy as she is of him. He also clarifies the origin of her powers, regardless of his attempt to lure her to evil. Buffy, having "seen his movies", waits after first killing him, noting that he "always comes back." He reappears in the canon post-finale comics Tales of the Vampires: Antique, and later the Season Eight story "Wolves at the Gate" (both written by Drew Goddard). Outside the canon, Dracula appears in Spike vs Dracula, which reveals that Dracula has connections to the Gypsy clan that cursed Angel with a soul. As established by his appearance in "Buffy vs. Dracula", he is an acquaintance of Anya Jenkins, and Spike claims he is a sell-out of the vampire world, fond of magic and Hollywood. The vampire popularized by Bram Stoker in the novel Dracula is also used as a basis for the ideas in the show, primarily the methods in which vampires are killed.     In 2000 Rudolf Martin also held the starring role in TV movie Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula. Shown on United States Networks on October 31, it tells the origins of Vlad III, also known as Vlad Dracula, "the Impaler", who gave Bram Stoker's Dracula his name.     In several episodes of the TV show Scrubs (2001–2010), the main character J.D. makes references to a movie he is writing called Dr. Acula, the story of a "vampire doctor".     Emmanuelle vs. Dracula is a 2004 adult (softcore) TV film about Emmanuelle (played by Natasja Vermeer) having a bachelorette party at her house which is interrupted by vampires and Dracula (played by Marcus DeAnda) himself.     In 2006, a successful U.K. children's comedy, Young Dracula, started on CBBC, featuring the Count and his two young children, Vladimir and Ingrid, trying to live discreetly in rural Wales.     A mysterious vampire called Dracula appears in the Brazilian telenovela Os Mutantes: Caminhos do Coração (2008–2009). In fact, he is a mutant vampire created by mixing his DNA with vampire bat DNA. Unlike in the novel, this Dracula is neither invincible nor undead, but he does possess superhuman strength and the ability to fly, and he also transforms some female characters into his vampire brides. His lieutenant is a ghoulish vampire called Bram, in homage to the original author. His nemesis is psychokinetic (and psychotic as well) vampire hunter Christiano Pena, who is bent on destroying Dracula, even if he has to kill innocents to do so.     In a skit of Attack of the Show (2005–2013), Dracula reviews the 2008 film, Twilight, criticizing how Edward Cullen is not a true vampire.     In the Season 4 episode "Monster Movie" (2008) of the television series Supernatural, a shape-shifter being hunted by Sam and Dean hides under the guise of Count Dracula and considers Dean to be Jonathan Harker and a girl he met and fell in love with to be Mina.     The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice is a 2008 TV film in The Librarian trilogy of movies starring Noah Wyle as a librarian who protects a secret collection of artifacts from Vlad Dracula and his vampire hordes.     An episode of the British TV series Demons (2009) called "Suckers" tells the future story of Mina Harker and Quincy Harker.     Episode 50 called "Bloodlust" (2011) of The Murdoch Mysteries concerns vampire-like attacks at the time of the first publication of Stoker's book.     Dracula is the main antagonist of the 3rd season of Penny Dreadful (2014–2016), where he is portrayed by Christian Camargo as a fallen angel and the brother of Lucifer. He poses as a kind and somewhat eccentric zoologist named Dr. Alexander Sweet in order to seduce Vanessa Ives, the series' protagonist, and use her power to take over the world.     Dracula is the main antagonist of Gregg Turkington's Decker vs Dracula (2015), the third season of Adult Swim action spoof series Decker. Portrayed by Ralph Lucas (credited as James Dean, as part of a metafictional storyline involving Dean faking his own death), Dracula has constructed a doomsday device called the Destructicon, and employs characters from the Universal Monsters roster as his henchmen; he is eventually defeated by the ghosts of the Three Stooges (all played by Mark Proksch).     Tricia Helfer plays gender-bent Dracula in season 4 of Van Helsing (2016-), where she is portrayed as the Dark One who is the ruler of the vampire species.     Dracula appears as Vlad the Impaler in season 3 of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018-), where he is portrayed by Michael Antonakos. The series presents him as the first vampire. This version dresses like the historical Vlad and looks exactly like his famous portrait. He is confronted by series protagonist Sabrina Spellman.[63]     Dracula will appear in pilot episode of ABC drama series The Brides and will be played by Goran Višnjić. The series will be a contemporary reimagining of Dracula, as a family drama about empowered, immortal women and the things they do to maintain wealth, prestige, legacy — and their nontraditional family. Dracula is left for dead at his destroyed castle in the Carpathian mountains while his three vampire brides — Cleo, Renée, and Lily — flee to start a new life together.[64] Animation Dracula would show up in animation sporadically following the release of Dracula (1931). This included appearances in Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoons (Mickey's Gala Premier (1933)), Terrytoons' Gandy Goose (Gandy Goose in G-Man Jitters (1939), and Gandy Goose in Ghost Town).[65][66] Dracula would make appearances in animation around the 1960s such as the Japanese series The Monster Kid, and one-off appearances in episodes of the British series The Beatles, the American series Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and the American stop-motion film Mad Monster Party? (1967).[67][68][69][70][71] Dracula would appear in animated television such as Filmation's The Groovie Goolies which was broadcast in 1971. Dracula in this series was described by historian Hal Erickson as removing anything potentially horrifying about the character, as it resembled The Archie Show.[72] Dracula would make brief appearances in animated series such as The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie.[73] Other appearances in animated media include Japan's Dororon Enma-kun by Toei Animation, and episodes of The Pink Panther Show and Challenge of the Superfriends.[74][75][76] Teenage descendants of Dracula appeared on Drak Pack, which featured monsters as the good guys. the show featured the great-grandson of Dracula who thwarted his enemies by super-powered versions of their ancestors.[77] Variations of younger family relatives of Dracula would re-appear alter in The Comic Strip (1987) from Rankin-Bass/Lorimar-Telepictures featured "The Mini-Monsters" featuring the offspring of Dracula and other monsters at a summer resort Camp Mini-Mon, and Hanna-Barbera's Monster Tails, part of Wake, Rattle, and Roll (1990) and the Japanese Vampire Hunter D (1985).[78][77][79] Other humorous variations of Dracula's extended family included short-lived series like Little Dracula and Rick Moranis in Gravedale High.[80][81][82] Dracula made casual appearances in other animated television series in the 1980s, including Japan's Don Dracula and a second series on The Monster Kid and the British animated series Count Duckula.[83] The 1990s featured Dracula appearing in television, such as brief appearances in episodes of Mina and the Count, Animaniacs, The Simpsons and Case Closed.[84] The first decade of the 21st century also had Dracula appearing in animated television series, in episodes of the American series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Robot Chicken, Grim & Evil, Japan's Hellsing, and France's Titeuf. Feature productions such as The Batman vs. Dracula were also released.[84][85] The animated film series Hotel Transylvania featuring Adam Sandler as "Drac." gave the actor his biggest global hit.[86] The first three films were large financial successes world-wide.[86] Books     Makt Myrkranna (Powers of Darkness, 1901) by Bram Stoker and Valdimar Ásmundsson (10. July 1852 – 17. April 1902), is a rewritten Icelandic version of Stoker's novel, and also contains an original preface written by Stoker himself. First appeared in serial form in the newspaper Fjallkonan (The Lady of the Mountain) between January 1900 and March 1901, before being published in book form later the same year. New characters include detective called Barrington and a whole group of villainous aristocrats: Romanian Prince Koromesz, his sister, the beautiful Countess Ida Varkony; Margravine Caroma Rubiano, a medium; and Madame Saint Amand, an elegant young woman noted for taking a number of distinguished lovers.[87][88]     A Swedish version from 1899, serialized in the country's newspapers Dagen and Aftonbladet under the title Mörkrets Makter which, just like the Icelandic title, means Powers of Darkness. The translations contains parts not present in neither Dracula or Makt Myrkranna and was translated by someone who used the pseudonym "A—e."[89]     Dracula has also inspired many literary tributes or parodies, including Stephen King's Salem's Lot, Kim Newman's Anno Dracula-which features a world where Dracula defeated Van Helsing's forces and took over England-, Fred Saberhagen's The Dracula Tape and its many sequels, Wendy Swanscombe's erotic parody Vamp, Dan Simmons' Children of the Night and Robin Spriggs' The Dracula Poems: A Poetic Encounter with the Lord of Vampires.     The novel Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula; or, The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count by Loren D. Estleman features Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson becoming involved in the confrontation with Dracula, told as though the two were dealing with Dracula when he was not confronting Van Helsing's crew (although Holmes and Watson were not part of Van Helsing's core group, as the professor feared the extra publicity the detectives might attract to their cause).     In The Diaries of the Family Dracul, a trilogy by Jeanne Kalogridis, Vlad's relationship with his mortal descendants is explored, as are the specific terms of his vampiric curse and his pact with the Romanian peasants who serve him. The novels are written in epistolary form and the story is intertwined with that of Stoker's novel, as well as events from the life of Vlad the Impaler, expanding on minor characters and details from the Dracula mythos and Romanian history and culture.     Elizabeth Kostova's 2005 novel The Historian follows several historians whose research has led them too close to Dracula as they hunt the vampire across Europe.     Meg Cabot's 2010 novel Insatiable has a main character named Meena Harper who has a relationship with Dracula's son, Lucien.[90]     In the book series Vampire Hunter D, which takes place 10,000 years in the future, D's adversary Count Magnus discovers that D is the son of Dracula, who is referred to as "the Sacred Ancestor" in the series.     Freda Warrington's Dracula the Undead is an unofficial sequel to Dracula.     Will Hill's Department 19 is about Jamie Carpenter, a descendant of Henry Carpenter, Van Helsing's valet who saves Van Helsing's life multiple times. Department 19 (or Blacklight), is an organization started by the people from the original Dracula, and they fight vampires across the world.     Dacre Stoker, a great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker, co-wrote with screenwriter Ian Holt a 2009 sequel to Dracula titled Dracula the Un-dead (Stoker's original title), which reveals that Dracula was not actually the true villain, but sought to eliminate the more dangerous Elizabeth Bathory, the storyline also revealing that Quincey Harker is actually the son of Mina and Dracula and ending with the death of all the characters while the sole survivor, Quincey, is last seen boarding the R.M.S. Titanic on her maiden voyage. Dacre Stoker claims that parts of the work are based on excised material from the original novel and Stoker's notes.[91] In North America, the book was published by E.P. Dutton.[92]     Dacre Stoker also co-wrote a 2018 prequel with J. D. Barker titled Dracul, with Bram Stoker himself as the book's central character.     A Betrayal in Blood by Mark A. Latham takes an unconventional interpretation of the original novel when Sherlock Holmes is hired by his brother Mycroft to investigate Dracula's death. In the course of the novel, Holmes confirms that Dracula was not a vampire, but in reality his death was part of a complex plan orchestrated by Van Helsing; a former German agent, Van Helsing was acquainted with Dracula in their youth, but after Dracula had an affair with Van Helsing's wife that resulted in the birth of a son, the son was given up for adoption to become Arthur Holmwood and Dracula was told that he was dead. In the course of the novel, Holmes determines that Van Helsing set up various complex deceptions to create the illusion of Dracula as a vampire, killed Quincey Morris because he realized the truth, hired an actress to pose as the vampire Lucy to reinforce his deception and blackmailed Jonathan and Mina to assist him due to their role in the death of Jonathan's employer Mr. Hawkins, while Renfield was the solicitor who was actually sent to Dracula's castle and driven insane by Dracula's manner. At the conclusion of the novel, the Harkers have been arrested, Holmwood is psychologically broken and Van Helsing commits suicide to escape a trial after he is caught by Holmes and Watson.     Vlad: The Last Confession by Chris Humphreys mixes myth and historical facts. The novel retraces the life of the historical figure of Vlad III who inspired the Dracula legend. While the story is based on the historical 15th century ruler of Wallachia, it also draws inspiration from the vampire legends that surround the Wallachian Prince.     Gabrielle Estres' novel Captive retraces the life of Vlad Țepeș, the Wallachian ruler who inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula. The book combines historical facts and contemporary 15th century pamphlets with the vampire lore created by Stoker.     A version of Dracula (who hates the name and is known as Vlad Tepesh) appears first as a supporting character in the Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost, then in a more central role as the protagonist's love interest in the spin-off Night Prince series. He is depicted as a powerful master vampire who was turned by a vampire named Tenoch and has the ability to control fire and read human minds in addition to the abilities common to vampires.     A prequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula, Robert Statzer's To Love a Vampire (ISBN 978-1721227310), chronicles Dr. Abraham Van Helsing's days as a medical student, depicting his first confrontation with the occult during an encounter with Countess Elizabeth Bathory and her niece, Carmilla Karnstein. Originally published as a serial in the pages of Scary Monsters Magazine from March 2011 to June 2013, a revised version of To Love a Vampire was reprinted in paperback and Kindle editions in June 2018.     Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series: in the first novel Anno Dracula (1992), Count Dracula killed Abraham Van Helsing in 1888, married Queen Victoria and has taken over the British Empire. In The Bloody Red Baron (1995), by 1918 Count Dracula is Supreme Commander of the Central Powers armies during World War I. Short stories     Shepard, Leslie. 1977. The Dracula Book of Great Vampire Stories. Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press. ISBN 0806505656. Edited with an introduction by Leslie Shepard: Le Fanu, S. Carmilla.--De Maupassant, G. The Horla.--Count Stenbock. The Sad Story of a Vampire.--Braddon, M. E. Good Lady Ducayne.--Loring, F. G. The Tomb of Sarah.--Crawford, F. M. For the Blood is the Life.--Benson, E. F. The Room in the Tower.--Blackwood, A. The Transfer.--Stoker, B. Dracula's Guest.--Neruda, J. The Vampire.--Benson, E. F. Mrs. Amworth.--Roman, V. Four Wooden Stakes.--Hartmann, F. An Authenticated Vampire Story.     Michael Sims. 2010. Dracula's Guest: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories. Walker & Co. ISBN 0802719716. 480 pages. Michael Sims brings together the very best vampire stories of the Victorian era—from England, America, France, Germany, Transylvania, and even Japan—into a unique collection that highlights their cultural variety. Beginning with the supposedly true accounts that captivated Byron and Shelley, the stories range from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Oval Portrait" and Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla" to Guy de Maupassant's "The Horla" and Mary Elizabeth Braddon's "Good Lady Ducayne". Sims also includes a 19th-century travel tour of Transylvanian superstitions and rounds out the collection with Stoker's own "Dracula's Guest"— a chapter omitted from his landmark novel.     Lanzara, Joseph. 2012. Classic Monster Novels Condensed[93] contains a novella of 28,000 words, which is closely based on the 162,000-word Bram Stoker novel and told in traditional third person narrative. New Arts Library. ISBN 978-1-4791-9322-6. Comics Further information: Horror comics Horror comics suffered in competition from the superhero fiction genre, with Dracula and other vampires sometimes finding their mythos absorbed into the genre, such as Dracula's cape seen in films being part of the inspiration for the look of Batman.[94] Dracula was first adapted into a comic in the Avon in August 1953 as Eerie #12. The comic generally faithful to Stoker's book with a changed ending.[95] The comic book industries self-regulation of American comics forbid vampires from appearing in major comic publications such as Marvel Comics, DC Comics and other major publications from 1954 to 1971.[96] In 1962 and 1963, Dell Publishing released comics based on the Universal horror properties including Dracula.[97] These comics featured new stories, not based on the films.[97] Dell re-thought Dracula in 1966, where a follow-up comic turned a descendant of Dracula, who turned into a character that resembled Batman.[98] The Tomb of Dracula was released by Marvel in the early 1970s that led to Count Dracula later battling superheroes such as Doctor Strange and Captain Britain.[99] Dracula Lives! (1973) and Giant-Size Dracula (1974) followed with Marvel ending its Dracula comics in 1980.[100][101] The 1980s included Dracula titles including Blood of Dracula which ran for 19 issues.[101] Other titles ranged from Eternity Comics's adaptation of Stoker's novel to Pioneer Comics' Vegas Knights which had Dracula fighting ninjas.[102] In 1991, Marvel recreated The Tomb of Dracula for a four-issue limited series.[102] By the end of the year, DC published Batman & Dracula: Red Rain which sold well.[103] Topps Comics published an adaptation on the Bram Stoker's Dracula film.[97] In 1992 to 1994, Dracula would battle several characters ranging from Zorro, to several superheroes including Spider-Man, the Silver Surfer and the X-Men.[104] Several indie publishers such as IDW Publishing and Dark Horse Comics making darker and horror themed comics such as 30 Days of Night led to an illustrated issue of the novel Dracula in 2009 as well as Konami's Castlevania franchise.[105] Toys and games In his article on horror-themed toys and collectibles in Rue Morgue magazine, James Burrell found that in the late 1950s as a new generation of children watched Universal Pictures catalogue of horror films on Shock Theatre, which gave the series a "kid-friendly" status.[106] Most toy manufacturers conformed to the Toy Advertising Guidelines created by the Code Authority of the National Association of Broadcasters.[107] In 1963, the American retailer Montgomery Ward mailed out copies of their Christmas catalog which features models of various popular monsters including Dracula made by the Aurora Plastics Corporation.[107][108] These were followed by various bubblegum cards, stickers, board games, battery-operated and wind-up toys, rubber marks made by companies like Leaf Brands, Remco, and Don Post Studios.[109][110][111] By 1964, Phil Shabecoff of The New York Times reported this as a "Monster-mania" for toy companies while a spokesperson from Remco stated "Our monster toys aren't nearly the hot item that our The Beatles dolls are."[109] These toys continued to be produced into the 1970s resembling the Universal Horror look of Dracula with less and less produced with the release of Star Wars leading to more toys developed by for that line.[112] Toys of the Universal monsters were re-introduced in the mid-1980s by Imperial Toy Corporation who put out a set of four Universal monster figures.[110] In 1998, Sideshow Collectibles was the first toy companies to sculpt Toys and action figures of Count Dracula that were accurate to actors like Bela Lugosi.[113] Toys featuring the character of Dracula continued to be produced into the 21st century with by various companies including McFarlane Toys, NECA, and Funko.[110] Video games Count Dracula has appeared in video games ranging from being a lead character to brief cameo appearances.[114] Among the first Dracula-themed computer games was 1981's The Count by Adventure International.[115] In 1986, Dracula was released which contained static graphics considered gory enough to become the first computer game to be rated "15" by the British Board of Film Censors.[115] The game series Castlevania by Konami which began in 1986 on the Nintendo Entertainment System featured Simon Belmont who traverses into Castle Dracula to have a final confrontation with the final boss character of Dracula.[116] The series continued for decades, with Dracula being resurrected continuously throughout the series.[117] As Castlevania were released throughout the 1990s, Dracula continued to appear in early Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis following the highly popular Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) film. Several Dracula related video games followed such as Bram Stoker's Dracula (1993) and Dracula Unleashed (1993).[117] At the turn of the millennium with the rise of the survival horror video game genre, other Dracula titles appeared such as Dracula: Resurrection (1999) .[118] These games were set years after the event's of Stoker's novel, while Charles Herold of The New York Times found these Dracula games having settings and themes to those of Christopher Lee.[119] Four sequels were followed in the next thirteen years.[119] Radio and audio     In 1938, Orson Welles and John Houseman chose Dracula to be the inaugural episode of the new radio show featuring their Broadway production company, The Mercury Theatre on the Air. The adaptation was largely faithful to the book, although condensed to fit in the show's hour-long format and with a different ending. Welles was the voice of both Dracula and "Arthur Seward", a pastiche character combining two of Lucy's suitors. The music was composed by Bernard Herrmann.     Lorne Greene starred as Dracula in a 1949 CBC broadcast directed by Andrew Allen.[120]     On 2 May 1974 The CBS Radio Mystery Theater, hosted by E. G. Marshall, broadcast an adaptation of Dracula by George Lowthar with Mercedes McCambridge, Paul Hecht and Marian Seldes.     Loren D. Estleman's novel Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula: The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count was adapted for BBC Radio 4 and directed by Glyn Dearman in 1981 and starred David March as Dracula with John Moffatt as Sherlock Holmes, Timothy West as Dr. Watson and Aubrey Woods as van Helsing.     In 1994, Frederick Jaeger starred as Dracula in BBC Radio 4's seven half-hour-episode adaptation of Stoker's novel by Nick McCarty.     In November 2006, the BBC World Service broadcast a two-part adaptation by John Foley based on the play by Liz Lochhead. It starred David Suchet as Dracula and Tom Hiddleston as Jonathan Harker.     On 23 February 2008 BBC Radio 4's Saturday Drama broadcast Voyage of the Demeter, a one-hour radio play by Robert Forrest that dramatized the events that took place on board the schooner that transported Dracula to Whitby. Count Dracula, identified in this play as "The Gentleman", was played by Alexander Morton.     In May 2011, L.A. Theatre Works produced, recorded and aired a dramatization of the novel[121] starring David Selby as Van Helsing, John Glover as Renfield, Karl Miller as Jonathan Harker, Moira Quirk as Lucy Westenra, Lisa O'Hare as Mina Murray and Simon Templeman as Count Dracula. The production is currently available for purchase and download on Audible.com.[122]     In January 2012, Big Finish Productions released the audio Sherlock Holmes: The Tangled Skein, which serves as both a sequel to the classic Sherlock Holmes tale The Hound of the Baskervilles and a retelling of Dracula, as Holmes and Watson's investigation into the return of Hound villain Stapleton leads to the discovery of Dracula's presence in England, with Van Helsing- now acting alone- asking for their help in confronting Dracula. The audio culminates in a confrontation at Baskerville Hall after Holmes and Watson have killed the now-vampire Stapelton, the two driving Dracula into the Grimpen Mire where he is destroyed by the rising sun after he is trapped in the Mire before sunrise. This adaptation includes Nicholas Briggs as Sherlock Holmes, Richard Earl as Dr Watson, Barnaby Edwards as Stapleton, John Banks as Van Helsing, and Giles Watling as Count Dracula, with all actors aside from Briggs and Earl playing other roles in this adaptation.[123]     A new two-part adaptation of Stoker's novel by Rebecca Lenkiewicz was broadcast as part of BBC Radio 4's "Gothic Imagination" series on 20 and 27 October 2012, starring Nicky Henson as Count Dracula. Also as part of the "Gothic Imagination" series on 28 October 2012, the F.W. Murnau film Nosferatu was reimagined on BBC Radio 3 as the radio play Midnight Cry of the Deathbird by Amanda Dalton directed by Susan Roberts, with Malcolm Raeburn playing the role of "Graf Orlock (Count Dracula)".[124]     On 28 October 2017, BBC Radio 4 broadcast, as part of its "Unmade Movies" series, Hammer Horror's The Unquenchable Thirst of Dracula, adapted from an unproduced Hammer Horror film script and set in 1930's India. Directed by Mark Gatiss, the cast included Lewis MacLeod as Count Dracula, Michael Sheen as the Narrator, Anna Madeley as Penny Woods, Nikesh Patel as Prem and Ayesha Dharker as Laksmi,[125] Music and audio recordings Count Dracula began appearing on musical records as early as 1958 when horror host John Zacherle recorded the novelty single "Dinner with Drac" which charted on the Billboard Pop Singles chart the same year.[126][127] When Dick Clark played it on his American Bandstand television show, he requested Zacherle record a less-violent version.[126] Other novelty songs followed such as Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers with their song "Monster Mash" which made reference to Dracula among various monsters while imitating the voice of Boris Karloff.[128] In the early 1960s, horror-themed spoken word albums were released, such as Famous Monsters Speak (1963) featuring actor Gabriel Dell imitating Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula.[129] Similar albums followed recorded by Christopher Lee reading a variation of Stoker's novel.[130] Similar recordings were released into the 1970s.[131] Power Records released audio recordings accompanied by comic adaptations of Dracula such as their Tomb of Dracula series in 1974.[131] Some rock musicians made reference to horror characters in the 1970s, such as Blue Öyster Cult having several references to vampirism in songs like "Tattoo Vampire", "Harvest Moon", "After Dark", "I Love the Night" and more specifically to Dracula with "Nosferatu".[132] The British group Bauhaus would write the 1979 song "Bela Lugosi's Dead", a track that described an exaggerated funeral of Lugosi, with Alexis Petridis of The Guardian stating the track "would have been just another piece of post-punk experimentation had it not been for the lyrics, which depicted the funeral of the Dracula star, with bats swooping and virgin brides marching past his coffin."[133] Petridis declared the song spawned several similar bands to Bauhaus in its wake leading to gothic rock becoming a codified musical genre.[133][134] Songs outside rock music making references to Dracula were in hip hop music ranging from small references in The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" (1979) to more broad takes including Outkast's song "Dracula's Wedding" from Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003).[134][135] Films adaptations of Count Dracula would influence the extreme metal music scene. J. Benett of Decibel described Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse (1994) as establishing the band as "the reigning masters of a more complex, atmospheric style of "symphonic black metal"".[136] Emperor guitarist Samoth specifically described that among their visual and musical influences of The Lord of the Rings, the band had a period where they were obsessed with Dracula noting Nosferatu (1922) and Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) as being a "part of our ambiance and visual influences."[137] Others The General Mills cereal mascot Count Chocula is a vampire who craves Count Chocula cereal rather than blood. His title of Count is an allusion to that of Count Dracula's. The association of the book with the Yorkshire fishing village of Whitby has led to the staging of the bi-annual Whitby Gothic Weekend, an event that sees the town visited by Goths from all over Britain and occasionally from other parts of the world. In addition, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution runs a fundraising bungee jump event in the town every April named the Dracula Drop. Mad magazine has published countless spoofs of Dracula. In one, appearing in the Mad Summer Special 1983, on the inside front cover, a cartoon sequence drawn by Sergio Aragonés shows Dracula attacking a hippie who has taken LSD; Drac staggers away, seeing colorful hallucinations including blood, bats and such. In the film Forgetting Sarah Marshall, composer Peter Bretter (Jason Segel), in a subplot, finishes his Dracula-themed rock opera titled A Taste for Love. Russian authors Andrey Shary and Vladimir Vedrashko in 2009 published a book Sign D: Dracula in Books and on the Screen devoted in particular to Dracula image implications in Soviet and Russian popular and mass culture. In the United Kingdom, discount store Poundland changes the voice of its self-service checkouts to that of Dracula throughout the Halloween retail period.[138] Tourism There are several locations associated with Dracula and Bram Stoker related tourism in Ireland, Britain, and Romania. These include Whitby in North Yorkshire and Transylvania in central Romania, where especially Bran Castle is marketed to tourists as "Dracula's Castle"." (wikipedia.org) "A flowerpot, planter, planterette or plant pot, is a container in which flowers and other plants are cultivated and displayed. Historically, and still to a significant extent today, they are made from plain terracotta with no ceramic glaze, with a round shape, tapering inwards. Flowerpots are now often also made from plastic, metal, wood, stone, or sometimes biodegradable material. An example of biodegradable pots are ones made of heavy brown paper, cardboard, or peat moss in which young plants for transplanting are grown. For seedling starting in commercial greenhouses or polytunnels, pots usually take the form of trays with cells, each cell acting as one small pot. These trays are often called flats. There are usually holes in the bottom of pots, to allow excess water to flow out,[1] sometimes to a saucer that is placed under the flowerpot. The plant can use this water with its roots, as needed. Recently,[when?] some flowerpots have been made with an automatic watering system, using a reservoir.[citation needed] Purpose Flowerpots have a number of uses such as transporting plants to new locations, starting seeds, patio and indoor cultivation of plants, and the growing of tender plants in colder regions indoors.[2] Through the centuries, the use of flowerpots has influenced the horticultural use of plants, and the Egyptians were among the first to use pots to move plants from one location to another. The Romans brought potted plants inside during cold weather. In the 18th century, pots were used to ship breadfruit seedlings from Tahiti to the West Indies. Also Orchids, African violets and Pelargonium geraniums were shipped in pots from other parts of the world, including Africa, to North America and Europe.[3] In the 18th century, Josiah Wedgwood's flowerpots or cachepots, were very popular; they were often highly decorative and used as table centrepieces.[4] In Athens, earthenware flowerpots were thrown into the sea during the festival of the Gardens of Adonis. Theophrastus, c. 371 – c. 287 BC, mentions that a plant called southern-wood was raised and propagated in pots because it was difficult to grow.[5] The top of the flowerpot underneath the rim is commonly known as the shoulder or collar and can aid handling. Classification Flower pots were traditionally[when?] made from terracotta. They were made and sold by the cast, which is the number of pots produced from a given quantity of clay....A taller and thinner shape of pot, suitable for deep-rooting plants, was known as a long tom, a term still used. The traditional size for a long tom used for auriculas was 3 in diameter by 3.75 to 4 in depth.[8] Nursery In the nursery business, plants are generally grown in round or square plastic pots. Some organisations (such as the Royal Horticultural Society) encourage the reuse of (plastic) plant pots and trays across their retail centres.[9] In some garden centres (i.e. Edibleculture), this is done by not letting the plastic growing pots leave the garden centre, and simply place the plant inside a cardboard (or newspaper[10]) sleeve for transportation. Peat pots and paper pots are also being used,[11][12] and have the advantage of facilitating transplanting[13] as they do not need to be pulled out of a container for planting purposes (rather, the whole of container and plant is directly planted). Also, for sale purposes, there is no need to recover the container as it is biodegradable and can not and does not need to be reused or recycled. Some types exist focusing on vegetables,[14] whereas other paper pot systems exist that focus on larger plants (i.e. trees, sugar cane, etc.) United States The sizes of plastic pots have been assigned an ANSI standard by the American Nursery and Landscape Association.[15] Pots designated #1–#100 nominally have the volume of that many gallons, but in fact a #1 pot has a capacity of 0.625 gallons (a "trade gallon"). There is also a Small Plant series: SP1, 6.5–8.0 in3; SP2, 13.0–15.0 in3; SP3, 20.0–30.0 in3; SP4, 51–63 in3; SP5, 93–136 in3. An SP4 pot is commonly called a "4-inch" or "quart" container....Size The size of the pot will in part determine the size of the plants. Generally, plants planted in bigger pots will end up being larger; on average plants increase 40–45% in biomass for a doubling in pot volume.[17] This will in part be due to a higher availability of nutrients and water in larger pots, but also because roots will get less pot-bound. This does not mean that all plants will thrive better in bigger pots. Especially for succulents it is important that the soil does not stay wet for a long time, as this may cause their roots to rot. The smaller those plants are relative to the soil volume, the longer they take to use all pot water. Bonsai plants are also purposely planted in small pots, not only for aesthetics but also because the low supply of nutrients keeps the leaves smaller and the growth down. Because they are often not as drought resistant as succulents, this implies they have to be watered often. Shape Water in the soil of high pots is more easily pulled down by gravitational forces than in low pots, and hence the soil does not remain wet for a long time [18] This is relevant as plant roots of most species do not only need water, but also air (oxygen). If the potting soil is too wet plants may suffer from a lack of oxygen around the roots. Material The soil in black pots exposed to sunlight will warm up more quickly than soil in white pots. Clay pots are permeable for water and therefore water from inside the pot soil can evaporate through the walls out of the pot. Pots that are glazed or made from plastic lose less water through evaporation. If they have no holes at the bottom either, plants may suffer from remaining too wet." (wikipedia.org) "A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods which they inhabited while they were alive. They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today's gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 19th century. Vampiric entities have been recorded in cultures around the world; the term vampire was popularized in Western Europe after reports of an 18th-century mass hysteria of a pre-existing folk belief in Southeastern and Eastern Europe that in some cases resulted in corpses being staked and people being accused of vampirism. Local variants in Southeastern Europe were also known by different names, such as shtriga in Albania, vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania, cognate to Italian 'Strega', meaning Witch. In modern times, the vampire is generally held to be a fictitious entity, although belief in similar vampiric creatures (such as the chupacabra) still persists in some cultures. Early folk belief in vampires has sometimes been ascribed to the ignorance of the body's process of decomposition after death and how people in pre-industrial societies tried to rationalize this, creating the figure of the vampire to explain the mysteries of death. Porphyria was linked with legends of vampirism in 1985 and received much media exposure, but has since been largely discredited.[1] The charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was born in 1819 with the publication of "The Vampyre" by the English writer John Polidori; the story was highly successful and arguably the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century. Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula is remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and provided the basis of the modern vampire legend, even though it was published after fellow Irish author Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 novel Carmilla. The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, television shows, and video games. The vampire has since become a dominant figure in the horror genre. Etymology and word distribution The term "vampire" is the earliest recorded in English, Latin and French and they refer to vampirism in Russia, Poland and North Macedonia.[2] The English term was derived (possibly via French vampyre) from the German Vampir, in turn derived in the early 18th century from the Serbian вампир (vampir).[3][4][5] The Serbian form has parallels in virtually all Slavic and Turkic languages: Bulgarian and Macedonian вампир (vampir), Turkish: Ubır, Obur, Obır, Tatar language: Убыр (Ubır), Chuvash language: Вупăр (Vupăr), Bosnian: вампир (vampir), Croatian vampir, Czech and Slovak upír, Polish wąpierz, and (perhaps East Slavic-influenced) upiór, Ukrainian упир (upyr), Russian упырь (upyr'), Belarusian упыр (upyr), from Old East Slavic упирь (upir') (many of these languages have also borrowed forms such as "vampir/wampir" subsequently from the West; these are distinct from the original local words for the creature). The exact etymology is unclear.[6][7] In Albanian the words lu(v)gat and dhampir are used; the latter seems to be derived from the Gheg Albanian words dham 'tooth' and pir 'to drink'.[8][7] The origin of the modern word Vampire (Upiór means Hortdan, Vampire or Witch in Turkic and Slavic myths.) comes from the term Ubir-Upiór, the origin of the word Ubir or Upiór is based on the regions around the Volga (Itil) River and Pontic steppes. Upiór myth is through the migrations of the Kipchak-Cuman people to the Eurasian steppes allegedly spread. The modern word "Vampire" is derived from the Old Slavic and Turkic languages form "онпыр (onpyr)", with the addition of the "v" sound in front of the large nasal vowel (on), characteristic of Old Bulgarian. The Bulgarian format is впир (vpir). (other names: onpyr, vopir, vpir, upir, upierz.)[9][10] Czech linguist Václav Machek proposes Slovak verb vrepiť sa 'stick to, thrust into', or its hypothetical anagram vperiť sa (in Czech, the archaic verb vpeřit means 'to thrust violently') as an etymological background, and thus translates upír as 'someone who thrusts, bites'.[11] The term was introduced to German readers by the Polish Jesuit priest Gabriel Rzączyński in 1721.[12] An early use of the Old Russian word is in the anti-pagan treatise "Word of Saint Grigoriy" (Russian Слово святого Григория), dated variously to the 11th–13th centuries, where pagan worship of upyri is reported.[13][14] The word vampire (as vampyre) first appeared in English in 1732, in news reports about vampire "epidemics" in eastern Europe.[15][a] After Austria gained control of northern Serbia and Oltenia with the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, officials noted the local practice of exhuming bodies and "killing vampires".[17] These reports, prepared between 1725 and 1732, received widespread publicity.[17][18] Folk beliefs See also: List of vampiric creatures in folklore The notion of vampirism has existed for millennia. Cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, Manipuri and Romans had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. Despite the occurrence of vampiric creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity known today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from early 18th-century southeastern Europe,[19] when verbal traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published. In most cases, vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or witches, but they can also be created by a malevolent spirit possessing a corpse or by being bitten by a vampire. Belief in such legends became so pervasive that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even public executions of people believed to be vampires.[20] Description and common attributes It is difficult to make a single, definitive description of the folkloric vampire, though there are several elements common to many European legends. Vampires were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour; these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood, which was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin, and its left eye was often open.