Some of my favorite kind of heroes in stories are the unlikely heroes, the ones that aren’t bold, beautiful and obvious.  Ichabod Crane was a school teacher, and compared by some to a scarecrow that had abandoned his post in the fields.  He was not classically good looking, nor was he thought to be particularly brave, but he is the man we learn about in the story of the Headless Horseman.

I love Tim Burton’s version of this story, and if you haven’t seen Sleepy Hollow yet, you need to.  In this version, Ichabod is a detective, sent to Sleepy Hollow to discover who is behind the murders said to be done by the Headless Horseman.  Ichabod, a man driven by reason, refuses to believe that this is some supernatural event, and instead insists that there is a logical explanation for everything that has happened.

If I had been Ichabod, I would have been terrified.  Regardless if I believed the tales or not, someone was going around and chopping people’s heads off – not a person that I would be in a hurry to find.  The reason that I find this so fascinating is because the author takes the ordinary and makes him extraordinary.  Overall, I think my favorite kind of heroes/protagonist.

What about you?  Do you have a favorite hero?  Who is it and why?

The holidays are my favorite time of year and they kick off with one of the best, Halloween.  Even as an adult, I love seeing all the houses decorated and how kids get excited about their costumes.  It’s so much fun to me to get the house all set up, making cookies that look like fingers.

It wasn’t until I was in college that I learned the history behind the holiday.  History, to me, is full of awesome stories, and the story of this holiday is no different.  Of course, there are some naysayers that disagree, but most believe that the holiday originated with the ancient Celtic festival Samhain.

Usually celebrated with large bonfires, this holiday symbolized the end of one season (summer and harvest), and the beginning of another (winter.)  “Winter is coming.” *giggles, I couldn’t help myself there*  This one night of the year when transition was in the air, it was thought that spirits would come to Earth causing all kinds of problems like damaging crops.

After the Romans conquered their world, a combination of Roman holidays honoring the dead (which occurred in October) and their gods (Pomona, the Goddess of fruit), Pope Gregory III moved the Catholic holiday observing all saints to 1 November, leaving 31 October to be All-Hallows Eve.

So as you dash off to the store to get your costume, or notice that as it gets colder you are using your fireplace more, you can think of our ancestors lighting a bonfire to ward off evil spirits.

What was your favorite Halloween costume as a kid growing up?  Does your family have any Halloween traditions?

I don’t want to bash the brothers too hard, but when I realized that the stories that I was really fond of as a kid were in fact a not as “G rated” as I thought, I was a bit shocked.  To say the least.

It’s a little disturbing to realize that while Cinderella didn’t have mice, she did have birds that helped her and eventually plucked the eyes out of her step-sisters after her wedding to the prince.  Or that Snow White’s mother, not evil step-mother, is the one who originally was jealous of her.

Granted, the brothers collected these tales before putting their own spin on them, but it’s disturbing to realize that the history behind these famous stories are a little darker than we thought.  Now I realize that the original stories probably didn’t have happy-go-lucky characters always skipping through fields of flowers while singing catchy songs, but I was a little bummed that some of these stories really weren’t originally written with a happily-ever-after; something that I look for in a good story.

Something that I have in common with them though is that we all love stories.  The brothers were fascinated by folk tales.  I can understand this, having been a bookworm almost all my life.  If I’m not surrounded by books, I’m on my laptop immersed in the next story I’m creating.  So, I can relate to the brothers in this respect.

What about you?  Did you love stories like this when you were young?  Which was your favorite and why?