Tartan design by Deborah Savage

The American craze for all things pumpkin spice is a relatively new one, but the arrival of the Pumpkin Spice Latté in Starbucks Coffee Houses is fondly awaited by many as a tasty harbinger of the autumnal holiday season.

Tartan design by Carol Martin

Ghosts and goblins, jack-o-lanterns and witches, trick-or-treating, and spooky nights - Happy Hallowe'en!

Tartan design by Carol Martin

Mischief Night, also sometimes known as Devil's Eve or Devil's Night is an informal holiday in which historically, children and teens engage in pranks and minor devilment, and is commonly held the night before Halloween - a night for tricks instead of treats. ​ In the past, children and teens would play pranks which included ringing false alarms, ringing doorbells and leaving before someone answers, stealing gates, setting fires, and breaking windows.

Tartan design by Carol Martin

The charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was born in 1819 with the highly successful publication of The Vampyre by John Polidori. However, it is Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula which is remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and provides the basis of the modern vampire legend and the gaunt, pale undead figure recognized today.

Tartan design by Carol Martin

There is a strong connection in folklore and popular culture between pumpkins and the supernatural. Famous literary examples include: ​ The folk tale of Cinderella, in which the fairy godmother turns a pumpkin into a carriage - which reverts back to its pumpkin form at midnight; The pumpkin hurled by the "Headless Horseman" in Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"; Nathaniel Hawthorne's short-story, "Feathertop", in which a witch turns a scarecrow with a "pumpkin-head" into a man. ​

Tartan design by Carol Martin

A werewolf is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or a wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction (e.g. by a bite or scratch from another werewolf). The magical ability to assume the form and characteristics of a wolf is known as lycanthropism, or lycanthropy. ​ There was no widespread belief in werewolves in medieval Europe before the 14th century, though the belief goes back much further.

Tartan design by Carol Martin

Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts, who lived over 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1, a day marking the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter. The Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred.​ ​

Tartan design by Carol Martin

The folklore surrounding black cats varies from culture to culture, with black cats being reckoned either as harbingers of good fortune or conversely, of bad tidings. Scottish folklore is imbued with beliefs in the supernatural entities taking the form of the cat. ​ The Cat Sìth is one such spectral creature from Celtic mythology. The Scottish Highlands are said to be haunted by this entity, a large black cat with a white spot on its chest.

Tartan design by Jonathan Brown

The Three Witches or Weird Sisters are characters in William Shakespeare's Scottish play Macbeth (c. 1603–1607). ​ Shakespeare's witches are prophets who hail Macbeth, the general, early in the play, and prophesy his ascent to king. Upon killing King Duncan and ascending the throne of Scotland, Macbeth hears them ambiguously prophesy his eventual downfall. The darkly contradictory witches, their "filthy" trappings and supernatural activities, all set the ominous tone for the play.

Tartan design by Carol Martin

Bats have been associated with the mysterious and the supernatural long before Bram Stoker's novel Dracula (1897) cemented the connection between these creatures of the night and the vampires of folklore. ​ Stoker's major contribution was his introduction of the idea that a vampire could shape shift into the form of a bat (as well as that of a wolf or mist). In his pursuit and seduction of Lucy, Count Dracula frequently disguises himself in the form of a large bat which flaps at her window.