Flowers For Socrates

by NONA BLYTH CLOUD

Samhain or Samhuin (SAH-win or SOW-in – rhymes with cow) was the first day of the new year in the ancient Celtic calendar, the beginning of the “darker half” of the year. Samhain is Irish Gaelic. Samhuin is Scottish Gaelic.

Special bonfires were lit, for protection and cleansing. Samhain was believed to be a time when the veils between worlds thinned, so faerie folk came amongst humans, and the spirits of the dead could visit their earthly kin.

So there is a very long-standing tradition of ghosts and uncanny tales connected with what we now call Halloween.

My friends and I, at an age when we were too old for trick-or-treating, but too young for teen-aged boy-and-girl parties, would sit in a circle on the floor, all lights turned off and curtains drawn. We’d take turns telling the scariest ghost stories we could come up with – a single flashlight would be held by the storyteller, lighting her face so the story would be even spookier.

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Hughes Mearns (1875–1965) wrote this poem in 1899 for his play, The Psyco-ed. It was inspired by reports of the ghost of a man haunting the stairs of a house in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. Later, it became the lyrics for a song called I Met a Man Who Wasn’t There.

Antigonish

Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish he’d go away…

When I came home last night at three
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall
I couldn’t see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door… (slam!)

Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away…

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