[21] It would be clad in the linen shroud it was buried in, and its teeth, hair, and nails may have grown somewhat, though in general fangs were not a feature.[22] Chewing sounds were reported emanating from graves.[23] Creating vampires The causes of vampiric generation were many and varied in original folklore. In Slavic and Chinese traditions, any corpse that was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or a cat, was feared to become one of the undead.[24] A body with a wound that had not been treated with boiling water was also at risk. In Russian folklore, vampires were said to have once been witches or people who had rebelled against the Russian Orthodox Church while they were alive.[25] In Albanian folklore, the dhampir is the hybrid child of the karkanxholl (a lycanthropic creature with an iron mail shirt) or the lugat (a water-dwelling ghost or monster). The dhampir sprung of a karkanxholl has the unique ability to discern the karkanxholl; from this derives the expression the dhampir knows the lugat. The lugat cannot be seen, he can only be killed by the dhampir, who himself is usually the son of a lugat. In different regions, animals can be revenants as lugats; also, living people during their sleep. Dhampiraj is also an Albanian surname.[26] Prevention Cultural practices often arose that were intended to prevent a recently deceased loved one from turning into an undead revenant. Burying a corpse upside-down was widespread, as was placing earthly objects, such as scythes or sickles,[27] near the grave to satisfy any demons entering the body or to appease the dead so that it would not wish to arise from its coffin. This method resembles the ancient Greek practice of placing an obolus in the corpse's mouth to pay the toll to cross the River Styx in the underworld. The coin may have also been intended to ward off any evil spirits from entering the body, and this may have influenced later vampire folklore. This tradition persisted in modern Greek folklore about the vrykolakas, in which a wax cross and piece of pottery with the inscription "Jesus Christ conquers" were placed on the corpse to prevent the body from becoming a vampire.[28] Other methods commonly practised in Europe included severing the tendons at the knees or placing poppy seeds, millet, or sand on the ground at the grave site of a presumed vampire; this was intended to keep the vampire occupied all night by counting the fallen grains,[29][30] indicating an association of vampires with arithmomania. Similar Chinese narratives state that if a vampiric being came across a sack of rice, it would have to count every grain; this is a theme encountered in myths from the Indian subcontinent, as well as in South American tales of witches and other sorts of evil or mischievous spirits or beings.[31] Identifying vampires Many rituals were used to identify a vampire. One method of finding a vampire's grave involved leading a virgin boy through a graveyard or church grounds on a virgin stallion—the horse would supposedly balk at the grave in question.[25] Generally a black horse was required, though in Albania it should be white.[32] Holes appearing in the earth over a grave were taken as a sign of vampirism.[33] Corpses thought to be vampires were generally described as having a healthier appearance than expected, plump and showing little or no signs of decomposition.[34] In some cases, when suspected graves were opened, villagers even described the corpse as having fresh blood from a victim all over its face.[35] Evidence that a vampire was active in a given locality included death of cattle, sheep, relatives or neighbours. Folkloric vampires could also make their presence felt by engaging in minor poltergeist-styled activity, such as hurling stones on roofs or moving household objects,[36] and pressing on people in their sleep.[37] Protection Apotropaics—items able to ward off revenants—are common in vampire folklore. Garlic is a common example;[40] a branch of wild rose and hawthorn are sometimes associated with causing harm to vampires, and in Europe, mustard seeds would be sprinkled on the roof of a house to keep them away.[41] Other apotropaics include sacred items, such as crucifix, rosary, or holy water. Some folklore also states that vampires are unable to walk on consecrated ground, such as that of churches or temples, or cross running water.[39] Although not traditionally regarded as an apotropaic, mirrors have been used to ward off vampires when placed, facing outwards, on a door (in some cultures, vampires do not have a reflection and sometimes do not cast a shadow, perhaps as a manifestation of the vampire's lack of a soul).[42] This attribute is not universal (the Greek vrykolakas/tympanios was capable of both reflection and shadow), but was used by Bram Stoker in Dracula and has remained popular with subsequent authors and filmmakers.[43] Some traditions also hold that a vampire cannot enter a house unless invited by the owner; after the first invitation they can come and go as they please.[42] Though folkloric vampires were believed to be more active at night, they were not generally considered vulnerable to sunlight.[43] Reports in 1693 and 1694 concerning citings of vampires in Poland and Russia claimed that when a vampire's grave was recognized, eating bread baked with its blood mixed into the flour,[44] or simply drinking it, granted the possibility of protection. Other stories (primarily the Arnold Paole case) claimed the eating of dirt from the vampire's grave would have the same effect.[45] Methods of destruction See caption Methods of destroying suspected vampires varied, with staking the most commonly cited method, particularly in South Slavic cultures.[47] Ash was the preferred wood in Russia and the Baltic states,[48] or hawthorn in Serbia,[49] with a record of oak in Silesia.[50][51] Aspen was also used for stakes, as it was believed that Christ's cross was made from aspen (aspen branches on the graves of purported vampires were also believed to prevent their risings at night).[52] Potential vampires were most often staked through the heart, though the mouth was targeted in Russia and northern Germany[53][54] and the stomach in north-eastern Serbia.[55] Piercing the skin of the chest was a way of "deflating" the bloated vampire. This is similar to a practice of "anti-vampire burial": burying sharp objects, such as sickles, with the corpse, so that they may penetrate the skin if the body bloats sufficiently while transforming into a revenant.[56] Decapitation was the preferred method in German and western Slavic areas, with the head buried between the feet, behind the buttocks or away from the body.[47] This act was seen as a way of hastening the departure of the soul, which in some cultures was said to linger in the corpse. The vampire's head, body, or clothes could also be spiked and pinned to the earth to prevent rising.[57] See caption Romani people drove steel or iron needles into a corpse's heart and placed bits of steel in the mouth, over the eyes, ears and between the fingers at the time of burial. They also placed hawthorn in the corpse's sock or drove a hawthorn stake through the legs. In a 16th-century burial near Venice, a brick forced into the mouth of a female corpse has been interpreted as a vampire-slaying ritual by the archaeologists who discovered it in 2006.[59] In Bulgaria, over 100 skeletons with metal objects, such as plough bits, embedded in the torso have been discovered.[58] Further measures included pouring boiling water over the grave or complete incineration of the body. In Southeastern Europe, a vampire could also be killed by being shot or drowned, by repeating the funeral service, by sprinkling holy water on the body, or by exorcism. In Romania, garlic could be placed in the mouth, and as recently as the 19th century, the precaution of shooting a bullet through the coffin was taken. For resistant cases, the body was dismembered and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and administered to family members as a cure. In Saxon regions of Germany, a lemon was placed in the mouth of suspected vampires.[60] Ancient beliefs Tales of supernatural beings consuming the blood or flesh of the living have been found in nearly every culture around the world for many centuries.[61] The term vampire did not exist in ancient times. Blood drinking and similar activities were attributed to demons or spirits who would eat flesh and drink blood; even the devil was considered synonymous with the vampire.[62] Almost every culture associates blood drinking with some kind of revenant or demon, or in some cases a deity. In India tales of vetālas, ghoulish beings that inhabit corpses, have been compiled in the Baitāl Pacīsī; a prominent story in the Kathāsaritsāgara tells of King Vikramāditya and his nightly quests to capture an elusive one.[63] Piśāca, the returned spirits of evil-doers or those who died insane, also bear vampiric attributes.[64] The Persians were one of the first civilizations to have tales of blood-drinking demons: creatures attempting to drink blood from men were depicted on excavated pottery shards.[65] Ancient Babylonia and Assyria had tales of the mythical Lilitu,[66] synonymous with and giving rise to Lilith (Hebrew לילית) and her daughters the Lilu from Hebrew demonology. Lilitu was considered a demon and was often depicted as subsisting on the blood of babies,[66] and estries, female shapeshifting, blood-drinking demons, were said to roam the night among the population, seeking victims. According to Sefer Hasidim, estries were creatures created in the twilight hours before God rested. An injured estrie could be healed by eating bread and salt given to her by her attacker.[67] Greco-Roman mythology described the Empusae,[68] the Lamia,[69] the Mormo[70] and the striges. Over time the first two terms became general words to describe witches and demons respectively. Empusa was the daughter of the goddess Hecate and was described as a demonic, bronze-footed creature. She feasted on blood by transforming into a young woman and seduced men as they slept before drinking their blood.[68] The Lamia preyed on young children in their beds at night, sucking their blood, as did the gelloudes or Gello.[69] Like the Lamia, the striges feasted on children, but also preyed on adults. They were described as having the bodies of crows or birds in general, and were later incorporated into Roman mythology as strix, a kind of nocturnal bird that fed on human flesh and blood.[71] In Turkic mythology, an ubır is a vampiric creature characterized by various regional depictions. According to legends, individuals heavily steeped in sin and practitioners of black magic transform into ubırs upon their death, taking on a bestial form within their graves. Ubırs possess the ability to shape-shift, assuming the forms of both humans and various animals. Furthermore, they can seize the soul of a living being and exert control over its body. Someone inhabited by a vampire constantly experiences hunger, becoming increasingly aggressive when unable to find sustenance, ultimately resorting to drinking human blood.[72] Medieval and later European folklore Main article: Vampire folklore by region See caption Many myths surrounding vampires originated during the medieval period. The 12th-century British historians and chroniclers Walter Map and William of Newburgh recorded accounts of revenants,[20][73] though records in English legends of vampiric beings after this date are scant.[74] The Old Norse draugr is another medieval example of an undead creature with similarities to vampires.[75] Vampiric beings were rarely written about in Jewish literature; the 16th-century rabbi David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra (Radbaz) wrote of an uncharitable old woman whose body was unguarded and unburied for three days after she died and rose as a vampiric entity, killing hundreds of people. He linked this event to the lack of a shmirah (guarding) after death as the corpse could be a vessel for evil spirits.[76] In 1645, the Greek librarian of the Vatican, Leo Allatius, produced the first methodological description of the Balkan beliefs in vampires (Greek: vrykolakas) in his work De Graecorum hodie quorundam opinationibus ("On certain modern opinions among the Greeks").[77] Vampires properly originating in folklore were widely reported from Eastern Europe in the late 17th and 18th centuries. These tales formed the basis of the vampire legend that later entered Germany and England, where they were subsequently embellished and popularized.[78] An early recording of the time came from the region of Istria in modern Croatia, in 1672; Local reports described a panic among the villagers inspired by the belief that Jure Grando had become a vampire after dying in 1656, drinking blood from victims and sexually harassing his widow. The village leader ordered a stake to be driven through his heart. Later, his corpse was also beheaded.[79] Première page du Tractat von dem Kauen und Schmatzen der Todten in Gräbern (1734), ouvrage de vampirologie de Michael Ranft From 1679, Philippe Rohr devotes an essay to the dead who chew their shrouds in their graves, a subject resumed by Otto in 1732, and then by Michael Ranft in 1734. The subject was based on the observation that when digging up graves, it was discovered that some corpses had at some point either devoured the interior fabric of their coffin or their own limbs.[80] Ranft described in his treatise of a tradition in some parts of Germany, that to prevent the dead from masticating they placed a mound of dirt under their chin in the coffin, placed a piece of money and a stone in the mouth, or tied a handkerchief tightly around the throat.[81] In 1732 an anonymous writer writing as "the doctor Weimar" discusses the non-putrefaction of these creatures, from a theological point of view.[82] In 1733, Johann Christoph Harenberg wrote a general treatise on vampirism and the Marquis d'Argens cites local cases. Theologians and clergymen also address the topic.[80] Some theological disputes arose. The non-decay of vampires' bodies could recall the incorruption of the bodies of the saints of the Catholic Church. A paragraph on vampires was included in the second edition (1749) of De servorum Dei beatificatione et sanctorum canonizatione, On the beatification of the servants of God and on canonization of the blessed, written by Prospero Lambertini (Pope Benedict XIV).[83] In his opinion, while the incorruption of the bodies of saints was the effect of a divine intervention, all the phenomena attributed to vampires were purely natural or the fruit of "imagination, terror and fear". In other words, vampires did not exist.[84] 18th-century vampire controversy During the 18th century, there was a frenzy of vampire sightings in Eastern Europe, with frequent stakings and grave diggings to identify and kill the potential revenants. Even government officials engaged in the hunting and staking of vampires.[78] Despite being called the Age of Enlightenment, during which most folkloric legends were quelled, the belief in vampires increased dramatically, resulting in a mass hysteria throughout most of Europe.[20] The panic began with an outbreak of alleged vampire attacks in East Prussia in 1721 and in the Habsburg monarchy from 1725 to 1734, which spread to other localities. Two infamous vampire cases, the first to be officially recorded, involved the corpses of Petar Blagojevich and Miloš Čečar from Serbia. Blagojevich was reported to have died at the age of 62, but allegedly returned after his death asking his son for food. When the son refused, he was found dead the following day. Blagojevich supposedly returned and attacked some neighbours who died from loss of blood.[78] In the second case, Miloš, an ex-soldier-turned-farmer who allegedly was attacked by a vampire years before, died while haying. After his death, people began to die in the surrounding area and it was widely believed that Miloš had returned to prey on the neighbours.[85][86] Another infamous Serbian vampire legend recounts the story of a certain Sava Savanović, who lives in a watermill and kills and drinks blood from the millers. The character was later used in the story After Ninety Years (1880) written by Serbian writer Milovan Glišić and in the Yugoslav 1973 horror film Leptirica inspired by the story.[87] See caption The two incidents were well-documented. Government officials examined the bodies, wrote case reports, and published books throughout Europe.[86] The hysteria, commonly referred to as the "18th-Century Vampire Controversy", continued for a generation. The problem was exacerbated by rural epidemics of so-called vampire attacks, undoubtedly caused by the higher amount of superstition that was present in village communities, with locals digging up bodies and in some cases, staking them.[88] Dom Augustine Calmet, a French theologian and scholar, published a comprehensive treatise in 1751 titled Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants which investigated and analysed the evidence for vampirism.[88][b] Numerous readers, including both a critical Voltaire and numerous supportive demonologists interpreted the treatise as claiming that vampires existed.[88][c] The controversy in Austria ceased when Empress Maria Theresa sent her personal physician, Gerard van Swieten, to investigate the claims of vampiric entities. He concluded that vampires did not exist and the Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and desecration of bodies, ending the vampire epidemics. Other European countries followed suit. Despite this condemnation, the vampire lived on in artistic works and in local folklore.[88] Non-European beliefs Beings having many of the attributes of European vampires appear in the folklore of Africa, Asia, North and South America, and India. Classified as vampires, all share the thirst for blood.[91] Africa Various regions of Africa have folktales featuring beings with vampiric abilities: in West Africa the Ashanti people tell of the iron-toothed and tree-dwelling asanbosam,[92] and the Ewe people of the adze, which can take the form of a firefly and hunts children.[93] The eastern Cape region has the impundulu, which can take the form of a large taloned bird and can summon thunder and lightning, and the Betsileo people of Madagascar tell of the ramanga, an outlaw or living vampire who drinks the blood and eats the nail clippings of nobles.[94] In colonial East Africa, rumors circulated to the effect that employees of the state such as firemen and nurses were vampires, known in Swahili as wazimamoto.[95] Americas The Loogaroo is an example of how a vampire belief can result from a combination of beliefs, here a mixture of French and African Vodu or voodoo. The term Loogaroo possibly comes from the French loup-garou (meaning "werewolf") and is common in the culture of Mauritius. The stories of the Loogaroo are widespread through the Caribbean Islands and Louisiana in the United States.[96] Similar female monsters are the Soucouyant of Trinidad, and the Tunda and Patasola of Colombian folklore, while the Mapuche of southern Chile have the bloodsucking snake known as the Peuchen.[97] Aloe vera hung backwards behind or near a door was thought to ward off vampiric beings in South American folklore.[31] Aztec mythology described tales of the Cihuateteo, skull-faced spirits of those who died in childbirth who stole children and entered into sexual liaisons with the living, driving them mad.[25] During the late 18th and 19th centuries the belief in vampires was widespread in parts of New England, particularly in Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut. There are many documented cases of families disinterring loved ones and removing their hearts in the belief that the deceased was a vampire who was responsible for sickness and death in the family, although the term "vampire" was never used to describe the dead. The deadly disease tuberculosis, or "consumption" as it was known at the time, was believed to be caused by nightly visitations on the part of a dead family member who had died of consumption themselves.[98] The most famous, and most recently recorded, case of suspected vampirism is that of nineteen-year-old Mercy Brown, who died in Exeter, Rhode Island in 1892. Her father, assisted by the family physician, removed her from her tomb two months after her death, cut out her heart and burned it to ashes.[99] Asia Vampires have appeared in Japanese cinema since the late 1950s; the folklore behind it is western in origin.[100] The Nukekubi is a being whose head and neck detach from its body to fly about seeking human prey at night.[101] Legends of female vampiric beings who can detach parts of their upper body also occur in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. There are two main vampiric creatures in the Philippines: the Tagalog Mandurugo ("blood-sucker") and the Visayan Manananggal ("self-segmenter"). The mandurugo is a variety of the aswang that takes the form of an attractive girl by day, and develops wings and a long, hollow, threadlike tongue by night. The tongue is used to suck up blood from a sleeping victim.