Contemporary Lit Ambassadors

⚠️CONTEST ALERT! ⚠️ 
          
          Calling to all Contemporaries and Wattpaders!
          We've got exciting news.
          
          Wattpad is turning 18, and we want to celebrate you - because we wouldn't be the community we are today without you!   Join our HBD Video Contest by submitting a 15-30 second video sharing what Wattpad means to you. Show off your creativity, passion, and all the reasons you’re part of this amazing community.
          
          -Contest Period: November 18 - 29, 2024
          
          Check here for more info: https://www.wattpad.com/1476182663-news-updates-hbd-video-contest-it%27s-our-birthday/page/4
          
           ✨Amazing Prizes✨
          
          -Grand Prize (3 winners): 18,000 Bonus Coins, 18 months of Wattpad Premium, a personalized video from Drew Ray Tanner, Wattpad merch, signed posters and books, and the chance to star in our next video ad!
          
          -Runner-Up Prize (180 winners): 1,800 Bonus Coins, 3 months of Premium, and a chance to be featured in an upcoming ad!
          
          Interested? Enter HERE - https://wattpad.awardsplatform.com/ 
          
          We’d love to see what you create and help us make this celebration unforgettable. Let’s show the world what makes Wattpad special!
          
          See you around!
          
          ContemporaryLit Team!

Hello Creative Minds!
          
          Join the @justwriteit profile in celebrating National Writers Month with an exciting event added to the 30 Day Challenge just for this special occasion - November Word Quest!
          
          For the entire month, starting 1st November 2024 to 30th November 2024, 11:59 pm EST, we challenge you to add at least 50,000 new words to your new/ongoing story. That’s right—unlock the creative floodgates and aim for a minimum of 50k, with the possibility of reaching up to 59,999 words. Let’s make this month a tribute to your storytelling prowess.
          
          For more details, visit the link: https://www.wattpad.com/story/365928995-30daychallenge
          
          Happy Writing!

Halloween Fun Fact #9: In the UK and Ireland, the phrase ‘trick or treat’ was not common until the 1980s, said to have been popularized by the blockbuster film ET. Before this, children in costume would offer the greeting ‘Help the Halloween party’ when appearing at the doors of homeowners.
          
          Halloween Fun Fact #10: The threat of poisoned candy on the eve of Halloween is mostly an urban myth about malevolent strangers distributing contaminated candy with ill intent. No cases of strangers harming or killing children in this way have been proven. However, worries stemming from these myths have given rise to alternative trick or treating practices, such as ‘trunk or treat’ and other events held at churches, police stations, and community centers.

Halloween Fun Fact #8: The use of the phrase ‘trick or treat’ appears to have originated in Canada before spreading to the United States in the 1930s. This was accompanied by the implication that if a request for treats by the disguised beggar was denied, this would result in a prank or practical joke.

Halloween Fun Fact #7: Halloween, also known as All Hallows’ Eve, is believed to have influences of Christian practices, and marks the evening before the Christian holy days of All Saints’ Day (Nov 1st) and All Souls’ Day (Nov 2nd).

Halloween Fun Fact #6: Like other pagan practices, Samhain was considered a threshold festival, held during a time when the boundary between this world and the ‘otherworld’ blurred, thus making contact with the spirits more likely.

Halloween Fun Fact #5: Samhain was celebrated for 3 days and 3 nights and consisted of feasting, consuming large quantities of alcohol, and participating in contests. It was a mandatory practice, and those who failed to participate faced punishment from the gods.

Halloween Fun Fact #4: Bonfires played a big role during Samhain, often seen as a representation of the sun and considered a form of ‘sympathetic magic’ to hold back the decay and darkness of winter.

Halloween Fun Fact #3: In North America, the first reference to ‘guising’ was recorded in 1911. And the first occurrence of ritual begging on Halloween was recorded in 1915.
          

Halloween Fun Fact #2: Samhain marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. In honor of this seasonal transition, participants dressed up in costume, a practice called ‘guising’, and traveled door to door singing songs in exchange for food. Later, guising was practiced primarily by youths who disguised themselves and roamed the villages reciting rhymes and threatening to do mischief if they were not welcomed.