Happy Halloween everybody! We haven't posted here in a while, we've been
busy. We've needed 26 hour days, but had to make do with 24. So we've
been forgoing sleep to get things done. Anyway, it's All Hallows Eve,
the time when ghosts and goblins walk the earth. So we thought we'd do a
little history lesson for you. Ghost stories it seems have been told
since man began telling stories. One of the earliest is a story told by
Pliny the Younger who was born in 61 A.D. He recounts the tale of a
haunted house in Athens. It seems to have all the elements that are with
us today when discussing ghosts, chains, beckoning spirits, and a
surprisingly calm young philosopher.. You can read it
HERE.
This is far from the first mention of ghosts in literature, but it's
fascinating to we here at The Crazy. Over a thousand years before Pliny
the Younger wrote this narrative, the ancient Egyptians long held that
ghosts were pretty much everywhere. And when the Pharoah Akenhaten died
he was cursed by the priests to wander the desert forever as a ghost.
The reason for the curse? Erasing many of the Gods from ancient Egypt
and assigning ONE god to rule above them. The God Aten (the sun god) and
surprise... guess who the sun gods sole representatives on earth were
to be, Ankenhaten and Nefertiti of course. Many Egyptians claim to have
seen the Ghost of Ankenhaten wandering the deserts of that country.
Europe has too many ghost stories to quantify. You can't throw a rock
anywhere in many European countries without it passing through (not
hitting obviously) a ghost. So what about here at home, what are some of
the earliest ghost stories of the America's? How about a ghost of one
of the founding fathers? The Ghost of Benjamin Franklin has been sighted
many times near the library of the American Philosophical Society in
Philadelphia (with some reports that his statue in front of the library
comes to life and dances in the streets). How about pre american, The
tale of Colonel Buck is one example. He condemned a supposed witch to
death. On the gallows she was reported to have said. "Your lies have
offended the almighty, He will help me take you life and leave my mark
upon your grave." The story continues with the Colonel being frightened
to death by her spirit that very afternoon. And her footprint is still
seen on his grave. It looks sort of like a foot as seen in the photo at
the top of this blog entry. (Ok, water stain maybe.) And finally, there
is one American ghost that has been seen and reported by First lady
Grace Coolidge, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Eleanor Roosevelt,
and perhaps the strangest report comes from Sir Winston Churchill who
upon returning naked from his bath found Abraham Lincoln sitting in
front of the fireplace in his room. (We imagine President Lincoln was as
surprised as Mr Churchill.) And President Harry Truman wrote in a
letter to his wife that the White house floors "popped and the drapes
move back and forth." Mary Todd Lincoln told friends that the ghost of
Andrew Jackson stomps and swears up and down the halls of the White
House. So Happy Halloween to all of you. And if you see Mr Lincoln, tell
him thanks for us will you. Ciao for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment