by Janis Patterson
Boooo!
Halloween! The time of skeletons, ghosts, cookies shaped
like bats and scary stories. We wear costumes of witches and zombies and pay
money to have frightening things jump out of the dark at us in haunted houses.
So why? Some of the prime directives hardwired into our
brain are to survive, to stay safe, to avoid danger. Again, so why on Halloween
do we try to scare ourselves witless?
Because it is all play-like. No matter how much we scream
and jump in the haunted house, we know that it is only an actor or a mechanical
illusion. If we were really hurt by something, everything would stop and care
would be showered on us. We wouldn’t really eat a bat, but a bat-shaped cookie
is a harmless bit of set dressing – to say nothing of being tasty. The sinister
monster or axe-murderer in the corner at the party is really your harmless
neighbor from down the block. No one would like to live in a house with
skeletons hung around or a mummy in the window (ok, I do know one who does, but
though weird she’s basically harmless), hung in thick cobwebs and crawling with
velveteen spiders. It’s the same reason we read horror stories at any time of
year. We are scared, yes, but we can control the circumstances and therefore
control our fear.
Perhaps that is the prime point – control. We know the skull
cups aren’t real, because one, they are made of cheap plastic and two, we
bought them at the local discount store a couple of days ago. Probably if at
any other time of the year anyone offered us a bubbling, fog-shrouded drink in
a cup made of a skull (real or fake), we’d scream and run like the dickens. At
Halloween we know it’s all make-believe and therefore just part of the fun.
Sort of like reading mysteries or thrillers where – no matter how scary or
exciting the action is or how much the world is threatened – we always know all
the way through that everything will be all right in the end.
Some things seem to be so intrinsic to us as humans that
they are universal; we fear the spirits of the dead and believe (even if just a
little) in curses. So did the Ancient Egyptians and Babylonians. In spite of
our sophistication and knowledge and advanced culture, put us in a shadowy
place and let a cold hand touch our flesh, or even just see an amorphous form
of white vapor go past and we’re gulping and cringing and perhaps yelling,
whether we profess to believe in ghosts or not.
Personally, I am firmly ambivalent. Intellectually I cannot
accept the idea of a recognizable specter, head tucked securely under his arm,
trotting down the corridor of some ancient pile on a regular schedule. Such a
possibility goes against both logic and religion. On the other hand, I have had
a few personal experiences that not only cannot be explained by either logic or
religion, they were scary as heck! (And those of you who know me personally
know that I do not scare easily.) I was alone, there were things going on I
could neither explain nor control, and it was flat spooky. I couldn’t wait to
get back to the safe world of normalcy.
Therefore, even though I prefer a solid world of rules and
explainable phenomena, I will enjoy Halloween to the fullest, wearing wild
costumes and eating yummies made to look distinctly unwholesome. I will dance
with Death (who is reality is an accountant), laugh at ghosts who flit through
the dark and hand out lashings of candy to all kinds of small hobgoblins.
At least, I will as long as I can control the light switch!
Happy Halloween!
And – Boooooo!
