Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Pagan
Tree City Witch: A Jewish Ghost Story For Halloween

Tree City Witch: A Jewish Ghost Story For Halloween

Last updated on: October 21, 2017 at 5:47 pm by Aliza Einhorn

Tree City Witch: A Jewish Ghost Story For Halloween 2017-10-21T17:47:08+00:00 Aliza Einhorn

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I am a Jew, and when I was little we were, at the very least, traditional, in terms of our religious observance. Our habits changed though as my parents changed, divorced, and changed. I always went to Jewish school (except one dismal year and a half, but then all of school until I got to 9th grade was dismal).

The kind of Jewish we were included not only keeping kosher, observing Shabbat, going to shul every Saturday (driving because it was too far to walk), but also celebrating the American holidays, like Halloween and Thanksgiving.

From StockSnap at Pixabay, Public Domain Image.

I loved Halloween. It was my favorite. This was the 1970s and trick or treating was relatively safe then although I do remember getting a lecture in fifth grade about how we should throw away any apples we received because there could be a razor blade tucked inside.

Despite any poison apples, we bravely went from door to door, in groups, costumed, silly. On our block was another Jewish family who had the biggest and best Halloween gathering of all: spooky ghost and cobweb decorations on their patio, including the much beloved mummy hand reaching out of a potted plant. Donuts and candy apples inside, cider too, for tired children and parents who wanted to schmooze.

One year, Halloween fell on a Friday and I remember my father taking me around the block in the late afternoon to trick or treat, before it got dark, before sundown, before the Sabbath would begin. I was dressed as a ballerina, pink tutu and tights, and embarrassed to be the only one. It was somehow always a little embarrassing to be Jewish.

Otherwise the memories are all sweet candy corn and circus peanuts. My brother and I heading out again after hearing about the neighbor who was giving out multiple boxes of cracker jacks. The end of the night counting and catagorizing the little candy bars. Wandering the streets in a pack of ghosts. Darkness, freedom, hiding, escape. No one knew I was Jewish under that ghostly bedsheet with holes cut out for eyes.

And then there was that one time that I hesitate even to mention because I question whether I am remembering correctly. Was it my imagination? Did I dream it? Had I gone mad? Had I eaten a poison apple or debauched donut? Maybe I was an 8-year-old tipsy on grown-up cider. But no. What happened was the whole truth.

They had a number of clocks, this other Jewish family on the block that I mentioned above, cukoo clocks, grandfather clocks, and they were always ticking. It was like a scene from a movie when no one is talking and no other sound but the sound of the clocks. That’s what it was like at their house, even on Halloween, which also had the sounds of a dinner party and adults drinking Sanka. Clinking of teaspoon against saucer.

Tick tock: I remember being there with my best friend. Tick tock: it was not a Friday night. Tick tock: quite late, many stars. And this house was always the last stop because we would gobble up the sweets and sit and touch the decorations but something about this night was different and not just because of the late hour and the warmer than usual October Miami weather.

My best friend, who also knew this family, had told me the week before about a ghost in their house, a very mischevious ghost and how on Halloween this ghost was at his most frisky, pushing plates off the dinner table, adjusting the zombie hand on the patio, and generally, so it seemed, revelling in the party atmosphere and the comings and goings of the honored guests, us children.

But my friend had seen it. Her brother had seen it. Her other brother had seen it.

What had you seen? I asked, eyes wide. And she described again the falling planes and zombie hand and various other mishaps blamed on the wind or a child running past. And how the day after Halloween, it was gone.

We need a plan, she said.
What kind of plan? I said.
I don’t know, she said.
I do, I said.

And that was how we set out to lay a “trap” for this ghost, to catch it in the act with our polaroid cameras. Truth is we didn’t have any plan in mind other than watching and waiting.

Finally Halloween arrived and my friend and I showed up in the afternoon to pretend to help Mrs. P., but really we were on a mission. She was busy setting the table with best and brightest Dixie plates and cups on the planet. The table was a buffet of Doritos, corn chips, M & Ms, homemade cookies and candy apples, celery and some kind of thick yellow dip probably made from soup mix. Ginger ale and seltzer. Tick tock, said the clock.

We waited. Hours passed. We waited. Nightfall. We missed our trick or treating. And nothing. Nothing at all. Nothing fell off the table. No candy apples eaten by invisible guests. No gasps from the grown-ups at the mysterious and unexplained. We had been sitting under the table for hours, our fort. Long tablecloth like curtains. It had seemed the perfect place for a stake-out, surrounded by the knees of grown ups and the idea that at any moment something out of the ordinary would happen.

And then my friend finally admitted it. It was all a joke. Trick or treat. Tick tock.

It was almost midnight when my mother came from down the street to collect me, and as she took my hand and we were about to leave by the patio door, I saw it then out of the corner of my eye, barely perceptible, and yet I saw it, that undead fake-blood zombie hand. It moved. No wind. No child or cat rushing by. No puppeteer. It moved. Again.

I have to tell my friend I have to tell my friend NOW, I cried out. But my mother wouldn’t have it. It was late, it was time for bed, and she scooped me up and carried me the rest of the way home.

I never told my friend what I saw that night, that her story wasn’t a story at all, but truth. And for every year after that, until we moved away, I spent my whole Halloween at that house, watching and waiting. Everything else I saw? I’ll never tell.

Previous Post

October 17, 2017

Irish-American Witchcraft: Elf-Locks, Tangled Hair, Ill-Luck, and Appropriation.

Next Post

October 23, 2017 Hearth of Hellenism: Why is Mythology Mocked?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A Lakeside Hearth Adventures in Wortcunning Alone In Her Presence Arts, Crafts & Cooking Birthing Hereditary Witchcraft Book of Blackbirds Book Reviews Born-Again Witch Cauldron, Sword, Spear, & Stone Cermony and Liturgy Columns Community Dandelion Seeds Dear Jasmine Druid Thoughts Editor's Picks Everyday Pagan Family & Household Practice Family Traditions Full Frontal Magic Gateway Goddess Guest Articles Happily Heathen Health and Wellness Hearth of Hellenism Heathen Woman Hills of the Horizon History Holidays Horse Goddesses Interfaith Interviews Irish-American Witchcraft Jewish Witch Lamp & Labyrinth Letters from Midgard Literature, Media, Film, Music Loop of Brighid Love, Sex & Relationships Magic or Magick Making Light Naturalistic Traditions Nature News Outside The Circle Pantheisticon Politics Prayers, Poems, Blessings & Stories Queer Femme Mystic Queer of Swords Recipes Ritual and Practice Science and Research Seekers and Guides Seeking the Grail Socially Responsible Magic Spear of Athena Star Made Witch Syncretic Electric Technology The Blooming Staff The Busy Witch The Cartomancer The Crow's Nest The Dance of Pagan Recovery The Hearth of Hellenism The Lady's Quill The Other Side of the Hedge The Path of She The Rantin' Raven The Witches Next Door The Zen Pagan Theology, Ethics, Philosophy Tree City Witch Urban Earthwitch Wayfaring Woman Witch on Fire Wyrd Words

Select a Month January 2026 March 2025 December 2024 June 2024 April 2024 March 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 August 2023 July 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

To which king did Isaiah deliver the prophecy of 15 extra years of life?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Manasseh Ahab Josiah Hezekiah