All Hallow's Eve at the historical village

Tonight I had one of greatest nights I have had in a long timeJ Together with a few co-workers, we went to The Ohio Historical Society’s “All Hallows Eve” night in the historic Ohio village.

The village itself is a recreation of life in the 1860’s, and features a complete small village with gas street lamps, houses and offices, a church and well-everything else a village had back then!

Everything was all decorated for Halloween-Jack O’ Lanterns, bales of hay and candlit illuminaries lined the streets. Costumed re-enactors walked amongst the crowd, and the night was full of activities such as fortune telling, pumpkin carving, ghost stories by firelight, street entertainers, foods and drinks of the era and season-and OH-And one other thing-there was DANCING!! In the Town Hall, the chairs had been cleared away and we all danced the Virginia Reel which is an early colonial ballroom dance that is elegant and fun! The fiddles and guitar by a duo of really good musicians played while we all laughed and fumbled through the moves as we learned the steps. I am telling you-it was freakin’ awesome! I had a great, GREAT time.

Below:While NOT from this evening (heck I don't even know the people in this video), this is what the Virginia Reel is..I love traditional dances like this.

 

The nights festivities ran from 6 until 9:30. As we walked through the village and participated in the many Halloween related activities, I also just had a great time wandering through the replica homes, shops, offices, school rooms-I loved the wood floors, the old fireplaces..everything was lit by candles and oil lamps. It was terribly romantic.. and of course-it was the PERFECT Halloween setting.

The night concluded in the village square with a historically based funeral procession (of an imaginary person). After that, there was a reading of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow during which Ichabod Crane was pursued by the Headless horseman along the dirt streets, hooves thundering as they passed by.. It was really impressive seeing the headless horseman gallop by, and I had a great time watching all the kids throughout the entire evening. Holidays are definitely for the kids!J

As I was leaving, I overheard a mother telling her children something that I totally agreed with, and I thought I would write a bit about it. She said “we sure have lost a lot of the spirit of Halloween-because everything now is just costumes and candy.” Wow do I agree with that, and this evening just really showed how much we have lost.

All night long, I participated in dozens of fortune type games-you remember-those games where by doing this or that, you can find out if you will be married, or if you will have a happy life-that kind of stuff? And of course, there was the story telling by firelight, the dancing, all the foods and the family togetherness that I saw all around me…. It really felt like a community celebration and the much, much deeper meaning behind Halloween was something almost tangible..I literally felt a connection with the past..-and to be-that’s what every holiday should be. It’s really sad that Halloween-like almost every other holiday, has become so commercialized-it’s about what you can buy, rather than who you are with or what you are doing.. And even when we are with people, it’s often family and a few friends-not an entire village celebration like it used to be. We often run around frantically trying to get ready for the holiday that we are too exhausted to really do any of the run things.. I am really glad that I went tonight.

Now, as almost everyone knows-I really don’t like the hack and slash scary Halloween stuff-in fact, that stuff just kind of groses me out. I love the Disney sort of Halloween (Haunted Mansion), I love the Sleepy Hollow kind of Halloween..the Dracula sort of Halloween. Of course I love trick or treat-but that’s only one teeny tiny part in my opinion. Anyone who just celebrated Halloween by buying some candy..well you are TOTALLY missing out on PURE MAGIC!J

To me, Halloween is pure magic. It brings out the kid in me. It fires my imagination. During one month out of the year, I believe that it is perfectly ok-in fact I think it’s healthy, to look at the “darker” side of life-of things that scare us. On Halloween we almost gleefully embrace the very things we are all terrified of.. It’s so..well, human. It’s a way of facing our fears…

So anyway, tonight I had a lot of fun. If you live in Ohio-and are near the central Ohio area, you have one last chance to attend the “All Hallows Eve” at the Ohio Historical Society. Next Saturday night (October 28^th) is the last night for this season. You can find more information here.

Well-I finally finished all of my Halloween decorating this past Friday. And this evening, when I came home I found that the upper section of my wall gossamer had fallen down (sad!), so I need to get that back up there. But other than that-and of course all the cooking, the house is done and ready! Lots of Jack O’ Lanterns, candles, skulls and ghosts..the living room chairs and couches are all covered with white sheets, cobwebs hang from walls and ceilings.. my living room looks completely different than it does throughout the year! Good lord how I love HalloweenJ

Ohio State won today (Freakin’ yeah!), but of course I couldn’t watch the game because ESPN put it on ESPNU, some new cable channel that isn’t even offered around here. Needless to say that pissed me off but what can ya do. But with this win, OSU continues to roll!~onwards to the game vs. that team up north-and once past that. I can’t wait to drub those guys good. There just isn’t anything better than defeating M*ch*g*n.

So, all in all I am doing really well, and I have had a great weekend so farJ Below are a few pictures from tonight.

Above: Same picture as below, but I just wanted to play with it a bit to make it look more spooky:)


Above
Sure the streets are a muddy mess, but isn't that just a beautiful picture?



 


Above:
In every house there was some activity. Here, in the school House, re-enactors led the children in period Halloween songs.


Above:
They had a craft table set up for the kids, and of course, myself being just a big kid stopped to make a Halloween decoration:P


Above:
Looking into the Town Hall where the dancing was just getting started!


Above:
Re-enactors showing us the steps.


Above:
This picture just doesn't do the night justice. The illuminaries were so cool (I accidently knocked one over and set it on fire-then had to kick it into the street and stamp on it to put it out..lol). Every house was lit by candlelight and oil lamps and of course that meant that outside, the windows had this soft flickering glow that you could see..and inside every house was just amazing-completely detailed and decorated!


Above:
It was pretty busy and most of the houses were pretty small-which is why I didn't get more pictures. But I finally lept into the Pharmacy and snapped a picture just to show the amazing detail of the interiors.


Above:
I think this is the town hotel. But anyway, it really looked beautiful.

I wanted to get pictures of the headless horseman and all-but they said no flash photography because well-they didn't want to spook the horses and have them run over the kids-(which would probably wreck the night for everyone-especially the kid..). I did capture it on my camcorder but who knows when I will get that converted into a mpeg.



...thus ended my night at The Ohio Historical Village!