Illustration Friday "Ghost?"

This week's theme for "Illustration Friday" was Ghost. Here is a little history on Halloween F.Y. I.-
Halloween- Originated as a Celtic Harvest Fest-It is the evening before "All Saints Day" - a Christian religious holiday. As was typical, the church holidays were set at the same time as pagan holidays with hopes the people would abandon their rituals. Instead- a melding of the two happened and today we have both religious and pagan roots in holiday traditions. A night where the spiritual world and the physical world are intertwined.
Black Cats- originally seen as "good luck" when a black cat cross your path , the Church associated them with Witches and through that association, the stigma changed to "bad luck"
Jack-o-lanterns- Comes from an Irish Folktale where after losing a deal with the devil- A not so clever farmer ends up becoming "Jack of the Lantern" and wanders the earth with a candle lit inside of a turnip."

Most of our Halloween tradition came with the immigrants from Ireland in the 1800's. And much of it was melted together in America and then adopted out to other countries- such as Canada, UK and Australia as a 20th century "pop culture" tradition!
(from Wikipedia.com)