Royal Pumpkin Spice

Pumpkin Spice Season

Oct 3

Tartan design by Deborah Savage

Sunset

Pumpkin Festival Days

Oct 20

Tartan design by Carol A.L. Martin

Nuts and Bolts

Nutting Parties & Nutcrack Night

Oct 22

Tartan design by Carol A.L. Martin

Dark Grey Wolf

Werewolf Night

Oct 24

Tartan design by Carol A.L. Martin

Green Flash

Ghosts & Phantoms Night

Oct 25

Tartan design by Carol A.L. Martin

Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin Day

Oct 26

Tartan design by Carol A.L. Martin

Black Cat

Black Cat Day

Oct 27

Tartan design by Carol A.L. Martin

Black Magic

Hallowe'en Season

Oct 28

Tartan design by Carol A.L. Martin

Witches' Blood

Witches' Night Out

Oct 28

Tartan design by Jonathan Brown

Vampire

Dracula Bites Night

Oct 29

Tartan design by Carol A.L. Martin

Hot Devil

Mischief Night

Oct 30

Tartan design by Carol A.L. Martin

Little Brown Bat

Dracula Bites Night

Oct 30

Tartan design by Carol A.L. Martin

Halloween

Hallowe'en

Oct 31

Tartan design by Carol A.L. Martin

Pumpkin & Spices

Pumpkin Spice Season

Oct 3

The American craze for all things pumpkin spice is a relatively new one, but the arrival of the Pumpkin Spice Latté in Starbucks Coffee Houses is fondly awaited by many as a tasty harbinger of the autumnal holiday season

Pumpkin Patch at Sunset

Pumpkin Festival Days

Oct 20

Although a plant from the New World, pumpkins quickly gained a special place in the literature and folklore of harvest time and Hallowe'en. Other famous pumpkins in literature include: Cinderella's pumpkin carriage; the shatttered pumpkin of the Headless Horseman from Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; Jack Pumpkinhead from Frank L. Baum's The Marvelous Land of Oz; and Feathertop, from Nathaniel Hawthorne's tale of the same name, featuring a bewitched scarecrow with a pumpkin head!

Party Mix

Nutting Parties & Nutcrack Night

Oct 22

Apart from apples, nuts were another important part of the traditional harvest season and a favourite item for celebration (particularly walnuts, chestnuts, and hazelnuts) for Hallowe'en divinations spells, usually to foretell one's romantic future. ​ Several Scottish fortune-telling belief centered on the burning of hazelnuts or chestnuts on Hallowe'en, also called Nutcrack Night.

Wolf or Werewolf?

Werewolf Night

Oct 24

A werewolf is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or a wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction (e.g. by a bite or scratch from another werewolf). The magical ability to assume the form and characteristics of a wolf is known as lycanthropism, or lycanthropy. ​ There was no widespread belief in werewolves in medieval Europe before the 14th century, though the concept of animal shape-shifting goes back much further.

Green Flash

Ghosts & Phantoms Night

Oct 25

Green flashes and green rays are rare optical phenomena that occur shortly after sunset or before sunrise, usually observed from a low altitude where there is an unobstructed view of the horizon, such as on the ocean.

"The Runners"

Pumpkin Day

Oct 26

There is a strong connection in folklore and popular culture between pumpkins and the supernatural. Famous literary examples include: ​ The folk tale of Cinderella, in which the fairy godmother turns a pumpkin into a carriage - which reverts back to its pumpkin form at midnight; The pumpkin hurled by the "Headless Horseman" in Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"; Nathaniel Hawthorne's short-story, "Feathertop", in which a witch turns a scarecrow with a "pumpkin-head" into a man.

Black Cat

Black Cat Day

Oct 27

The folklore surrounding black cats varies from culture to culture, with black cats being reckoned either as harbingers of good fortune or conversely, of bad tidings.

That Old Black Magic!

Hallowe'en Season

Oct 28

Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts, who lived over 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1, a day marking the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter. The Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred.

Weird Sisters

Witches' Night Out

Oct 28

The Three Witches or Weird Sisters are characters in William Shakespeare's Scottish play Macbeth (c. 1603–1607). ​ Shakespeare's witches are prophets who hail Macbeth, the general, early in the play, and prophesy his ascent to king. Upon killing King Duncan and ascending the throne of Scotland, Macbeth hears them ambiguously prophesy his eventual downfall. The darkly contradictory witches, their "filthy" trappings and supernatural activities, all set the ominous tone for the play.

Dracula & Vampires

Dracula Bites Night

Oct 29

The charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was born in 1819 with the highly successful publication of The Vampyre by John Polidori. However, it is Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula which is remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and provides the basis of the modern vampire legend and the gaunt, pale undead figure recognized today.

Simplicissimus Illustrierte Wochensc

Mischief Night

Oct 30

Mischief Night, also sometimes known as Devil's Eve or Devil's Night is an informal holiday in which historically, children and teens engage in pranks and minor devilment, and is commonly held the night before Halloween - a night for tricks instead of treats. ​ In the past, children and teens would play pranks which included ringing false alarms, ringing doorbells and leaving before someone answers, stealing gates, setting fires, and breaking windows.

Bat under a full moon

Dracula Bites Night

Oct 30

Bats have been associated with the mysterious and the supernatural long before Bram Stoker's novel Dracula (1897) cemented the connection between these creatures of the night and the vampires of folklore. ​ Stoker's major contribution was his introduction of the idea that a vampire could shape shift into the form of a bat (as well as that of a wolf or mist). In his pursuit and seduction of Lucy, Count Dracula frequently disguises himself in the form of a large bat which flaps at her window.

Jack o'lanterns

Hallowe'en

Oct 31

Ghosts and goblins, jack-o-lanterns and witches, trick-or-treating, and spooky nights - Happy Hallowe'en!