Spooky October/Happy Halloween

Like Indiana Jones hates snakes, I hate spiders.

I was really upset when I visited my parents in Tehachapi once and discovered there were black widows living in the garage. I went through conniption fits every time I had to go out there for something and I swear I could feel them crawling on me when I got back in the house, although I never found one in my clothes.

I did, however, find one in my bed one morning as I was stripping off the sheets. I considered never visiting my parents again until they moved somewhere far away and safe, but I settled for just checking the bedclothes every time I visited, every night I was there, for years afterwards.

Now I live in Tehachapi, in the very same house even, with numerous descendants of those earlier spiders. They still make me shudder, but at least I'm not checking the sheets every night (and I've never wakened up with one again, or at least not that I know of).

So you can imagine my surprise when I found myself watching the movie "Arachnophobia" on television the other evening. I decided to use it as a way to face my fears, but those spiders on the screen gave me the willies. But then, as much as I hate spiders, I've always loved scaring the you-know-what out of myself even more. I guess some things never change.

For as long as I can remember, I've loved the adrenalin rush of being scared – campfire stories, scary movies/books, etc. - which is why I have also, as long as I can remember, loved the whole month of October.

It's spooky. It's colder and darker; leaves skitter; shapes move in the night just beyond my peripheral vision. October is Halloween, horror movies, scary stories; ghosts and goblins and werewolves, oh my!

I love all that stuff year round, of course, but there is just something special about October that really sets the stage for a 'specially spooky time. And it's been that way for ages.

Halloween originated over 2000 years ago with the Celts in what is now Ireland. The holiday was part of an ancient pagan festival called "Samhain" that celebrated the new year, which began on November 1, marking the end of summer and the beginning of the cold, hard winter...a time that was often associated with death.

The night before the new year, October 31, was thought to be a night when the boundaries between the living and the dead got blurred and ghosts might return to earth. People wore costumes at the celebration and burned giant bonfires and sacrificed animals so that the spirits might not make too much trouble for them during the winter.

By 40-something AD, after Rome had conquered the British Isles, Samhain was combined with a couple of Roman holidays; one was Feralia, a late October holiday to commemorate the passing of the dead; and the other was a celebration for Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees, which is probably when bobbing for apples became part of the Halloween tradition we know today.

Around 800 AD, Christians decided they didn't like the idea of the pagan celebration of the dead, so Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 as "All Saint's Day" to honor saints and martyrs instead. His celebration was also known as All-Hallows, among other names, and the night of October 31 became known as All-Hallows Eve, eventually shortened to "Halloween."

Through the centuries, Halloween has been celebrated all over the world with the same eerie (and scary) similarities: the living mixing with the dead, the idea of "tricks or treats," dressing up in costumes, and lighting candles and fires (the jack-o-lantern, according to British folktales, was named for Jack O'Lantern, who was banned from both heaven and hell when he died, condemned to wander the earth with his lantern for eternity).

So human beings have liked Halloween for a long time, and we still do. Right here in Tehachapi I've seen houses with newly planted tombstones in the front yard, and ghosts hanging from the trees. And a little dripping blood from the gutters. And red eyes peering from a window. And of course, a spider web on the corner of a porch with some giant, ugly, ghastly spider on it.

Did I mention I hate spiders? I don't think I'll ever need to watch "Arachnophobia" again, but during this Halloween month I'll just try to enjoy the added shivers the decorative spiders send up and down my spine.

And maybe I better check the sheets tonight, after all...just to be sure...

© Marilda Mel White. Mel White, local photographer and writer and co-owner of Tehachapi Treasure Trove, has been looking on the bright side for various publications since 1996; she welcomes your comments and can be reached at .