spooky facts – Georgia Haze

Blogtober Day 31: HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Spooky Quiz 🎃

Posted on October 31, 2020 by Georgia Haze

Happy Halloween! I know Halloween looks very different this year but I hope you’re still able to safely fill this spooky day with fun and frights.

This is also the final post of Blogtober so I wanted to do something fun that will bring all the previous posts from this month together. I have written quite a few history and pop culture related posts for Blogtober and I thought I’d take inspiration from them and create a spooky Halloween quiz for you. The answers to all of these questions are splattered across the last 30 posts so if you want to read more about any particular topic, I’ll leave the link to the blog post about it in the answer section as well.

1. What vegetable was traditionally used in Irish Jack-o’-lanterns based on the story of Stingy Jack?

A. Pumpkins B. Turnips C.Aubergines/Eggplants D.Potatoes

2. A giant wolf of Norse mythology is sometimes thought to have played a part in the development of werewolf lore but what was his name?

A. Odin B. Loki C. Tyr D. Fenrir

3. Corpse Bride lost the best animated feature award at the Oscars in 2005 to which other non-scary Halloween movie?

A. The Nightmare Before Christmas B. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit C. Coco D. ParaNorman

4. Ouija Boards were first patented back in 1891 but which company now owns the trademark?

A. Hasbro B. Mattel C. Sega D. Milton Bradley

5. Which of these famous writers has had their skull stolen from their grave?

A. William Shakespeare B. Charles Dickens C. Edgar Allan Poe D. Emily Brontë

6. Which village was claimed to be the “most haunted village in Britain” in the Guinness Book of Records in 1989?

A. Muker, Yorkshire B. South Pool, Devon C. Pluckley, Kent D. Bibury, Gloucestershire

7. What is the name of the famous vampire from penny dreadfuls that pre-dates Bram Stoker’s Dracula?

A. Francis Varney B. Sweeney Todd C. Dick Turpin D. Sexton Blake

8. Who led the excavations into King Tutankhamun’s tomb but managed to avoid the infamous curse?

A. Howard Carter B. Bruce Ingram C. George Jay Gould D. Richard Bethell

9. The Tarantella dance was created as a cure for Tarantism, a form of “dancing mania” said to be caused by what?

A. Miasma B. A witch’s curse C. A spider’s bite D. A werewolf attack

10. George A. Rumero directed which genre-defining zombie movie?

A. White Zombie B. Night of the Living Dead C. 28 Days Later D. Shaun of the Dead

11. When was the last time the 1735 Witchcraft Act used to imprison someone?

A. 1798 B. 1851 C. 1901 D. 1944

12. Who authored the book The Castle of Otranto and is often credited with inventing the horror genre?

A. Mary Shelley B. Bram Stoker C. Horace Walpole D. H.G. Wells

13. Which of the following figures of urban legend have been said to visit those who have seen aliens or UFOs to keep them quiet?

A. The Men in Black B. The black-eyed children C. Bloody Mary D. The phantom hitchhiker

14. What type of creatures were thought to be witches’ familiars during the European witch craze?

A. Black cats only B. Any type of cat C. Any type of animal D. Any type of animal or demon

15. The last of Burke and Hare’s victims was killed on what annual festival day?

A. Halloween B. Christmas C. New Year’s Day D. Valentine’s Day

B. Turnips! You’d find the answer to this one and a plenty more details about Halloween in my post on The History of Halloween.
D. Fenrir! To learn more about the origins of werewolf lore, check out my It’s All in the Origins: Werewolves post.
B. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit! Find more Non-Scary Halloween Movies on my blog.
A. Hasbro! Check out my Thoughts on Ouija Boards post to read my take on this classic spooky board game.
A. William Shakespeare! Check out the theories behind what happened to the Bard’s head in my post all about Shakespeare’s Missing Skull.
C. Pluckley, Kent! You’ll find a full list of spooky spots in my Top 10 Haunted Locations in the UK post.
A. Francis Varney! Discover the story of the vampire in my It’s All in the Origins: Vampires post.
A. Howard Carter! Do you believe in the pharaoh’s curse? Find out all about it in my post asking Is Tutankhamun’s Tomb Really Cursed?
C. A spider’s bite! Find out more Spooky History Facts.
B. Night of the Living Dead! Discover the fascinating history of zombie lore in my It’s All in the Origins: Zombies post.
D. 1944! You’ll find more surprising truths in my Five More Spooky History Facts post.
C. Horace Walpole! Check out my attempt to answer the question Did Horace Walpole Invent Horror?
A. The Men in Black! Learn more about the other possible answers in my Top 5 Urban Legends post.
D. Any type of animal or demon! If this answer didn’t feel familiar to your brain then you can read more about them in my It’s All in the Origins: Familiars post.
A. Halloween! Because you can never have enough, this is from my Even More Spooky Facts post.

Have an amazing Halloween! Stay safe and eat all the sweets this spooky season. I’ll be back very soon, bye for now!

Blogtober, History

Blogtober Day 30: Even More Spooky Facts

Posted on October 30, 2020November 2, 2020 by Georgia Haze

We’re right on the brink of All Hallows Eve and I couldn’t resist sharing a few more spooky facts with you. Check out my Spooky Facts and More Spooky Facts posts if you want to discover more chilling truths to get you in spirit of the season.