[102] The manananggal is described as being an older, beautiful woman capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge batlike wings and prey on unsuspecting, sleeping pregnant women in their homes. They use an elongated proboscis-like tongue to suck fetuses from these pregnant women. They also prefer to eat entrails (specifically the heart and the liver) and the phlegm of sick people.[102] The Malaysian Penanggalan is a woman who obtained her beauty through the active use of black magic or other unnatural means, and is most commonly described in local folklore to be dark or demonic in nature. She is able to detach her fanged head which flies around in the night looking for blood, typically from pregnant women.[103] Malaysians hung jeruju (thistles) around the doors and windows of houses, hoping the Penanggalan would not enter for fear of catching its intestines on the thorns.[104] The Leyak is a similar being from Balinese folklore of Indonesia.[105] A Kuntilanak or Matianak in Indonesia,[106] or Pontianak or Langsuir in Malaysia,[107] is a woman who died during childbirth and became undead, seeking revenge and terrorising villages. She appeared as an attractive woman with long black hair that covered a hole in the back of her neck, with which she sucked the blood of children. Filling the hole with her hair would drive her off. Corpses had their mouths filled with glass beads, eggs under each armpit, and needles in their palms to prevent them from becoming langsuir. This description would also fit the Sundel Bolongs.[108] See caption In Vietnam, the word used to translate Western vampires, "ma cà rồng", originally referred to a type of demon that haunts modern-day Phú Thọ Province, within the communities of the Tai Dam ethnic minority. The word was first mentioned in the chronicles of 18th-century Confucian scholar Lê Quý Đôn,[109] who spoke of a creature that lives among humans, but stuffs its toes into its nostrils at night and flies by its ears into houses with pregnant women to suck their blood. Having fed on these women, the ma cà rồng then returns to its house and cleans itself by dipping its toes into barrels of sappanwood water. This allows the ma cà rồng to live undetected among humans during the day, before heading out to attack again by night.[110] Jiangshi, sometimes called "Chinese vampires" by Westerners, are reanimated corpses that hop around, killing living creatures to absorb life essence (qì) from their victims. They are said to be created when a person's soul (魄 pò) fails to leave the deceased's body.[111] Jiangshi are usually represented as mindless creatures with no independent thought.[112] This monster has greenish-white furry skin, perhaps derived from fungus or mould growing on corpses.[113] Jiangshi legends have inspired a genre of jiangshi films and literature in Hong Kong and East Asia. Films like Encounters of the Spooky Kind and Mr. Vampire were released during the jiangshi cinematic boom of the 1980s and 1990s....In modern culture See also: List of vampires The vampire is now a fixture in popular fiction. Such fiction began with 18th-century poetry and continued with 19th-century short stories, the first and most influential of which was John Polidori's "The Vampyre" (1819), featuring the vampire Lord Ruthven.[151] Lord Ruthven's exploits were further explored in a series of vampire plays in which he was the antihero. The vampire theme continued in penny dreadful serial publications such as Varney the Vampire (1847) and culminated in the pre-eminent vampire novel in history: Dracula by Bram Stoker, published in 1897.[152] Over time, some attributes now regarded as integral became incorporated into the vampire's profile: fangs and vulnerability to sunlight appeared over the course of the 19th century, with Varney the Vampire and Count Dracula both bearing protruding teeth,[153] and Count Orlok of Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) fearing daylight.[154] The cloak appeared in stage productions of the 1920s, with a high collar introduced by playwright Hamilton Deane to help Dracula 'vanish' on stage.[155] Lord Ruthven and Varney were able to be healed by moonlight, although no account of this is known in traditional folklore.[156] Implied though not often explicitly documented in folklore, immortality is one attribute which features heavily in vampire films and literature. Much is made of the price of eternal life, namely the incessant need for the blood of former equals." (wikipedia.org) "A flower, also known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). Flowers consist of a combination of vegetative organs – sepals that enclose and protect the developing flower, petals that attract pollinators, and reproductive organs that produce gametophytes, which in flowering plants produce gametes. The male gametophytes, which produce sperm, are enclosed within pollen grains produced in the anthers. The female gametophytes are contained within the ovules produced in the carpels. Most flowering plants depend on animals, such as bees, moths, and butterflies, to transfer their pollen between different flowers, and have evolved to attract these pollinators by various strategies, including brightly colored, conspicuous petals, attractive scents, and the production of nectar, a food source for pollinators.[1] In this way, many flowering plants have co-evolved with pollinators to be mutually dependent on services they provide to one another—in the plant's case, a means of reproduction; in the pollinator's case, a source of food.[2] When pollen from the anther of a flower is deposited on the stigma, this is called pollination. Some flowers may self-pollinate, producing seed using pollen from a different flower of the same plant, but others have mechanisms to prevent self-pollination and rely on cross-pollination, when pollen is transferred from the anther of one flower to the stigma of another flower on a different individual of the same species. Self-pollination happens in flowers where the stamen and carpel mature at the same time, and are positioned so that the pollen can land on the flower's stigma. This pollination does not require an investment from the plant to provide nectar and pollen as food for pollinators.[3] Some flowers produce diaspores without fertilization (parthenocarpy). After fertilization, the ovary of the flower develops into fruit containing seeds. Flowers have long been appreciated by humans for their beauty and pleasant scents, and also hold cultural significance as religious, ritual, or symbolic objects, or sources of medicine and food. Etymology Flower is from the Middle English flour, which referred to both the ground grain and the reproductive structure in plants, before splitting off in the 17th century. It comes originally from the Latin name of the Italian goddess of flowers, Flora. The early word for flower in English was blossom,[4] though it now refers to flowers only of fruit trees." (wikipedia.org) "Plants are the eukaryotes that form the kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria to produce sugars from carbon dioxide and water, using the green pigment chlorophyll. Exceptions are parasitic plants that have lost the genes for chlorophyll and photosynthesis, and obtain their energy from other plants or fungi. Historically, as in Aristotle's biology, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi. Definitions have narrowed since then; current definitions exclude the fungi and some of the algae. By the definition used in this article, plants form the clade Viridiplantae (green plants), which consists of the green algae and the embryophytes or land plants (hornworts, liverworts, mosses, lycophytes, ferns, conifers and other gymnosperms, and flowering plants). A definition based on genomes includes the Viridiplantae, along with the red algae and the glaucophytes, in the clade Archaeplastida. There are about 380,000 known species of plants, of which the majority, some 260,000, produce seeds. They range in size from single cells to the tallest trees. Green plants provide a substantial proportion of the world's molecular oxygen; the sugars they create supply the energy for most of Earth's ecosystems and other organisms, including animals, either consume plants directly or rely on organisms which do so. Grain, fruit, and vegetables are basic human foods and have been domesticated for millennia. People use plants for many purposes, such as building materials, ornaments, writing materials, and, in great variety, for. The scientific study of plants is known as botany, a branch of biology." (wikipedia.org) "Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature.[1] The term is derived from Medieval Latin supernaturalis, from Latin super- (above, beyond, or outside of) + natura (nature).[1] Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanings since the ancient world, the term "supernatural" emerged in the Middle Ages[2] and did not exist in the ancient world.[3] The supernatural is featured in folklore and religious contexts,[4] but can also feature as an explanation in more secular contexts, as in the cases of superstitions or belief in the paranormal.[5] The term is attributed to non-physical entities, such as angels, demons, gods, and spirits. It also includes claimed abilities embodied in or provided by such beings, including magic, telekinesis, levitation, precognition, and extrasensory perception. Etymology and history of the concept Occurring as both an adjective and a noun, antecedents of the modern English compound supernatural enter the language from two sources: via Middle French (supernaturel) and directly from the Middle French's term's ancestor, post-Classical Latin (supernaturalis). Post-classical Latin supernaturalis first occurs in the 6th century, composed of the Latin prefix super- and nātūrālis (see nature). The earliest known appearance of the word in the English language occurs in a Middle English translation of Catherine of Siena's Dialogue (orcherd of Syon, around 1425; Þei haue not þanne þe supernaturel lyȝt ne þe liȝt of kunnynge, bycause þei vndirstoden it not).[6] The semantic value of the term has shifted over the history of its use. Originally the term referred exclusively to Christian understandings of the world. For example, as an adjective, the term can mean "belonging to a realm or system that transcends nature, as that of divine, magical, or ghostly beings; attributed to or thought to reveal some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature; occult, paranormal" or "more than what is natural or ordinary; unnaturally or extraordinarily great; abnormal, extraordinary". Obsolete uses include "of, relating to, or dealing with metaphysics". As a noun, the term can mean "a supernatural being", with a particularly strong history of employment in relation to entities from the mythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.[6] History of the concept The ancient world had no word that resembled "supernatural".[3] Dialogues from Neoplatonic philosophy in the third century AD contributed to the development of the concept the supernatural via Christian theology in later centuries.[7] The term nature had existed since antiquity, with Latin authors like Augustine using the word and its cognates at least 600 times in City of God. In the medieval period, "nature" had ten different meanings and "natural" had eleven different meanings.[2] Peter Lombard, a medieval scholastic in the 12th century, asked about causes that are beyond nature, in that how there could be causes that were God's alone. He used the term praeter naturam in his writings.[2] In the scholastic period, Thomas Aquinas classified miracles into three categories: "above nature", "beyond nature", and "against nature". In doing so, he sharpened the distinction between nature and miracles more than the early Church Fathers had done.[2] As a result, he had created a dichotomy of sorts of the natural and supernatural.[7] Though the phrase "supra naturam" was used since the 4th century AD, it was in the 1200s that Thomas Aquinas used the term "supernaturalis" and despite this, the term had to wait until the end of the medieval period before it became more popularly used.[2] The discussions on "nature" from the scholastic period were diverse and unsettled with some postulating that even miracles are natural and that natural magic was a natural part of the world." (wikipedia.org) "Halloween is a celebration observed on October 31, the day before the feast of All Hallows, also known as Hallowmas or All Saint's Day. The celebrations and observances of this day occur primarily in regions of the Western world, albeit with some traditions varying significantly between geographical areas. Origins Halloween is the eve of vigil before the Western Christian feast of All Hallows (or All Saints) which is observed on November 1. This day begins the triduum of Hallowtide, which culminates with All Souls' Day. In the Middle Ages, many Christians held a folk belief that All Hallows' Eve was the "night where the veil between the material world and the afterlife was at its most transparent".[2] Americas Canada Scottish emigration, primarily to Canada before 1870 and to the United States thereafter, brought the Scottish version of the holiday to each country. The earliest known reference to ritual begging on Halloween in English speaking North America occurs in 1911 when a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported that it was normal for the smaller children to go street "guising" on Halloween between 6 and 7 p.m., visiting shops, and neighbours to be rewarded with nuts and candies for their rhymes and songs.[3] Canadians spend more on candy at Halloween than at any time apart from Christmas. Halloween is also a time for charitable contributions. Until 2006 when UNICEF moved to an online donation system, collecting small change was very much a part of Canadian trick-or-treating.[4] Quebec offers themed tours of parts of the old city and historic cemeteries in the area.[5] In 2014 the hamlet of Arviat, Nunavut moved their Halloween festivities to the community hall, cancelling the practice of door-to-door "trick or treating", due to the risk of roaming polar bears.[6][7] In British Columbia it is a tradition to set off fireworks at Halloween.[8] United States In the United States, Halloween did not become a holiday until the 19th century. The transatlantic migration of nearly two million Irish following the Great Irish Famine (1845–1849) brought the holiday to the United States. American librarian and author Ruth Edna Kelley wrote the first book length history of the holiday in the U.S., The Book of Hallowe'en (1919), and references souling in the chapter "Hallowe'en in America": "All Hallowe'en customs in the United States are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries. The taste in Hallowe'en festivities now is to study old traditions, and hold a Scotch party, using Robert Burns's poem Halloween as a guide; or to go a-souling as the English used. In short, no custom that was once honored at Hallowe'en is out of fashion now."[9] The main event for children of modern Halloween in the United States and Canada is trick-or-treating, in which children, teenagers, (sometimes) young adults, and parents (accompanying their children) disguise themselves in costumes and go door-to-door in their neighborhoods, ringing each doorbell and yelling "Trick or treat!" to solicit a gift of candy or similar items.[10] Teenagers and adults will more frequently attend Halloween-themed costume parties typically hosted by friends or themed events at nightclubs either on Halloween itself or a weekend close to the holiday. At the turn of the 20th century, Halloween had turned into a night of vandalism, with destruction of property and cruelty to animals and people.[11] Around 1912, the Boy Scouts, Boys Clubs, and other neighborhood organizations came together to encourage a safe celebration that would end the destruction that had become so common on this night. The commercialization of Halloween in the United States did not start until the 20th century, beginning perhaps with Halloween postcards (featuring hundreds of designs), which were most popular between 1905 and 1915.[12] Dennison Manufacturing Company (which published its first Halloween catalog in 1909) and the Beistle Company were pioneers in commercially made Halloween decorations, particularly die-cut paper items.[13][14] German manufacturers specialised in Halloween figurines that were exported to the United States in the period between the two World Wars. Halloween is now the United States' second most popular holiday (after Christmas) for decorating; the sale of candy and costumes is also extremely common during the holiday, which is marketed to children and adults alike. The National Confectioners Association (NCA) reported in 2005 that 80% of American adults planned to give out candy to trick-or-treaters.[15] The NCA reported in 2005 that 93% of children planned to go trick-or-treating.[16] According to the National Retail Federation, the most popular Halloween costume themes for adults are, in order: witch, pirate, vampire, cat, and clown.[17][when?] Each year, popular costumes are dictated by various current events and pop culture icons. On many college campuses, Halloween is a major celebration, with the Friday and Saturday nearest 31 October hosting many costume parties. Other popular activities are watching horror movies and visiting haunted houses. Total spending on Halloween is estimated to be $8.4 billion.[18] Events Many theme parks stage Halloween events annually, such as Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando, Mickey's Halloween Party and Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Disneyland Resort and Magic Kingdom respectively, and Knott's Scary Farm at Knott's Berry Farm. One of the more notable parades is New York's Village Halloween Parade. Each year approximately 50,000 costumed marchers parade up Sixth Avenue.[19] Salem, Massachusetts, site of the Salem witch trials, celebrates Halloween throughout the month of October with tours, plays, concerts, and other activities.[20] A number of venues in New York's lower Hudson Valley host various events to showcase a connection with Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Van Cortlandt Manor stages the "Great Jack o' Lantern Blaze" featuring thousands of lighted carved pumpkins.[21] Some locales have had to modify their celebrations due to disruptive behavior on the part of young adults. Madison, Wisconsin hosts an annual Halloween celebration. In 2002, due to the large crowds in the State Street area, a riot broke out, necessitating the use of mounted police and tear gas to disperse the crowds.[22] Likewise, Chapel Hill, site of the University of North Carolina, has a downtown street party which in 2007 drew a crowd estimated at 80,000 on downtown Franklin Street, in a town with a population of just 54,000. In 2008, in an effort to curb the influx of out-of-towners, mayor Kevin Foy put measures in place to make commuting downtown more difficult on Halloween.[23] In 2014, large crowds of college students rioted at the Keene, New Hampshire Pumpkin Fest, whereupon the City Council voted not to grant a permit for the following year's festival,[24] and organizers moved the event to Laconia for 2015.[25] Brazil Main article: Saci Day The Brazilian non-governmental organization named Amigos do Saci created Saci Day as a Brazilian parallel in opposition to the "American-influenced" holiday of Halloween that saw minor celebration in Brazil. The Saci is a mischievous evil character in Brazilian folklore. Saci Day is commemorated on October 31, the same day as Halloween, and is an official holiday in the state of São Paulo. Despite official recognition in São Paulo and several other municipalities throughout the country, few Brazilians celebrate it.[26][27] Dominican Republic In the Dominican Republic it has been gaining popularity, largely due to many Dominicans living in the United States and then bringing the custom to the island. In the larger cities of Santiago or Santo Domingo it has become more common to see children trick-or-treating, but in smaller towns and villages it is almost entirely absent, partly due to religious opposition. Tourist areas such as Sosua and Punta Cana feature many venues with Halloween celebrations, predominantly geared towards adults.[28] Mexico (Día de Muertos) Observed in Mexico and Mexican communities abroad, Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de Muertos) celebrations arose from the syncretism of indigenous Aztec traditions with the Christian Hallowtide of the Spanish colonizers. Flower decorations, altars and candies are part of this holiday season. The holiday is distinct from Halloween in its origins and observances, but the two have become associated because of cross-border connections between Mexico and the United States through popular culture and migration, as the two celebrations occur at the same time of year and may involve similar imagery, such as skeletons. Halloween and Día de Muertos have influenced each other in some areas of the United States and Mexico, with Halloween traditions such as costumes and face-painting becoming increasingly common features of the Mexican festival.