Countdown to Halloween so let’s continue to talk about ghosts, witches and demons and that time of day or night when they are most likely to be out and about.
In the occult world this timeframe is referred to as “The Witching Hour.” All you parents of small children know that your Witching Hour is usually that time after dinner and before bedtime. Your kids are wound up, fussing, fighting, screaming and just driving you completely crazy (click here for good article on this phenomena.)
But The Witching Hour that I am talking about here has to do with those demons and witches of the spiritual nature who tend to come out at night. I had always heard and thought that it was the 3 to 4 a.m. period that was the holder of The Witching Hour title. Yet, I have since learned of other interpretations that say The Witching Hour is the one after midnight (click here.) The supposition is that witches are particularly active at that time and hence merit the title Witching Hour. (Think I’ve known a couple witches that fit this dynamic save for the fact that their shit storms seemed to have lasted a lot longer than an hour!)
The insomniac that I am, the 3 to 4 a.m. timeframe has always caused me some churn. If I awake before 3, I simply go back to sleep; and if it is after 4 o’clock when I come to, I just get up and start my day tired or not.
So what do you think are the odds that my 3-4 plan works? Well, just about every night when I pop open my eyes and glance over at the old nightstand clock, I see something like this glowing in the darkness:
Thus, I regard the 3 – 4 interval as my personal witching hour because it is too late to go back to sleep but still too early to get up. During that 3 – 4 o’clock interval however, my world gets murky and gloomy as I toss and turn in bed trying to decide my next move. If I manage to drift back to sleep, I don’t know if I am dreaming, hallucinating or really hearing things. Those things that go bump in the night really do sound like they are going bump in the night at 3/4 a.m.
However, if I do get too concerned or worried about hearing all these witchy noises, my one consolation is the following quote from a Gentleman in Moscow:
Ironically, 12 hours later in my day I do a similar switch of emotions at Buzzy’s Country Store when my 3 – 4 p.m. folks start to roll in. Early in the afternoon things in the Store are very peaceful and slow. However, around 3 to 4 o’clock, things start to pick up. Folks roll in, the Store gets loud with lots of laughter and talk all around. Whereas my night 3 – 4 time frame is quiet and a little spooky, 12 hours later I’m surrounded with a bounty of laughter, camaraderie, joking and fun. It’s the complete opposite dynamic.
But it does lead me to wonder how and why it is that the quiet of the night can sometimes be so deafening and dreary. I can’t blame it all on ghosts wandering around. John’s line from his I’m So Tired tune often plays in my head as he sings “I’ll give you everything I got for a little peace of mind.”
But before you listen to that tune, here is another lame ghost pun for you – Why did the ghost want his Covid vaccine given to him after midnight? Because he wanted to take a shot in the dark. Pretty bad right? Well, here is another one courtesy of Brady – How come monsters don’t eat ghosts? Because they taste like sheet!