I think Halloween and Christmas are my two favorite holidays. I love Halloween for all the paranormal stuff it offers, and I love Christmas for all the good feelings I feel. Everyone who knows me knows how I feel about ghosts: They rock.
One year I volunteered at a haunted house for one of our local historical societies in Colorado. The haunted house was supposed to be more reality-based and less strobe lights and fog machines. That was the real reason I agreed to do it. I volunteered my closest friend, too, who was kind enough to oblige. It was one of the most active and frightening experiences of my life. I knew the building was supposed to be haunted year-round, and I was hoping to see something real. I was not disappointed. I went to see my brother after the event, and I told him all about it.
I started to wonder why my experience was so cliché: Sighting an apparition on Halloween. I thought that maybe my imagination was working overtime because of the circumstances. Then my bro said something that made more sense. He said, “Maybe the ghosts don’t come out because it’s Halloween; maybe it’s Halloween because that’s when the ghosts come out.” It made complete sense.
Originally, it was said that the veil between the living and the dead was thinnest on All Hallows Eve. There was the legend of Samhain and how frightful creatures emerge on that day, and normal people used to disguise themselves most foully so as to avoid detection from the frightful things and not be eaten. This was one story of the origin of dressing up on Halloween. It’s the reason I find pretty and happy things on Halloween to be silly. Why would someone dress up as a cowboy or a princess when that’s not remotely scary? God help those dressed as Paris Hilton should the frightful things of lore suddenly decide to rise among us.
Since the holiday was chosen on that day for what that day originally afforded, perhaps it’s not a leap to find ghostly things amok then today. Halloween is when it is because that’s the most common time to see otherworldly events? Okay, I can buy that. Whatever the case, I’m pleased as can be when Halloween comes around. After all, I do have a page that I like to update about the ghostly things that have happened in my life. I love ghosts. Yay for ghosts and Halloween.
