The Pale Raven Official

  The practice of post-mortem photography emerged in the 19th century, primarily gaining traction after the invention of the daguerreotype in 1839. It's crucial to understand this ritual within its historical context. At the time, cameras were expensive and rare, not the handheld devices we casually use today. Infant and child mortality rates were tragically high due to disease and lack of modern medicine. For many families, particularly those of modest means, a portrait of their young child while they were alive was often a luxury they couldn't afford or an opportunity they didn't have. Thus, a post-mortem photograph became incredibly important. It was frequently the only visual record a family would ever possess of a loved one who had passed too soon. Far from being a macabre obsession, it was a sincere, deeply personal, and socially accepted act of mourning, serving to immortalize their physical presence. Originating largely in Europe and the United States, this photogra...

  Throughout October I will be sharing a daily post that highlights the real history of Halloween/Samhain. These will correlate with my short videos I am posting across my social media accounts. You can follow me on  Youtube,   Instagram , and  Facebook  to view them! The image of a simple white sheet draped over a figure is perhaps the most universally recognizable, yet historically rich, costume in the Halloween canon. This practice of covering oneself to appear as a spirit is arguably the oldest Halloween custom we have, rooted not in fanciful decoration, but in the serious business of spiritual survival and medieval charity. The history begins with the ancient Celts celebrating Samhain (SOW-in). On the night the veil between the worlds thinned, the landscape was believed to be filled with roaming, often malevolent, spirits and fairies. If a person ventured out after dark, they were compelled to wear a disguise, often made from crude materials like fearsome m...

  Throughout October I will be sharing a daily post that highlights the real history of Halloween/Samhain. These will correlate with my short videos I am posting across my social media accounts. You can follow me on  Youtube,   Instagram , and  Facebook  to view them! The Spiritualist Age: When the Dead Became Celebrity Guests The macabre nature of Halloween, which we celebrate every October, finds its true cultural fuel not just in ancient Celtic rites, but in a dramatic 19th-century religious phenomenon: the Spiritualism Movement . This American craze, which began with a series of mysterious knocks, elevated ghosts from folkloric figures to active, influential participants in Victorian life, permanently cementing the séance and the medium into the macabre iconography of the holiday. The Spark in Hydesville: The Fox Sisters The movement’s origin is pinned to March 1848 in a modest farmhouse in Hydesville, New York. It began with two young sisters, Margaretta “M...