SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA—Each year, a company called Spirit of Halloween sets up pop-up stores in September across the suburbs in Northern California. Inside the makeshift premises, usually disused strip mall spaces, is an abundance of Halloween merchandise. There are racks upon racks of costumes for everyone from infants to adults.
There are aisles for “blood,” “makeup,” and other accessories. There are decorations for the home, from the spooky—wispy White Ladies, cobwebby ghosts, animatronics—to the kitschy—Ouija-themed throw pillows and blankets. Beside the cashier are hollow plastic pumpkins and bags for trick-or-treating. If it’s orange and black, creepy and eerie, or fabulously over-the-top, Spirit of Halloween has it.
The store’s opening in our neighborhood is just one indicator that Halloween season is in full spate again here in the US, where the holiday is much beloved and eagerly awaited as much as other regular festive occasions.
Halloween is everywhere. Cafes carry pumpkin spice once again. Supermarkets place huge boxes of pumpkins, squashes, and other gourds beside their entrances; customers stop beside them to take pictures. Some offices and restaurants put up decorations or encourage their workers to come in costume. The company I work for serves a Halloween “feast” each year to employees, of simple snacks and beverages.
On Twitter, some folks have changed their handles to an “October” name that they will retain the entire month. For example, Neil Gaiman now goes by “Nails Ghoulman.” I’ve changed mine to “Dr. Octospooky” (rhymes with my last name).
For someone like me who grew up in the Philippines, all this attention given to Halloween is interesting. We have nothing quite like it as a cultural phenomenon.
What comes closest to it would be our observance of hundas, or All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day, when families troop to cemeteries to spend some time at the graves of their dear departed. Similarly, Mexico has its Dia de la Muerte with painted sugar skulls and other artifacts and activities particular to their culture.
We don’t stress the spooky, though. Our hundas is partly religious, partly ancestor worship, and all respect and fulfillment of familial duty.
But during those all-night vigils at the graveyards, we can be sure to find, here and there, in the midst of an attentive group, the storytellers of ghostly tales, holding their listeners enthralled. We all know someone, even if it’s just Noli de Castro presenting his annual hundas special on “Magandang Gabi, Bayan.”
When I was in high school and living in a ladies’ dorm, I had a roommate named De Ling Pe, whom we called Manang Deding. One afternoon, she gathered several of us around her and told us ghost stories from her childhood. These were events, she said, that actually occurred to her grandfather and other family members.
I don’t remember the stories anymore; what I do recall is the shiver of fear that ran up and down our spines as Manang Deding spoke, the frisson of fear her words evoked, and, because they were “true stories,” as she said, even more frightening. I’ve never met anyone else who could tell ghost stories so well.
I call that my own Halloween experience, scarier than plastic skulls or candle-lit pumpkin faces. There is a dearth of really good oral storytellers, and Manang Deding was marvelous. I wonder where she is now; I hope she is still spinning her fantastic tales, whether or not on Halloween.
Absent a storyteller, one can read. I recommend M.R. James, to my mind the foremost writer of the classic type of ghost stories. Shirley Jackson, who wrote the 20th century’s most famous short story, “The Lottery,” in 1948, also wrote novels that are now standards in the genre, including “The Haunting of Hill House.” A collection of her short fiction, “Dark Tales,” was published this year by Penguin Classics.
So as my neighbors choose costumes and spray artificial spiderwebs on their hedges, I’ll be celebrating Halloween my own way—reading a book, pumpkin spice latte in hand, and looking up old episodes of MGB Hundas Edition on Youtube.
This year, keep up your own traditions and consider making new ones. Happy Halloween!
Dr. Ortuoste is a California-based writer. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.