*************************************************************

Welcome to The Primitive Cornish Hovel. A place where I will share my love of prim, vintage, family history, many interests & everyday life. I hope to show you a glimpse of a bygone age through the history of my family & the many 'treasures' I hold dear. Mixed in with this will be snippets of life today. Do drop in again for a visit to see what is happening at 'The Hovel'. Comments are welcomed.

*************************************************************

Friday, 31 October 2008

A Merry All Hallows Eve

*********
********
Welcome to the Hovel on this All Hallows Eve. A day of expectation that ends with a night of magic, trick or treat and lighted pumpkins. Sadly this year I will not be dressing up or decorating my house due to the builders transforming my bathroom!!!! My house has also been transformed to a place of dust, storage & mayhem. For example the new bath is in the lounge, the new shower in the hallway and the new toilet and sink in the kitchen. Climbing up the stairs is like tackling an assault course and the novelty of using the downstairs shower and toilet is losing its appeal (due to being outside in the utility room!!!!)....But that tale can wait for another time for tonight is Halloween or Samhain (pronounced "sow-en" and comes from the Gaelic “Samhuin,”) as it is known by Wiccans & Pagans......
********

********
Halloween conjures up images of witches, goblins, ghosts and ghouls that appear as if by magic at our front doors when darkness falls. The giggles and smiling faces however tells us that they are nothing but children out Trick or Treating. It has been very quite this evening with only a few venturing to my door but the bowl of goodies is waiting for the brave and hardy.....

********

********
For most of us Halloween is celebrated by children dressing up and going from door to door shouting ‘trick or treat’. Adults in turn also like to dress up and have a party and I for one have many happy memories of such times. Yet this night for Wiccans and Pagans it's considered a Sabbat to honor the ancestors who came before us. It is the time of year where the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest so souls of the dead can enter the land of the living. Also known as 'Ancestor night', All Hallows Eve is the night before All Saints Day, which is followed by All Souls Day on November 2nd. It is said to be the days when souls walked the Earth. There is an old English custom of "soul-caking," or "souling," when singers went about on these two days to beg for cakes in remembrance of the dead. It was also customary at Samhain to leave an empty chair and a plate of food for any dead guests, so that they would not be offended. At the stroke of midnight - believed to be the hour the dead visited - all remained silent in respect

********

********

Another name for October 31st is 'The Oracle of the Nuts'. With the chill of autumn nights people would gather around their fires eating newly harvested hazelnuts or chestnuts. From throwing nuts into the fire several fortune-telling customs grew. One such custom was that a young man would give each nut the name of a possible sweetheart and watch to see which burned the brightest in the flames.......
~~~~~~~~
‘The Spell ~ John Gay’
Two hazel-nuts I threw into the flame,
And to each nut I gave a sweetheart’s name:
This with the loudest bounce me sore amazed,
That in a flame of brightest colour blazed;
As blazed the nut, so may thy passion grow,
For ’twas thy nut that did so brightly glow!

~~~~~~~~
Nuts were also used as magic charms at Halloween because here in Britain people believed that the Devil was a nut-gatherer.....
********
Many other rituals and superstitions are associated with this night. From lighting bonfires to looking in a mirror to see the person you will marry. 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. However, if they were destined to die before marriage, a skull would appear.....
********
********

Candles also play a major part in rituals performed on All Hallows Eve. One such ceremony, called the ‘Lating of the Witches’, took place at the Forest of Pendle in North Lancashire. Locals believed witches gathered here on this night, so between 11 p.m and midnight candles were lit and carried over the hill - lighting the witches or 'lating' them. If a candle stayed lit then the witches' power was broken, but if it went out - blown out by a witch - bad luck may follow.......
********

********

A lighted candle is also seen inside a gorged out pumpkin, also known as Jack O’Lantern, a name believed to derive from an old Irish tale. It’s believed that a villain by the name of Jack was not allowed to enter Heaven or Hell when he died and was condemned to wander the land with only a candle, placed inside gorged out vegetable, to see his way. Thus he became known as ‘Jack of the Lantern’ or ‘Jack O’Latern’.......

