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I hope someday when I have kids, at least one of them is born around Halloween. This would give me an excuse to have an awesome Halloween party every year. I wonder if these people had Halloween birthday parties…

1. John Keats, 1795.
2. Dale Evans, 1912. I wonder if she went as a cowgirl, or if that was overkill?
3. Dan Rather, 1931. Also, Jane Pauley, 1950… Halloween is a good day for newscasters!
4. Michael Landon, 1936. I find this ironic.
5. Kinky Friedman, 1944. I find this fitting.
6. John Candy, 1950.
7. Peter Jackson, 1961. Lord of the Rings fans rejoice.
8. Rob Schneider, 1963. He’s lucky – he can go in costume as any one of his memorable characters, such as the Italian Delivery Man from Mr. Deeds, or the Delivery Guy from Big Daddy, or “The Townie” from Little Nicky and The Waterboy. Or he could go as Deuce Bigalow. But really, who wants to see that?
9. Adrock (Adam Horovitz from the Beastie Boys), 1966.
10. Vanilla Ice, 1967. There’s a joke in here somewhere about pumpkins and waxing chumps like a candle, but I can’t quite figure it out today. If you come up with one, let me know in the comments.
What’s going on in the vintage card there? The pumpkin I get, but the mirror and portrait? Some arcane Halloween ritual? Weird.
posted by terri on 10-24-2008 at 2:51 pm
Haha, I didn’t realize good, ol’ kinky was that popular outside of my home state. I had never heard of him before the 2006 Governor election.
posted by nutmeag on 10-24-2008 at 3:24 pm
Yeah, terri. Weirdness abounds. It could be “Bloody Mary” she’s attempting with the mirror, but why the boy portrait, and why the exclamation point after the question!
Perhaps a spooky clue can be found in my ReCaptcha: men Zipper
posted by Johnny Cat on 10-24-2008 at 4:09 pm
I was born on Halloween, so I just had to throw in a comment. When I was a child, it rocked. Halloween themed birthday parties and all the candy I could eat. My mom even made Halloween themed party games for me and my friends. (GHOST Bingo, anyone?) Now – not so much. I guess I was spoiled as a kid with such awesome parties, but now – as an adult I get more dissapointed every year. Basically I can sum it up like this – if there is one day of the year that you should be the center of attention – your birthday is it. When you are born on Halloween (Or ANY holiday for that matter) it just doesn’t happen. I sympathize with the December 24 and 25 birthdays… I know what you are going through…
posted by Deb on 10-24-2008 at 4:21 pm
And most importantly, my mom! Jk.. =)
Deb – my mother-in-law was born on Christmas Eve, my father-in-law on Christmas day, and their anniversary is the day after Christmas. My husband was also suppose to be a Christmas-time baby but he was born premature a few weeks. My father is a few days before Christmas and my birthday is the week after Christmas. Hectic times… that’s why my wedding anniverary is in June.
posted by CK on 10-24-2008 at 4:41 pm
Houdini? or was it that he died on Halloween?
bit of confusion there…but that’s normal for me.
posted by MamaBug on 10-24-2008 at 4:49 pm
Johnny Marr of The Smiths (British 80’s group) is also a Halloween baby
posted by Melissa Duarte on 10-24-2008 at 5:17 pm
Johnny Marr of The Smiths (80’s British group) was born on Halloween
posted by Melissa Duarte on 10-24-2008 at 5:19 pm
My birthday is on Halloween and I love it! Everyone always remembers my birthday, although it is hard sometimes to go out with friends who have kids. There is always something fun going on, so little planning is necessary to find the party. The downside as a kid was that my younger brother was born the day before my first birthday, so we always had to share parties and cakes. Now it is great because we WANT to party together.
Recaptcha: selected ticket
Am I going to win the lottery for my birthday???
posted by frida tastic on 10-24-2008 at 5:23 pm
Hey Frida,
My sisters and I have a similar problem. Although it’s not a holiday, I was born on my sister’s 3rd birthday, September 12th. To make matters worse, our big sister’s birthday is 4 days later on the 16th. We had the shared parties and when the people sang “Happy Birthday” my name always came last. For the longest time it was “Happy Birthday JillAmyTricia!”
So I’m way glad I didn’t have a holiday nearby, unless you count the first day of school. Man did that suck.
posted by Tricia on 10-24-2008 at 6:22 pm
I LOVE MY BIRTHDAY –IT IS MAY 15th… A WONDERFUL TIME OF YEAR WEATHERWISE, AND THE MIDDLE OF MAY IS SUCH A PRETTY TIME OF YEAR ….(MID-SPRING)….I LOVE MY MAY 15th BIRTHDAY !!!!…..I JUST WISH I WAS YOUNGER -(YEARS GO BY SOOO FAST)…..LOLOL
posted by KAREN on 10-24-2008 at 9:17 pm
@ Karen, you have the same birthday as my oldest son. He’s 12 and hating it so I’m sure he’d trade you ages.
I wanted to get married on Halloween but my husband thought it would be sacriligous
posted by Lorelei on 10-24-2008 at 10:34 pm
Note to Nutmeag,
Kinky did an interview in High Times Magazine back in 1980. When asked if he was really Kinky he said ” They don’t call me Friedman for nothing”. I love his sense of humor. By the way, I was living in San Antonio at the time.
posted by gus on 10-25-2008 at 6:25 am
I remember reading about some columnist in the Montgomery (Alabam) Advitiser whose birthday is on Halloween. People who knew it was her birthday would give her extra candy. She told her little brother and sister it was because they liked her more. I’ve had to share a birthday for years myself, but that’s because I have a twin. My Uncle Junior was buried on Halloween.
posted by Sara on 10-25-2008 at 1:03 pm
My youngest is born Oct. 21 and we have scary themed parties every year. Last year was pirates and this year he wanted skulls/skeletons. He loves it.
posted by amanda on 10-25-2008 at 5:36 pm
The mirror the girl is holding is from an old Halloween divination technique: one would walk backwards and say a rhyme before looking into the candlelit mirror. The image of your future husband or wife was supposed to appear. See the URL included for more info.
posted by MissyMeow on 10-26-2008 at 12:19 am
This whole post is just an excuse to take a cheap shot at Rob Schneider.
posted by Mike on 10-26-2008 at 2:00 pm
I too am a Halloween Baby…as a kid I was TERRIFIED of going out—-those masks just scared the bejesus out of me…As I’ve gotten older tho, I’ve definitely appreciated have a birthday on such a cool day…
By the way, Rob Schneider and I born in the exact same year…
posted by jasmith31 on 10-26-2008 at 9:27 pm
My birthday is on the day Columbus discovered America…well about 485 years after. Take that Halloween babies! :)
posted by Marty on 10-27-2008 at 10:00 am
Mike, are you complaining? We need more excuses to take cheap shots at Rob Schneider.
I was born on the day that Darwin published “The Origin of Species.” I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: November 24th needs to be declared International Evolution Day, and it needs to be a federal holiday.
posted by Sillstaw on 10-27-2008 at 4:24 pm
terri,
the story behind the mirror and the portrait is actually very simple: in the 18th century or so, people believed that young girls could see their future husband in the mirror on Halloween (at midnight). the scary part is that, when the girl would die before she would get married, she’d see a skull.
btw: Frank Iero, guitarist of My Chemical Romance is also born on Halloween (1981)
posted by Raïssa on 1-28-2009 at 2:48 pm