Tonight, little kids will dress up as princesses and Captain Americas and witches and pirates and, of course, Lady Gagas. Once upon a time, the meaning of Halloween meant more than dressing up and hoarding candy. Halloween was a Celtic festival called Samhain. The Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. Fairies, demons, and other creatures were also said to be abroad.
In The Thirteen Hallows, my fantasy/horror book with Michael Scott, our story’s climactic ending takes place on All Hallow’s Eve when the fabric between our world… and the Otherworld is at its most… vulnerable.
In history, huge sacred bonfires were built and people sacrificed crops and animals to the Celtic deities. In The Thirteen Hallows, there are bonfires as well; however, the sacrifices are far more… unpleasant.
The Thirteen Hallows comes out December 6th. I’ll be doing book signings at Vromans and Dark Delicacies on December 8th and 11th.