Halloween Games and Activities

My sister reminded me today of this wonderful game I learned to play when I was in high school. While you could possibly play it with as few as four people, it is much better with a group of ten to twenty.

Murder!

This should be played in a dimly lit place. Bright lights make it easier to identify the murderer.

• Take one card for each player from a deck of cards.
• Set the remaining cards aside, they will not be used.
• Show the top card from your selected pile to the group and announce aloud that this card is the card of the murderer.
• Place the card back in the pile and shuffle the stack well.
• Pass out the cards to the group and tell them not to let anyone else see the card they have been dealt.
• The one who gets the murderer’s card becomes the murderer for this round.
• Everyone joins hands.
• The murderer sets about his/her work by squeezing the hand of the person next to them a certain number amount of times. That person passes the squeezes on to the next person minus one squeeze. When a person only receives one squeeze that person is dead and must feign death in an agonizing mannor and then leave the circle.
• Everyone who is not the murderer may try to guess who the murderer is at any time. If they guess correctly they win the round. If they guess incorrectly, however, they die and leave the circle.
• People who have died are not allowed to speak.
• If there are only two people left in the circle, the murderer has won this round.
• Award the winner with a favor if you choose.
• To play another round, reshuffle the cards, pass them out and so forth.

Have fun! This game is addicting.

Archaics

A game of forgotten words and their lost definitions.

How to play:

1. Choose a list of 5 archaic words from the list below and write them on a board for all the guests to see.
2. Pass a pad of paper and pencil to each guest.
3. Inform them that they must create a short story that incorporates all the archaic words written on the board.
4. Explain that the story should illustrate clearly what they think each of the words means or should mean.
5. Set a timer for 10 minutes.
6. At the end of 10 minutes, stop them and have them hand in their stories.
7. Read the actual definitions to the archaic words and then read the stories aloud.
8. Optional: Award a prize to the person who gave the closest or most convincing uses of the words.

The Halloween Archaics List:

These words were chosen from The Word Museum : The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten by Jeffrey Kacirk.

• alectromantia : Divination by a cock. A circle is drawn and the letters of the alphabet are placed around it. A grain of corn is placed on each letter. A cock is placed in the middle of the circle. The order of the letters the cock eats the grain from will prognosticate the answer to the question.
• barguest : A white ghost with saucer eyes.
• batterfang : To beat or beclaw.
• blutterbunged : Confounded or overcome with surprise
• brizzle : To singe or burn slightly.
• cabobble : To mystify, puzzle or confuse.
• chimble : To gnaw like a mouse or rat.
• cynanthrope : A victem of rabies caused by dog bite. A person who believes or acts as if they were a dog.
• dudman : A scarecrow made of old garments.
• eyebite, eyebiter, eyebitten : To bewitch with the evil eye. The eyebitten could be rhymed to death by the eyebiter.
• fratchy : Quarrelsome.
• gapesnest : A strange sight fit only to be stared at.
• geloscopy : Divination by means of laughter.
• gramarye : Magic.
• grimgribber : A lawyer or the technical jargon of such.
• gyromancy : Divination by spinning in a circle.
• haggersnash : A spiteful person.
• hylden : A foul creature such as a hangman or butcher.
• jimjams : The creeps.
• leachcraft : The art of medicine.
• loupgarou : A werewolf.
• mirknight : Midnight.
• moanworthy : Sad.
• monsterful : Wonderful, extraordinary.
• moonblink : Temporary blindness caused by sleeping under the moon.
• morthead : A jackolantern made from a turnip.
• myomancy : Divination through mice.
• noctuary : An account of what passes in the night, as opposed to a diary which is a record of events of the day.
• ogerhunch : Any frightful creature, but especially a bat.
• ornithoscopy : Divination by means of watching the birds.
• outcumlins : Strangers.
• peccable : Liable to sin and error as opposed to impeccable.
• pixilated : Led astray, as if by pixies; confused, bewildered or intoxicated.
• planetruler : An astrologer.
• pogonophobia : The fear of birds.
• smittlish : Infectious, contagious.
• soulcase : The body.
• stelliscript : That which is written in the stars.
• tarantismus : A disease that causes mad dancing from the bite of the tarantula.
• thrunched : Very angry.
• tyromancy : Divination through the coagulation of cheese.
• ugsum, ugsumness : Terrible, terribleness.
• weatherspy : A wizard.
• wolfshead : An outlaw.
• yirdswine : A mysterious and dreaded animal thought to burrow into graveyards and live upon the corpses.

Everyone knows that what the kids get out of trick-or-treating: CANDY.

So, what do you, as the adult handing out the sweet stuff, get out of it? The day has passed, in most places, where children are going to soap your windows if you flip the lights off and go to bed early. So, why do we still do it?

Besides custom, I think there is a great reward for us on the giving end (besides the joy of giving). Halloween is one of the rare nights of the year (perhaps the only night of the year in most places) where live entertainment comes to our door. In essence, we get a personal costume parade made up of cute little tykes, bold superhero grade schoolers and greedy, gruesome teens. Personally, I think it is a good trade. Candy for entertainment. I also think it is worth giving extra credit where credit is due.

Why should someone who threw on a pair of nerd glasses get the same reward as someone whose costume was obviously elaborately hand-made from scratch? Well, because you don’t want to hurt anyones feelings, right? Maybe, but that doesn’t mean you can’t reserve a few exceptional candy goods for 4-8 trick-or-treaters who went the extra mile.

So, hold your own personal / house costume contest and reward those kids for the extra effort. After all, they earned it by bringing a smile to your face.

Your ‘prizes’ could include:

• Full size candy bars
• Movie theater boxes of candy
• Dollar store Halloween items

None of these are overly expensive, but are a nice way of saying "thank you" for the extra entertainment. You could label your prizes, or just say, "Wow, what a great costume! That deserves a little something extra."