Way Back When: Ban on Ghosts Prowling About

(Image: New York Public Library)

By Betsy J. Green

The influenza scare was alarming the parents of trick-or-treaters in 1918, and put a damper on the demons on the streets of Santa Barbara. Although it was not stated in the local papers, I’m guessing that there was also enough news about deaths from disease and the war that folks lost their joy in celebrating the macabre. 

“The Board of Health has issued orders forbidding ghosts to walk or congregate on Halloween this year, owing to the prevalence of the Spanish influenza. In past years, Halloween, the night on which ghosts are both unusually active and unusually propitious, has been celebrated in many and various ways, by small boys, and older ones, too, who on mischief bent, prowled the streets until a late hour, and older folk who made the night merry with dancing and parties. But on Halloween this year, there will be none of the usual gayety, for all are united in the effort to check the spread of the dread disease.” 

PERSONAL APPEARANCES – This year marks the 100th anniversary of the end of “the War to End All Wars.” I will be presenting a talk “Countdown to Armistice – Santa Barbara in the Final Days of World War I.” The hopes. The fears. The false alarms. The Spanish flu. The official telegrams with bad news. And finally, finally, the church bells rang out! Peace! Peace at last!

• Sunday, Nov. 4 at 3 p.m. at the Goleta Historical Society
• Sunday, Nov. 11 at 2 p.m. at the SB Central Library