50 posts on Lyra's Letters!

Lyra's Letters has published 50 posts so far, so here is some information:

The origins:    This blog started out as a newsletter that we would mail to our friends. There were three issues published, and it was designed by Stephen(in 'Contributors'), and written by the kids(Wytse, Daniel, Arwin). I(Wytse) wrote mostly short stories, Daniel wrote mostly nonfiction posts, and Arwin submitted poems and comic strips. Lyra's Letters was made into a blog around 13 February 2014.

The name:    Lyra's Letters is an elected name. It was written on a list along with The Gensemer Times and other names, then the family voted for some of them. Lyra's Letters was Stephen's idea, so that we could put a picture of the family dog, Lyra(see the July article) in the corner of the newsletter.

The posts:     There are many types of posts written in Lyra's Letters:
Short story posts:
    Storm above the Alinian plains(March, May, June)
    paradise(May)
    The Battle in the Hills(July)
    "new book", "new story"(May, July, September, October, Continuing)
Nonfiction posts:
    How did the Europeans react to the Australian Animals when they were exploring Australia?(February)
    Medical uses of gold in the past(April)
    Dogs(May)
    Cats(June)
    The first Australians(June)
    What is an endangered species?(June)
    Celebrating independence day(July)
    Black Saturday(July)
    stargazing(August)
    To the top of the world(August)
    The weirdest animals of the world(September)
    Hallow's Eve(October)
Nonfictional/Personal posts:
    The Walkabout Wildlife Park(February)
    Another trip to Jindabyne(April)
    Blue Mountains Trip(April)
    How to get rid of an Australian land leech(May)
    Plastic of Umina(June)
    The Six Foot Track(July)
    Lyra(July)
    Being a Writer(July)
    What to do with a paper and pencil(July)
Other posts:
    poem(poem, February)
    Stop the XL Pipeline!(comment, March)
    Homemade recipe(recipe, April)
    Energy(poem, May)
    Top 5 favourite books(book review, July)
    IMPORTANT MESSAGE(notice, October)

The contributors:    look at the 'Contributors' section. Stephen designed the original newsletter(look above), Nynke owns the blog, Arwin wrote a poem, posted in February, Daniel has made a significant contribution, and I(Wytse) have written a lot too.

I have learned a lot about writing ever since the blog started, and I hope I will keep getting better.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE

The Lyra's Letters writers have produced almost fifty posts since February. Three stories have been and are being posted. And a quite a handful of posts have been seen by over twenty people. Recommended/popular articles include:

Medical uses of gold in the past (April)

paradise (May) (Cont'd as "The Battle In The Hills")

How to get rid of an Australian land leech (May)

What is an endangered species? (June)

Plastic of Umina (June)

Being a writer (July)

Lyra (July)

The Six Foot Track (July)

To the top of the world (August)

Stargazing (August)

The weirdest animals of the world (September)

Hallow's Eve (October)

The Lyra's Letters team would love it if our followers could send in their own contributions. We will publish:

Recounts

Illustrations

Stories*

Nonfiction

Poems
Recipes**

*Can be any type of fiction, but has to be, at the most, 3000 words long.

**Has to be tested at your house first.

Anything not useful such as advertisements and inappropriate content will be discarded. Remember that anything that goes into Lyra's Letters will be edited. 

Thank you, the followers of Lyra's Letters! We encourage you to comment a lot.

Hallow's Eve

Among Christmas, Easter, and New Years, Halloween is a very old holiday celebrated throughout the world. And it is coming in just seventeen days!

There are two ways people celebrate Halloween. There is trick-or-treating, the practice of knocking on peoples' doors with costumes around dusk and asking for candy. However, this only works well in certain neighborhoods as many people do not give out treats at Halloween. Another way of celebrating is going to parties, almost any type, although most require costumes.

Why is "Halloween Eve" the evening of Halloween, and not the day before? The answer lies in the holiday's origin.

There used to be an ancient holiday on the first of November called All Saint's Day, the day when ghosts were apparently the most active. People celebrated at the end of the day, so happy they were that it was over. The celebration dated back to the Middle Ages.

Someone wondered what time of  All Saints' Day would be the worst. This guy chose not the day, but the night before. Everybody struggled to find a good name for this night. They finally settled with "All Hallows' Eve" or just "Hallows' Eve".

On the spookiest night of the year, why not sit inside, around the fire? Why not party, and be merry? Soon, more parties happened on Hallows' Eve than on All Saints' Day itself. All Saints' Day slowly faded away into nothing much more than history. Some still celebrate it, but not the people who celebrate Halloween.

The cat, bat, and owl were quickly adopted as symbols of Halloween, as hunters of the night. Stories such as Bram Stoker's Dracula were also associated with Halloween, just because they were spooky.

Soon, the holiday we know as Halloween began to assemble. It is no longer a time to fear, but a time to look forward to.