Consider the coconut – In Spanish, Hispanic and Portuguese cultures, there is a figure called El Coco or El Cuco, a kind of boogeyman figure used to scare children. As the story goes, El Coco eats children who misbehave so he is often used by parents to get children to do as they’re told. The slightly odd part of this story is the theory on his name. The word “coco” seems to have its roots in the Portuguese and Spanish words relating to the head and skull. When Portuguese explorers found coconuts they decided the three dots on the top resembled a human face and so the name was born. There are also some who believe that El Coco’s name comes from the humble coconut due to the linguistic connections but this has never been proven for certain.
The body of William Burke – William Burke is best known for being part of the murdering duo Burke and Hare in 1820s Edinburgh. These two committed 16 murders and sold the bodies to Robert Knox, a physician, to dissect. The last of their victims was of Margaret or Marjory Docherty, murdered on the 31st October 1828. Witnesses that had seen Docherty with Burke and Hare the night before found her body under a bed where Burke was staying and went straight to the police. After Burke, Hare and both of their wives were caught, Hare entered a deal with the police whereby he revealed the details of all the murders to get both him and his wife off the crime. This led to Burke taking the fall for pretty much everything. If the story wasn’t dark enough, Burke’s body was sent to the same fate as his victims but with some particularly gruesome extras. A letter was written in Burke’s blood which now lives in the University of Edinburgh archives, his skin was used to make a book and a calling card holder and his skeleton is still on display at the Anatomical Museum at Edinburgh University to this day. Hare’s fate is unknown.
Once in a blue moon – Did you know that Halloween 2020 falls on a blue moon? A blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month. As the saying suggests, they are quite rare, they usually only occur every couple of years. Sadly though, blue moons aren’t actually blue, they just look like a regular full moon – still great to howl at on Halloween though!
Unlucky number 13 – The number 13 is recognised as an unlucky number all the time, there are even hotels that won’t have a 13th floor or room because of the association. The classic reasoning as to why 13 is the unluckiest number or, at least, the reason I’d heard before is that in the Bible, the 13th person to take a seat at the Last Supper table is Judas Iscariot, the one to betray Jesus. Turns out there’s another theory. 13 is an awkward prime number which follows 12, considered a “perfect” number. This might sound a bit odd but if you think about how our whole world runs on the number 12, you might not roll your eyes at this idea. There are 12 months in a calendar year and our days are broken into two sets of 12 hour chunks. There were 12 Olympians, 12 Tribes of Israel, 12 Days of Christmas, 12 sons of Odin, 12 signs in both the astrological and Chinese zodiacs, 12 Christian apostles… the list goes on. We seem to be obsessed! Maybe 13 is just unlucky itself since it has such a tough act to follow.
The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall – One of the most famous ghost photos ever taken is supposed to show the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, though some claim it’s a fake. However, the Brown Lady has been spotted for three centuries and is believed to be the spirit of Dorothy Townsend. She was married to Viscount Townsend and rumour has it, he locked up her in Raynham Hall after discovering that she had been having an affair with Thomas Wharton. Another little tidbit of interesting info here is that Dorothy was the sister of Robert Walpole, the first official prime minister of the UK and the aunt of Horace Walpole who, arguably, invented the horror genre which you can read more about in an earlier Blogtober post!

I hope you found these facts interesting, I’ll be back for the final Blogtober post tomorrow! Bye for now!

Blogtober, History

Blogtober Day 20: Five More Spooky History Facts

Posted on October 20, 2020November 2, 2020 by Georgia Haze

To follow up on my last post featuring spooky facts from history, here are five more to put chills up your spine…

In 1898, Futility by Morgan Robertson was published. Part of the plot involves a ship called Titan which sinks in April after hitting an iceberg whilst on a voyage through the Atlantic. Majority of the passengers on board die due to the lack of lifeboats. Fourteen years later, in the April of 1912, the real-life Titanic struck an iceberg whilst crossing the Atlantic and there was a great loss of life due to an insufficient number of lifeboats. The uncanny similarities between fiction and fact have led to conspiracy theories about the real event and claims that Robertson might have even been psychic, which he denied.
Starting about a century after the death of Edgar Allan Poe, a mysterious unidentified figure, known as the “Poe Toaster”, would visit Poe’s grave in the yearly hours of his birthday each year to leave three roses and a bottle of cognac by the headstone. It became an annual event in Baltimore for people to gather at night to catch a glimpse of the Poe Toaster making his annual tribute. In 1999, the tradition was passed on, likely to the original Toaster’s son, but the Toaster stopped making his graveside visits in 2009. The Maryland Historical Society hosted a competition in 2015 to chose a new Poe Toaster to reinstate the yearly honour to one of literature’s best-loved Gothic writers.
In the very first iteration of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at California’s Disneyland park, real skeletons, provided by UCLA, were used as part of the ride’s set. Over time, as fake skeletons got more realistic, these were replaced. However, there is a rumour that one real skull still remains as part of the ride to this day.
Scottish psychic Helen Duncan was the last person to be imprisoned under the 1735 Witchcraft Act in Britain. During World War Two, Duncan led seances where she would produce a substance that she called ectoplasm from her mouth. She alleged that she had spoken with the dead, including a sailor from the HMS Barham. The ship had been sunk by German forces but this was not public information at the time. Duncan was then arrested after a police raid during one of her seances in 1944. Some attest that the authorities were concerned about her using her psychic abilities to discover the forthcoming D-Day plans which was highly confidential and secret intel. Duncan was released after a nine-month stint in prison and the Witchcraft Act was repealed in 1951.
It’s considered unlucky to say “Macbeth” and quote from the witches’ passages in a theatre though no one knows exactly why. One of the most common theories is that Shakespeare used real witches’ spells when writing the play. Another possibility comes from the various deaths and unfortunate mishaps, both on-and-off stage, associated with the play’s long performance history. The first unlucky incident goes all the way back to the play’s first ever performance. After the actor playing Lady Macbeth died suddenly, Shakespeare himself allegedly stepped in to play the role.

Thanks for reading and I hope you found these facts interesting. Bye for now!