First of all, let me mention (because I know you like
sales!) that I have 10% off my Halloween art and prints in my shop. If you like
a more subtle effect in your Halloween decorations, with cute rather than
scary, you’ll like it. It’s especially for my blog readers, but I’m going to
make you read about Halloween before I tell you how to get the discount. You
could always skip to the end, though. I hope you won’t. You’ll see my art and
prints as you read…
Halloween decorations are kind of a new thing, aren’t
they? Back when I was a child, people only went to town on the spider’s webs, pumpkins
and skeletons if they were having a party, as far as I remember, although
lanterns have always been used. Pumpkins weren’t the original vegetable to be
carved. That came from the USA. I and my mother had swede lanterns when we were
children. My grandfather carved one for me. I still remember the scent of it:
warm, sweet and …vegetably. Turnips were the traditional lanterns and were lit
to keep away evil entities at Halloween.
I read an article once in which a journalist said we
should do away with Halloween because it’s an imported American thing and just
celebrate Guy Fawkes as that’s the older tradition. He obviously didn’t do his
research! The Gunpowder Plot happened in 1605. Halloween, also known as Samhain
in Irish, goes back at least two thousand years here in the UK.
The native British, who we call the Celts (and a
people I’m very interested in, along with their art), celebrated Samhain as the
end of the year, the end of harvest, the beginning of the dark half of the year
when the sun’s power weakened and as a time to honour the ancestors. It was
also a time when the veil between our world and the Otherworld became very
thin. Beings of both realms could step through with ease.
It was celebrated right up to modern times, as I mentioned
with the lanterns and British migrants who went to live in the USA took the
traditions with them. Those traditions evolved there and were imported back to
us as we have it today. I prefer the older version, all about the seasons,
connecting with the earth…
Black cats were seen as lucky here, by the way,
particularly in Wales. It was good luck for a black cat to cross your path.
So, my Halloween/Samhain artwork includes a black cat,
pumpkins and a tabby cat in her witch’s hat (because witches’ cats are not all necessarily
black). The Bat and the Hat is an original watercolour. The Cat and the Hat,
The Cat and the Pumpkin and The Pumpkin are all prints.
You can get 10% off these by typing HALLOWEEN2 into
the box at checkout in my shop: RustyandBoots
Or you can use this link: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/RustyandBoots?coupon=HALLOWEEN2
The offer runs until 31st October, but
please bear in mind that if you order late, it may not arrive until after
Halloween. If you like cats and witchy things, though, they might suit your
walls all year round. There’s also free shipping to the UK!
I really hope you like my painting and prints as much
as I do. They’ve been getting a lot of love on social media, which you can find
me on here:
Instagram: @rusty_and_boots
Twitter: @RustyandBoots
Facebook: @RustyandBoots
