Perhaps nowadays the coming of death doesn't sound too joyous, but as the Celts believed in Nature and its cycles, death actually symbolized a chance for rebirth, Floyd says. And this seems a much better reason to party.

This is also one of the founding beliefs of Wicca. The modern witch sees the year as a great wheel, with a cycle of eight festivals that fall on the solstices, the equinoxes, and certain points at the heights of seasons. Samhain or the Hallows is still the most important one, the New Year celebration of the pagan cycle.

"Death symbolizes great transformation in occult circles, and this is the time when we can select what we want to die of ourselves," Floyd says. "It's the time to leave your fears, dissatisfactions and anything else useless or outdated behind."

And here is where the use of costumes comes in.

"Some witches--though not all--such as Laurie Cabot's group use this time to project what they want to become. In observing their rituals, they don all their finery: If someone wants to be a dancer, they'll dress as a dancer," Floyd says. "It's done as an affirmation that you already are anything you wish to be."

Modern Day Witches

Laurie Cabot, by the way, is the most well-known practioner of Wicca in the area, as the Official Witch of Salem. Gov. Michael S. Dukakis dubbed her with this title for the work she has done with dyslexic children. Cabot's good deeds are a far cry from the stereotypical view of witches as child-killers, courtesy of Hansel and Gretel and most other fairy tales.

But modern-day witches say that regardless of this, most people still see them as evil. Within the witch community, there is a great deal of apprehension about the image of modern-day witches. People have such strong preconceptions about what witches are that they rarely listen to the facts. People have thrown bricks through the windows of Arsenic and Old Lace because they thought it a hangout for Satan-worshippers, Floyd says.

"There's still a lot of oppression. People do actually think that we are Satanists that eat babies, and its simply misinformation. Witches consider themselves the keepers of the earth, working to preserve it and reenergize it," she adds.

"Wicca is about acknowledging that the earth is a conscious, living entity that we are all a part of and that everything in it is equally important," Floyd says.

If Wicca piques your interest, go talk to someone at Arsenic and Old Lace, which also posts notices of classes and seminars on magic and the occult in its windows. Or make a pilgrimage to the home of witchcraft in the United States, Salem, which is just an hour's drive to the north, and visit Crow Haven Corner, an occult store run by Laurie Cabot's daughter.

Mt. Auburn Cemetery

If you always preferred the skeleton to the witch costume, perhaps you would be more comfortable spending this Hallowe'en in a cemetary, rather than a store of the occult. Cemetaries are particularly appropriate places to spend Hallowe'en as it is the time when the dead are commemorated, remembered, and are seen walking the earth again. Both pagan and Christian philosophies believe this, so it must be true.

And that's why Mt. Auburn cemetery, on the Cambridge-Watertown line, is such a valuable resource around this time. Mt. Auburn is an historical landmark as the first-ever `garden' cemetery in the United States and houses the graves of some of the most respected men and women of America.

Go mingle with such erudite, dead Harvard grads as Buckminster Fuller, Oliver Wendall Holmes, and Henry Cabot Lodge. Mt. Auburn is also home to refined spirits such as Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christian Science, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the poet, and Winslow Homer, the artist.

However, if you'd rather stay at Harvard, free from ghosties and ghoulies, there's still plenty to do. If you need a costume, try the Hasty Pudding Theatricals which is holding its annual costume sale. They're actually only renting this year, but $10 will get you a terrific, professional costume, perfect for expressing what you wish to become in the new pagan year.

"We have lots of dresses," says Sarah Laskin '89, the house and advertising manager for Hasty Pudding Theatricals. "And they're all in good condition for having been used 40 times by sweaty guys."

Arsenic and Old Lace, Oona's in the Square and Act II in Central Square also have lots of costume items and accessories.

So go to whatever parties you think will be fun, dress up as the person you want to become, or curl up alone in a dark room with a good book--anything by Poe, Lovecraft or King is highly reccomended--but whatever you do, stay true to the grand old holiday of Hallowe'en by having as much fun as you possibly can.