by Areti Vassou
Goodbye October!
October is commonly associated with the season of autumn in the Northern hemisphere and spring in the Southern hemisphere, where it is the seasonal equivalent to April in the Northern hemisphere and vice versa.There are 61 days remaining until the end of the year.
Celebrations
- October 30–31: 20th Day of Ashura (Shia Muslims, Islamic calendar)
- October 31: Balipratipada (Hinduism)
- October 31: Gai Puja (Vikram Samvat)
- October 31: Goru Puja (Hinduism, Nepal)
- October 31: Govardhan Puja (Indian National Calendar, Hinduism)
- October 31: Hecate’s Deipnon (Attic calendar, modern Hellenism)
- October 31: Vishwakarma Puja (Hinduism)
- October 31: Halloween
via Wikipedia
Halloween
Halloween or Hallowe’en (a contraction of All Hallows’ Evening), also known as Allhalloween, All Hallows’ Eve, or All Saints’ Eve, is a celebration observed in a number of countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day.
History of Halloween
Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition. It is thought to have originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts.
Google Halloween
Via the amazing Google Team:
Happy Halloween!
Grab your wand and help fend off a ghostly catastrophe. Press play to swipe spells, save your friends, and help restore the peace at the Magic Cat Academy.
This year’s Halloween Doodle follows freshman feline Momo on her mission to rescue her school of magic. Help her cast out mischievous spirits by swiping in the shape of the symbols above the ghosts’ heads. And you’d better pounce fast—the ghost that stole the master spellbook is getting away!
From the team that created the Magic Cat Academy:
The inspiration for this year’s cat spell-casting game came from a real-life black cat named Momo that belongs to Doodler Juliana Chen. It seemed like a good opportunity for a cat hero, since the winner of last year’s Candy Cup Doodle was Yellow Witch and her black cat.
Momo the muse
The original concept for the game involved a magic cat making a soup that was so good, it raised the dead. Connecting soup to Halloween proved too abstract, so the team shifted to the idea of a wizard school. This opened the door to a more robust world filled with interesting characters and paw-some themes.
“Graveyard” concepts included vacuums, candy-eating ghosts, and hiss-worthy exams.
The game includes five levels set in a school environment: the library, cafeteria, classroom, gym, and the building’s rooftop. We had lots of fun ideas for the resident foe of each level, including a chef ghost, a venn diagram ghost, and a big whistle ghost that summons other spirits.
Early mock-up of gameplay
Doodling for a whole Doodle game was very exciting for us. We had so many ideas for elaborate symbols to draw, like a witch’s hat that would appear on the character’s head after it was drawn! In the end we decided that for a short game against the clock, simple was better. Plans like the “Eiffel Tower spell” were abandoned, and similarly, gag spells didn’t make the cut. Regardless, we loved the process of dreaming up the possibilities.
Cat Hat Spell in a previous concept
That’s all for meow. We hope that every human, creature, and ghost has a purrfectly magical day.
Meow-loween Team
Art
Olivia Huynh
Juliana Chen
Kevin Laughlin
Leon Hong
Engineering
Kris Hom
Jacob Howcroft
Mark Ivey
Will Knowles
Production
My-Linh Le
Perla Campos
Brian Kaas
Ryan Germick
External Help
Harmony Music (David Levison & Nicole Paul)
Momo (black cat)
Ripley (black cat)
Nimbus (black cat)
Harley (black cat)
Baxter (black cat)
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Some Historical facts:
On this day
1955: Princess Margaret cancels wedding
Princess Margaret calls off her plans to marry divorced Group Captain Peter Townsend.
1971: Bomb explodes in Post Office tower
A bomb explodes in the Post Office tower causing extensive damage but no injuries.
1984: Indian prime minister shot dead
Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India, is killed by two assassins believed to be her own bodyguards.
