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Simon Betts's avatar

Lovely article.

But I'm disappointed that the origin of 'evening' is unrelated to evening in the sense of 'becoming even'. Because that would be a charming way to describe the period of the day when light fades and colour drains away.

Ho hum I shall face the truth bravely and move on.

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Tom Hall's avatar

Thanks Colin for this great read.

After reading this I am tempted to start a gothic-tinged band called "þā Dēaðlīcan Hālgan"

Oh, and the cemetery painting is a masterpiece.

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Jennifer A. Newton-Savard's avatar

Scary stuff indeed! I love this. Thank you!

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polistra's avatar

Great story, answering several questions I've wondered about but never got around to investigating!

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Anne Wendel's avatar

Love this! I give a short (because that's all I knew until now) version of this every year when I try to explain to my middle schoolers that Halloween is a sort-of Christian holiday and not the devil's birthday. Therefore I am safe to celebrate it in all my witchy ghoulish glory without worrying about going to hell. And because as a kid I noticed that older spellings used an apostrophe, which begged the question, what dead body is the apostrophe hiding?

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