The Trick or Treating Zombie Horse of Christmas, Mari Lwyd

One Christmas tradition that has always intrigued me is the Welsh wassailing folk custom centered around Mari Lwyd. This Welsh tradition is reportedly over 3,000 years old and is focused on Mari Lwyd ("gray mare" or "Blessed Mary" in other translations), a macabre figure of a skeletal horse head mounted on a stick, decorated with ribbons and jingling bells, and draped in a flowing white sheet (to hide the handler/puppeteer of Mari Lwyd). The eerie equine represents Death, and the only way to defeat the specter is to beat it in a battle of rhymes.

Have a Haunting Half-o-Ween and a Witchy Walpurgisnacht!

Today, April 30th, marks halfway to Halloween and Walpurgisnacht (aka Witches' Night aka Hexennacht). Walpurgisnacht is known as the "other Halloween", where the veil between the worlds separating known and unknown is thinnest, allowing all manner of spirits, witches, otherworldly creatures, demons, devils, and so forth to push through into our world.

Ancient tales of witches, devils, and spirits gathering high in the mountains on this night seems to have its roots in Germany. Brocken Peak in Germany's Harz Mountains has two rock formations called Devil's Pulpit (Teufelskanzel) and the Witches' Altar (Hexenaltar), where these legends originate from. Nearby the Brocken Peak is the Hexentanzplatz, which literally means Witches' Dance Floor, where many pre-Christian rituals were performed, including the rites of old Saxon cults honoring the forest and mountain gods and goddesses.

Tanaka Farms Pumpkin Patch 2018

One of my Halloween traditions is to visit my local pumpkin patch at Tanaka Farms in Irvine, California. I love attending events at Tanaka Farms, which is a real working farm and so fun to visit. Their pumpkin patch is a real one, where pumpkins are actually grown and you can wander down the rows of pumpkins, visit a corn maze, and even pick your own fruits and veggies on the farm! They also have wagon rides and games. The pumpkin patch is absolutely gourd-geous - they have everything from itty bitty pumpkins to huge giants.

Like last year (check out my visit from last year), Tanaka Farms has officially licensed Hello Kitty and other Sanrio characters to host their pumpkin patch. Photo ops abound with character cut-outs and it is certainly fun to see the cutesy Sanrio characters throughout the farm. There are also hay bales, scarecrows, a sunflower maze, their famous pile of pumpkins, and so many other amazing treats in store at Tanaka Farms.

Check out my photos from this year's visit below:

The Spooky Vegan's Halloween 2018 Card Swap

UPDATE: All spots have been filled! I may do a round two of sign ups again, and, if I do, I will post about it here as well as my Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook page, so make sure you are following there too if you missed out this round. 

I love the tradition of sending Halloween cards and try to do it every year. There is just something so special about opening up your mailbox and receiving a ghoulish greeting card. I love spreading the spooky spirit, so keep reading below on how to participate in my Halloween card swap! Note: This is only open to US residents and all cards must be mailed by the first week of October. I'll also be randomly selecting a few special ghoulies to receive small treat bags!

The Order of the Thinned Veil: Trick or Treat Membership Box

A few months back I wrote a post on The Order of the Thinned Veil, a Halloween appreciation society for like-minded worshipers of the best holiday! This Halloween club is run by the artist and creator of The Cryptocurium Jason McKittrick and co-founded by artist Sam Heimer. It offers three tiers of membership packages, Candy Corn, Trick or Treat, and All Hallows. Each level has its own perks like exclusive artwork, certificates, hand-painted figurines, invitations to special events, and more Halloween goodies. When you join, you pay a one-time fee, receive one membership package (this isn't a reoccurring monthly subscription), and are a member for the year. Throughout the year you receive access to members-only perks and events.

I ordered the Trick of Treat level membership back in April, and that level membership box was shipped out last week and I received mine this weekend. Opening it up was like getting a dose of Halloween spirit and I felt such a rush of giddiness seeing all that black and orange! I may be stuck in the middle of summer, but joining The Order of the Thinned Veil made me feel realize no matter how much I hate summer, Halloween is right around the corner! I wanted to share my Halloween joy with you and let you take a peek at the treats I received - check out my unboxing photos below:

Attend an Evening of Witches This Walpurgisnacht

[image source]

Walpurgisnacht (Witches' Night) usually occurs on April 30th (unless it's a leap year), and marks the halfway point to Halloween. Historically it was believed that on Walpurgisnacht the veil between worlds becomes thinner (just like Halloween), and witches were able to take to the skies and travel to their mountaintop sabbats. You can learn more about Walpurgisnacht from an article I wrote previously, and I am so thrilled that the good folks over at Death and The Maiden are celebrating it and allowing others to join in the fun with their Night of the Witches event!

The event will be held on Walpurgisnacht (April 30th) at Phantom Carriage Brewery in Carson, California. There will be death positive talks on the funeral industry from mortician Amber Carvaly as well as an illustrated talk on Walpurgisnacht from Sarah Chavez. Food and drink specials will be served from Phantom Carriage's taproom, and a very special screening of The Love Witch by Anna Biller will be shown.

