HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: Removing our Masks
by Teel James Glenn
Autumn is upon us, the leaves turn orange and the nights seem darker. As the chill of the air crawls into our bones, we celebrate a spooky season called Halloween with all our heart.
This celebration of the scary is the child of the Celtic tradition called Samhain. It’s a time when the peoples of Scotland and Ireland believed that the veil between the worlds was thinnest, and those who have passed on can communicate more freely with the living. For good or bad.
This pumpkin spice time has traditions like carving pumpkins into jack-o-lantern horrific faces which are intended to scare away evil spirits. (It started with turnips, btw) It’s the same reason we wear masks-though how sexy, nurses, sexy, politicians frighten away any of the dead, save prudish demons is beyond me.
In the old country that custom began when sheep heads–the full head, not just the skull, with the skin on it—were placed on children to disguise them on that night fool the pixies and the fairies so they wouldn’t steal the young ones. Or replace them with changelings.
In the days of old when the nights were dark and most believed in demons and spirits Samhain was a time of fear. Fear that the other side would reach over and cause harm to the living.
These days, to us Halloween people– writers of horror– it’s always had another meaning. Not one of fear, but of excitement. Where other people put on disguises to become someone else, a monster or werewolf, zombie, we put them on to reveal who’s actually inside us.
From the beginning, we who write horror have felt a kinship with the creatures from the other side, often more than the heroes. We spend most of the year wearing a mask of ‘normalcy,’ of suburban complacency and wait for the spooky season. That’s when we can pull off the masks, like Dr Phibes or the Phantom of the Opera to become our true selves.
So let us celebrate for the treat for us is to trick the rest of the people into thinking we are just like them. Let the shadows elevate us, the darkness fill us with joy…be kind to each other and do your best to blend in the rest of the year… Happy Haalloween!
Teel James Glenn has killed hundreds and been killed more times—on stage and screen, as forty-plus years as a stuntman, and haunted house barker then he decided to do something risky: become an author.
He has dozens of published books in multiple genres, and his poetry and stories have been printed in over two hundred magazines, including Weird Tales, Mad, Black Cat Weekly, Cirsova, and Sherlock Holmes Mystery.
He is a Shamus, Silver Falchion and Derringer finalist and won Best Novel in the Pulp Factory Award and winner of the Pulp Ark Award for Best Author.
His website is: TheUrbanSwashbuckler.com
Facebook: Teel James Glenn