Taken from the Ink Blot, published semi-monthly by "The Fellowship of the Black Spot," Feb. 2002 Issue, used by permission:

I know this isn't my usual turf, and I have no desire to become a "Site of the Issue, pt. 2." Nevertheless, in the grand tradition of Richard Washington, I just have to tell youse guys about a way cool website I found whilst surfing the web a while ago.

To begin, let me tell you a little story. I, intrepid cyber-traveler, entered the information superhighway at the end of October in search of the origins of Halloween. Why was I driven to seek such forbidden knowledge? Well, you see, after listening to some of my co-workers freak because we were celebrating the holiday at work, and my pastor at church preaching much the same message, I decided that I needed to find out for myself the real truth behind the holiday, good or bad. Personally, my feeling was that it doesn't matter where Halloween came from, it's what the holiday represents now--a time to dress up and get candy--that's important. And why do these same people celebrate Halloween and Easter, with their similarly pagan traditions. These were mostly vague and unsubstantiated feelings I had with no real facts to back them up. And so, off I went in search of truth.

Starting with Google (great search engine, that Google), I typed in "origins of Halloween" and went forth. First, I got a Wiccan dude's site. Quite in favor of Halloween, he was. Perfectly harmless, said he. Alrighty. Next, I clicked on a fundamentalist Christian site. Can you guess? "Evil, Evil, EVIL," they said. "SATANISM," said they! Oh, dear. Not exactly the levelheaded, fairly objective, factual sites I was looking for and hoping to find.

Next, I clicked on the site of one Joseph Bethancourt at www.locksley.com, and went to the section called, "6696: Rants and Raves" There I found an article called "Halloween: Myths, Monsters, and Devils." I coulda cried. From the first few paragraphs of this article, I could tell this site was exactly what I was looking for. Here's what I read:

"Every year, right around Halloween, we are treated to an outpouring of what can only be described as "scare" literature telling us all about how the holiday is 'satanic' and evil, and should not be celebrated by Christians. These opinions are backed up with some rather unusual and very frightening fantasies masquerading as historical facts.

This article is -not- intended to address whether or not Satan exists, nor to show that witches are all nice, grainola-eating vegetarians and tree-huggers who wouldn't harm a fly, nor is it an attack on Fundamentalist Christianity, but rather a discussion concerning some of the so-called 'facts' offered in some of the anti-Halloween publications."

Oh, yeah. Definitely what I was looking for. What followed was a very interesting, well thought out discussion of the history of Halloween as it pertained to the lovely little pamphlets Joe referred to in his opening paragraphs. For example, I found it interesting that even though one of the tracts Joe refers to identifies Halloween as celebrating some sort of evil druid "lord of the dead" named Samhain, Joe presents evidence that there is no such deity in the Celtic tradition, from which Halloween comes. Samhain actually means "summers end," and so was the Celtic name for the time of the season. Unfortunately, says Joe, much of what we know of the druid's teachings were written by their enemies, the Roman Empire, since they had no written tradition of their own. "Taking what the Romans said about the Druids as fact is rather like taking what the Romans wrote about Christians as fact," says Joe. The Romans wrote accounts of Christian rituals as if they were cannibals and debauchers, you see. Fascinating stuff, I thought. After reading that excellent article, I went on to explore the rest of his site

What I discovered was a remarkable man with a lot of different interests. According to his site, he is a popular Phoenix, Arizona entertainer who knows how to play 64 different instruments. His specialty appears to be the banjo. He describes himself as a professional folklorist, which he says is someone who collects and studies traditional songs and stories, and also a professional folk musician. The thing that struck me most about him was his attempt at objectivity. I also loved his statement that he rejoiced in any decision someone might make on the subject of Halloween, as long as it was an informed decision. He really emphasized that people should make up their own minds about things, and that he was merely providing the facts as best he could on some of these subjects.

As for the rest of his site, it's put together well with some stylistic bells and whistles that are nice but not overpowering. Actually, there's so much stuff there that I can't even begin to list it all here. Just start on the main page and go wandering. There are links there to several topics that would be of special interest to gamers. You will find articles on everything from Medieval history (including medieval prices), to the Old West, the SCA, filk singing (folk singing at conventions), how to survive your first science fiction convention (advice that would probably apply to gaming conventions, too), Campus Crusade for Cthulhu, and the words to "Real Old Time Religion" What! You've never heard of "Real Old Time Religion"? Well, here's a sample:

"Oh, we will all see Aphrodite,
though she's pretty wild and flighty,
but she will meet us in her nightie,
and that's good enough for me.

Gimme that old time religion ...."

You get the idea. That's my favorite verse, by the way, because it reminds me of the gamers at college. There are also other bits of humor, an article about role-playing games and Satanism (written by Michael Stackpole), articles on the pagan origins of Christmas and Easter as well as the aforementioned Halloween article, and his stance on gun control, to name but a few. Not to mention the button that didn't want to be pushed. Whew. Lots to see here, people. As the main page says, "be prepared to have an Adventure, and pack a lunch. Have fun."

I would agree. I hope that you will find this site as interesting, helpful and entertaining as I did. Enjoy.

Erica