September 9, 2009. 3 a.m.
999 @ The Witching Hour.
I just remembered we're still in the middle of the Chinese Ghost Month. Although the peak was supposed to be last September 2, the ghoulish party won't be over till the 18th.
Swell.
I didn't feed any hungry ghosts. I'm not even Chinese.
THUD!
I like to think the incessant blagadags going on outside the window are just the overripe mangoes falling from the tree.
THUD!
There goes another. It doesn't help, though, that ghost hunters say that loud thuds and thumps and knocks are some of the audible ways spirits communicate with the living. And that big old mango trees are one of the favorite kinds of trees that elementals like to inhabit.
It also doesn't help that all my Third Eye pals say that whenever we talk of ghosts, they tend to gather round and listen in.
THUD!
Interestingly, I also finished an anime double-feature earlier in the evening: Spirited Away* and Grave of The Fireflies**.
THUD! THUD!
Cell phone buzzes.
Text from our cashier. From a business venture that I have left for dead.
Now there's one ghastly enterprise I truly wish would stop haunting me.
My grandfather always did say "Never fear the dead. Fear the living."
All quiet now. Time for bed.
*A full-length animated feature from Studio Ghibli, released in 2001. It won the 2002 Oscar for Best Animated Feature (only the second Oscar ever awarded for Best Animated Feature), the first anime film to win an Academy Award, the first (and so far only) non-English speaking animation to win, and the only winner of that award to be traditionally animated or win among five nominees (in every other year there were three nominees). The film also won the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival (tied with Bloody Sunday). Spirited Away overtook Titanic in the Japanese box office to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history.
**"Hotaru no Haka" is a 1988 animated film written and directed by Isao Takahata .This is the first film produced by Shinchosha, who hired Studio Ghibli to do the animation production work. It is an adaptation of the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka, intended as a personal apology to the author's own sister.
i think you're only trying to scare yourself. just like what your grandfather said, fear the living more than the dead.
ReplyDeleteoh my. meh. i dont believe im 'em
ReplyDelete@ engel & Herbs D: Hahah hence the "silliness" tag. I was just tripping last night at the odd confluence of events.
ReplyDeleteDo I believe in ghosts? I've never seen one, frankly. Then again, I've never seen the wind, either.
your grandfather was right. ghosts are just creepy but i don't think they can do much. living people however.. *shudder*
ReplyDeleteWow, so you watch Studio Ghibli films? Impressive.
ReplyDeleteStudio Ghibli is the bomb, Knox. I just re-watched "My Neighbor Totoro" this evening, and now I want to get back on the CatBus. Kawaii!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'd be more scared of tibo lady-guards.
ReplyDeleteThey give me the heebie-jeebies when they feel me up in the malls. Feeling ko, uupakan nila ako any moment.
lolz
@ Eternal Wanderer : HA!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post, was wondering when the Ghost Month would end. That explains why most of mi gadgets were dying a few days back.
ReplyDeleteNow to research when it started so I know what things might get extinguished soon...
@ Ako Ang Lukayo:
ReplyDeleteHahaha how strange that you replied today to this post. I've just sat down in front of the PC after chatting with the maids about all the ghosts and elementals that inhabit the neighbors' houses. They were making fun kasi of the katiwala's 8-year-old son, who was ordered by his father to sleep alone in one of the supposedly-haunted houses here. We've spent an hour on the patio watching him go in and out of the house restlessly hehehe. Poor kid.
I, too, have been told that electronic gadgets can go haywire because of paranormal activity - something about the electromagnetic wavelengths and such. I don't know about that, but it's interesting to think about.
Better help shield the kid from the paranormal.. kawawa naman siya bata pa lang ma-expose na sa ganyan.
ReplyDelete@ Ako Ang Lukayo : Oh, I dunno. I don't go for scaring kids needlessly or anything, but since we all live in an old compound, he doesn't have much of a choice, does he?
ReplyDeleteBesides, ghosts can't physically harm the living. Only the other unseen entities can. That is, if one believes in these things.