Halloween Experts

While many of the traditions of Halloween are easily dismissed as superstition or fantasy, the stories of ghosts and haunting strike an emotional chord and are not so easily set aside as fiction. Some of the first ghost stories were recorded by the ancient Roman author, Pliny the Younger, in the first century A.D. who described an old man with a long beard, rattling chains, who haunted his house in Athens.

Belief in ghosts stems from the theory that a person’s spirit exists as a separate entity from his body, and may continue to exist even after the body dies. Sometimes, this spirit seems to attach itself to a particular place, item or person that it knew in life. This belief caused many ancient societies to develop elaborate funeral rites to ensure that the dead did not return to haunt the living. Frequently a haunting may be the result of a sudden or violent death, or some strong or unresolved emotion during the physical life of the spirit.

Ghosts, according to believers, may manifest themselves as apparitions, sounds, odors, lights or atmospheric anomalies, or may be characterized by mischievous or destructive behaviors. Many ghost sightings are associated with battlefields or wartime activities, or other tragic events. There are ghosts who were famous people and people who have become notorious because of their alleged ghostly activity. One of the most frequently seen historical ghosts may be Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States and victim of an assassination in April, 1865. Mr. Lincoln is said to have been seen wandering around his former law offices in Springfield, Illinois, but more famously, he has been reportedly seen by First Ladies, Queens, Prime Ministers, diplomats and other visitors to the White House.

Some places seem to lend themselves to haunting. Hospitals, prisons and military bases are among the most frequently visited by wandering spirits. New York City has a long haunted history, from the ghost of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch colonial governor in 1672, to poet Dylan Thomas, who, it is said, still frequents his usual table at the White Horse Tavern in the West Village, where he drank those fatal 18 shots of scotch in 1953.

Whether or not you are a believer, ghosts fascinate us. There is both a romance and a terror associated with disembodied spirits. Of course, every ghost has its day, and that day, is Halloween!

The history of Halloween begins 2,000 years ago with the ancient Celts (pronounced kelts), who lived in what is now Ireland, Great Britain and northern Europe. They were a people whose faith and superstition were intimately connected with the natural world. The celebration of the Celtic New Year was called Samhain (pronounced sow-in). This holiday represented the end of the summer and harvest seasons and the onset of the dark, cold months of winter. Winter was also associated with human death, and the Celts believed that, at the time of Samhain, the boundaries between the living world and the realm of the dead broke down, allowing spirits to cross between them. These ghostly visitors caused mischief and damage to crops and property, but, the thinning of the veil between our world and theirs, also enabled the Druids, the priest class of the Celts, to be able to obtain the knowledge to prophesy and guide the people for the next year. To mark Samhain, the Druids built huge sacred bonfires. The people dressed in costumes of animal skins and heads, and burned sacrifices of crops and animals. Each household took home a flame from the sacred bonfire to light their own hearth, and protect the household for the coming year.

Rome occupied the Celtic lands for 400 years, beginning in A.D. 43, and they incorporated their own beliefs into the celebration of Samhain. The Roman festival of Feralia marked the passing of the dead into the underworld, and the feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees. Pomona’s symbol was the apple, which may explain the holiday tradition of bobbing for apples.

In the 7th century, when Christianity swept across the Celtic lands, Pope Boniface IV established the feast of All Saint’s Day on November 1st. It is widely believed that he chose this day to replace the pagan celebration with a church sanctioned holiday. All Saint’s Day, or All Hallow’s Day, and preceding night, All Hallow’s Eve, was commemorated with bonfires, parades, and dressing in costumes to represent saints, angels and devils.