All Hallows, Saints & Souls Season

The month of October has awesome fall events coming up, including Halloween.  All Hallows Eve is an ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, marking the end of harvest and beginning of winter.  We now think of costumes, carved pumpkins, and candy (from trick-or-treating), but Celts believed spirits of the dead returned to earth this time of year, and this is where all the scariness of the season started.  To learn more on Halloweens history visit https://www.history.com/topics/halloween .   This is the time of the year when all stops are out (here come the ghouls, fools, and out go the rules). Time to have fun with this season of gruesomely eerie decorations, fancy costumes, and festive parties.  Some like the events scary, while others like fall festivals (with crisp autumn leaves in a kaleidoscope of colors).  I've gone ahead and checked things out, while there are way too many to mention of the happenings going on in the Chicagoland area, here are some awesome tours, parties, and festivities this time of year (in 2015).

To stay fit the Zombie Outbreak Dash (with obstacle course) takes place on Oct. 17th (with bash afterwards) and is located in Carol Stream IL., visit www.csparks.org for more information.  The Chicago Monster Dash takes place along the lake front in downtown Chicago, for more details and  information visit https://www.chicagomonster.org.  Edward- Elmhurst Healthcare is having a Fraidycat  5K, Ghost Run 10K  &  Meow Mile Oct. 25th in downtown Oswego for more information visit  https://www.fraidycat5k.com/raceinfo/ .

.  The Odyssey Fun Farm in Tinley Park IL., has zip-lines and kids inflatables for the little ones who are extremely active,  visit  www.OdysseyFunFarm.com for more information. 

Then there comes a time to give the group chill-bumps by hitching a ride with "The Haunted Ghost Story Train" (a trolley along the Fox River) taking place on the 17th & 24th of the month in South Elgin, IL., to reserve space call 847-697-4676.  More of the party-going types may choose to enjoy meeting master brewers, along with live entertainment, and food at the Brew Moon Beer & Band Fest in McCook, IL, for more information visit www.brewmoonfest.com .  Prepare to visit Chi-towns top restaurants, nightclubs, and lounges (with fun adult oriented costumes, contests, and nightlife entertaining) at the Halloween PubCrawl Chicago learn more by visiting https://pubcrawls.com/chicago-pub-crawls.php .  There is a multi-excursion tour that groups can take into the unknown, available by visiting Chicagolands most haunted locations (leaving from Chicago Ridge Mall) call for tours/ times by phoning 708-425-5163.  Some other chilling tours can be found at the Haunted Hometowns links and  websites  https://www.hauntedhometowns.com/.  

Instead of listing individual events for causes, a great list compiled already is  made by Metromix (listing many fundraisers & charities this time of year), that can be found at this link https://chicago.metromix.com/stories/3459-chicago-fundraisers-charity-events.  Families and groups with kids may enjoy the Six Flags Fright Fest going on all month long, where the entire park is transformed into a Halloween playground (loved the piped in scary music, awesome decorations, and monsters walking amongst visitors to the park).  Boo At The Zoo takes place 10/17 & 18th, and 24th & 25th of the month, fully equipped with festivities of pumpkin carving demos, haunted hayrides, costumes, and parade.  Blackberry Farms is great for small kids to enjoy Halloween in a safe and contained village, registration is required and can be found  at www.foxvalleyparkdistrict.org.  Some other lists of kids events to be explored may be found at https://chicagokids.com/calendar/categorybydate/40 .  

Lots of costume contests, park district trick-or-treating, and pumpkin creations going on this time of year.  Besides the ongoing pumpkin patches, scary events, and fall festivals, there are also non-traditional new events being created each year.  My favorite non-traditional events popping up in our country include:  large pumpkin boats for kids, pumpkin chuckin (unique inventions of throwing devices) hurling old decomposed pumpkins through corn fields, coffin races (pine boxes on wheels manually speeding down hilly streets), and some gardeners have added the hobby of growing the heaviest pumpkins only to be entered into October contests (keeping their eyes on the prize, with the record of the largest one being over 1,600 lbs. yet to be beat).  

We humans are a curious species, enjoying intrigue of many mysteries, Halloween opens up questions about the spirit world, which in turn finds us looking for fun and itching to be scared.  Even the greatest wizard ever known "Merlin" eventually dedicated his life to god, and was buried outside Drumelzier church (admitting gods miracles, not magic is all powerful).  When we think of Vikings, we think of the wild massacres in history.  It may surprise many that the great Viking (Orlaf of Norway later to be named a Saint) was a missionary of god, and known to have conquered the wild seas (they say with the navigation help of a crystal sun stone).  When we think of monsters as scary, think about the real scare of humans having to live disfigured lives through disease. The victims of leprosy who found help only by Damien a missionary priest.  A brave man caring for those touched by this disease with back then thought to have no cure residing at the island of Molokai.  Lets face it, reality can be much more of a scare (as well as sad) and spiritually mind boggling for those of us who will never experience this way of enduring life of disability and diseases (existing only to be whole in the afterlife). 

The more I live, the more makes me believe that the truth is much more scary than fiction.  The stories on television continually are bringing us closer to these experiences with programs such as "Monsters Inside Me", "River Monsters", "Finding Bigfoot", and more that have recently tells of unknown little parasites and large creature sightings from all around the world (warning people of dangers).  The many History Channel documentaries of strange encounters others have claimed to have had with alien beings, time travel stories, and old buildings housing haunted spirits, can literally ignite physical chills throughout our bodies just thinking about it.  With subjects of the unknown, spiritual world, and realm beyond (all lingering in the back of our minds), the month of October has commonly been centered about the most fearful of tours, episodes, and events for groups to explore these types of subjects.  While learning about all this, we still can keep our hearts strong,  stay focused on the lighted path leading to god (while remembering to help others do the same).  Respect other peoples beliefs, keep an open mind, (although with the gift of free will) we should also be reminded to B-E-W-A-R-E and guard against deceptions. 

Have fun and enjoy a good scare (even if fictional), knowing the goals are a mere preying on our primal fears such as the dark and boogie man.  Personally it often gives me much comfort thinking about once again seeing my loved ones (who have passed beyond into the after life), while some can only think of crossing over to be frightful.  Please remember to keep the family safe (check candy and keep an eye on them in the dark), while enjoying this Halloween and Fall season.  Whether spine tingling or enlightened, everyone of us (in each one of our own time), will pass over, into the unknown realm (and go to the other side) ...