Halloween is here again. Next to Christmas it’s my favorite time of year. The origin of the celebration dates to a Celtic Festival. The word is supposed to mean summers end. Some call it “All Saints Day” and others call it “The Day of the Dead.” Although it is purely a secular holiday many Christians think it is evil and celebrates paganism and the occult. Isn’t that just like some people to get down on something they don’t know much about. It’s just a day for kids to have fun. They trick or treat and get a fill of candy. They wear neat costumes, carve jack-o-lanterns, tell ghost stories, start bonfires, bob for apples and watch horror movies.

I like the ghost stories. Some folks don’t even believe in ghost. Even the Bible talks a lot about ghost. The disciples thought Jesus was a ghost when they saw him walking on water. Mark Twain wrote about ghost. Now, if the disciples and Mark Twain believed in ghost, that’s good enough for me. Who am I to argue with authorities like that.

I have had a couple of encounters with ghost. One time I was in a remote country cemetery and heard a mother calling her child. I then heard a screen door close as if the child came home. It was very real and my wife heard the same thing. I thought it may have come from a nearby house but there was no house for miles. Another time I recognized the pleasant odor of a person in our family who had been dead for several years. My wife had an experience of the presence of my parents in the car long after they were deceased.

So, I’m convinced that ghost do exist and are manifest in many forms. They don’t have to be some see through figure that appears at night. As a matter of fact, ghost may be around us all the time and come to us through words in a book, pictures and various forms that are bombarding us like invisible radiofrequency waves. Memories are like ghost conjured from the past. Ghost constantly surround me on the porch.

Anyway, Halloween is a fun time for young and old. I have plenty of candy in stock on the porch for the trick-or-treat crowd. I do hope they come because candy is the last thing I need.