Sylvia Shults's Blog, page 21

The Twelve Nightmares of Christmas, Day 2: California Haunts

I did a radio interview a few weeks ago with California Haunts. We had a grand time chatting, and we spent quite a bit of time talking about Christmas spookiness. And guess what? California Haunts is doing readings all December long, from Spirits of Christmas. How fun is that?

Here’s the link for this Sunday:

And you can access it every Sunday at 6:30 pm pacific at YouTube.com/@CaliforniaHauntsRadio. The shows are listed under “live shows’, as they are broadcast every Sunday. Tune in, and listen to readings of true ghost stories of December, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the dark of winter. Make every Sunday spooky!

The Twelve Nightmares of Christmas, Day 1: Victorians — A Weird Bunch

(The following is an excerpt from my book Spirits of Christmas: The Dark Side of the Holidays.)

December 25th as the date for Christmas was not an arbitrary choice for the early Christians. Both Yule and Sol Invictus (the festival of the Unconquered Sun) commemorated the Winter Solstice. The symbolic connotations of these holidays coincided with the Christians’ belief that the Son of God had come to the world. Pope Julius I simply co-opted dates that were already significant to pagan Romans and northern Europeans. Of course, this meant that the raucous pagan celebrations, the Saturnalia apparties and the topsy-turvy turnarounds, got brought into early Christmas celebrations too.

The Winter Solstice was also considered to be the spookier of the two solstices. Rather than long hours of daylight and a short night, the Winter Solstice marked the turning of the year with the shortest day and the longest night. (The increased hours of darkness meant, of course, that spooks and monsters and things that go bump in the night had a lot more time to roam the earth during the winter months.) It brought to mind the death of the Sun and the thinning of the veil between worlds.

The Victorian Christmas celebration, then, which already made heavy use of pagan symbols like Yule logs, holly leaves, and even Father Christmas, also embraced the holiday’s nodding acquaintance with the supernatural. This helped to create one of the Victorian era’s most enduring holdiay traditions, the Christmas ghost story.

Even Christmas games of the period held an element of terror. The popular game of Snapdragon involved putting raisins, plums, or almonds in a bowl of brandy, and then setting the brandy on fire. Players tried to snatch a raisin out of the flaming bowl and pop it into their mouth to extinguish it. Another game had the players attempting to bite apples which were tied to one end of a stick — the other end had a lighted candle stuck to it. (The phrase “Don’t try this at home, kids” had not been invented yet.)

Other games smacked of sado-masochism. The game of Hot Cockles involved putting your head in someone’s lap while trying to guess who was hitting you from behind. The kneeler, who was “It”, put their hand behind their back, palm up. The other players took turns smacking the palm in an anonymous low-five. Shoeing The Wild Mare was a similar guessing game, which involved a whack on the foot.

And guess what? If you are a semi-responsible adult, you too can play Snapdragon. All you need for this completely deranged party game is a wide, shallow flame-proof plate, a good handful of raisins and almonds, a match, and some high-test booze, like rum or vodka. This is best played in a darkened room, the better to enjoy the eerie blue flames. Keep a bit of salt around, too. When you toss salt into the fire, the flames flare a brilliant gold for a few moments.

So why does this work? Well, you could say that the Victorians were way more hard-core when it came to their party games … or you could go with boring old science. Alcohol burns at a relatively low temperature. If the flames are blue, rather than yellow, you’re doing it right. A yellow candle flame is about twice as hot as the blue flames of snapdragon. This is because blue flames are due to chemiluminescence, not thermal radiation. Chemiluminescence produces light, but not much heat. (The salt’s nifty trick is also explained by chemistry. The sodium atoms gain a little bit of energy in the fire, then lose that energy. That’s what makes the flames pop and turn that pretty shade of yellow.) And raisins and almonds are not very combustible, and they cool off quickly. They’re just going to sit there on the plate while the alcohol burns off. Also, you’re just snatching the treats from the fire, not holding your fingers over the burning plate.

Be sensible about this, if you want to try it. But if you’re game, here are the directions. (from Gastro Obscura)

