31 Days of Halloween with The Kelly Society Day 3 - McGregor McTavish

31 Days of Halloween with

The Kelly Society

Day 3

My name is McGregor McTavish, and I’m Vivien’s Celtic combat coach. I chose this photo to place above my share because my daughter liked it. She’s eleven years old, and now wants the exact same tights.

So, Vivien asked me to talk about whatever I want, but also requested I touch on our Irish traditions. We light bonfires on Halloween night. Actually, Halloween originated from the Festival of Samhain in Ireland’s Celtic past. It was a significant fire festival celebrated on the eve of October 31st and the following day. Being harvest time, the flames of old fires needed to be extinguished and ceremonially re-lit by Druids. Nowadays, we light them ourselves, but there are some modern-day Druids still about.

Before I sign off, I need to add my own paranormal account. Vivien doesn’t even know this one! Makes me laugh! I was in L.A. consulting on a movie set for a fight scene. Some lads and I had a beer after the shoot, but since we were in an unsavory part of downtown, we left as a group. One of the crew dialed up for an Uber, when I heard what I thought was a puppy’s whimper. I’m a big animal lover, so I walked over to check it out. I told the lads I’d be right back. I peeked into a dark alley (yep, seriously a dark alley) and discovered the sound was just some drunk idiots laughing. I excused myself, but they must not have liked the way I frowned or something, because the four of them came at me. Obviously, they mistook my being a lad of fifty-nine years as easy pickings! I began hammering at them and everything was grand, until they kept popping back up from the ground. All of a sudden, my eyes took on a tall dark figure (which I could see through) beating on two of my attackers. I took care of the other two, and soon they all freaked out and took to running down the sidewalk. By the time I whipped my head around the entity was gone. But I’ll never forget the help I got that night from—God knows who!

Sometimes a supernatural encounter is a good thing!

Happy Halloween and Samhain to all!

McGregor

for TKS