The Celtic people of the British Isles marked the eve of Samhain, a festival that commemorated the death of an old year and the beginning of a new one, by leaving out treats for the spirits they believed roamed the streets that night.

More than two thousand years later, the same festival was celebrated by advertising folks in an office at the other end of the world. Aspac celebrated the festival now known as Halloween with good food and ghost stories and their favorite kind of spirits—the alcoholic kind!

The theme for Aspac’s party was supposed to be Filipino folklore. But as it turned out, it was not that easy to come as a Kapre (a cigar-smoking, tree-dwelling giant) or Manananggal (a creature that can leave the lower half of its body while the upper half sprouts wings). Instead we had three Diwatas (Fairies), two corpses, a bruha (witch), a mangkukulam (witch doctor) and 1 confused albularyo (witch doctor)/ manghuhula (fortune teller), not to mention a special appearance by Frankenstein.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What we lacked in ghoulish costumes, we more than made up for in creepy stories often personally experienced by the storyteller. From a faceless nun in the digital director’s house or the ghostly touch experienced by both the agency president and the client beside him, there were many hair-raising tales.

We were all relieved when everybody agreed that nothing of the paranormal kind had yet been felt in our office where we often stay working way into the night. At least not yet.