The pumpkin decapitator strikes again!
The lights were low, the atmosphere was spooky, and the stories and poems were straight out of the Hammer Studios. No, not a scene from ‘Britain’s Most Haunted…’, but the Loose Muse Pre-Hallowe’en Special Gothic Open Mic Night. Well, being a closet Goth, what else was I going to do for an extra Loose Muse event at the end of October but add a dash of Dracula and the chance to hear some truly horrible writing in the run-up to Hallowe’en.
And we had a good night with lots of variations on the dreadful, the doom-laden and the down-right scary. For my money Niki Aguirre’s nightmare short story about a woman who dreams of being followed by a faceless Man In Black was one of the high spots, although it did mean I slept with the light on when I went to bed. That’s the trouble with having such a vivid imagination (and having trained as a psychic…yes, really!), it means every creaking floorboard, cold draft and odd noise in the night freaks me right out.
Having said all that, October is still my favourite month, and Hallowe’en one of the celebrations I enjoy most. Just to set the record straight for those who’ve been led to believe it’s a night of unparalleled evil and devil worship, Hallowe’en has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain, which was a celebration of the end of the harvest season, and a preparation for the darkness of winter. It is an ancient festival when the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead are at their thinnest, and the passage between the two worlds is easiest. It was also a way for people to celebrate their ancestors and to get in touch with those who had passed over. So yes, it was sometimes on the scary side (imagine sitting on a hillside in the October darkness centuries ago, with midnight approaching, waiting for that doorway to open and reveal….well, you get the picture!!).
But it had nothing to do with vampires, evil hauntings or devils waiting to snatch your soul away. That came much later with the church’s hunger for control and power, plus the commercialization that have turned it into what it is today.
When I lived in Canada (about a million years ago), my pals and I had a great variation on the ‘trick or treat’ game where children would knock on your door and ask for sweeties. Instead, we went ‘trick or drinking’, so every door we knocked on in down-town Vancouver was offered the chance to give us a drink or be ‘tricked’ in some way. Of course, we didn’t really trick anyone, and by the end of the night we were absolutely plastered. But we had a great time, and everyone we had a drink with thought it was as much fun as we did. It’s a different world now of course; if a bunch of strangers turned up at my door one night demanding alcohol, I’d probably call the police! Aaaah…the innocence of youth.
Anyway, only a few more days to the November Loose Muse, which will be held on the 13th, and feature poet Jacqueline Gabbitas and writer Leah Thorn. It’s going to be another good one – when are they not – so I hope you can come along and share some of your work with us, be it ghostly, ghoulish or just plain great.
So come along and share the passion, share the joy.
Love,
Agnes
Loose Muse 
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