[29][30][31] Asia China The Chinese celebrate the "Hungry Ghost Festival" in mid-July, when it is customary to float river lanterns to remember those who have died. By contrast, Halloween is often called "All Saints' Festival" (Wànshèngjié, 萬聖節), or (less commonly) "All Saints' Eve" (Wànshèngyè, 萬聖夜) or "Eve of All Saints' Day" (Wànshèngjié Qiányè, 萬聖節前夕), stemming from the term "All Hallows Eve" (hallow referring to the souls of holy saints). Chinese Christian churches hold religious celebrations. Non-religious celebrations are dominated by expatriate Americans or Canadians, but costume parties are also popular for Chinese young adults, especially in large cities. Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park (Halloween Bash) host annual Halloween shows. Mainland China has been less influenced by Anglo traditions than Hong Kong and Halloween is generally considered "foreign". As Halloween has become more popular globally it has also become more popular in China, however, particularly amongst children attending private or international schools with many foreign teachers from North America.[32] Hong Kong Traditional "door-to-door" trick or treating is not commonly practiced in Hong Kong due to the vast majority of Hong Kong residents living in high-rise apartment blocks. However, in many buildings catering to expatriates, Halloween parties and limited trick or treating is arranged by the management. Instances of street-level trick or treating in Hong Kong occur in ultra-exclusive gated housing communities such as The Beverly Hills populated by Hong Kong's super-rich and in expatriate areas like Discovery Bay and the Red Hill Peninsula. For the general public, there are events at Tsim Sha Tsui's Avenue of the Stars that try to mimic the celebration.[33] In the Lan Kwai Fong area of Hong Kong, known as a major entertainment district for the international community, a Halloween celebration and parade has taken place for over 20 years, with many people dressing in costume and making their way around the streets to various drinking establishments.[34] Many international schools also celebrate Halloween with costumes, and some put an academic twist on the celebrations such as the "Book-o-ween" celebrations at Hong Kong International School where students dress as favorite literary characters. Japan Halloween arrived in Japan mainly as a result of American pop culture. In 2009 it was celebrated only by expats.[35] The wearing of elaborate costumes by young adults at night has since become popular in areas such as Amerikamura in Osaka and Shibuya in Tokyo, where, in October 2012, about 1700 people dressed in costumes to take part in the Halloween Festival.[36] Celebrations have become popular with young adults as a costume party and club event.[37] Trick-or-treating for Japanese children has taken hold in some areas. By the mid-2010s, Yakuza were giving snacks and sweets to children.[38] Philippines The period from 31 October through 2 November is a time for remembering dead family members and friends. Many Filipinos travel back to their hometowns for family gatherings of festive remembrance.[39] Trick-or-treating is gradually replacing the dying tradition of Pangangaluluwâ, a local analogue of the old English custom of souling. People in the provinces still observe Pangangaluluwâ by going in groups to every house and offering a song in exchange for money or food. The participants, usually children, would sing carols about the souls in Purgatory, with the abúloy (alms for the dead) used to pay for Masses for these souls. Along with the requested alms, householders sometimes gave the children suman (rice cakes). During the night, various small items, such as clothing, plants, etc., would "mysteriously" disappear, only to be discovered the next morning in the yard or in the middle of the street. In older times, it was believed that the spirits of ancestors and loved ones visited the living on this night, manifesting their presence by taking an item.[40] As the observation of Christmas traditions in the Philippines begins as early as September, it is a common sight to see Halloween decorations next to Christmas decorations in urban settings.[citation needed] Saudi Arabia Starting 2022, Saudi Arabia began to celebrate Halloween in the public in Riyadh under its Vision 2030[41] Singapore Around mid-July Singapore Chinese celebrate "Zhong Yuan Jie / Yu Lan Jie" (Hungry Ghosts Festival), a time when it is believed that the spirits of the dead come back to visit their families.[42] In recent years, Halloween celebrations are becoming more popular, with influence from the west.[43] In 2012, there were over 19 major Halloween celebration events around Singapore.[44] SCAPE's Museum of Horrors held its fourth scare fest in 2014.[45] Universal Studios Singapore hosts "Halloween Horror Nights".[46] South Korea The popularity of the holiday among young people in South Korea comes from English academies and corporate marketing strategies, and was influenced by Halloween celebrations in Japan and America.[47] Despite not being a public holiday, it is celebrated in different areas around Seoul, especially Itaewon and Hongdae.[48] Taiwan Traditionally, Taiwanese people celebrate "Zhong Yuan Pudu Festival", where spirits that do not have any surviving family members to pay respects to them, are able to roam the Earth during the seventh lunar month. It is known as Ghost Month.[49] While some have compared it to Halloween, it has no relations and the overall meaning is different. In recent years, mainly as a result of American pop culture, Halloween is becoming more widespread amongst young Taiwanese people. Halloween events are held in many areas across Taipei, such as Xinyi Special District and Shilin District where there are many international schools and expats.[50] Halloween parties are celebrated differently based on different age groups. One of the most popular Halloween event is the Tianmu Halloween Festival, which started in 2009 and is organised by the Taipei City Office of Commerce.[51] The 2-day annual festivity has attracted more than 240,000 visitors in 2019. During this festival, stores and businesses in Tianmu place pumpkin lanterns outside their stores to identify themselves as trick-or-treat destinations for children.[52] Oceania Australia Non-religious celebrations of Halloween modelled on North American festivities are growing increasingly popular in Australia despite not being traditionally part of the culture.[53] Some Australians criticise this intrusion into their culture.[54][55] Many dislike the commercialisation and American pop-culture influence.[55][56] Some supporters of the event place it alongside other cultural traditions such as Saint Patrick's Day.[57] Halloween historian and author of Halloween: Pagan Festival to Trick or Treat, Mark Oxbrow says while Halloween may have been popularised by depictions of it in US movies and TV shows, it is not a new entry into Australian culture.[58] His research shows Halloween was first celebrated in Australia in Castlemaine, Victoria, in 1858, which was 43 years before Federation. His research shows Halloween traditions were brought to the country by Scottish miners who settled in Victoria during the Gold Rush. Because of the polarised opinions about Halloween, growing numbers of people are decorating their letter boxes to indicate that children are welcome to come knocking. In the past decade, the popularity of Halloween in Australia has grown.[59] In 2020, the first magazine dedicated solely to celebrating Halloween in Australia was launched, called Hallozween,[60] and in 2021, sales of costumes, decorations and carving pumpkins soared to an all-time high[61] despite the effect of the global COVID-19 pandemic limiting celebrations. New Zealand In New Zealand, Halloween is not celebrated to the same extent as in North America, although in recent years non-religious celebrations have become more common.[62][63] Trick-or-treat has become increasingly popular with minors in New Zealand, despite being not a "British or Kiwi event" and the influence of American globalisation.[64] One criticism of Halloween in New Zealand is that it is overly commercialised - by The Warehouse, for example.[64] Europe Over the years, Halloween has become more popular in Europe and has been partially ousting some older customs like the Rübengeistern [de] (English: turnip ghosts, beet spirit), Martinisingen, and others.[65] France Halloween was introduced to most of France in the 1990s.[66] In Brittany, Halloween had been celebrated for centuries and is known as Kalan Goañv (Night of Spirits). During this time, it is believed that the spirits of the dead return to the world of the living lead by the Ankou, the collector of souls.[67] Also during this time, Bretons bake Kornigou, a pastry shaped like the antlers of a stag.[citation needed] Germany Halloween was not generally observed in Germany prior to the 1990s, but has been increasing in popularity. It has been associated with the influence of United States culture, and "Trick or Treating" (German: Süßes sonst gibt's Saures) has been occurring in various German cities, especially in areas such as the Dahlem neighborhood in Berlin, which was part of the American zone during the Cold War. Today, Halloween in Germany brings in 200 million euros a year, through multiple industries.[68] Halloween is celebrated by both children and adults. Adults celebrate at themed costume parties and clubs, while children go trick or treating. Complaints of vandalism associated with Halloween "Tricks" are increasing, particularly from many elderly Germans unfamiliar with "Trick or Treating".[69] Greece In Greece, Halloween is not celebrated widely and it is a working day, with little public interest, since the early 2000s. Recently, it has somewhat increased in popularity as both a secular celebration; although Carnival is vastly more popular among Greeks. For very few, Halloween is[when?] considered the fourth most popular festival in the country after Christmas, Easter, and Carnival. Retail businesses, bars, nightclubs, and certain theme parks might organize Halloween parties. This boost in popularity has been attributed to the influence of western consumerism. Since it is a working day, Halloween is not celebrated on 31 October unless the date falls on a weekend, in which case it is celebrated by some during the last weekend before All Hallow's Eve, usually in the form of themed house parties and retail business decorations. Trick-or-treating is not widely popular because similar activities are already undertaken during Carnival. The slight rise in popularity of Halloween in Greece has led to some increase in its popularity throughout nearby countries in the Balkans and Cyprus. In the latter, there has been an increase in Greek-Cypriot retailers selling Halloween merchandise every year.[70] Ireland On Halloween night, adults and children dress up as various monsters and creatures, light bonfires, and enjoy fireworks displays; Derry in Northern Ireland is home to the largest organized Halloween celebration on the island, in the form of a street carnival and fireworks display.[72] Games are often played, such as bobbing for apples, in which apples, peanuts, other nuts and fruits, and some small coins are placed in a basin of water.[73] Everyone takes turns catching as many items possible using only their mouths. Another common game involves the hands-free eating of an apple hung on a string attached to the ceiling. Games of divination are also played at Halloween.[74] Colcannon is traditionally served on Halloween.[73] 31 October is the busiest day of the year for the Emergency Services.[75] Bangers and fireworks are illegal in the Republic of Ireland; however, they are commonly smuggled in from Northern Ireland where they are legal.[76] Bonfires are frequently built around Halloween.[77] Trick-or-treating is popular amongst children on 31 October and Halloween parties and events are commonplace. October Holiday occurs on the last Monday of October and may fall on Halloween. Its Irish names are Lá Saoire i Mí Dheireadh Fómhair or Lá Saoire Oíche Shamhna, the latter translating literally as 'Halloween holiday'. Italy In Italy, All Saints' Day is a public holiday. On 2 November, Tutti i Morti or All Souls' Day, families remember loved ones who have died. These are still the main holidays.[78] In some Italian tradition, children would awake on the morning of All Saints or All Souls to find small gifts from their deceased ancestors. In Sardinia, Concas de Mortu (Head of the deads), carved pumpkins that look like skulls, with candles inside are displayed.[79][80][81] Halloween is, however, gaining in popularity, and involves costume parties for young adults.[82] The traditions to carve pumpkins in a skull figure, lighting candles inside, or to beg for small gifts for the deads e.g. sweets or nuts, also belong to North Italy.[83] In Veneto these carved pumpkins were called lumère (lanterns) or suche dei morti (deads' pumpkins).[84] Poland Since the fall of Communism in 1989, Halloween has become increasingly popular in Poland. Particularly, it is celebrated among younger people. The influx of Western tourists and expats throughout the 1990s introduced the costume party aspect of Hallowe'en celebrations, particularly in clubs and at private house parties. Door-to-door trick or treating is not common. Pumpkin carving is becoming more evident, following a strong North American version of the tradition. Poland is the biggest pumpkin producer in the European Union[85]. Romania Romanians observe the Feast of St. Andrew, patron saint of Romania, on 30 November. On St. Andrew's Eve ghosts are said to be about. A number of customs related to divination, in other places connected to Halloween, are associated with this night.[86] However, with the popularity of Dracula in western Europe, around Halloween the Romanian tourist industry promotes trips to locations connected to the historical Vlad Tepeș and the more fanciful Dracula of Bram Stoker. One of the most successful Halloween Parties in Transylvania takes place in Sighișoara, the citadel where Vlad the Impaler was born. This party include magician shows, ballet show and The Ritual Killing of a Living Dead[87] The biggest Halloween party in Transylvania take place at Bran Castle, aka Dracula's Castle from Transylvania.[88] Both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches in Romania discourage Halloween celebrations, advising their parishioners to focus rather on the "Day of the Dead" on 1 November, when special religious observances are held for the souls of the deceased.[89] Opposition by religious and nationalist groups, including calls to ban costumes and decorations in schools in 2015, have been met with criticism.[90][91][92] Halloween parties are popular in bars and nightclubs.[93] Russia In Russia, most Christians are Orthodox, and in the Orthodox Church, Halloween is on the Saturday after Pentecost, and therefore 4 to 5 months before western Halloween. Celebration of western Halloween began in the 1990s around the downfall of the Soviet regime, when costume and ghoulish parties spread in night clubs throughout Russia. Halloween is generally celebrated by younger generations and is not widely celebrated in civic society (e.g. theaters or libraries). In fact, Halloween is among the Western celebrations that the Russian government and politicians—which have grown increasingly anti-Western in the early 2010s—are trying to eliminate from public celebration.[94][95][96] Spain In Spain, celebrations involve eating castanyes (roasted chestnuts), panellets (special almond balls covered in pine nuts), moniatos (roast or baked sweet potato), Ossos de Sant cake and preserved fruit (candied or glazed fruit). Moscatell (Muscat) is drunk from porrons.[97] Around the time of this celebration, it is common for street vendors to sell hot toasted chestnuts wrapped in newspaper. In many places, confectioners often organise raffles of chestnuts and preserved fruit. The tradition of eating these foods comes from the fact that during All Saints' night, on the eve of All Souls' Day in the Christian tradition, bell ringers would ring bells in commemoration of the dead into the early morning. Friends and relatives would help with this task, and everyone would eat these foods for sustenance.[98] Other versions of the story state that the Castanyada originates at the end of the 18th century and comes from the old funeral meals, where other foods, such as vegetables and dried fruit were not served. The meal had the symbolic significance of a communion with the souls of the departed: while the chestnuts were roasting, prayers would be said for the person who had just died.[99] The festival is usually depicted with the figure of a castanyera: an old lady, dressed in peasant's clothing and wearing a headscarf, sitting behind a table, roasting chestnuts for street sale. In recent years, the Castanyada has become a revetlla of All Saints and is celebrated in the home and community. It is the first of the four main school festivals, alongside Christmas, Carnestoltes and St George's Day, without reference to ritual or commemoration of the dead.[100] Galicia is known to have the second largest Halloween or Samain festivals in Europe and during this time, a drink called Queimada is often served.[citation needed] Sweden On All Hallow's Eve, a Requiem Mass is widely attended every year at Uppsala Cathedral, part of the Lutheran Church of Sweden.[101] Throughout the period of Allhallowtide, starting with All Hallow's Eve, Swedish families visit churchyards and adorn the graves of their family members with lit candles and wreaths fashioned from pine branches.[101] Among children, the practice of dressing in costume and collecting candy gained popularity beginning around 2005.[102] The American traditions of Halloween have however been met with skepticism among the older generations, in part due to conflicting with the Swedish traditions on All Hallow's Eve and in part due to their commercialism.[103] In Sweden, All Saint's Day/ All Hallow's Eve is observed on the Saturday occurring between October 31 and November 6, whereas Halloween is observed on October 31, every year. Switzerland In Switzerland, Halloween, after first becoming popular in 1999, is on the wane, and is most popular with young adults who attend parties. Switzerland already has a "festival overload" and even though Swiss people like to dress up for any occasion, they do prefer a traditional element, such as in the Fasnacht tradition of chasing away winter using noise and masks.[104][105] United Kingdom and Crown dependencies England See also: Mischief Night and Allantide In the past, on All Souls' Eve families would stay up late, and little "soul cakes" were eaten. At the stroke of midnight, there was solemn silence among households, which had candles burning in every room to guide the souls back to visit their earthly homes and a glass of wine on the table to refresh them. The tradition of giving soul cakes that originated in Great Britain and Ireland was known as souling, often seen as the origin of modern trick or treating in North America, and souling continued in parts of England as late as the 1930s, with children going from door to door singing songs and saying prayers for the dead in return for cakes or money.[106] Trick or treating and other Halloween celebrations are extremely popular, with shops decorated with witches and pumpkins, and young people attending costume parties.[107] Scotland The name Halloween is first attested in the 16th century as a Scottish shortening of the fuller All-Hallow-Even, that is, the night before All Hallows' Day.[108] Dumfries poet John Mayne's 1780 poem made note of pranks at Halloween "What fearfu' pranks ensue!". Scottish poet Robert Burns was influenced by Mayne's composition, and portrayed some of the customs in his poem Halloween (1785).[109] According to Burns, Halloween is "thought to be a night when witches, devils, and other mischief-making beings are all abroad on their baneful midnight errands".[110] Among the earliest record of Guising at Halloween in Scotland is in 1895, where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money.[111] If children approached the door of a house, they were given offerings of food. The children's practice of "guising", going from door to door in costumes for food or coins, is a traditional Halloween custom in Scotland.[3] These days children who knock on their neighbours doors have to sing a song or tell stories for a gift of sweets or money.[112] A traditional Halloween game includes apple "dooking",[113] or "dunking" or (i.e., retrieving one from a bucket of water using only one's mouth), and attempting to eat, while blindfolded, a treacle/jam-coated scone hanging on a piece of string. Traditional customs and lore include divination practices, ways of trying to predict the future. A traditional Scottish form of divining one's future spouse is to carve an apple in one long strip, then toss the peel over one's shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse's name.[114] In Kilmarnock, Halloween is also celebrated on the last Friday of the month, and is known colloquially as "Killieween".