Halloween and all that

Halloween is coming up. Originated in Celtic times in Ireland, it’s the ultimate retail sales booster in the US. Early immigrants from Scotland and Ireland brought the traditions of Samhain, All Hallows Eve, and All Saints Day to the New World. Their descendents are now carving jack-o-lanterns, tell ghost stories, dress up in scary costumes, and go from door to door begging for treats. Isn’t European culture fun?
Funny enough, all the ghosts, goblins, leprechauns and the like hail from the cold shores of England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Cornwall.
The romantic French have no spooky traditional to speak off, which is kind of ironic if you think about it. Obviously, for Otherworldly Creatures traveling across the Channel is more taxing than crossing the Atlantic. Go figure.
Personally, I don’t believe in ghosts or previous lives.
I have my hands full with this life, thank you very much and the idea to have a next or a previous one is just too depressing to even contemplate.
This previous life stuff is a mystery to me anyway. People that claim to know and/or relive about their previous lives, always had interesting ones. You must have read about them as well: they were aristocrats in French or Italian courts, princesses in ancient Egypt or priests in Roman and Celtic times.
Statistically speaking, they should have been dirt poor and starving farmers or laborers (not to mention slaves) who died of the black plague or some other epidemic decease. This doesn’t seem to be the case, so it makes me wonder: is there a class society in our previous lives? Obviously, the poor don’t reincarnate well. I find this a gross injustice: previous lives for all or for none, I say!
Coming back to Halloween, I find this “dead crossing into the world of the living” concept scary. I like everything to be in its place: the living here and the dead there (or wherever they hang out). I had my share of living zombies in my high-tech workplace – no need to add a few more into the mix.
Don’t get me wrong – I have nothing against a good fancy dress party. So if you feel the urge to invite me, don’t hesitate. I will put on my really scary costume – my judge’s robe from my previous life!