October 31 – National Magic Day

Posted October 31, 2016

Houdini was best known as an
escape artist.

Today marks the end of International Magic Week  and is the day that world famous magician Harry Houdini died. 

It's also Halloween, with all the tricks and magical witchcraft and fun that holiday can involve. So, naturally, it is Magic Day!

Magic is a kind of performance art in which the performer does seemingly impossible things. Some magicians seem to state that they are using “real” magic or tapping into supernatural forces, but these days especially, almost all magicians point out that they are creating illusions. As a matter of fact, many magicians don't call themselves magicians, but prefer the term illusionist.

By the way, back in the 1930s, Mrs. Houdini was asked permission to celebrate Magic Day on the anniversary of her husband's 1926 death, and she said “yes.” That makes National Magic Day even more special as an honor to the great Houdini.

Magic equals art plus science.

It's PPP: performance – personality – practice! And also preparation – props – and maybe even a few plants (stooges) in the audience.

You can learn magic online, these days, or you can buy and practice using a magic kit.

Or just learn a few fun tricks to razzle dazzle your friends. 

Or watch one of the many magic videos available online. Here's one. And here is another. 

Also on this date:

Halloween (All Hallows' Eve)

Halloween coincidences

Halloween as a worldwide “plague”

National Knock-Knock Jokes Day

Beggars' Night

Samhain

Nevada Day 

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

• October holidays
• October birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in October

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

• November holidays
• November birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in November

March 24, 2012 - Happy Birthday, Harry Houdini

Today's birthday boy has one of the best job titles ever: he was an escapologist!

An escapologist? 

One who escapes from chains and handcuffs, sometimes under water—maybe even upside down and under water! Houdini regularly escaped from handcuffs inside a sealed over-sized milk can filled with water. The milk can was sometimes locked inside a wooden chest, as well, or inside another sealed milk can, or chained and padlocked. 

Another popular Houdini escape act was really weird: Houdini was strapped into a straitjacket and then suspended by his ankles from a tall building. He would make his escape in front of a crowd of people on the street—and when I say “crowds,” I mean crowds that sometimes numbered in the thousands! These crowds would spontaneously gather as more and more people ran to see what was going on; and, of course, any time you get a crowd of thousands of people, there is going to be a huge traffic jam! In New York City, Houdini sometimes brought blocks worth of cars to a standstill.

Aside from all the fantastic escapes, Houdini was a magician, stunt performer, actor, film producer, and aviator.

But an even better job title was this:

GHOSTBUSTER!

In my opinion, Harry Houdini's most important, and most admirable, role was skeptic. He set out to expose frauds who pretended to be in touch with dead people, also known as the “dearly departed.” Psychics, mediums, and spiritualists claimed to be able to reach the dead relatives of grief-stricken people, and they charged a lot of money for these services. Houdini's training in magic helped him to figure out how these so-called psychics were able to trick customers and even scientists. He debunked so many frauds who were supposedly in touch with ghosts, that he became known as the ghostbuster.

Cool, huh?

Houdini would disguise himself so that the medium or psychic wouldn't recognize him, and he would go to a séance with a police officer and reporter. He would figure out the psychic's tricks and then expose the fakery to all.

Here you can read about an amazing magic trick, or illusion, that Houdini once performed on his one-time friend, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was the author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. 

Here you can see a straitjacket escape by Houdini. 

Here is a picture of a 2002 Houdini postage stamp, along with some interesting biographical info on the world-famous magician. 

Oh, by the way...

• “Harry Houdini” was a stage name. Houdini's real name was Erik Weisz, later changed to Ehrich Weiss.

• Houdini (then Weisz) was born in Hungary on this date in 1874, and he came to America when he was four years old.

• Houdini died on Halloween Day!

Also on this date:

Anniversary of a very big stamp sale 

National Tree Planting Day in Uganda 

October 31, 2011 - Halloween

Halloween is big where I live, in Southern California. People decorate the outsides of their homes, work on costumes and jack-o-lanterns, and go (often multiple times) to haunted

attractions such as houses, theme parks, and corn mazes. People often spend a lot of money on treats to hand out to strangers who come trick-or-treating...I would say that Halloween is the second most popular, most big-deal holiday around here, after Christmas!

Last year's post describes how this holiday got its start.

Some coincidence of events include:

• 
  On a day when people often talk about mystery... on Halloween, 1892, the book The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (written by Arthur Canon Doyle) was first published.
• 
  On a day when people often talk about magic...on Halloween, 1926, Harry Houdini (perhaps the most famous magician of all time) died.
• 
  On a day when people dress up as skeletons and ghosts...on Halloween, 1961, Joseph Stalin's dead-and-embalmed body was removed from Lenin's grave.

You could celebrate Halloween in a most unusual way...such as reading a story about Sherlock Holmes, learning a magic trick, or trying to find out what the Russians (or, rather, the Soviets) did with Stalin's body!