There are many scary things about Halloween. The holiday conjures up images of jack-o-lanterns, slasher-films, Universal monsters, and witches. More than anything, though, October 31 makes me think of ghosts.
Our culture is inundated with variations of apparitions. Most of them are scary, such as a poltergeist, which is German for “spirit that creates a disturbance” or “film that was so scary it scarred a generation.” But there’s also the friendly one. As well as a romantic one. And a timeless musical one with some haunting-sounding tunes.
Despite their popularity, not everyone believes in them. A recent poll says nearly 45% of people think they are real. Surprisingly, the majority of believers (as in Christian believers) don’t think the Holy Ghost is real either, according to another poll. An official Pew research one says just 18% of people have seen one. I’m actually among them. Or one of those who at least thought they saw… something…
I was probably three years old, and my parents left me with a babysitter, as many horror films tend to go. I was in bed, the door to my room open, the hall light on. I heard something outside my room, and crept to the doorway, hesitatingly glancing past the opening. On the far wall, I saw the shadow of a traditional, sheet-covered ghoul, moving toward me. I didn’t look any further into the hall and bolted back in bed, fully covering myself with blankets in terror. Nothing else happened, and eventually my panic turned to sleep.
I have doubts that it was real, because first, I don’t think ghosts have shadows. And second, it was very probable the babysitter was cloaked in linens trying to get me to stay in my room after I constantly got up after she put me to bed. I guess I’ll never know for sure.
Typically, ghosts are seen as lost spirits of the departed, wandering the earth, trying to exact revenge with harm or haunt, or right some earthly wrong from their lifetime. Most only come out at night. Not all phantoms, though, are people. Sometimes it is the shadows of regret that plague our days. Or bad experiences that manifest mayhem in our minds. These ghosts are easier to believe in but harder to bust, taking more than crossed streams of proton packs to vanquish.
Most specters are also the shadows of what once was. Very rare is one from the future, such as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come from Charles Dickens, which is interesting, because the unknown of what lies ahead can be one of the scariest things there is. Maybe it’s because we do more looking back than ahead, possessed by the past and its nostalgia, unable to move on, making us our own kind of ghost.
Whether you believe in ghosts or not, ain’t afraid of no ghosts or are terrified by them, hopefully, this October 31st, you won’t experience any hauntings from anything. But if you are visited by one, maybe you’ll be lucky enough to reconcile its plight, learn to co-exist and even do some singing and dancing together. Actually, even then, that kind of ghost story might not be a treat for Halloween.
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