The Truth about Halloween

 

Ever wonder what the real deal is concerning this holiday? The paranormal aura and mystique surrounding Halloween connects to a series of beliefs, traditions and superstitions.

What is the actual origin of Halloween?  It appears to date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain.  By Celts we refer to the people who lived approximately 2,000 years ago in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrating their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer harvest and the beginning of dark, cold winter, a time of year often associated with human death.

Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, believing that ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future.  The Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During these celebrations, Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they put out earlier that evening. This symbolic lighting was done from the sacred bonfire to serve as a protection during the coming winter.

By 43 A.D., the Romans had conquered a majority of Celtic territory. During the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800’s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 as All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. The pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in 1000 A.D., the church designated November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils.

Tales of the supernatural and paranormal are ever popular during the Halloween season. Black Opal Books published WITCH WISH, my YA novel with a supernatural twist:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DRB3VVH

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/witch-wish/id1401568260?mt=11

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/witch-wish-jacqueline-seewald/1128937209?ean=2940162153894

DARK MOON RISING, Gothic romantic suspense from Luminosity for adult reading, is available in all e-book formats and print.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Z7824A4/

http://luminositypublishing.com/product/dark-moon-rising/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/dark-moon-rising/id1020852100?mt=11

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dark-moon-rising-jacqueline-seewald/1122376394?ean=2940150766686

https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-darkmoonrising-1856071-340.html

Regency for Halloween, TEA LEAVES AND TAROT CARDS, is in print+ALL ebook formats:

https://luminositypublishing.com/en/book/tea-leaves-and-tarot-cards/

https://www.amazon.com/Tea-Leaves-Tarot-Cards-Regency-ebook/dp/B0BKP31G8Y

"Jacqueline Seewald's Tea Leaves and Tarot Cards delivers an unusual and intriguing heroine together with fast-paced historical romantic-suspense."
Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick

Do you have any favorite books/stories you’d recommend or want to read for Halloween?

Ghost Stories (Part Two)

  

It seems ghost stories have been haunting us forever. Whether in a Medieval castle with turrets or the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, stories of ghosts continue as part of literature. The fact is, I’ve written quite a few myself, both in short stories and novels. 

 

Why the continued interest? Sarah Begley in her TIME article discussed GHOSTLAND: An American History in Haunted Places in which author Colin Dickey was quoted as stating in his nonfiction book that ghost stories reveal “the contours of our anxieties” and “the nature of our collective fears and desires.”  

 

Why are we inclined to want to believe that ghosts or spirits exist beyond death? There’s an old spiritual that says: “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.” We would like to believe that we do in fact have souls and the possibility of an afterlife.  

 

The popular 1986 motion picture, Ghostbusters, set off a virtual mania regarding ghost hunting. It was followed by an animated cartoon series which pursued the same theme for children and met with enthusiasm. There was also an updated adult film with a female cast. The TV series Ghosts was a Thursday night favorite on CBS last season. Hallmark has done ghost stories as well. 

 

But truth is stranger than fiction. Ghost hunting has become an avid though admittedly unusual hobby for many people. These individuals are joining groups or organizations that hunt for spirits of the dead. Groups are proliferating that attempt to use scientific methods to locate ghosts. In fact, it’s a hobby that many people enjoy throughout the world. These organizations research, photograph, document, and, in some instances, seek to remove those ghosts that have proved inconvenient.  

 

Groups have sprung up across America in such diverse states as: Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. From the number of ghost-hunting organizations with websites, there appear to be hundreds of groups with thousands of members worldwide. 

 

International organizations exist everywhere. Their purpose is to find scientific evidence of ghosts and an afterlife. Organizations exist in such places as the United Kingdom, including Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, and Sweden. There have been ghost sightings in Asia, in such far-flung locations as Singapore--and in short, the entire world.  

 

Today’s ghost hunting organizations take pride in using the most modern technology possible. A variety of recording and measuring technology are used by ghost hunters who visit haunted houses, graveyards and other eerie locations, attempting to capture empirical evidence of paranormal beings. These ghost hunters utilize the latest in sound, video and still-image recording, as well as sensors that detect changes in temperature, electromagnetic fields and radiation.  

 

Every state, every country, has its own unexplained paranormal spirit phenomena. Many ghost hobby organizations make the distinction that they are not hunting ghosts so much as investigating paranormal phenomena. They even offer to examine private dwellings and businesses for free. One reason these groups shy away from the term ghost hunting is because the term “hunting” suggests the sport or hobby of pursuing something with intent of killing it. The groups merely intend to investigate, carrying out a detailed examination or inquiry, especially with documentation with intent of finding truth, reason, and cause. For the most part, they are ordinary people, curious and fascinated with the paranormal. 

 

The groups take several initial steps when starting an investigation. They use video cameras, digital recorders, heat sensors, and motion and electric magnetic field detectors to record whatever may be happening at a particular site. Clairvoyants also provide their impressions. Psychic mediums serve as a channel between the living and the dead. Eventually, the groups put together a report and discuss findings with the owner. Group members are known to specialize in electronic voice phenomenon, commonly called EVP; these are voices that supposedly do not come from a human source. Special software is used to determine whether a voice is in human or paranormal range. Findings are then authenticated by experts with a group called Haunted Voices.  

The groups consist of volunteers, people with regular jobs who have a serious interest in ghosts. Members range in age from young adults to retirees, and include secretaries, cooks, office workers, crossing guards, a lawyer and computer programmers.  They take investigations seriously, but also have fun together. They are not glory-hunters. In fact, they are conscientious about maintaining client confidentiality when investigating a potential haunting. They do not disclose exact locations. 

Supposedly, there is a difference between “spirits” who died in a normal way and can communicate and move around and ghosts whose souls do not know they’re dead. In the case of the ghosts, they are believed to have died tragically and are stuck in space and time and can’t move or go from place to place; they don’t understand their predicament and need help in order to move on. Unlike poltergeists, who are nasty, and know they’re dead, ghosts don’t harm the living.  

Do average people really believe in “spooks”? It appears that worldwide interest in the paranormal will not soon abate. Many people would like to believe there is an afterlife, a beyond. Ghost researching continues to remain an enthusiastic leisure activity for hobbyists. 

 

My spooky historical SINFUL SEDUCTION is set in the Pine Barrens, home of the Jersey Devil. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XFN1S8X 

https://luminositypublishing.com/book/sinful-seduction/ 

I’ve also written about the legends of the Jersey Devil in my co-authored novel THE THIRD EYE: A PINE BARRENS MYSTERY. 

 

My Gothic romantic suspense novel DARK MOON RISING involves not one but two ghost stories that are interconnected. 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Z7824A4/ 

 

http://luminositypublishing.com/product/dark-moon-rising/ 

 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/dark-moon-rising/id1020852100?mt=11 

  

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dark-moon-rising-jacqueline-seewald/1122376394?ean=2940150766686 

 

Some of my short ghost stories have appeared in the anthologies:  BETWEEN THERE, VOL. 2, LIVING DEAD, and MISSOURI GHOST STORIES as well as such magazines as BLIGHT and HYPNOS. 

 

For a short spooky story that combines mystery and the supernatural, I suggest a free read, my short story “The Bokur” 

 

https://pressfuls.com/2023/01/01/the-bokor/ 

  

Do you believe ghosts exist? If you are a writer, do you write ghost stories? Tell us something about your most recent work in the genre. Are there any that you would recommend as good Halloween reading choices?