I have often been asked the question of: Why do you like Halloween so much or why do you do it?

I guess it comes from: I have always loved Halloween from a young age. I have fond memories as a child of my mom taking the simple white sheet, cutting holes for eyes and running around trick or treating with a pillow case.

Being able to dress up as anything you wanted… to be anything you wanted.

The ghost stories that dad would tell around a old oil lamp about his ghost stories that his dad would tell him, About Jack the Ripper, grandpa going to the haunted hotel.

The room would be dark and only the flickering light of the candle, the hair standing up on the back of your neck, and then seeing two glowing eyes peering in the window.

We just about jumped out of our skins with fear, until we realized it was our horse, Buttercup, who was notorious for letting her self out who was looking in the window.

The thrill of that shiver of excitement knowing that there is absolutely nothing behind the trees as you walk home, but could there be?

Coming home after it was dark and eating the wonderfully delicious candy corns. Nibbling the white tops off first. Because, after all, that is the best part.

There was something about Halloween night. Magical maybe? A chance to leave the real world behind, and become something that you aren't.

I am not sure, it is hard to put into words.

When I 'grew' up I started decorate more. In 2000 is when I first did significant attempt at spooky decorations at my home.

Every year since then I have added new stuff, and expanded the decorations. My costumes are now less elaborate and most of the time I dress up as the same monster as all my energy went into better decorations, and layouts.

Somewhere along the line, I started paying more attention to the reason behind Halloween . I focused my efforts more on sharing the season with others than in hogging the fun for myself.

Just about every culture sets aside a special time to pay reverence to its departed ancestors. Halloween started out that way, and has mutated since it came to America. The Mexican version is Dia De Los Muertos, Day of the Dead.

Like other holidays, Day of the Dead and Halloween have developed into secular holidays, and acquired a crass commercial overlay.

Halloween started out as a Pagan festival that celebrated Samhain, the end of the harvest season. “Samhain” is Gaelic for “end of Summer”.

[The “m” is silent. The word is pronounced “sowin”. If somebody pronounces it “Sam Hain”, or says that it celebrates a god of death or evil, they are exceedingly ignorant.] Samhain was also the end of the Celtic calendar, and a time to reflect on what had happened in the year and loved ones who had passed on. [In connection with Celtic people, one often thinks first of the Irish, but technically England, Scotland, Wales, France, and Germany are Celtic in origin]

When England and Ireland were Christianized by the Catholic church, the church took care to point out the similarities between the old and new religions. They built churches on holy Pagan sites, and moved Christian holidays to the corresponding Pagan celebrations. [Ever wonder why Christmas is celebrated in December?] All Souls' Day was made November 2, All Saints' Day was November 1 (All Hallows Day) and the evening before was called All Hallows Eve.

Or Halloween.

Celtic immigrants brought Halloween to America, but it didn't take root until the mass Irish immigrations in the 1840s. In America, Halloween lost most of the religious aspects, amplified the trick-or-treating, and was given more sinister overtones by German fears of witches spreading mischief on Walpurgisnacht (which is actually May 1, but what the heck). Americans also started making Jack o'Lanterns out of pumpkins, instead of the traditional turnips. Americans took their own spin on Halloween.

In Mexico there is Dia De Los Muertos Dia De Los Muertos, Day of the Dead, is celebrated November 1-2. Like other holidays, Day of the Dead has developed into a secular holiday, and acquired a crass commercial overlay. But private observance tends to maintain a lot of the reverence. Altars are sometimes set up at home to remember the dead. Visits are often made to graveyards, bringing the departed’s favorite foods, decorations including flowers and decorated skulls made from sugar. Some Day of the Dead folk art uses skeletons and skulls in everyday scenes: wearing hats, playing instruments, walking the dog, getting married. It's a healthy reminder that death comes to everybody and you shouldn't worry too much about it.

Most of my energy goes into haunting my house. By this, I mean making a simple middle-class home into something that looks creepy and haunted. So if I am making it look haunted, I am a haunter and what I do is haunting it.

I don't build alters, I don't have a parade.

I don’t build a mazes for the kids to enjoy. I simply set up a stage for people to walk past, look at, and enjoy.

Theatrical reminder…

The main attraction is the front yard., some life size props that look scary and a graveyard, surrounded by a creepy old wooden fence with spider webs on it.

Inside the graveyard, you can sometimes see strange things, like ghosts or skeletons sitting in a circle, telling stories. In the back, a translucent glowing ghost floats around. On top of the house a green glowing skull that can be seen for blocks.

My haunt isn’t intended to give anybody nightmares. I intentionally go zero gore, more with what your imagination will insert.

Well placed lighting that gives you enough light to let your imagination do the rest.

The stuff that is really intended to scare does so by letting your imagination wander. Props look real enough to make you question, did it just move?

There is nothing more satisfying knowing that you did a job well done, when the tick or treaters hesitate to even cross the road!

I have also included elements of humor. Grave stones that have witty humor to them.

My haunt is a lot of work: advance preparation, setup, running it, teardown, storage, maintenance.

It is also a lot of stress. I get restless and irritable. I don’t get enough sleep. I worry. My mind races about being the monster on the stage I have built.

I suspect that I’m not that nice to be around the week before Halloween.

Even when the first trick-or-treaters arrive, I am still making last minute adjustments, trying to setup one last prop, getting the lighting right, or getting the fog machines to blast in just the right spots.

It is fun being that guy with the “Halloween House”.

Sometimes I think of it as a present that I give the local kids.

It is a way to revive the kid in all of us, and help people of all ages have a good time.

Another is I enjoy putting on the show. It feeds the suppressed Rock Star in me. I live for the “Wow your house is amazing”

Then it is for those who keep the Old Ways, it is a time to celebrate the end of the old year, and usher in the new. For those of several faiths, it is a time to reflect on our loved ones who have passed away in the preceding year.

and I guess another reason perhaps…

By haunting, I mock Death. I know that sooner or later, Death will take all of us.

And that is what Halloween is all about for me, Charlie Brown

- John Liss