Halloween. Sly does it. Tiptoe catspaws. Slide and creep.

But why? What for? How? Who? When! Where did it all begin?”

Ray Bradbury, “The Halloween Tree”

October is my favorite month. It is in this month that Southerners expect to feel a coolness in the air, finally. It is the time when leaves turn to flames and jewels. It is the month of Halloween.

October was the eighth month on the Roman calendar, hence the name, “Octo,” the Latin word for “eight.” The Romans used this month to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. Pomona’s symbol is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.

Halloween was brought to America in the 1840s by Irish immigrants fleeing their country’s potato famine. At that time, favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.

But, the Irish did not start the custom of trick-or-treating. It dates all the way back to ninth-century Europe. Early Christians would walk from village to village, begging for “soul cakes,” square pieces of bread with currants. The custom was called “souling.” The beggars promised to pray for the dead relatives of those who gave them cake. It was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul’s passage to heaven. I suppose this is a message to be very generous with our little trick-or-treaters. They may be praying for our friends in

heaven.

One famous icon of the holiday is the jack-o-lantern. In Scotland and Ireland gourds were used as lanterns by people who traveled the road at night; the scary face was meant to frighten away spirits or faeries who might otherwise lead one astray. They also placed them on porches and in windows to cast a spell of protection over the household. I think big, orange pumpkins work just as well today, because we seldom hear of contemporary folks bothered by faeries.

This was a sacred time for many pagan deities, and a holy time for ancient witches and modern wiccans. The Egyptians considered this the month of Osiris, god of the underworld and the dead. It is a time of death to the flora, a season when the earth slips into sleep.

October is sacred to me, as well. It is so much more mysterious than the horrid summer months. The world seems fraught with omens.

This week, a painting crashed to the floor in my living room. It was around 5 a.m, that darkest part of the night, just before dawn. Somehow, I worried that it was a portent of sorts. Why did it suddenly decide to leap from its nail? Why at that time of night? I would have been less flustered during daylight saving time.

My sister keeps telling me that our mother visits her and knocks things off the wall. I wonder if she calls on me? Am I too dense to know the difference between a message from the other side, and a loose nail?

Another night, a cicada scritched across the porch and beat it’s hard, jagged body against the window of my studio. It was only a bug, but still, unnerving. It almost seemed that it was knocking to come in.

October inspires this sort of fantasy. It is a month of imagination. I hope your October is filled with happy omens and home blessings. But, don’t forget to insure favorable fortune with carved pumpkins and lots of treats for the little ghosts and goblins.

(Congratulations, Katherine and Ryan Munson. Welcome to our world, Molly Grace! A new baby is a very good omen.)

Adele Elliott, a New Orleans native, moved to Columbus after Hurricane Katrina.

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