The Occult Activity Book Returns with Volume Two

The Occult Activity Book is back, and bigger and better than ever! The first volume was filled with wonderfully dark art and activities, and the second is packed with even more! In fact, this new volume has doubled in size and it is bristling with 52 pages of gore-geous artwork, eerie activities, gruesome games, and all sorts of fiendish fun! Where else can you immerse yourself in activities like Mad Libs-inspired incantations, building your own papercraft coven, solving the sexiest occult-themed crossword puzzle ever, mastering macabre mazes, learning about the Gilles de Rais, Ed and Lorraine Warren, Madame Blavatsky (and more) while coloring in their illustrations, testing your knowledge of the esoteric, all the while listening to a hand-crafted witchy playlist?

Wishing You a Weird Walpurgisnacht and Happy Halfway to Halloween!

April 30th marks Walpurgisnacht, or Witches' Night, which not only serves to exalt the arrival of springtime (much like May Day or Beltane), but it is also a night where the veil between worlds becomes thinner, and witches are able to take to the skies and travel to their mountaintop sabbats. Plus, it means that it is halfway to Halloween (though since it is a leap year, Walpurgis and halfway to Halloween are a day apart and don't fall on the same day...but that just means we get to celebrate all weekend!).

Book Review: The Occult Activity Book

The recent boom in adult coloring books (yes, I'm a fan!) has given rise to some intriguing books for those of us that aren't necessarily going to be interested in coloring flowers or pastoral scenes. There are coloring books for Halloween, classic horror, goths, and other creepy categories, but I have to say that the newly released Occult Activity Book trumps them all! It features not only fantastical drawings of macabre magics, historical figures, arcane rituals, and so forth, but also witchy word games. This is the perfect adult coloring book for those with darker tastes!

Cemetery Gates Volume 3

I have a deep love and appreciation for cemeteries and graveyards. When traveling I make it a point to see if I'll be someplace with any cool cemeteries. I especially love old cemeteries with grandiose old tombstones and monuments, something you definitely don't see in the boring flat lawn cemeteries of Orange County.

However, since I don't travel much I tend to live vicariously through the cemetery photographs of others, and one person I can definitely count on for awesome cemetery pictures is MissMuffCake, who roams the historic cemeteries of Northern California snapping photographs. She started a self-published zine called Cemetery Gates to highlight her cemetery trips, and each issue revolves around a different theme. I talked about Volume 1 here, and have now received Volume 3 to my delight!

Beauty Review: Goddess Provisions Box

The Goddess Provisions monthly subscription box was created by the lovely couple behind the awesomely successful Vegan Cuts subscription boxes (my reviews of the snack box and the beauty box). The Goddess Provisions box is geared more towards getting in touch with your self and the Earth while nourishing both, along with mind, body, and spirit. The monthly box features aromatherapy, crystals, superfoods, natural makeup, and other tools for spiritual growth! Everything is always cruelty-free and vegan, and there are about 4 - 6 full-size products in each box.

My Sweet 666th Post: Death Artwork, Death Zines and the Upcoming Death Salon

This is my six-hundred sixty-sixth post, which I wanted to recognize it by, what else, talking about death! I've got some cool things to share, like rad death-inspired artwork, an awesome cemetery zine, and the epic Death Salon coming up! Check 'em all out below!

"Bad Vibes" pin set and "Hang in There" print by

Matt Darling

If you don't know the name Matt Darling, you should! He is one of my favorite new artists and I've been drooling over his work over on Instagram. Who can resist anxiety ghosts, scaredy cats, and old hags? Not me! I finally made my first purchases of his work - I bought his delightfully downbeat "Bad Vibes" pin set (spooks, black cats, skeletons skulk around gravestones etched with phrases like "Naw Man", "Can't Win, Don't Try", "Here Lies Who Cares", and my personal favorite "Whatevs 4-evs") as well as a "Hang in There" print. So pleased with everything! You can check out his artwork for sale on badvibes4lyfe.bigcartel.com!

Let's Talk About Death, Baby!

Goodbye Darling headstone at St. Helena Cemetery, St. Helena, CA

Ok, this is going to be completely different than what I usually write about, and a topic that might become more of a mainstay here on the blog. "Let's talk about Death, baby! Let's talk about you and me!" Yes, I want to talk to you about great big ol' Death and how I've been awakened to finally accept death and openly discuss the subject in a positive light. I have been wanting to write on the subject for a while, and was finally spurned to action after finishing Caitlin Doughty’s mortician memoir Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory.  In this fantastic book, Doughty recounts her start in the death industry working in a crematorium and how this job led to her eye-opening journey to death acceptance. I have followed Caitlin’s delightful straight-talk about death from her YouTube series Ask a Mortician to her site The Order of the Good Death and now to her memoir. It is always a delight to read about her accounts in the death industry, and how she encourages death acceptance and death positivity instead of the closed-off view of death modern society currently suffers from.

Stay Home Alone Club: An Introvert's Perfect Weekend

Join the Stay Home Club [image source]

Do you ever have one of those weekends where you just want to draw the blinds, cozy up on the couch, and do nothing/see no one/go nowhere? As an introvert/recluse/misanthrope, I feel that way every weekend day, and let's just say my natural state seems to be avoiding all human contact by electing myself president of the stay home alone club and lazing around the house in my pj's with no plans besides binge-watching the latest Netflix series and hanging out with my cat, Havoc (he is anti-social himself, so he is fully supportive of my stay at home weekends)!

Below you will find a quick guide on how I prepare for my perfect stay at home weekend and why I look forward to spending time alone. Join the recluse revolution and stay home this weekend!