It is that time of year when ghosts and goblins come around. Halloween is our one holiday that is devoted to the scary, the creepy, and the unknown.
I’ve written before about its origins and its history. In our time, it is always celebrated on October 31. But the history of Halloween has been and evolution. The earliest goings of things originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. That was a time when people who lived 2,000 years ago would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. It wasn’t worldwide. Mostly, it occurred in the area of Ireland, and the UK, and some places in Northern France.
Then jump forward several hundred years to the eighth century, when Pope Gregory III designated November 1st as a time to honor all saints. It didn’t take long for the two celebrations to merge together. All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. As you may have guessed, the night before was called “All Hallows Eve.” That morphed into Halloween.
Today, it looks like it does, with kids running from house to house, grabbing candy, dressed as superheroes and fairy princesses. Then there is the carving of pumpkins, which I am certain is objectionable to the pumpkin. The other nifty part is the haunted houses, designed to scare the living daylights out of anyone who will pay the admission fee. A feature, starring mostly Ketchup.
But in the everyday world, many believe, and claim, that haunted houses are for real. Now I lived in Charleston, SC, for a time, and in that city, a haunted house is the norm rather than the exception. The place is teeming with the supernatural. When we bought our first home, we chose a realtor from afar, flew down, and saw fourteen houses in one weekend. As we entered each house, she would ask the “hosting” realtor: “Is it haunted?” Of course, I picked up on this right away. In the time we lived down there, we purchased three homes and one building. It is my belief there is something to this notion of the haunted house.
But it isn’t just Charleston. Worldwide, there has been a movement of believers in the nether world. There are ghost hunters, and scads of shows on TV, like TLC’s Kindred Spirits, Travel Channel’s Mysteries at the Museum, and Destination America’s Paranormal Lockdown. According to one ghost hunting expert, named Greg Newkirk, there are seven signs that your house might be haunted.
Mysterious sights and sounds
Ectoplasm
Feeling watched
Inexplicable movement
Previous homeowners accounts
Personality change
Physical and emotional disorientation
Of course, my observation is: If your house is haunted, you’ll know it.
Now we are back in Ohio, back to our home we built some 26 years ago. I am fairly certain it is not haunted. While we experience a lot of mysterious sights and sounds, inexplicable movement, and a constant feeling that we are being watched, we also have two dogs that account for all of these things. And as far as the ectoplasm is concerned, just yesterday, I found a large puddle of liquid on the kitchen floor tile, and I am fairly certain it had Ollie’s name on it.
As for the last two, personality change, and physical and emotional disorientation, I ascribe these to the fact that we are getting older by the minute.
Once again, I am back to my belief that we live in an enormous — strike that — we live in an infinite Universe. We cannot pretend to know everything there is to know. In fact, much of our surrounding existence can’t be explained at all.
Believe what you will. But always remember, we don’t know what we don’t know.
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“Halloween was confusing. All my life my parents said, ‘Never take candy from strangers.’ And then they dressed me up and said, ‘Go beg for it.’ “
— Rita Rudner
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“We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.”
— Stephen King
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“There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand.”
— Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
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The signs that your house might be haunted
