ARTICLES: Holiday Spirits by Michael GavinIn the quest for paranormal proof, these year-end celebrations offer more than their share of opportunities for success. Landscapes aside, the holidays are a time for family and friends. It's also a time when we seem to find an added abundance of paranormal activity. It might be just be the weather. Or, perhaps it is for no other reason more important than the ties that bind one generation to the next.
Ancient Truths
Halloween is a time when our passion for the paranormal seems to be most accepted. Ancient Celts believed that the dead returned to the living in order seek a host to possess for the next year. Eventually this time of the year became known as Halloween. The belief that the veil between the realm of the living and the dead is at its thinnest at this time of the year still holds true today, and probably helps to feed the increase in activity that researchers experience at this time. It is more likely, however, that an atmospheric effect, and not the mysticism associated with Halloween, is what brings apparitions more easily into view this time of the year. According to Joshua P. Warren's book How to Hunt Ghosts (Simon & Schuster) it's the cooler months of fall and winter that offer drier conditions and an abundance of static electricity. Warren, who has been a consultant for the Travel and Discovery Channels, does acknowledge that Halloween can be a bounty for ghost hunters. He suggests that researchers follow the media's increased attention to the paranormal during this time of the year for leads on credible locations worthy of investigative attention.
Give Thanks
Stuck between Halloween and Christmas, and often (at least commercially) overlooked, is none other than Thanksgiving. Because this holiday is a time when the gathering of loved ones is central, the potential for paranormal activity is quite strong.
Thanksgiving is traditionally a time for family and for giving thanks for the good things in our lives. Turkey Day traditions revolve around the feast, the football, and, most importantly, the family. And, as most ghost researchers have discovered, where there is a family gathering, there is an increased potential for paranormal activity. Just such an occurrence took place in 1955 when a young man and his family were about to sit down for a Thanksgiving turkey dinner with some neighbors. Absent from the table was his brother who was serving in the Air Force. It was around three o'clock in the afternoon when the ring of the doorbell sliced through the calm of the afternoon gathering. Mother's cries brought everyone running. Seated at the table was brother. Nobody heard the voice but all recognized the message: "I've come to say 'goodbye'." Along with his navigator, the spectral brother had been...
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