Goldilox and the Three Scares: Jenn Stark's Three Favorite Halloween Traditions

It's that time of year once again - time for Goldilox and the Three Scares!

Because it's called three scares, we asked a few of our favorite authors to give us a scary top three list.

Today's Post Comes From Jenn Stark

I'm so excited that Jenn Stark agreed to participate in Goldilox and the Three Scares with us! I discovered her Immortal Vegas books this year and loved the first book! I'm so excited to see where it goes!

Three Favorite Halloween Traditions

Thanks, Rose Red, for inviting me to be a part of Goldilox and the Three Scares! Now that I’ve launched my Immortal Vegas series, I have been immersed in all sorts of magic and mayhem, so any blog on Halloween is right up my alley. ☺

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, in fact, as ancient as it is up-to-the-moment relevant. According to History.com, Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in), a little over 2,000 years ago. Samhain was a festival that straddled fall and winter, life and death. The Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead thinned, allowing the spirits of the dead to walk among the living.

Spooky stuff, no? Not as intriguing as these three Samhain (or Halloween) traditions!

1. Soul Cakes

Soul Cakes are small round cakes which are traditionally made for All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day to honor the dead. The cakes were usually filled with all manner of delicious things: allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger or other sweet spices, raisins or currants. Before the cakes were baked, they were topped with the mark of a cross. Today’s “trick or treat” plea for candy has its roots in the practice of individuals (usually children) asking for these soul cakes, or “souling.” In Elizabethan England, legend held that if you ate a soul cake in the honor of a deceased person, that individual’s soul would be released from purgatory. Even if it wasn’t true, that story probably helped sell a LOT of soul cakes!

2. Carving Pumpkins

Who hasn’t marveled at some of the amazing carved pumpkins gracing front porches in the weeks leading up to Halloween? As it turns out, the original glowing pumpkins weren’t pumpkins at all! The Irish carved turnips and put coals or small candles inside to achieve that eerie, flickering light effect. They set the turnips outside their homes on All Hallow's Eve to ward off evil spirits. When turnips weren’t available, rutabagas or even potatoes were used. Anyone up for carving a potato?

Fortunately, when Irish Immigrants came to America, they quickly discovered that Jack O' Lanterns were much easier to carve out then, say, turnips, so they happily switched to pumpkins. And the tradition was born!

3. Dress for Success

As I mentioned above, Halloween is one of those days where it’s believed that the veil between the worlds has thinned dramatically. While in ancient times that thin veil was believed to enable druids and magicians to more easily and accurately foretell the future, that “access to the other side” has an important side benefit: manifestation. That has evolved into an interesting current tradition that’s gaining some popularity. By dressing as the person you most want to be—whether someone in love, the CEO of a company, a writer, artist or musician, a spouse, a parent, you name it—you can help create that reality for yourself. So instead of dressing up as a Pumpkin this year, consider dressing up as the real you… the you that you most want to be! (Hopefully that’s not Edward Scissorhands. ;) )

Thanks again, Rose Red! Here’s wishing you an amazing Halloween!

Today, we're giving away an ebook copy of Getting Wilde! (Giveaway is U.S. only.)

 

Getting Wilde
(Immortal Vegas #1)
Jenn Stark
Release: August 18, 2015
Goodreads Amazon

Using her well-worn Tarot deck, magical-artifacts hunter Sara Wilde can find anything—for a price. And the price had better be right, since she needs to finance her own personal mission to rescue several young psychics recently sold on the paranormal black market.

Enter Sara’s most mysterious client and occasional lover, the wickedly sexy Magician, with a job that could yield the ultimate payday. All she’ll have to do is get behind Vatican walls… and steal the Devil himself.

But play with the Devil and you’re bound to get burned.

Pressure mounts for Sara to join the Magician’s ancient and mysterious Arcana Council, as militant forces unleashed by even darker powers seek to destroy all magic—including the young psychics Sara is desperate to keep safe. The Council may be their only hope. . . but it could also expose Sara’s own dark past.

From the twisting catacombs of Rome to the neon streets of Vegas, Sara confronts ancient enemies, powerful demigods, a roiling magical underworld about to explode… and immortal passions that might require the ultimate sacrifice. But oh, what a way to go.

No matter how the cards play out, things are about to get Wilde.

About the Author

Jenn Stark is a Golden Heart award-winning author of paranormal romance and urban fantasy. She lives and writes in Ohio. . . and she writes a LOT. In addition to her work in paranormal, she is also author Jennifer McGowan, whose Maids of Honor series of Young Adult Elizabethan spy romances are published by Simon & Schuster, and author Jennifer Chance, whose Rule Breakers series of New Adult contemporary romances are published by Random House/LoveSwept.

The world of her first paranormal romance, which was previously titled BLACK JACK, has now been reimagined as the setting ONE WILDE NIGHT, GETTING WILDE and WILDE CARD, all to be published in 2015, with BORN TO BE WILDE to follow in early 2016!