quotations about Halloween
No one came to my house to trick-or-treat. I think the moat might be scaring people away.
JIMMY KIMMEL
Jimmy Kimmel Live, Nov. 1, 2010
One year when I was pretty young, maybe seven or eight, I insisted on going [trick-or-treating] as Humpty Dumpty, which was this very elaborate, really unwieldy costume that I designed.... Thousands of pillows. And my father, he was an upholsterer, he made the cover for this, which covered like ... I was a sofa. I was a small sofa. Except without nails or tacks. I remember that Halloween the most because it was the worst. Even as a child, I remember the worst things, as opposed to the best things. Every single house I went to, out of a thousand houses, the mother of the house had to completely reconstruct my ... restuff me. All the pillows were falling out, it was raining, and because I was a very -- I don't know how to put this -- kind of a dictator as a child, it meant that every time I stopped in the street to restuff myself, one thousand children that were following me also had to stop, even though they were wearing much more sensible costumes. That is my most memorable Halloween memory. That was the last time I was a fashion victim.
FRAN LEBOWITZ
interview, Index Magazine, 1997
'Tis the night--the night
Of the grave's delight,
And the warlocks are at their play!
Ye think that without,
The wild winds shout,
But no, it is they--it is they!
ARTHUR CLEVELAND COXE
Halloween: A Romaunt
I was born on the night of Samhain, when the barrier between the worlds is whisper-thin and when magic, old magic, sings its heady and sweet song to anyone who cares to hear it.
CAROLYN MACCULLOUGH
Once a Witch
In many ways, Halloween is the most American of holidays: secular, irreverent, and unashamedly consumerist. And as with many American cultural products, it has become a wildly successful export.
LISA MORTON
attributed, Boo: Halloween's Quest For World Domination
Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen,
Voices whisper in the trees,
"Tonight is Halloween!"
DEXTER KOZEN
attributed, Ghosts of Ventura County's Heritage Valley
Halloween is the beginning of the holiday shopping season. That's for women. The beginning of the holiday shopping season for men is Christmas Eve.
DAVID LETTERMAN
Late Show with David Letterman, Oct. 31, 2011
The Hag is astride,
This night for to ride;
The Devil and she together:
Through thick and through thin,
Now out, and then in,
Though ne'r so foul be the weather.
ROBERT HERRICK
"The Hag"
Double double toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Macbeth
Midnight has come, and the great Christ Church Bell
And many a lesser bell sound through the room;
And it is All Soul's Night,
And two long glasses brimmed with muscatel
Bubble upon the table. A ghost may come;
For it is a ghost's right,
His element is so fine
Being sharpened by his death,
To drink from the wine-breath
While our gross palates drink from the whole wine.
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
"All Soul's Night"
When witches go riding, & black cats are seen, the moon laughs & whispers, 'tis near Halloween.
ANONYMOUS
19th-century Halloween postcard
It was Halloween that did me in, that single day when your children turn to you for imagination and creativity, the one day of the year when you must transcend fantasy.
ERMA BOMBECK
Forever Erma
Sticky fingers
Tired feet;
One last house,
"Trick or Treat!"
RUSTY FISCHER
attributed, Bustle
What is Halloween? I will tell you. A celebration of evil magic. Do you not remember the plagues of Egypt and how doors were stained with blood to appease evil spirits from taking firstborns? Okay. So now the ritual is to dress up as spirits of all kinds to go ask for tricks or treats as tributes to evil. Cut yourself to drip blood as a contract for your soul or offer your firstborn to appease a demon. Most people then offered their firstborns. That's the true story. They threw their children in the fire to the big wooden Idol.
SUZY KASSEM
Rise Up and Salute the Sun
The farther we've gotten from the magic and mystery of our past, the more we've come to need Halloween.
PAULA GURAN
October Dreams
The evening of October thirty-one is Hallowe'en or Nut Crack Night. It is clearly a relic of pagan times but it is still very popular. It is a night set apart for walking about and playing harmless pranks, such as placing the hotel omnibus on top of the Baptist church or plugging the milkman's pump.
KIN HUBBARD
The Best of Kin Hubbard
While Halloween has many fun customs, it is also a time to challenge and mock evil.
DAVID BENNETT
Halloween Prayers
There was ... a serious and weird feeling, on Hallow E'en night, not felt so much on any other night; witches and evil spirits were believed to be more numerous than usual; fairies were believed to be unusually active; ghosts were supposed to make their appearance on this night; and a full-dress performance of the watch in the church-porch on that night was capable of teaching the watchers that the Angel of Death is sometimes nearer than they imagine.
A. R. WRIGHT
British Calendar Customs
Halloween's coming. Kids get very imaginative in my neighborhood. Last year, three kids showed up as Goldman Sachs executives and demanded 4.5 billion pieces of candy.
JAY LENO
The Tonight Show, October 16, The Tonight Show, October 16, 2009