[115] Isle of Man See also: Hop-tu-Naa Halloween is a popular traditional occasion on the Isle of Man, where it is known as Hop-tu-Naa. Elsewhere Saint Helena In Saint Helena, Halloween is actively celebrated, largely along the American model, with ghosts, skeletons, devils, vampires, witches and the like. Imitation pumpkins are used instead of real pumpkins because the pumpkin harvesting season in Saint Helena's hemisphere is not near Halloween. Trick-or-treating is widespread. Party venues provide entertainment for adults." (wikipedia.org) "A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature.[1][2] Common examples are earthenware, porcelain, and brick. The earliest ceramics made by humans were brick walls used for building houses and other structures, while pottery objects (pots, vessels, or vases) or figurines made from clay, either by itself or mixed with other materials like silica, hardened and sintered in fire is the common belief of how ceramic was made. Later, ceramics were glazed and fired to create smooth, colored surfaces, decreasing porosity through the use of glassy, amorphous ceramic coatings on top of the crystalline ceramic substrates.[3] Ceramics now include domestic, industrial, and building products, as well as a wide range of materials developed for use in advanced ceramic engineering, such as semiconductors. The word ceramic comes from the Ancient Greek word κεραμικός (keramikós), meaning "of or for pottery"[4] (from κέραμος (kéramos) 'potter's clay, tile, pottery').[5] The earliest known mention of the root ceram- is the Mycenaean Greek ke-ra-me-we, workers of ceramic, written in Linear B syllabic script.[6] The word ceramic can be used as an adjective to describe a material, product, or process, or it may be used as a noun, either singular or, more commonly, as the plural noun ceramics.[7] Materials Silicon nitride rocket thruster. Left: Mounted in test stand. Right: Being tested with H2/O2 propellants. Ceramic material is an inorganic, metallic oxide, nitride, or carbide material. Some elements, such as carbon or silicon, may be considered ceramics. Ceramic materials are brittle, hard, strong in compression, and weak in shearing and tension. They withstand the chemical erosion that occurs in other materials subjected to acidic or caustic environments. Ceramics generally can withstand very high temperatures, ranging from 1,000 °C to 1,600 °C (1,800 °F to 3,000 °F). A low magnification SEM micrograph of an advanced ceramic material. The properties of ceramics make fracturing an important inspection method. The crystallinity of ceramic materials varies widely. Most often, fired ceramics are either vitrified or semi-vitrified, as is the case with earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. Varying crystallinity and electron composition in the ionic and covalent bonds cause most ceramic materials to be good thermal and electrical insulators (researched in ceramic engineering). With such a large range of possible options for the composition/structure of a ceramic (nearly all of the elements, nearly all types of bonding, and all levels of crystallinity), the breadth of the subject is vast, and identifiable attributes (hardness, toughness, electrical conductivity) are difficult to specify for the group as a whole. General properties such as high melting temperature, high hardness, poor conductivity, high moduli of elasticity, chemical resistance, and low ductility are the norm,[8] with known exceptions to each of these rules (piezoelectric ceramics, glass transition temperature, superconductive ceramics). Composites such as fiberglass and carbon fiber, while containing ceramic materials, are not considered to be part of the ceramic family.[9] Highly oriented crystalline ceramic materials are not amenable to a great range of processing. Methods for dealing with them tend to fall into one of two categories: either making the ceramic in the desired shape by reaction in situ or "forming" powders into the desired shape and then sintering to form a solid body. Ceramic forming techniques include shaping by hand (sometimes including a rotation process called "throwing"), slip casting, tape casting (used for making very thin ceramic capacitors), injection molding, dry pressing, and other variations. Many ceramics experts do not consider materials with an amorphous (noncrystalline) character (i.e., glass) to be ceramics, even though glassmaking involves several steps of the ceramic process and its mechanical properties are similar to those of ceramic materials. However, heat treatments can convert glass into a semi-crystalline material known as glass-ceramic." (wikipedia.org) "Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take varied forms, including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is a visual art. While some ceramics are considered fine art, such as pottery or sculpture, most are considered to be decorative, industrial or applied art objects. Ceramic art can be created by one person or by a group, in a pottery or a ceramic factory with a group designing and manufacturing the artware.[1] In Britain and the United States, modern ceramics as an art took its inspiration in the early twentieth century from the Arts and Crafts movement, leading to the revival of pottery considered as a specifically modern craft. Such crafts emphasized traditional non-industrial production techniques, faithfulness to the material, the skills of the individual maker, attention to utility, and an absence of excessive decoration that was typical to the Victorian era.[2] The word "ceramics" comes from the Greek keramikos (κεραμεικός), meaning "pottery", which in turn comes from keramos (κέραμος) meaning "potter's clay".[3] Most traditional ceramic products were made from clay (or clay mixed with other materials), shaped and subjected to heat, and tableware and decorative ceramics are generally still made this way. In modern ceramic engineering usage, ceramics is the art and science of making objects from inorganic, non-metallic materials by the action of heat. It excludes glass and mosaic made from glass tesserae. There is a long history of ceramic art in almost all developed cultures, and often ceramic objects are all the artistic evidence left from vanished cultures, like that of the Nok in Africa over 2,000 years ago. Cultures especially noted for ceramics include the Chinese, Cretan, Greek, Persian, Mayan, Japanese, and Korean cultures, as well as the modern Western cultures. Elements of ceramic art, upon which different degrees of emphasis have been placed at different times, are the shape of the object, its decoration by painting, carving and other methods, and the glazing found on most ceramics. Materials Main articles: Earthenware, Stoneware, Porcelain, and Bone china Different types of clay, when used with different minerals and firing conditions, are used to produce earthenware, stoneware, porcelain and bone china (fine china).     Earthenware is pottery that has not been fired to vitrification and is thus permeable to water.[4] Many types of pottery have been made from it from the earliest times, and until the 18th century it was the most common type of pottery outside the far East. Earthenware is often made from clay, quartz and feldspar. Terracotta, a type of earthenware, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic,[5] where the fired body is porous.[6][7][8][9] Its uses include vessels (notably flower pots), water and waste water pipes, bricks, and surface embellishment in building construction. Terracotta has been a common medium for ceramic art (see below).     Stoneware is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire clay.[10] Stoneware is fired at high temperatures.[11] Vitrified or not, it is nonporous;[12] it may or may not be glazed.[13] One widely recognised definition is from the Combined Nomenclature of the European Communities, a European industry standard states "Stoneware, which, though dense, impermeable and hard enough to resist scratching by a steel point, differs from porcelain because it is more opaque, and normally only partially vitrified. It may be vitreous or semi-vitreous. It is usually coloured grey or brownish because of impurities in the clay used for its manufacture, and is normally glazed."[12]     Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating materials, generally including kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between 1,200 and 1,400 °C (2,200 and 2,600 °F). The toughness, strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainly from vitrification and the formation of the mineral mullite within the body at these high temperatures. Properties associated with porcelain include low permeability and elasticity; considerable strength, hardness, toughness, whiteness, translucency and resonance; and a high resistance to chemical attack and thermal shock. Porcelain has been described as being "completely vitrified, hard, impermeable (even before glazing), white or artificially coloured, translucent (except when of considerable thickness), and resonant". However, the term porcelain lacks a universal definition and has "been applied in a very unsystematic fashion to substances of diverse kinds which have only certain surface-qualities in common".[14]     Bone china (fine china) is a type of soft-paste porcelain that is composed of bone ash, feldspathic material, and kaolin. It has been defined as ware with a translucent body containing a minimum of 30% of phosphate derived from animal bone and calculated calcium phosphate.[12][clarification needed] Developed by English potter Josiah Spode, bone china is known for its high levels of whiteness and translucency,[15] and very high mechanical strength and chip resistance.[16] Its high strength allows it to be produced in thinner cross-sections than other types of porcelain.[15] Like stoneware it is vitrified, but is translucent due to differing mineral properties.[17] From its initial development and up to the later part of the twentieth century, bone china was almost exclusively an English product, with production being effectively localised in Stoke-on-Trent.[16] Most major English firms made or still make it, including Mintons, Coalport, Spode, Royal Crown Derby, Royal Doulton, Wedgwood and Worcester. In the UK, references to "china" or "porcelain" can refer to bone china, and "English porcelain" has been used as a term for it, both in the UK and around the world.[18] Fine china is not necessarily bone china, and is a term used to refer to ware which does not contain bone ash." (wikipedia.org) "A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one's hand or by using only simple, non-automated related tools like scissors, carving implements, or hooks. It is a traditional main sector of craft making and applies to a wide range of creative and design activities that are related to making things with one's hands and skill, including work with textiles, moldable and rigid materials, paper, plant fibers, clay, etc. One of the oldest handicraft is Dhokra; this is a sort of metal casting that has been used in India for over 4,000 years and is still used. In Iranian Baluchistan, women still make red ware hand-made pottery with dotted ornaments, much similar to the 5,000-year-old pottery tradition of Kalpurgan, an archaeological site near the village. Usually, the term is applied to traditional techniques of creating items (whether for personal use or as products) that are both practical and aesthetic. Handicraft industries are those that produce things with hands to meet the needs of the people in their locality without using machines.[1][2][3][4] Collective terms for handicrafts include artisanry, crafting, and handcrafting. The term arts and crafts is also applied, especially in the United States and mostly to hobbyists' and children's output rather than items crafted for daily use, but this distinction is not formal, and the term is easily confused with the Arts and Crafts design movement, which is in fact as practical as it is aesthetic. Handicraft has its roots in the rural crafts—the material-goods necessities—of ancient civilizations, and many specific crafts have been practiced for centuries, while others are modern inventions or popularizations of crafts which were originally practiced in a limited geographic area. Many handcrafters use natural, even entirely indigenous, materials while others may prefer modern, non-traditional materials, and even upcycle industrial materials. The individual artisanship of a handcrafted item is the paramount criterion; those made by mass production or machines are not handicraft goods. Seen as developing the skills and creative interests of students, generally and sometimes towards a particular craft or trade, handicrafts are often integrated into educational systems, both informally and formally. Most crafts require the development of skill and the application of patience but can be learned by virtually anyone. Like folk art, handicraft output often has cultural and/or religious significance, and increasingly may have a political message as well, as in craftivism. Many crafts become very popular for brief periods of time (a few months, or a few years), spreading rapidly among the crafting population as everyone emulates the first examples, then their popularity wanes until a later resurgence." (wikiepdia.org) "Halloween or Hallowe'en[7][8] (less commonly known as Allhalloween,[9] All Hallows' Eve,[10] or All Saints' Eve)[11] is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It is at the beginning of the observance of Allhallowtide,[12] the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed.[3][13][14][15] In popular culture, the day has become a celebration of horror, being associated with the macabre and supernatural.[16] One theory holds that many Halloween traditions were influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, which are believed to have pagan roots.[17][18][19][20] Some go further and suggest that Samhain may have been Christianized as All Hallow's Day, along with its eve, by the early Church.[21] Other academics believe Halloween began solely as a Christian holiday, being the vigil of All Hallow's Day.[22][23][24][25] Celebrated in Ireland and Scotland for centuries, Irish and Scottish immigrants took many Halloween customs to North America in the 19th century,[26][27] and then through American influence various Halloween customs spread to other countries by the late 20th and early 21st century.[16][28] Popular Halloween activities include trick-or-treating (or the related guising and souling), attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins or turnips into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories, and watching horror or Halloween-themed films.[29] Some people practice the Christian observances of All Hallows' Eve, including attending church services and lighting candles on the graves of the dead,[30][31][32] although it is a secular celebration for others.[33][34][35] Some Christians historically abstained from meat on All Hallows' Eve, a tradition reflected in the eating of certain vegetarian foods on this vigil day, including apples, potato pancakes, and soul cakes.[36][37][38][39] Etymology The word Halloween or Hallowe'en ("Saints' evening"[40]) is of Christian origin;[41][42] a term equivalent to "All Hallows Eve" is attested in Old English.[43] The word hallowe[']en comes from the Scottish form of All Hallows' Eve (the evening before All Hallows' Day):[44] even is the Scots term for "eve" or "evening",[45] and is contracted to e'en or een;[46] (All) Hallow(s) E(v)en became Hallowe'en. History Christian origins and historic customs Halloween is thought to have influences from Christian beliefs and practices.[47][48] The English word 'Halloween' comes from "All Hallows' Eve", being the evening before the Christian holy days of All Hallows' Day (All Saints' Day) on 1 November and All Souls' Day on 2 November.[49] Since the time of the early Church,[50] major feasts in Christianity (such as Christmas, Easter and Pentecost) had vigils that began the night before, as did the feast of All Hallows'.[51][47] These three days are collectively called Allhallowtide and are a time when Western Christians honour all saints and pray for recently departed souls who have yet to reach Heaven. Commemorations of all saints and martyrs were held by several churches on various dates, mostly in springtime.[52] In 4th-century Roman Edessa it was held on 13 May, and on 13 May 609, Pope Boniface IV re-dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to "St Mary and all martyrs".[53] This was the date of Lemuria, an ancient Roman festival of the dead.[54] In the 8th century, Pope Gregory III (731–741) founded an oratory in St Peter's for the relics "of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors".[47][55] Some sources say it was dedicated on 1 November,[56] while others say it was on Palm Sunday in April 732.[57][58] By 800, there is evidence that churches in Ireland[59] and Northumbria were holding a feast commemorating all saints on 1 November.[60] Alcuin of Northumbria, a member of Charlemagne's court, may then have introduced this 1 November date in the Frankish Empire.[61] In 835, it became the official date in the Frankish Empire.[60] Some suggest this was due to Celtic influence, while others suggest it was a Germanic idea,[60] although it is claimed that both Germanic and Celtic-speaking peoples commemorated the dead at the beginning of winter.[62] They may have seen it as the most fitting time to do so, as it is a time of 'dying' in nature.[60][62] It is also suggested the change was made on the "practical grounds that Rome in summer could not accommodate the great number of pilgrims who flocked to it", and perhaps because of public health concerns over Roman Fever, which claimed a number of lives during Rome's sultry summers.[63][47] On All Hallows' Eve, Christians in some parts of the world visit cemeteries to pray and place flowers and candles on the graves of their loved ones.[64] Top: Christians in Bangladesh lighting candles on the headstone of a relative. Bottom: Lutheran Christians praying and lighting candles in front of the central crucifix of a graveyard. By the end of the 12th century, the celebration had become known as the holy days of obligation in Western Christianity and involved such traditions as ringing church bells for souls in purgatory. It was also "customary for criers dressed in black to parade the streets, ringing a bell of mournful sound and calling on all good Christians to remember the poor souls".[65] The Allhallowtide custom of baking and sharing soul cakes for all christened souls,[66] has been suggested as the origin of trick-or-treating.[67] The custom dates back at least as far as the 15th century[68] and was found in parts of England, Wales, Flanders, Bavaria and Austria.[69] Groups of poor people, often children, would go door-to-door during Allhallowtide, collecting soul cakes, in exchange for praying for the dead, especially the souls of the givers' friends and relatives. This was called "souling".[68][70][71] Soul cakes were also offered for the souls themselves to eat,[69] or the 'soulers' would act as their representatives.[72] As with the Lenten tradition of hot cross buns, soul cakes were often marked with a cross, indicating they were baked as alms.[73] Shakespeare mentions souling in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593).[74] While souling, Christians would carry "lanterns made of hollowed-out turnips", which could have originally represented souls of the dead;[75][76] jack-o'-lanterns were used to ward off evil spirits.[77][78] On All Saints' and All Souls' Day during the 19th century, candles were lit in homes in Ireland,[79] Flanders, Bavaria, and in Tyrol, where they were called "soul lights",[80] that served "to guide the souls back to visit their earthly homes".[81] In many of these places, candles were also lit at graves on All Souls' Day.[80] In Brittany, libations of milk were poured on the graves of kinfolk,[69] or food would be left overnight on the dinner table for the returning souls;[80] a custom also found in Tyrol and parts of Italy.[82][80] Christian minister Prince Sorie Conteh linked the wearing of costumes to the belief in vengeful ghosts: "It was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints' Day, and All Hallows' Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes".[83] In the Middle Ages, churches in Europe that were too poor to display relics of martyred saints at Allhallowtide let parishioners dress up as saints instead.[84][85] Some Christians observe this custom at Halloween today.[86] Lesley Bannatyne believes this could have been a Christianization of an earlier pagan custom.[87] Many Christians in mainland Europe, especially in France, believed "that once a year, on Hallowe'en, the dead of the churchyards rose for one wild, hideous carnival" known as the danse macabre, which was often depicted in church decoration.[88] Christopher Allmand and Rosamond McKitterick write in The New Cambridge Medieval History that the danse macabre urged Christians "not to forget the end of all earthly things".[89] The danse macabre was sometimes enacted in European village pageants and court masques, with people "dressing up as corpses from various strata of society", and this may be the origin of Halloween costume parties.