You might have already noticed today’s Google Doodle is an interactive animated witch.  There are more tricks to uncover though, but you just have to know the right combination of ingredients to make the right concoction.

But that’s not all Google has in store for users today as Google Graph Search provides additional, not always useful, but funny information for your ghoulish search.

Ghost

Inspector Specter

In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Wikipedia

Origin: Animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures

Grouping: Legendary Creature

Sub grouping: Undead

Food source: Air, your fear, being remembered

How to avoid: Burn sage; don’t build a pool on burial grounds; stay away from haunted places

How to defeat: Call Peter Venkman and Ray Stantz

Zombie

The stalking undead

A zombie is an animated corpse raised by magical means, such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli. Wikipedia

Origin: Tenets of Vodoo in West Africa and Haiti

Grouping: Legendary Creature

Sub grouping: Undead

Food source: Human flesh, preferably brains

How to avoid: Don’t join a dance troupe led by a man in a red leather suit; stay out of graveyards

How to defeat: Go for the head

Vampire

A bloody good Count

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person/being. Wikipedia

Origin: European folklore

Grouping: Legendary creature

Sub grouping: Undead

Food source: Your blood

How to avoid: Don’t invite them in, keep garlic on stock, stay away from Transylvania

How to defeat: Expose them to sunlight or pierce their heart with a wooden stake

Witch

The good, the bad and the ugly

Witchcraft is the use of magical faculties, most commonly for religious, divinatory or medicinal purposes. Wikipedia

Origin: Early human cultures

Grouping: Homo Sapiens

Sub grouping: Supernatural human

Food source: Strange Brew, candy

How to avoid: Don’t eat red apples from strangers; hide if you see a flock of flying monkeys

How to defeat: Throw a pail of water

 

Werewolf 

A very real creature

A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope, is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an [sic] therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction Wikipedia

Origin: European folklore

Grouping: Legendary Creature

Sub grouping: Lycanthrope

Food source: Anything it can chase, catch, and chomp

How to avoid: Stay in your house during the full moon

How to defeat: Use weapons made of silver, such as silver bullet, blade, or cane

Mummy

 

A mummy is a deceased human or animal whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry cond… More Wikipedia

Origin: South America, Africa, Asia

Grouping: Legendary creature

Sub grouping: Undead

Food source: The power of love (and curses)

How to avoid: Don’t raid tombs; never read ancient scrolls

How to defeat: Unravel the mummy entirely; destroy the Scroll of Thoth

 

These are just some of the Easter Eggs Google has for Halloween, can you find more of them?  Happy Halloween!

photo credit: Thomas Hawk via photopin cc

photo credit: ElDave via photopin cc