Greetings, foul friends!
The end of the year fast approacheth. Very soon, people across the land will be encouraging a fat man to break into their homes, eat their food, drink their alcohol, and then leave without so much as a thank you.
Greetings, foul friends!
No sooner have the Halloween embers petered out than we’re lighting new fires to celebrate Guido Fawkes being hung, drawn, and quartered over 400 years ago.
Oh, how we love this quaint little country of yours!
Greetings, foul friends!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! We realise that you humans usually associate that phrase with Christmas, but we fail to see what could be more wonderful than inclement weather, chilly mornings, dark nights and a higher-than-average chance of being attacked by a werewolf.
Glorious!
Greetings, foul friends!
Another lunar cycle has been and gone since we last saw you, and what a beauty it was. The Super Blue Moon on the 19th meant the moon was 100% illuminated, which sent the Lodge’s werewolves into a frenzy. You know when you see little dogs get “the zoomies” and they run around like they’re possessed? Imagine that but with six burly werewolves. It’s taken us days to clean up the distillery; glass and furniture all over the place…
Greetings, foul friends!
Well, the rain dance we performed on the summer solstice appears to have worked a little too well, as it’s barely stopped raining since. Isn’t it delightful?!
And, as it’s August, that means it’s officially less than a hundred days to Halloween, so we’re as happy as a worm in a cemetery this month.
Greetings, foul friends!
Brother G here.
As you may recall from last month’s journal entry, we were doing our best to try and learn more about you humans and your interests.
Amongst The Black Lodge’s cast of oddities, no one matched Brother T’s unbridled enthusiasm for the football experiment. However, owing to an unfortunate accident involving a two-footed tackle, an angry werewolf, and an ill-judged remark about the referee’s eyesight, he’s writing this month’s Black Lodge journal entry from his sick bed.
Greetings, foul friends!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! We realise that you humans usually associate that phrase with Christmas, but we fail to see what could be more wonderful than inclement weather, chilly mornings, dark nights and a higher-than-average chance of being attacked by a werewolf.
Glorious!
The Lodge is teeming with ethereal and corporeal energy, and we’ve even had to ask a few relatives to come in from the afterlife to help with the influx of orders for Black Lodge Potions’ award-winning gin. Great, Great, Great Aunt Greta was greatly displeased by this, as it meant bringing her out of her regenerative slumber 150 years too early. Unfortunately, this means that most of her is still hanging by a thread, so if you do come across a fang, eyeball, or index finger in your favourite bottle of Black Lodge Potions gin, we can only apologise.
The witching hour is fast approaching, so without further ado, let’s see what this month has in store.
WHY DO WE CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN?
November 1st (better known as All Hallows Eve) was an important date in the Pagan calendar because it marked the end of summer and the beginning of winter. This date also marked the beginning of a new year, when the souls of the dead returned to their homes.
The Celts built bonfires as a beacon to welcome home their dearly departed, but the fires also served as a deterrent for evil spirits. As for why we dress up in spooky costumes today, this is a natural progression of what the Celts did; wearing animal skins and heads to disguise themselves from evil spirits.
We’re not too sure how afraid evil spirits would be of your ill-fitting Spider-Man onesie, but we still appreciate you keeping up the old traditions.
APPEARANCES
Even though we’ll be busy preparing the guest coffins and polishing our neck nuts for Halloween, we’re still making time to come out into the human world. Come and join us at Trentham Halloween Festival on the 26th and 27th of the month for live music, pumpkin carving, fairground rides and lots of Black Lodge Potions gins to sample and buy.
“Fun for all the family.”
I believe that’s the human expression, but there’s not a thumbscrew in sight, so it can’t be that much fun. Come along anyway – we’ll just have to bring our own to make it bearable.
GIN OF THE MONTH
Something a little different for this month’s segment. Rather than recommend just one of our handcrafted gin flavours, we thought we’d recommend all five of them. Choose from the following delectable flavours:
🕷️ Black Lodge Craft Gin (44% abv)
🕷️ Stinging Nettle & Honey Gin (40% abv)
🕷️ Wild Strawberry & Black Pepper Gin (40% abv)
🕷️ Cherry, Chilli Chocolate Gin (40% abv)
🕷️ Smoky Berries & Liquorice Gin (40% abv)
Each one comes in an apothecary-style bottle which looks amazing as a candle holder once the wax has dripped all over the bottle and hardened. You’ve now got the perfect mood setter for a night in front of a roaring log fire, wrapped in a comfortable blanket while you sip on your favourite gin.
Pick your poison from The Spirit Shop now.
HALLOWEEN PARTY FOOD AND DRINK RECIPES
We know how much you humans enjoy a good Halloween party, so we thought we’d help by providing some food and drink ideas for you and your guests.
🎃 Shrunken Head Apples – perfect for a bobbing for apples game, or for floating in a punch bowl
🎃 BBC Good Food has no fewer than 74 different Halloween recipes to make your party a success. The Slash Cake is our personal favourite.
🎃 Bloody Finger Hot Dogs and charcuterie zombie fingers are so easy to make but they’ll have your guests squirming with delight.
🎃 BBC Good Food have 38 Halloween drink recipes but if it’s spooktacular Halloween gin cocktails you’re after, then look no further than these Gin Magazine recipes. As always, you can stock up on your gin supplies here.
CLOCKS GO BACK
For those of you reading this who don’t live near the equator, remember that the clocks go back on 27th October at 2am. This practice has been observed in the UK since 1916 when politicians believed it would reduce the demand for coal during the First World War, but we remember Benjamin Franklin first suggesting it to us in The Dog and Duck in 1784 to save on candles. Clever man, that Benjamin Franklin, but never put his hand in his pocket when it was his turn to buy a round…
Anyway, what it’ll mean for you is it’ll get darker much earlier in the evening for the next 6 months. Oh, what a time to be alive or undead!
UNTIL NEXT TIME…
When next we meet, we hope that you’ll be suitably indoctrinated into the darkness and are turning your thoughts to what effigy you’ll be burning on the 5th of the month. If we can provide any assistance in this matter, just let us know – we know many a friend who enjoys their literal annual baptism of fire.
Enjoy yourselves on Halloween, and if you are drinking a Black Lodge potion, then please enjoy it responsibly. We’re off to bark at the moon, scare some unsuspecting children, and retrieve Great, Great, Great Aunt Greta’s leg from Sam the Werewolf.
Stay spooky,
Brother G and Brother T
