Joshua Dowidat

Eerie for Thoughts: The Village that Disappeared

Hello Everyone,

Well I know most of us have heard of the movie, “30 Days of Night,” or have seen it. It is a movie that involves vampires going to a northern Alaskan town to wipe out the population that decided to stay through the month of darkness. The eerie thing is, is that there is an actual village that did disappear.

It was the Eskimo Village on Lake Angikuni, Canada. I know they are not related but the similar aspects made me think of the movie. In the movie the vampires can feast for thirty days and then leave the town without any trace of the people. They would have simply disappeared. Similar to what happened to this village in real life.

The Event:

Apparently it happened sometime in 1930 as far as most of the reports go. Although the event was allegedly debunked I still think the Continue reading →

Eerie for Thoughts: The Spooklight

Hello Everyone,

Well out of all the eerie lights this is my last. Although, I will be discussing certain parts, or reasons why, I chose to do a segment about mysterious and eerie lights in another post. This last haunted light I saved because of a tale that is associated with it. Even though I will not dive much into detail on the tale or legend but it is eerie and sad. This light has a name that no one would suspect has anything to do with a haunted or ghostly light. Just kidding, it’s called the Spooklight.

The Spooklight:

This light was first reported all the way back to the terrible days that included the “Trail of Tears,” in the 1830s. However, the more common reported times was toward the end of the late 19th century and was first documented around 1881.

The first official report on Continue reading →

All Saint’s Day: A Wrap up for Halloween

 

Hello Everyone,

Thought I would use another place this week to kind of wrap up the Halloween blogs with a holiday that coincides. That would be All Saint’s Day. As some of you already know, whether you learned it form my blogs or from previous sources, All Saint’s Day is a part of the original three day celebration.

All Saint’s Day:

The holiday is usually celebrated on the 1st of November yet this date can change from the different Christian traditions. It is basically a day reserved for praying for the souls in heaven and acts as a date to commemorate the deceased and their lives. Saints of the Christian faiths are particularly observed on this day, hence the name all Saint’s day.

Traditions of Celebration:

Many traditions change in their ways of celebrating the holiday and observing the deceased. Most customs that share similarities are the nagging Continue reading →

Halloween: Trick or Treating

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to another little segment of mine I am introducing for the month of October focusing on aspects of Halloween. This time its Trick or Treating.

What is Trick or Treating?

Well most of us can think of only one thing when it comes to Trick or Treating. That would be going house to house on Halloween night and collecting candy or treats dressed in costumes of various natures. Great fun and games, right? Well not always.

In America at one point it was literally what the phrase means. If you don’t give me a treat I will give you a trick. Hence the term Trick or Treating. Now while the going from house to house on different nights of the year in the past was something created before the times of calling it Trick or Treating the phrase did somewhat originate in the America. Houses, factories were Continue reading →

Halloween: A little history and the name

Hello Everyone,

Well it is that time of year. Of course I know everyone will probably be too busy today and tonight to really get a chance to read this segment about Halloween but here it is anyways.

The Name-Halloween:

Halloween, or as some call it Allhalloween, All Hallows’ Eve, or All Saints’ Eve. Why, you might ask. Well although the origins of the celebration go back very far and along different paths the name Halloween pretty much is the celebration of the dead. In the name Halloween it refers to saints. This is because the saint’s or “hallows” that they are also referred to as are celebrated on this day and their passing. Hence Halloween. It is also the start of the Allhallowtide which is a three day celebration in the Western Christian’s heritage of three days observing saints.

Origins:

Well just because the name has a different origin Continue reading →

Halloween: Jack-o’-lanterns

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to address the Halloween subject of carving pumpkins or also known as Jack-o’-lanterns. It is not often we hear the term, Jack-o’-lanterns, anymore but I guess times change.

Origin of Jack-o’-lanterns :

Well before they were Jack-o’-lanterns they were called will-o’-the-wisp. At least in the old folklore’s of England and other parts of Western Europe. This started around the mid to late 1600s. The term “Jack” just replaced “Will” but they meant virtually the same thing. One was of the torch. Will of the torch, and the other of the lantern, Jack. It was based off the lighting phenomenon that occurs but the will-o’-the ‘wisp was most commonly just a torch. I know it’s confusing but it slowly grew from a standard torch, a bundle of sticks and what not, to the surrounding vessel that contained the flame.

The carvings from the pumpkins was not original Continue reading →

Eerie for Thoughts: The Norfolk Regiment

Hello Everyone,

Wow, I have to say that the amount of people my blogs are reaching nowadays is really great. Although we will be talking about the Norfolk Regiment I’m glad, and hope, that everyone is truly enjoying the blogs and taking a little bit of the dispensed knowledge with them afterwards.

So once again, thank you for continuing to read them and I will continue to try my best to deliver interesting subjects for discussion.

Back to the focus point though. The Norfolk Regiment. Well as most of you can guess it has to do with something vanishing or disappearing because that’s the topics of discussion lately. Well, you’re absolutely right. This time, however, instead of one person disappearing with many or few witnesses to testify to the accounts it was an entire regiment that disappeared.

Who, When, Where:

Well like the title states it was a Norfolk Regiment Continue reading →

Samhain: A Festival, a Tradition

Hello Everyone,

Since I have been mentioning it in several of the last blogs I thought I would share a little information about Samhain. As many people know, because they have heard it before or read some of my previous posts, Samhain has a lot of relevance to Halloween. A topic I have been focusing on this month.

What is Samhain?

Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and celebrating the beginning of the darker half of the year. It is traditionally celebrated from sunset of October 31st to the sunset of November 1st. This marks a Gaelic day in full cycle.

It is one of the four seasonal Gaelic festivals that also include Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnasadh. All of which celebrate or mark the beginning or ends of seasons in the Gaelic cycles. Samhain just happens to fall on Halloween or Continue reading →

Eerie for Thoughts: David Lang

Hello Everyone,

Well last week it was a whole village disappearing and this week we are going to brush over some facts of a single person. That person is David Lang. Although it doesn’t make it any less eerie when a single person or a lot of people disappear the case alone is what might boggle your minds. Once again this story has some evidence to possibly debunk it. But I like living in the mysterious realm and if I didn’t see it with my own eyes I might not believe the debunkers over a person who possible made the story up. Either way here are some parts of the tale.

Where, When, Who:

David Lang is obviously “the who,” but there is also the who that witnessed the event. His wife and kids watched him vanish in the blink of an eye and so did a passing by carriage. Continue reading →

Haunted Places: Orpheum Theatre

Hello Everyone,

The theatre we will visit this week goes back to the roaring twenties, or at least the end of the period, as we continue our journey through haunted places in Arizona. The Orpheum Theatre resides in the small very traffic friendly city of Phoenix, Arizona. Anybody who has been there will understand that.

Orpheum Theatre:

The Orpheum Theatre was built in 1929, or I should say completed. Like many large structures it takes some time to build them, in this case about two years. The original style of the theatre was for Vaudeville acts and it was built with the common Spanish architectural style that much of Southern and Central Arizona are famous for.

The theatre was renamed several times as new owners took possession of it over the years. After some years the building was falling apart and in need of repair. It was purchased in 1984 Continue reading →