Happy Halloween!!

If one were to ask me what my favorite holiday is, I would have to say – hands down – it would be Halloween. Not just because it’s socially acceptable to dress up, and oh yes,  the overabundance of candy! Those are all added benefits – please do not get me wrong.

It is the mythology behind it all. The history to it. The day when the veil between that of the living and that of the dead is at its thinnest.  The idea of people dressing up so that the ghosts are so afraid of what they say that they stay on their side of the veil.  Cultures all over the world celebrate this, at least the idea that they might communicate with their dead.

Okay, not all over the world – I get it’s mostly a Western culture thing, at least the Halloween part, but I adore the idea of it.

But then, I’ve always had a thing for ghost stories.  I’ll babble about that more extensively later.

For the vast majority of my formative years, we were not permitted to celebrate Halloween.  I think a little part of it must be related to that. It was deemed something not to be done, so it wasn’t.  This started in late elementary and followed me through Junior High and High School.

As such, you better believe my freshman year at university, I organized a huge group of fellow college students to dress up and go door to door.  The booty itself was not the purpose – the laughter and memories drawn from such were most important, to me in any case.

And yes, we were all sober.

Once my son was born, lo! An excuse! Not that I exactly needed one. Devlin was only a few months old come his first Halloween, and I dressed him up in a little duck costume. He squealed and waved his arms in a most adorable way.  People cooed over this adorable little boy, all but pinching his cheeks.  Each year, he would get to pick out a costume – mostly ninjas, if we are to be honest – and go on the search for candy.

I was disappointed when he said he felt he was too old to go trick or treating.

But let’s return to the dead.

Especially when I was younger, there would be Ouija boards and tarot readings.  I’ve never been to a full on seance, but I would desperately love to participate in such a thing.  Even more recently, I try to do at least one tarot reading on such an evening. It’s the idea that communicating with the dead is a possibility, and of all nights, the most likely to occur on All Hallow’s Eve.  I’ve always loved the idea of ghosts being out there – something beyond what we have here.

I grew up on ghost stories, and they’ve always excited some part of my brain.  I imagine if you’re reading this, you’ve likely read at least one of my books and may have picked up on this fact.

So have a lovely Halloween, my darlings.  May you enjoy the opportunity to dress up and maybe give someone a good scare.

And if you’re out hunting ghosts, good luck in your endeavors.  Please try not to tick off anything too malevolent…