#folklore

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Halloween could be seen as a point at which time slips from one segment of the year into another, a no-man's land of the calendar in which normal rules are suspended, and the usually rigid borders between rowdiness and order, fantasy and reality, good taste and bad, and even the realms of life and death become blurred. Halloween's misty origins can be traced back to the Irish Samhain - a great feast of the dead - and the festival later developed through the Catholic feasts of All Souls and All Saints. It's a time when the dead and the otherworldly have always been seen as near. My article: https://www.davidcastleton.net/halloween-history-origins-samhain/

A black-and-white photo showing a group of kneeling children apple bobbing around a water-filled tub. Two adults dressed as ghosts are behind them before a screen decorated with two flying, skull-headed ghosts and a notice saying 'Shake hands with the ghost'.

In Swedish folklore, glacial erratic blocks are called Jättekast (Giant's throw).

In old times, people couldn't fathom how these giant blocks could have ended up in the middle of a field, and the common explanation was that giants threw them in attempts to crush the churches.

They couldn't stand the sound of the church bells.

Painted using Procreate.

Two giants in the distance, one of them throwing a giant rock towards a church in the mid ground. In the foreground, we see people running in panic.

Newcastle's Lit and Phil Library is the UK's largest independent library outside London. It is built across the path of Hadrian's Wall, with some of its stonework visible in the basement. Founded in 1793, the library is said to have 16 ghosts, including a librarian who haunts the basement, a witchfinder general, and a little girl. There have been reports of books falling mysteriously from shelves, disembodied voices telling people to 'ssshh' and strange lights at night.

Spectacular interior of Newcastle's Lit and Phil Library, with vaulted ceiling, second floor galleries with red ironwork railings, and large circular skylights.

Day 13: Yokai

Chōchin'obake (提灯お化け) or Lantern Ghost, is my chosen Yōkai this year! Always a bit scary linocutting Japanese lettering, always scared it will end up saying something it shouldn’t but think I got it right this time. And thought it deserved to be in a lovely gold ink on black paper.

'obake

In the Oxford suburb of Headington, you can see a large model of a shark sticking out of the roof of a terrace house. This artwork is, apparently, a protest against nuclear proliferation. On the 41st anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki, the house's owner hired a crane to position the 25-foot, 200-kilogram fibreglass sculpture in a hole in his roof. He said, "The shark was to express someone feeling totally impotent and ripping a hole in their roof out of a sense of impotence and anger and desperation ... It is saying something about CND, nuclear power, Chernobyl and Nagasaki." The shark is thought to be a metaphor for bombs crashing into buildings.

Large sculpture of a shark embedded headfirst in the roof of a redbrick terrace house under a blue sky.