Halloween. I like Halloween, strange melange of religions that it is. It’s celtic, it’s voodoo, it’s christian, it’s a bit of everything. It’s a celebration of that little shiver of superstition that makes life much more interesting. I like it’s history (forexample, trick or treating’s origins in the medieval practice of going ‘Souling’ for ‘soul cakes’ given in exchange for prayers for the dead can be a marvellously macabre notion if you roll it around you head a bit) and I like it’s present, although I’m disappointed to discover that the horror stories of razorblades in apples and poisoned sweeties are just that – stories. Next year, I’ll have to lay in the ground glass and the strychnine.

Mostly, though I just like the ghoulies and the ghosties and the long-legged beasties. I like the idea of people hurring home after dark, afraid of the things like bump and slither in the shadows behind them. Because in this day and age, where everyone’s a pagan, or a thelemite, or knows some kind of ‘magician’, I like the idea that we should be frightened of these things, that they do have teeth, and that we should treat them with a bit of respect…