********

********

Alongside rituals and ceremonies games are also played. Most of us at sometime would have played ‘Apple Bobbing’ or ‘Snap Apple’ as it is known in Ireland. Great fun is had with this as you duck and dive to try and grasp the apple with your teeth. It is believed that girls who place the apple they bobbed under their pillows are said to dream of their future lover.....

********

********

Believed to originate in Celtic times, when apples were associated with love or fertility, the game’s popularity is falling. There is however a variation on the game where the apples are hung on string on a line....

********

********

I hope you had a merry Halloween and enjoyed the fun of Trick or Treat. As the bewitching hour is approaching I will say goodnight. Until next time.....lol....

~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

'If you go to a crossroads at Halloween and listen to the wind, you will learn all the most important things that will befall you during the next twelve months.....'

~~~~
'You should walk around your home three times backwards and counterclockwise before sunset on Halloween to ward off evil spirits.....'

~~~~
'If you ring a bell on Halloween, it will scare evil spirits away....'


~~~~~~~~~~

Saturday, 4 October 2008

Decades of Hairstyles!!!!

********************
Hello there and what a busy but enjoyable week I’ve had and despite the wet weather on Saturday my young friend Charlotte and I decided to still go and visit my adorable step-granddaughter in Camborne as planned. After first waiting at the train station for a train that didn’t stop at Hayle on Saturdays (sounds like the joke from the Cornish comedian Jethro) we finally arrived after a kind gentleman, who also wanted the train, gave us a lift. We were grateful but it meant being dropped off at the opposite end of the town to where we wanted to be. That was ok because then I had an excuse to look at the shops on the way. Got some great bargains at the charity shops, mainly for grandbaby of course..lol...Having not walked to my future DinL’s flat before and trusting Charlotte’s promise that it was only 10 minutes walk, I decided to forgo a ride in a taxi.....mistake. Now normally I love to walk but on this occasion we were not only loaded down with bin bags full of goodies (well I did say I got some good bargains!!!) it was also raining and windy. So off we trotted for this ’10 minute’ walk which magically turned into nearly ½ hour.....it didn’t help that I have little legs (in length not width!) and Charlotte is not only a lot younger but is blessed with long legs!!!! Despite arriving like drowned rats we did enjoy our time and then later my son drove us home......
********************
After having a full day out I decided to sit down with a coffee, unwind and check out some of the blogs I like to visit, and I’m so glad I did because I ended having a really good laugh...at myself!!!! It was while visiting Linda’s blog Blue Eyed Girl that I found a link to www.yearbookyourself.com/ and its’ hysterical. If you want to find out if different hairstyles suit you this is the site to visit, be warned you will laugh your socks off......also check out Linda’s photos...lol....
********************

So I thought you may want to start laughing here. Now some of these are a bit scary, well to me they are. I used the photo I have here on my blog and just had fun adding the different styles....I've decided that I’m glad I am in my 50’s now and not back then...hehe...

**********************

How cool is this!!!! Is this how I
Would have look in 1966
********



OMG Just look at those glasses.
Is this really me in 1960!!!!!


********



How innocent would I have looked
in 1968...hehe....
********

Just look at those pearls in 1970

********

1974 - I can relate to this hairstyle!

********

I don't think the afro works for me - 1978

********

Please tell me no one had hair like this - 1982

********

But my sister had this one - 1984

********

Never!!!! - 1988

********

I think we all agree blond is not for me.....1996

********************

I hope I haven't bored you too much with so many photos of me but it did make me laugh seeing myself with these 'hairstyles', thank goodness I only ever had one of these....the one with the long straight hair.....But I hope they made you smile at least.......Enjoy your Sunday & take care till next time....lol....

********************

Last night I lay in bed looking up at the stars in the sky and I thought to myself, 'where the heck is the ceiling'

********

'Behind every successful man is a surprised woman' ~ Maryon Pearson ~

********

WHAT are the three words guaranteed to humiliate men everywhere? 'Hold my purse.'

********