[90][91][92][75] In Britain, these customs came under attack during the Reformation, as Protestants berated purgatory as a "popish" doctrine incompatible with the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. State-sanctioned ceremonies associated with the intercession of saints and prayer for souls in purgatory were abolished during the Elizabethan reform, though All Hallow's Day remained in the English liturgical calendar to "commemorate saints as godly human beings".[93] For some Nonconformist Protestants, the theology of All Hallows' Eve was redefined; "souls cannot be journeying from Purgatory on their way to Heaven, as Catholics frequently believe and assert. Instead, the so-called ghosts are thought to be in actuality evil spirits".[94] Other Protestants believed in an intermediate state known as Hades (Bosom of Abraham).[95] In some localities, Catholics and Protestants continued souling, candlelit processions, or ringing church bells for the dead;[49][96] the Anglican church eventually suppressed this bell-ringing.[97] Mark Donnelly, a professor of medieval archaeology, and historian Daniel Diehl write that "barns and homes were blessed to protect people and livestock from the effect of witches, who were believed to accompany the malignant spirits as they traveled the earth".[98] After 1605, Hallowtide was eclipsed in England by Guy Fawkes Night (5 November), which appropriated some of its customs.[99] In England, the ending of official ceremonies related to the intercession of saints led to the development of new, unofficial Hallowtide customs. In 18th–19th century rural Lancashire, Catholic families gathered on hills on the night of All Hallows' Eve. One held a bunch of burning straw on a pitchfork while the rest knelt around him, praying for the souls of relatives and friends until the flames went out. This was known as teen'lay.[100] There was a similar custom in Hertfordshire, and the lighting of 'tindle' fires in Derbyshire.[101] Some suggested these 'tindles' were originally lit to "guide the poor souls back to earth".[102] In Scotland and Ireland, old Allhallowtide customs that were at odds with Reformed teaching were not suppressed as they "were important to the life cycle and rites of passage of local communities" and curbing them would have been difficult.[26] In parts of Italy until the 15th century, families left a meal out for the ghosts of relatives, before leaving for church services.[82] In 19th-century Italy, churches staged "theatrical re-enactments of scenes from the lives of the saints" on All Hallow's Day, with "participants represented by realistic wax figures".[82] In 1823, the graveyard of Holy Spirit Hospital in Rome presented a scene in which bodies of those who recently died were arrayed around a wax statue of an angel who pointed upward towards heaven.[82] In the same country, "parish priests went house-to-house, asking for small gifts of food which they shared among themselves throughout that night".[82] In Spain, they continue to bake special pastries called "bones of the holy" (Spanish: Huesos de Santo) and set them on graves.[103] At cemeteries in Spain and France, as well as in Latin America, priests lead Christian processions and services during Allhallowtide, after which people keep an all night vigil.[104] In 19th-century San Sebastián, there was a procession to the city cemetery at Allhallowtide, an event that drew beggars who "appeal[ed] to the tender recollections of one's deceased relations and friends" for sympathy.[105] Gaelic folk influence Today's Halloween customs are thought to have been influenced by folk customs and beliefs from the Celtic-speaking countries, some of which are believed to have pagan roots.[106] Jack Santino, a folklorist, writes that "there was throughout Ireland an uneasy truce existing between customs and beliefs associated with Christianity and those associated with religions that were Irish before Christianity arrived".[107] The origins of Halloween customs are typically linked to the Gaelic festival Samhain.[108] Samhain is one of the quarter days in the medieval Gaelic calendar and has been celebrated on 31 October – 1 November[109] in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.[110][111] A kindred festival has been held by the Brittonic Celts, called Calan Gaeaf in Wales, Kalan Gwav in Cornwall and Kalan Goañv in Brittany; a name meaning "first day of winter". For the Celts, the day ended and began at sunset; thus the festival begins the evening before 1 November by modern reckoning.[112] Samhain is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature. The names have been used by historians to refer to Celtic Halloween customs up until the 19th century,[113] and are still the Gaelic and Welsh names for Halloween. Samhain marked the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or the 'darker half' of the year.[115][116] It was seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld thinned. This meant the Aos Sí, the 'spirits' or 'fairies', could more easily come into this world and were particularly active.[117][118] Most scholars see them as "degraded versions of ancient gods [...] whose power remained active in the people's minds even after they had been officially replaced by later religious beliefs".[119] They were both respected and feared, with individuals often invoking the protection of God when approaching their dwellings.[120][121] At Samhain, the Aos Sí were appeased to ensure the people and livestock survived the winter. Offerings of food and drink, or portions of the crops, were left outside for them.[122][123][124] The souls of the dead were also said to revisit their homes seeking hospitality.[125] Places were set at the dinner table and by the fire to welcome them.[126] The belief that the souls of the dead return home on one night of the year and must be appeased seems to have ancient origins and is found in many cultures.[69] In 19th century Ireland, "candles would be lit and prayers formally offered for the souls of the dead. After this the eating, drinking, and games would begin".[127] Throughout Ireland and Britain, especially in the Celtic-speaking regions, the household festivities included divination rituals and games intended to foretell one's future, especially regarding death and marriage.[128] Apples and nuts were often used, and customs included apple bobbing, nut roasting, scrying or mirror-gazing, pouring molten lead or egg whites into water, dream interpretation, and others.[129] Special bonfires were lit and there were rituals involving them. Their flames, smoke, and ashes were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers.[115] In some places, torches lit from the bonfire were carried sunwise around homes and fields to protect them.[113] It is suggested the fires were a kind of imitative or sympathetic magic – they mimicked the Sun and held back the decay and darkness of winter.[126][130][131] They were also used for divination and to ward off evil spirits.[77] In Scotland, these bonfires and divination games were banned by the church elders in some parishes.[132] In Wales, bonfires were also lit to "prevent the souls of the dead from falling to earth".[133] Later, these bonfires "kept away the devil".[134] photograph From at least the 16th century,[136] the festival included mumming and guising in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Wales.[137] This involved people going house-to-house in costume (or in disguise), usually reciting verses or songs in exchange for food. It may have originally been a tradition whereby people impersonated the Aos Sí, or the souls of the dead, and received offerings on their behalf, similar to 'souling'. Impersonating these beings, or wearing a disguise, was also believed to protect oneself from them.[138] In parts of southern Ireland, the guisers included a hobby horse. A man dressed as a Láir Bhán (white mare) led youths house-to-house reciting verses – some of which had pagan overtones – in exchange for food. If the household donated food it could expect good fortune from the 'Muck Olla'; not doing so would bring misfortune.[139] In Scotland, youths went house-to-house with masked, painted or blackened faces, often threatening to do mischief if they were not welcomed.[137] F. Marian McNeill suggests the ancient festival included people in costume representing the spirits, and that faces were marked or blackened with ashes from the sacred bonfire.[136] In parts of Wales, men went about dressed as fearsome beings called gwrachod.[137] In the late 19th and early 20th century, young people in Glamorgan and Orkney cross-dressed.[137] Elsewhere in Europe, mumming was part of other festivals, but in the Celtic-speaking regions, it was "particularly appropriate to a night upon which supernatural beings were said to be abroad and could be imitated or warded off by human wanderers".[137] From at least the 18th century, "imitating malignant spirits" led to playing pranks in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. Wearing costumes and playing pranks at Halloween did not spread to England until the 20th century.[137] Pranksters used hollowed-out turnips or mangel wurzels as lanterns, often carved with grotesque faces.[137] By those who made them, the lanterns were variously said to represent the spirits,[137] or used to ward off evil spirits.[140][141] They were common in parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands in the 19th century,[137] as well as in Somerset (see Punkie Night). In the 20th century they spread to other parts of Britain and became generally known as jack-o'-lanterns.[137] Spread to North America Lesley Bannatyne and Cindy Ott write that Anglican colonists in the southern United States and Catholic colonists in Maryland "recognized All Hallow's Eve in their church calendars",[142][143] although the Puritans of New England strongly opposed the holiday, along with other traditional celebrations of the established Church, including Christmas.[144] Almanacs of the late 18th and early 19th century give no indication that Halloween was widely celebrated in North America.[26] It was not until after mass Irish and Scottish immigration in the 19th century that Halloween became a major holiday in America.[26] Most American Halloween traditions were inherited from the Irish and Scots,[27][145] though "In Cajun areas, a nocturnal Mass was said in cemeteries on Halloween night. Candles that had been blessed were placed on graves, and families sometimes spent the entire night at the graveside".[146] Originally confined to these immigrant communities, it was gradually assimilated into mainstream society and was celebrated coast to coast by people of all social, racial, and religious backgrounds by the early 20th century.[147] Then, through American influence, these Halloween traditions spread to many other countries by the late 20th and early 21st century, including to mainland Europe and some parts of the Far East.[28][16][148] Symbols At Halloween, yards, public spaces, and some houses may be decorated with traditionally macabre symbols including skeletons, ghosts, cobwebs, headstones, and witches. Development of artifacts and symbols associated with Halloween formed over time. Jack-o'-lanterns are traditionally carried by guisers on All Hallows' Eve in order to frighten evil spirits.[76][149] There is a popular Irish Christian folktale associated with the jack-o'-lantern,[150] which in folklore is said to represent a "soul who has been denied entry into both heaven and hell":[151]     On route home after a night's drinking, Jack encounters the Devil and tricks him into climbing a tree. A quick-thinking Jack etches the sign of the cross into the bark, thus trapping the Devil. Jack strikes a bargain that Satan can never claim his soul. After a life of sin, drink, and mendacity, Jack is refused entry to heaven when he dies. Keeping his promise, the Devil refuses to let Jack into hell and throws a live coal straight from the fires of hell at him. It was a cold night, so Jack places the coal in a hollowed out turnip to stop it from going out, since which time Jack and his lantern have been roaming looking for a place to rest.[152] In Ireland and Scotland, the turnip has traditionally been carved during Halloween,[153][154] but immigrants to North America used the native pumpkin, which is both much softer and much larger, making it easier to carve than a turnip.[153] The American tradition of carving pumpkins is recorded in 1837[155] and was originally associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.[156] Decorated house in Weatherly, Pennsylvania The modern imagery of Halloween comes from many sources, including Christian eschatology, national customs, works of Gothic and horror literature (such as the novels Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus and Dracula) and classic horror films such as Frankenstein (1931) and The Mummy (1932).[157][158] Imagery of the skull, a reference to Golgotha in the Christian tradition, serves as "a reminder of death and the transitory quality of human life" and is consequently found in memento mori and vanitas compositions;[159] skulls have therefore been commonplace in Halloween, which touches on this theme.[160] Traditionally, the back walls of churches are "decorated with a depiction of the Last Judgment, complete with graves opening and the dead rising, with a heaven filled with angels and a hell filled with devils", a motif that has permeated the observance of this triduum.[161] One of the earliest works on the subject of Halloween is from Scottish poet John Mayne, who, in 1780, made note of pranks at Halloween; "What fearfu' pranks ensue!", as well as the supernatural associated with the night, "bogles" (ghosts),[162] influencing Robert Burns' "Halloween" (1785).[163] Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, corn husks, and scarecrows, are also prevalent. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween. Halloween imagery includes themes of death, evil, and mythical monsters.[164] Black cats, which have been long associated with witches, are also a common symbol of Halloween. Black, orange, and sometimes purple are Halloween's traditional colors. Trick-or-treating and guising Main article: Trick-or-treating Trick-or-treating is a customary celebration for children on Halloween. Children go in costume from house to house, asking for treats such as candy or sometimes money, with the question, "Trick or treat?" The word "trick" implies a "threat" to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given.[67] The practice is said to have roots in the medieval practice of mumming, which is closely related to souling.[166] John Pymm wrote that "many of the feast days associated with the presentation of mumming plays were celebrated by the Christian Church."[167] These feast days included All Hallows' Eve, Christmas, Twelfth Night and Shrove Tuesday.[168][169] Mumming practiced in Germany, Scandinavia and other parts of Europe,[170] involved masked persons in fancy dress who "paraded the streets and entered houses to dance or play dice in silence".[ In England, from the medieval period,[172] up until the 1930s,[173] people practiced the Christian custom of souling on Halloween, which involved groups of soulers, both Protestant and Catholic,[96] going from parish to parish, begging the rich for soul cakes, in exchange for praying for the souls of the givers and their friends.[70] In the Philippines, the practice of souling is called Pangangaluluwa and is practiced on All Hallow's Eve among children in rural areas.[29] People drape themselves in white cloths to represent souls and then visit houses, where they sing in return for prayers and sweets.[29] In Scotland and Ireland, guising – children disguised in costume going from door to door for food or coins – is a secular Halloween custom.[174] It is recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895 where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit, and money.[154][175] In Ireland, the most popular phrase for kids to shout (until the 2000s) was "Help the Halloween Party".[174] The practice of guising at Halloween in North America was first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, reported children going "guising" around the neighborhood.[176] American historian and author Ruth Edna Kelley of Massachusetts wrote the first book-length history of Halloween in the US; The Book of Hallowe'en (1919), and references souling in the chapter "Hallowe'en in America".[177] In her book, Kelley touches on customs that arrived from across the Atlantic; "Americans have fostered them, and are making this an occasion something like what it must have been in its best days overseas. All Halloween customs in the United States are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries".[178] While the first reference to "guising" in North America occurs in 1911, another reference to ritual begging on Halloween appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920.[179] The earliest known use in print of the term "trick or treat" appears in 1927, in the Blackie Herald, of Alberta, Canada. The thousands of Halloween postcards produced between the turn of the 20th century and the 1920s commonly show children but not trick-or-treating.[181] Trick-or-treating does not seem to have become a widespread practice in North America until the 1930s, with the first US appearances of the term in 1934,[182] and the first use in a national publication occurring in 1939.[183] A popular variant of trick-or-treating, known as trunk-or-treating (or Halloween tailgating), occurs when "children are offered treats from the trunks of cars parked in a church parking lot", or sometimes, a school parking lot.[103][184] In a trunk-or-treat event, the trunk (boot) of each automobile is decorated with a certain theme,[185] such as those of children's literature, movies, scripture, and job roles.[186] Trunk-or-treating has grown in popularity due to its perception as being more safe than going door to door, a point that resonates well with parents, as well as the fact that it "solves the rural conundrum in which homes [are] built a half-mile apart".[187][188] Costumes Main article: Halloween costume Halloween costumes were traditionally modeled after figures such as vampires, ghosts, skeletons, scary looking witches, and devils.[67] Over time, the costume selection extended to include popular characters from fiction, celebrities, and generic archetypes such as ninjas and princesses. Dressing up in costumes and going "guising" was prevalent in Scotland and Ireland at Halloween by the late 19th century.[154] A Scottish term, the tradition is called "guising" because of the disguises or costumes worn by the children.[175] In Ireland and Scotland, the masks are known as 'false faces',[41][189] a term recorded in Ayr, Scotland in 1890 by a Scot describing guisers: "I had mind it was Halloween . . . the wee callans (boys) were at it already, rinning aboot wi’ their fause-faces (false faces) on and their bits o’ turnip lanthrons (lanterns) in their haun (hand)".[41] Costuming became popular for Halloween parties in the US in the early 20th century, as often for adults as for children, and when trick-or-treating was becoming popular in Canada and the US in the 1920s and 1930s.[180][190] Eddie J. Smith, in his book Halloween, Hallowed is Thy Name, offers a religious perspective to the wearing of costumes on All Hallows' Eve, suggesting that by dressing up as creatures "who at one time caused us to fear and tremble", people are able to poke fun at Satan "whose kingdom has been plundered by our Saviour". Images of skeletons and the dead are traditional decorations used as memento mori. "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF" is a fundraising program to support UNICEF,[67] a United Nations Programme that provides humanitarian aid to children in developing countries. Started as a local event in a Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood in 1950 and expanded nationally in 1952, the program involves the distribution of small boxes by schools (or in modern times, corporate sponsors like Hallmark, at their licensed stores) to trick-or-treaters, in which they can solicit small-change donations from the houses they visit. It is estimated that children have collected more than $118 million for UNICEF since its inception. In Canada, in 2006, UNICEF decided to discontinue their Halloween collection boxes, citing safety and administrative concerns; after consultation with schools, they instead redesigned the program.[193][194] The yearly New York's Village Halloween Parade was begun in 1974; it is the world's largest Halloween parade and America's only major nighttime parade, attracting more than 60,000 costumed participants, two million spectators, and a worldwide television audience.[195] Since the late 2010s, ethnic stereotypes as costumes have increasingly come under scrutiny in the United States.[196][197][198] Pet costumes According to a 2018 report from the National Retail Federation, 30 million Americans will spend an estimated $480 million on Halloween costumes for their pets in 2018. This is up from an estimated $200 million in 2010. The most popular costumes for pets are the pumpkin, followed by the hot dog, and the bumblebee in third place.[199] Games and other activities There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween. Some of these games originated as divination rituals or ways of foretelling one's future, especially regarding death, marriage and children. During the Middle Ages, these rituals were done by a "rare few" in rural communities as they were considered to be "deadly serious" practices.