The Origin of Jack O’Lantern

 

The Irish are responsible for bringing the tradition of the Jack O’Lantern to America. It is the symbol that best represents Halloween. But the original Jack O’Lantern was not a pumpkin but was something else. If you want to know what it is, just keep on reading to find out.

The Legend

The legend of Jack O’Lantern goes back hundreds of years in Irish History. As the story goes, Stingy Jack was a disgraceful, old drunk who loved to play tricks on everyone: family, friends  and even the Devil. One day, he tricked the Devil into climbing up a tree. Once the Devil climbed up the tree, Stingy Jack immediately placed crosses around the trunk of the tree. The Devil was then unable to descend the tree. Stingy Jack made the Devil promise him that he will not take his soul when he died. After the devil promised not to take his soul, Stingy Jack then removed the crosses and let the Devil down.

Wandering in Darkness

Many years have passed and Jack finally died. He went to the gates of heaven and met Saint Peter who told him that he was too mean and cruel, and had led a disgraceful and worthless life on earth. He wasn’t allowed to enter heaven so he then went down to hell. But the Devil kept his promise (really?) and would not allow him to enter hell as well. Now Jack was afraid and had nowhere else to go but to wander about eternity in the darkness between heaven and hell. It was too dark so he asked the Devil how he could leave. From the flames of hell, the Devil threw him an ember to light his way. Jack saw a hollowed turnip and placed the ember inside. From that day onward, Stingy Jack roamed the earth without a final resting place, lighting his way with his “Jack O’Lantern”.

On all Hallow’s eve (or Halloween as we know it), the Irish hollowed out turnips, gourds, potatoes, rutabagas and beets. They then placed a light inside to ward off evil spirits and keep Stingy Jack away. These were the original Jack O’Lanterns. In the 1800’s, waves of Irish immigrants came to America. These immigrants quickly discovered that Pumpkins were bigger and were much easier to carve out. From then on, they used pumpkins for Jack O’Lanterns.

Who’s Laughing Now?!

What makes clowns so scary? Is it the creepy red smile? The big shoes?  The orange hair? What is it that makes a lot of people’s stomach do flips every time they see a clown on TV or at an amusement park?

Coulrophobia, the fear of clowns, is one of the top ten phobias. The term is derived from the Greek koulon, meaning limb, this refers to clowns and circus performers who walk on stilts. Coulrophobics experience symptoms ranging from mild anxiety to outright panic attacks when they see people in clown costumes or even just makeup. But why? What makes a clown, which is supposedly a symbol of fun and happiness, so scary to so many people?

 

Get ’Em While They’re Still Young
One popular theory about Coulrophobia is that it starts from a traumatic event during childhood. When you’re very young, even the most ordinary things can be really frightening because we don’t have a larger context in which to place them. Though you would think the circus would be a nice place for kids—with its bright colours, popcorn, cotton candy, and games—the sensory overload can be intensely upsetting to them.

That was certainly a lot of Coulrophobics experience as a child. They hated the loud sounds of the circus, but even more terrifying was the clowns’ slapstick comedy, in which they intentionally hurt each other with their pranks. Some children get unnerved so much that there are instances that they go home in tears. A clown’s ability to inflict and endure physical pain while maintaining that huge, painted smile means there’s more evil to Bozo than meets the eye.

 

 

Reality Is a Lot Scarier Than Fiction
For those of who’ve had bad experiences with clowns; the terror becomes more real than any other. After all, the fear of clowns is based on reality, rather than on fantasy. Zombies, werewolves, and vampires are horrifying in the abstract, but you don’t expect them to actually come staggering off the big screen and into our everyday lives. Clowns, on the other hand, are all too real. Way too real!

Zombie Games Addiction

Most gaming fans know that zombies are perfect for killing without feeling guilty and they can definitely slaughter even hundreds of these creatures without worrying that other people will care. Of course, this is when you engage in playing Online Zombie Games. Even if it’s not Halloween yet, you can always see that zombies have always had their share of online presence. There are tons of zombie games available online that have been created and are very popular to a lot of gamers online.

Gamers that are brave at heart will surely enjoy these

scary creatures. They will totally like the idea of mass obliteration of all the zombies that they will encounter in the game. So if you’re a little scared of scenes of zombies slavering human flesh and eating brains, then you should definitely back out. But for fearless gamers, well, they’re really in for some breath taking experience. You just need to search online for zombie games and hundreds, maybe even thousands, of websites will offer you the most popular and latest zombie games in the net.

Relevance to Horror Movies

Zombie games are such an enjoyable way to spend your free time and they’re growing more popular to a lot of gamers online. Why? Just like the horror movies that we can actually see, zombie games are exciting, thrilling, and fun if you aren’t scared of it. Maybe this is why more and more people are enjoying playing zombie games today. A terrifying situation can be experienced once or twice by everyone so the similarities of this to zombie games have made it more addicting to people.

You may find yourself totally involved in the zombie action, pushing your level of adrenalin to the top, and getting scared in the scenes where your character is in. You can certainly get scared but the question is – are you still able to go on and finish the game or will you just stop and look for something less frightening for you to play?

So there you have it. Look for your own zombie game and prepare yourself for hours and hours of mindless fun and entertainment, scary sensation and endless excitement.

What Everybody Ought to Know About Zombie Games

Naturally, being scared is not something that people really like to experience, so you might ask yourself why Zombie Games have become so popular. Basically, it’s because their story lines are somewhat similar to the Hollywood horror movies. With a large market and ever growing popularity, you may wonder what exactly makes them so enjoyable.

Origins of the Zombie Games Genre

Games such as Doom opened the doors to playing zombie shooting games. Generally its success is what introduced this type of games to the market as we see it today. The popularity of games like Doom was pretty much the key to knowing that games like this will be successful for years, in fact there is always at least one horror game listed in the top ten zombie games list every year. Modern games such as Fear and Bioshock illustrate that the horror games have a solid hand in its genre. Thanks to the enhancement of technology in gaming, we can see the development of even more horrifying games being produced.

The Pleasure of Playing Zombie Games

People enjoy having fun and being scared is usually not something that is considered nice. Still, after the experience it can be considered funny and entertaining and typically exciting. This could be why we have fun playing zombie games. Everyone has once experienced a scary situation and when we see this take place in a zombie game, the similarities between you and the experience in the game starts to grow which in turn gets you addicted and involved to the game.

Now you might find yourself involved in the action, pushing your level of adrenalin and being scared in the situation you are in as the character in the game. However, you might get scared but the question is, can you handle it or are you going to turn off the game and play something a lot less frightening?

In conclusion, the main reason why we play zombie games is because it provides hours of endless fun and entertainment. This is an excitement that cannot be compared to any other type of gaming genre. Every individual enjoys being entertained and having a great time while playing and horror games provide you with this experience.