Tonight is Halloween, the night on which, the ancients believed, the boundary between the living and the dead becomes little more than a swirling veil, a mere mist through which unspeakable things can pass. It’s the night when the spirits of long-departed legislators converge on Concord. The sound you’ll hear, the All Hallows Eve chorus if you will, is their grumbled arguments, furtive whisperings and fiery exhortations.
Wraiths in black frock coats and top coats and a few checkered suits pass through the granite walls. They come up from the labyrinth of tunnels that connect the State House with who knows where, the Underworld perhaps. Representatives Hall goes cold with their presence. Lights flicker and bells refuse to ring. The portraits on the walls begin talking until, their session adjourned, the spectral jabbering throng flood the streets and march south to their revels on the banks of Asylum Pond.
Some of the living will see, but only by looking through the corners of their eyes, poltergeists from presidential primaries past. Watch for the man who in 1968 masqueraded as Benjamin Chapman while renting a Nashua hotel room. The man then journeyed to Concord where, as Richard Nixon, he registered to run in the New Hampshire primary. His ghost more than any other haunts the Republican Party – and the dreams of another president who claims to be the victim of a witch hunt.
Hundreds if not thousands of people, some of them children, will be dressed as that man tonight. None will be as scary as the real thing. But we take terror too far. Halloween is supposed to be fun.
The jack-o’-lanterns, carved and illuminated since the Middle Ages to ward off evil spirits, in these tamer times attract princesses, super heroes, ghosts, zombies, maniacal clowns and monsters of all sorts. But be careful Mom and Dad. Look with a jaundiced eye on your young supplicant’s attire. Could it possibly offend? Does that old last-minute costume standby, ripped jeans, sooty cheeks and a sock-stuffed bandanna on a stick make fun of the homeless? We live in sensitive times.
The pagan celebrants of Samhain, the ancient fire festival that marks the beginning of the dark season of winter, gave sweet cakes to the costumed door knockers who sang songs to appease the dead. Today, most people give candy.
A killjoy few, rumor has it, dispense toothbrushes, toothpaste and dental floss. We advise against this practice. It leads to toilet paper on the shrubbery.
To guard against such tricks, dispense candy kids like. According to the website Candystore.com., which tracks how many thousands of pounds of which candies residents of each state consume, New Hampshire’s favorites are Starburst, M&Ms and Snickers.
Most of all, remember that there will be thousands of sugar-crazed children going house to house in the dark, so drive slowly and expect the unexpected. Finally, it’s said that in the wee hours, at the conclusion of the dead lawmakers’ revels, the golden eagle atop the State House dome turns ever so briefly into a bat. Please send us your photos.