[200] In recent centuries, these divination games have been "a common feature of the household festivities" in Ireland and Britain.[128] They often involve apples and hazelnuts. In Celtic mythology, apples were strongly associated with the Otherworld and immortality, while hazelnuts were associated with divine wisdom.[201] Some also suggest that they derive from Roman practices in celebration of Pomona. The following activities were a common feature of Halloween in Ireland and Britain during the 17th–20th centuries. Some have become more widespread and continue to be popular today. One common game is apple bobbing or dunking (which may be called "dooking" in Scotland)[202] in which apples float in a tub or a large basin of water and the participants must use only their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. A variant of dunking involves kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between the teeth and trying to drive the fork into an apple. Another common game involves hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be eaten without using hands while they remain attached to the string, an activity that inevitably leads to a sticky face. Another once-popular game involves hanging a small wooden rod from the ceiling at head height, with a lit candle on one end and an apple hanging from the other. The rod is spun round and everyone takes turns to try to catch the apple with their teeth. Several of the traditional activities from Ireland and Britain involve foretelling one's future partner or spouse. An apple would be peeled in one long strip, then the peel tossed over the shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse's name.[204][205] Two hazelnuts would be roasted near a fire; one named for the person roasting them and the other for the person they desire. If the nuts jump away from the heat, it is a bad sign, but if the nuts roast quietly it foretells a good match.[206][207] A salty oatmeal bannock would be baked; the person would eat it in three bites and then go to bed in silence without anything to drink. This is said to result in a dream in which their future spouse offers them a drink to quench their thirst.[208] Unmarried women were told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the face of their future husband would appear in the mirror.[209] The custom was widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting cards[210] from the late 19th century and early 20th century. Another popular Irish game was known as púicíní ("blindfolds"); a person would be blindfolded and then would choose between several saucers. The item in the saucer would provide a hint as to their future: a ring would mean that they would marry soon; clay, that they would die soon, perhaps within the year; water, that they would emigrate; rosary beads, that they would take Holy Orders (become a nun, priest, monk, etc.); a coin, that they would become rich; a bean, that they would be poor.[211][212][213][214] The game features prominently in the James Joyce short story "Clay" (1914). In Ireland and Scotland, items would be hidden in food – usually a cake, barmbrack, cranachan, champ or colcannon – and portions of it served out at random. A person's future would be foretold by the item they happened to find; for example, a ring meant marriage and a coin meant wealth.[218] Up until the 19th century, the Halloween bonfires were also used for divination in parts of Scotland, Wales and Brittany. When the fire died down, a ring of stones would be laid in the ashes, one for each person. In the morning, if any stone was mislaid it was said that the person it represented would not live out the year.[113] In Mexico, children create altars to invite the spirits of deceased children to return (angelitos).[219] Telling ghost stories, listening to Halloween-themed songs and watching horror films are common fixtures of Halloween parties. Episodes of television series and Halloween-themed specials (with the specials usually aimed at children) are commonly aired on or before Halloween, while new horror films are often released before Halloween to take advantage of the holiday. Haunted attractions Main article: Haunted attraction (simulated) Haunted attractions are entertainment venues designed to thrill and scare patrons. Most attractions are seasonal Halloween businesses that may include haunted houses, corn mazes, and hayrides,[220] and the level of sophistication of the effects has risen as the industry has grown. The first recorded purpose-built haunted attraction was the Orton and Spooner Ghost House, which opened in 1915 in Liphook, England. This attraction actually most closely resembles a carnival fun house, powered by steam.[221][222] The House still exists, in the Hollycombe Steam Collection. It was during the 1930s, about the same time as trick-or-treating, that Halloween-themed haunted houses first began to appear in America. It was in the late 1950s that haunted houses as a major attraction began to appear, focusing first on California. Sponsored by the Children's Health Home Junior Auxiliary, the San Mateo Haunted House opened in 1957. The San Bernardino Assistance League Haunted House opened in 1958. Home haunts began appearing across the country during 1962 and 1963. In 1964, the San Manteo Haunted House opened, as well as the Children's Museum Haunted House in Indianapolis.[223] The haunted house as an American cultural icon can be attributed to the opening of The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland on 12 August 1969.[224] Knott's Berry Farm began hosting its own Halloween night attraction, Knott's Scary Farm, which opened in 1973.[225] Evangelical Christians adopted a form of these attractions by opening one of the first "hell houses" in 1972.[226] The first Halloween haunted house run by a nonprofit organization was produced in 1970 by the Sycamore-Deer Park Jaycees in Clifton, Ohio. It was cosponsored by WSAI, an AM radio station broadcasting out of Cincinnati, Ohio. It was last produced in 1982.[227] Other Jaycees followed suit with their own versions after the success of the Ohio house. The March of Dimes copyrighted a "Mini haunted house for the March of Dimes" in 1976 and began fundraising through their local chapters by conducting haunted houses soon after. Although they apparently quit supporting this type of event nationally sometime in the 1980s, some March of Dimes haunted houses have persisted until today.[228] On the evening of 11 May 1984, in Jackson Township, New Jersey, the Haunted Castle at Six Flags Great Adventure caught fire. As a result of the fire, eight teenagers perished.[229] The backlash to the tragedy was a tightening of regulations relating to safety, building codes and the frequency of inspections of attractions nationwide. The smaller venues, especially the nonprofit attractions, were unable to compete financially, and the better funded commercial enterprises filled the vacuum.[230][231] Facilities that were once able to avoid regulation because they were considered to be temporary installations now had to adhere to the stricter codes required of permanent attractions.[232][233][234] In the late 1980s and early 1990s, theme parks became a notable figure in the Halloween business. Six Flags Fright Fest began in 1986 and Universal Studios Florida began Halloween Horror Nights in 1991. Knott's Scary Farm experienced a surge in attendance in the 1990s as a result of America's obsession with Halloween as a cultural event. Theme parks have played a major role in globalizing the holiday. Universal Studios Singapore and Universal Studios Japan both participate, while Disney now mounts Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party events at its parks in Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo, as well as in the United States.[235] The theme park haunts are by far the largest, both in scale and attendance.[236] Food Pumpkins for sale during Halloween On All Hallows' Eve, many Western Christian denominations encourage abstinence from meat, giving rise to a variety of vegetarian foods associated with this day.[237] A candy apple Because in the Northern Hemisphere Halloween comes in the wake of the yearly apple harvest, candy apples (known as toffee apples outside North America), caramel apples or taffy apples are common Halloween treats made by rolling whole apples in a sticky sugar syrup, sometimes followed by rolling them in nuts. At one time, candy apples were commonly given to trick-or-treating children, but the practice rapidly waned in the wake of widespread rumors that some individuals were embedding items like pins and razor blades in the apples in the United States.[238] While there is evidence of such incidents,[239] relative to the degree of reporting of such cases, actual cases involving malicious acts are extremely rare and have never resulted in serious injury. Nonetheless, many parents assumed that such heinous practices were rampant because of the mass media. At the peak of the hysteria, some hospitals offered free X-rays of children's Halloween hauls in order to find evidence of tampering. Virtually all of the few known candy poisoning incidents involved parents who poisoned their own children's candy.[240] One custom that persists in modern-day Ireland is the baking (or more often nowadays, the purchase) of a barmbrack (Irish: báirín breac), which is a light fruitcake, into which a plain ring, a coin, and other charms are placed before baking.[241] It is considered fortunate to be the lucky one who finds it.[241] It has also been said that those who get a ring will find their true love in the ensuing year. This is similar to the tradition of king cake at the festival of Epiphany. Halloween-themed foods are also produced by companies in the lead up to the night, for example Cadbury releasing Goo Heads (similar to Creme Eggs) in spooky wrapping.[242] A jack-o'-lantern Halloween cake with a witches hat List of foods associated with Halloween:     Barmbrack (Ireland)     Bonfire toffee (Great Britain)     Candy apples/toffee apples (Great Britain and Ireland)     Candy apples, candy corn, candy pumpkins (North America)     Chocolate     Monkey nuts (peanuts in their shells) (Ireland and Scotland)     Caramel apples     Caramel corn     Colcannon (Ireland; see below)     Halloween cake     Sweets/candy     Novelty candy shaped like skulls, pumpkins, bats, worms, etc.     Roasted pumpkin seeds     Roasted sweet corn     Soul cakes     Pumpkin pie Christian observances On Hallowe'en (All Hallows' Eve), in Poland, believers were once taught to pray out loud as they walk through the forests in order that the souls of the dead might find comfort; in Spain, Christian priests in tiny villages toll their church bells in order to remind their congregants to remember the dead on All Hallows' Eve.[243] In Ireland, and among immigrants in Canada, a custom includes the Christian practice of abstinence, keeping All Hallows' Eve as a meat-free day and serving pancakes or colcannon instead.[244] The Christian Church traditionally observed Hallowe'en through a vigil. Worshippers prepared themselves for feasting on the following All Saints' Day with prayers and fasting.[245] This church service is known as the Vigil of All Hallows or the Vigil of All Saints;[246][247] an initiative known as Night of Light seeks to further spread the Vigil of All Hallows throughout Christendom.[248][249] After the service, "suitable festivities and entertainments" often follow, as well as a visit to the graveyard or cemetery, where flowers and candles are often placed in preparation for All Hallows' Day.[250][251] In England, Light Parties are organized by churches after worship services on Halloween with the focus on Jesus as the Light of the World.[252] In Finland, because so many people visit the cemeteries on All Hallows' Eve to light votive candles there, they "are known as valomeri, or seas of light". Today, Christian attitudes towards Halloween are diverse. In the Anglican Church, some dioceses have chosen to emphasize the Christian traditions associated with All Hallow's Eve.[254][255] Some of these practices include praying, fasting and attending worship services.[1][4][5]     O LORD our God, increase, we pray thee, and multiply upon us the gifts of thy grace: that we, who do prevent the glorious festival of all thy Saints, may of thee be enabled joyfully to follow them in all virtuous and godly living. Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. —Collect of the Vigil of All Saints, The Anglican Breviary Other Protestant Christians also celebrate All Hallows' Eve as Reformation Day, a day to remember the Protestant Reformation, alongside All Hallow's Eve or independently from it.[257] This is because Martin Luther is said to have nailed his Ninety-five Theses to All Saints' Church in Wittenberg on All Hallows' Eve.[258] Often, "Harvest Festivals" or "Reformation Festivals" are held on All Hallows' Eve, in which children dress up as Bible characters or Reformers.[259] In addition to distributing candy to children who are trick-or-treating on Hallowe'en, many Christians also provide gospel tracts to them. One organization, the American Tract Society, stated that around 3 million gospel tracts are ordered from them alone for Hallowe'en celebrations.[260] Others order Halloween-themed Scripture Candy to pass out to children on this day. Some Christians feel concerned about the modern celebration of Halloween because they feel it trivializes – or celebrates – paganism, the occult, or other practices and cultural phenomena deemed incompatible with their beliefs.[263] Father Gabriele Amorth, an exorcist in Rome, has said, "if English and American children like to dress up as witches and devils on one night of the year that is not a problem. If it is just a game, there is no harm in that."[264] In more recent years, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has organized a "Saint Fest" on Halloween.[265] Similarly, many contemporary Protestant churches view Halloween as a fun event for children, holding events in their churches where children and their parents can dress up, play games, and get candy for free. To these Christians, Halloween holds no threat to the spiritual lives of children: being taught about death and mortality, and the ways of the Celtic ancestors actually being a valuable life lesson and a part of many of their parishioners' heritage.[266] Christian minister Sam Portaro wrote that Halloween is about using "humor and ridicule to confront the power of death".[267] In the Roman Catholic Church, Halloween's Christian connection is acknowledged, and Halloween celebrations are common in many Catholic parochial schools, such as in the United States,[268][269] while schools throughout Ireland also close for the Halloween break.[270][271] Many fundamentalist and evangelical churches use "Hell houses" and comic-style tracts in order to make use of Halloween's popularity as an opportunity for evangelism.[272] Others consider Halloween to be completely incompatible with the Christian faith due to its putative origins in the Festival of the Dead celebration.[273] Indeed, even though Eastern Orthodox Christians observe All Hallows' Day on the First Sunday after Pentecost, the Eastern Orthodox Church recommends the observance of Vespers or a Paraklesis on the Western observance of All Hallows' Eve, out of the pastoral need to provide an alternative to popular celebrations.[274] Analogous celebrations and perspectives Judaism Main article: Jews and Halloween According to Alfred J. Kolatch in the Second Jewish Book of Why, in Judaism, Halloween is not permitted by Jewish Halakha because it violates Leviticus 18:3, which forbids Jews from partaking in gentile customs. Many Jews observe Yizkor communally four times a year, which is vaguely similar to the observance of Allhallowtide in Christianity, in the sense that prayers are said for both "martyrs and for one's own family".[275] Nevertheless, many American Jews celebrate Halloween, disconnected from its Christian origins.[276] Reform Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser has said that "There is no religious reason why contemporary Jews should not celebrate Halloween" while Orthodox Rabbi Michael Broyde has argued against Jews' observing the holiday.[277] Purim has sometimes been compared to Halloween, in part due to some observants wearing costumes, especially of Biblical figures described in the Purim narrative.[278] Islam Sheikh Idris Palmer, author of A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam, has ruled that Muslims should not participate in Halloween, stating that "participation in Halloween is worse than participation in Christmas, Easter, ... it is more sinful than congratulating the Christians for their prostration to the crucifix".[279] It has also been ruled to be haram by the National Fatwa Council of Malaysia because of its alleged pagan roots stating "Halloween is celebrated using a humorous theme mixed with horror to entertain and resist the spirit of death that influence humans".[280][281] Dar Al-Ifta Al-Missriyyah disagrees provided the celebration is not referred to as an 'eid' and that behaviour remains in line with Islamic principles.[282] Hinduism Hindus remember the dead during the festival of Pitru Paksha, during which Hindus pay homage to and perform a ceremony "to keep the souls of their ancestors at rest". It is celebrated in the Hindu month of Bhadrapada, usually in mid-September.[283] The celebration of the Hindu festival Diwali sometimes conflicts with the date of Halloween; but some Hindus choose to participate in the popular customs of Halloween.[284] Other Hindus, such as Soumya Dasgupta, have opposed the celebration on the grounds that Western holidays like Halloween have "begun to adversely affect our indigenous festivals".[285] Neopaganism There is no consistent rule or view on Halloween amongst those who describe themselves as Neopagans or Wiccans. Some Neopagans do not observe Halloween, but instead observe Samhain on 1 November,[286] some neopagans do enjoy Halloween festivities, stating that one can observe both "the solemnity of Samhain in addition to the fun of Halloween". Some neopagans are opposed to the celebration of Hallowe'en, stating that it "trivializes Samhain",[287] and "avoid Halloween, because of the interruptions from trick or treaters".[288] The Manitoban writes that "Wiccans don't officially celebrate Halloween, despite the fact that 31 Oct. will still have a star beside it in any good Wiccan's day planner. Starting at sundown, Wiccans celebrate a holiday known as Samhain. Samhain actually comes from old Celtic traditions and is not exclusive to Neopagan religions like Wicca. While the traditions of this holiday originate in Celtic countries, modern day Wiccans don't try to historically replicate Samhain celebrations. Some traditional Samhain rituals are still practised, but at its core, the period is treated as a time to celebrate darkness and the dead – a possible reason why Samhain can be confused with Halloween celebrations."[286] Geography Main article: Geography of Halloween The traditions and importance of Halloween vary greatly among countries that observe it. In Scotland and Ireland, traditional Halloween customs include children dressing up in costume going "guising", holding parties, while other practices in Ireland include lighting bonfires, and having firework displays.[174][289][290] In Brittany children would play practical jokes by setting candles inside skulls in graveyards to frighten visitors.[291] Mass transatlantic immigration in the 19th century popularized Halloween in North America, and celebration in the United States and Canada has had a significant impact on how the event is observed in other nations.[174] This larger North American influence, particularly in iconic and commercial elements, has extended to places such as Brazil, Ecuador, Chile,[292] Australia,[293] New Zealand,[294] (most) continental Europe, Finland,[295] Japan, and other parts of East Asia.[16] Cost According to the National Retail Federation, Americans are expected to spend $12.2 billion on Halloween in 2023, up from $10.6 billion in 2022. Of this amount, $3.9 billion is projected to be spent on home decorations, up from $2.7 billion in 2019. The popularity of Halloween decorations has been growing in recent years, with retailers offering a wider range of increasingly elaborate and oversized decorations." (wikipedia.org)
  • Condition: Used
  • Condition: In very good, pre-owned condition. Please see photos and description.
  • Pattern: No Pattern
  • Shape: Round
  • Occasion: Halloween
  • Size: Medium
  • Color: Orange
  • Material: Ceramic
  • Year Manufactured: 1982
  • Item Length: 9 in
  • Subject: Halloween
  • Brand: Unbranded
  • Type: Jack-O-Lantern
  • Original/Licensed Reproduction: Original
  • Item Height: 7 in
  • Theme: Fruit
  • Features: Artist Designed, Handmade, Vintage
  • Time Period Manufactured: 1980-1989
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: Unknown
  • Handmade: Yes
  • Item Width: 9 in
  • Item Weight: 53 oz

PicClick Insights - 1982 HANDMADE CERAMIC JACK-O-LANTERN Halloween planter flower pot fangs 80s RARE PicClick Exclusive

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