The American Spirit

Teddy Roosevelt was an avid hunter but when he was given a chained bear to hunt he refused to do so. This story and the subsequent political cartoons spawned the now famous "Teddy" Bear simultaneously in America and Germany. While stuffed bears are fairly old, the name is a direct reference to TR.

The statue “Washington Enthroned” is modeled after Phidias’ great statue of Zeus Olympios, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

An inscription reads:

SIMULACRUM ISTUD
AD MAGNUM LIBERTATIS EXEMPLUM
NEC SINE IPSA DURATURUM
HORATIUS GREENOUGH
FACIEBAT

Meaning:

“Horatio Greenough made this image as a great example of freedom, which will not survive without freedom itself”

As a member of the Fearsome Critters folklore family of animals, the hoop snake is a creature from the folklore of lumberjacks and forest workers, especially in the woodland areas of Wisconsin and Minnesota.
The Hoop Snake is described as a highly colorful snake that has the ability to move swiftly by taking its tail in its mouth and propel itself by rolling like a hoop!
It is a highly poisonous, predatory reptile than can launch itself at its prey at great speed, but humans are able to outwit it and escape by jumping through the center of its hoop, confusing it long enough as it goes by, for it can’t turn around fast enough to give chase.

Have a Jolly Halloween!

Popular American Halloween Costumes

Part 6: Clowns

Clowns are a popular Halloween costume, often being joined with the tramp/hobo costume. Though Monster clowns have become increasingly popular with the show and film of Steven King's "It". Though Clowns have been scary before featuring in many horror movies, and a staple of Halloween masks for decades. There were also the 2016 Clown Incidents, where many creepy clowns seem to appear in the middle of the street at night and in forests, scaring the willies out of people. The Clown actually is a very old tradition in Europe and even ties back into the God Harlequin, as well as the traditions of the Comedia del Arte, and even Greek theatre. Harlequin became the spirit of the theatre and his visage and similar stock characters became used for many clowns, mimes, and other performers. The imagery also fed into Jesters who doubled as advisers to the king, their trademark hat actually featured horns similar to Ostara the Moon goddess, and many wildmen gods.

The Beauty of Vermont in Fall

A Paul Bunyan Illustration by Renee Graef

Popular American Halloween Costumes

Part 5: The Hobo

While American Folklore is replete with hobo Folktales, especially from the Great Depression, and numerous people who wandered around much akin to a hobo. Tales of Big Rock Candy Mountain, or the Wise Old Hobo riding the rails. This costume is in fact a callback to two practices. One is the Wise Old Hermit of pagan times that existed in the woods living as bears, wolves, and other wild animals. Much like Johnny Appleseed. They also blacken their face from "Riding the rails" in so doing calling back to the darkened face of those who embody the dead, one could even argue a symbolic nature of trains coming and going along the road to the living and the dead much like the Carriages and Carts of the gods. Hobo's are also often shown to be storytellers, a potential call back to the bard. While the Hobo has largely fallen out of favor, and has gathered a bad name in the modern day, the role and individuals who lived it were an integral part of America.

Some of the Classic posters for the Universal Pictures Monster Movie Series From the 1930's-1940's