SnapdragonIngredients½ cup raisins½ cup almonds¾ cup, plus ¼ cup of around 50 percent alcohol, such as brandy or rumSaltInstructionsTake a large, flat plate, and sprinkle the raisins and almonds on top, making sure to space them out.Pick where you’ll play the game. A dim-to-dark room or outside at night is best for seeing the blue flames. Make sure wherever you set the plate is free of any tablecloth or flammable materials.Pour the ¾ cup of alcohol onto the plate. Add more if the bottom of the plate is not thoroughly covered. Then, heat the other ¼ cup in a pot on the stove until it sizzles and steams. (Cohen says this volatilizes the alcohol, increasing the amount of vapor and making it easier to set alight.) Carefully pour the hot liquor into a mug or a bowl, making sure not to burn yourself.Gather a large spoon, matches or a lighter, the mug, and the salt. When ready to start playing, pour the liquor into the large spoon and set it alight. Then, carefully tip the flaming liquor onto the plate, letting it light the rest of the alcohol. It may not take right away. Reheat more alcohol and try again if it doesn’t work the first time.Once the blue flames are leaping, players can reach for the raisins and almonds. Pinches of salt will make the fire briefly burn yellow and flare. Take care, since the plate will gradually heat up. To refresh the flames, carefully stir the mix with the spoon, or add more alcohol. Eat what you pull from the fire.

If you’ve survived your game of Snapdragon, I think it’s safe to say that you are officially a weirdo. Congrats! You’ll find plenty of company over at Weird Darkness, where Darren Marlar is also serving up spooky Christmas treats. Go check it out! www.weirddarkness.com

The Twelve Nightmares of Christmas Returns!

Can you believe it? We’re headed into the home stretch of 2022. It’s time to celebrate! And right here is the perfect place to do it. I’ve got twelve days of fun planned for you guys, with recipes, interesting Christmas traditions, a Today I Learned, and of course, ghost stories!

Darren Marlar, of Weird Darkness, joins us again too. Every day, I’ll post a link to his website so you can hop on over there and see what delicious weirdness he’s got on offer.

So snuggle up close to a roaring fire, make sure you’ve got a plate of cookies and a warming drink to hand, and let’s dive into the Twelve Nightmares of Christmas!

Today I Learned …

The chemical responsible for petrichor (that wonderful “smell” of rain or impending snow) is called geosmin. It’s given off by Streptomyces bacteria in the soil when it gets wet. Humans can detect geosmin at a concentration of 5 parts per trillion. This means that humans are 200,000 times more sensitive to smelling geosmin than sharks are at smelling blood.

Lights Out: Kasey Cemetery

Another Lights Out is here for your listening pleasure! Are you ready for another walk in the woods? Let’s visit hidden Kasey Cemetery, in Hardin County, Kentucky. But be warned … there are strange things in the forest, and not all of them are friendly… https://youtu.be/qCAwr_dNt4Mhttps://youtu.be/qCAwr_dNt4M

Today I Learned …

When it’s so quiet you can hear snow falling, you’re actually hearing the static discharge of the snowflakes hitting the ground. A snowflake gathers static electricity as it’s falling to earth, then discharges the energy when it lands.

Today I Learned …

Crawfish communicate with each other by shooting streams of urine out of pores on the sides of their heads. Clusters of fan-like appendages direct the spout straight into the face of the other crawfish during a fight or during courtship. The urine contains hormone derivatives that give clues to the sprayer’s current level of fitness, and indicates whether or not that particular crawfish would make a fearsome adversary or a healthy mate. (And aren’t you JUST glad you’re not a crawfish?) (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Eye-Popping Oddities)

Today I Learned …

Ilha de Queimada Grande, known as “Snake Island”, located 20 miles off the coast of Brazil, is home to thousands of highly venomous Golden Lancehead vipers — as many as five per square yard. The snakes are so dangerous that people are forbidden to land on the island. It is the only place in the world that is home to the deadly viper, whose potent venom can not only kill people but also melt human flesh. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Eye-Popping Oddities)

Tea and Conversation, Anyone?

I’ve been having some really wonderful chats with podcast hosts in the past couple of months. I’ll be posting links to their shows as they become available; here are a couple of them.

The Gritty Hour: “We spoke with Sylvia Shults, author of “Fractured Spirits: Hauntings at the Peoria State Hospital” about her particular interest in that hospital, once known as the Illinois Asylum. Her time as a paranormal investigator has given her many interesting stories involving the supernatural, which she expertly describes in her books, which include the above title and “Days Of The Dead: A Year of True Ghost Stories”.” https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ghosts-and-the-paranormal-with-author-sylvia-shults/id1570694082?i=1000581446622

The Magical World of G. Michael Vasey: “Like me, Sylvia Shults is a collector of ghost stories and author but she is also a paranormal investigator. We had a fun conversation about our activities, what we had learned from them and about how she likes the historical context of the stories.”

Here are links to both the podcast and the YouTube version of our talk together.

https://podcasts.apple.com/cz/podcast/the-magical-world-of-g-michael-vasey/id1518198271?i=1000585297945

Today I Learned …

The geographic cone snail, which lives off the coast of Australia, drugs fish to catch and eat them: the snail releases a toxic cloud containing insulin, which causes the fish’s blood sugar levels to plummet and puts it in a coma. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Eye-Popping Oddities)