A year ago I discovered a world of web sites devoted to the home haunts of halloweenies (or halloweenites, take your pick) all across North America. These dedicated and perhaps slightly obsessed patrons of the third most popular holiday of the year (after Christams and New Years) pour their hearts and their wallets into scaring any and all who venture out into the sub-urban neighbourhoods we call home.

It was a sort of revelation for me. I had been depressed and frustrated for so long. I knew that I loved Halloween, and I had long before started my collection of Halloween paraphernalia, but I still didn't feel fulfilled. Finding these kindred spirits lit a fire in my bleeding guts, and now I can seldom lie still in my coffin! Thus I decided to build my own home haunt, and to record it on the web.

Now I was a part of something. Now I could share my love for halloween not only with the people who came to my door (and ran screaming), but with that ever growing community of fellow home haunters.

Well, It has been almost a whole year since my first real home haunt. This year I am planning to add more. Bit by bit, I hope that one day I will have a display the likes of some of our american brethren. Wait... what did I just say? Like our Amercian brethren? Have I no Canadian Halloween heroes? Aye, that is the crux of it, as my dead great-grandfather used to say. I have found (or rather not found perhaps) in my web crawling that there are very few Canadian web sites by home haunters! The majority of the sites I found were lists of sites in the US! I was shocked, I was aghast, I was a whole bunch of scary adjectives. It seems that among those of us north of the border who enjoy the dark raptures of October 31, few have chosen to share that love with our fellow Canadians. There are no clubs, no lists, no grand conjunctions... in short, my dear departed friends, we have no Canadian Halloween identity.

And then it hit me... there was blood everywhere.

As I removed the axe from my skull, some connection in my rotting, worm-ridden brain was made and it occurred to me that if there was no Canadian Halloween community, perhaps I should start one. I am not a visionary, I am not a hero, I am not even breathing, but I had a dream. It is an audacious dream perhaps, but one that I hope will find root in the dark psyche of every Halloweenite (let the Americans be Halloweenies! :-) ) across this grand country. And so my humble little web site, The Halloween Project - An ongoing record of my home haunt... yadda yadda, became: The Halloween Project - Halloween in Canada!

It is my hope that we can establish a Canadian community of haunters. The skeptical among you may say "But we don't believe in ghosts, and any way, why do we need a web site devoted to Halloween in Canada?". Lots of reasons.

1. Go to any search engine, and look for Canadian Halloween sites... with the exception of Quebec (which seems to have them in droves) there are few sites celebrating home haunts in Canada. Perhaps there are more, but they are not easily found. Those sites need to be sought out and brought together.

2. There are lots of US sites that help you find haunted attractions (they seem to have thousands of haunts in the US) but there are almost no haunted attractions in Canada, or so it would seem. We need to help people who want to be scared to find the nearest adrenaline rush in their city or town!

3. There are lots of great home haunts around town, we've all seen them, but maybe those people do not have the time, skill, or patience to build a web site. The Halloween Project, or other sites in our Halloween in Canada web ring, could offer those haunters a place to post photos, ideas, how-to directions, and much more.

4. An interactive community could be created allowing haunters across Canada to trade secrets, or swap Halloween goodies. We could post stories, poems, artwork!

Oh I can see it now, what a wonderful world. I hope you will agree, because I will need your help. Join the Halloween in Canada web ring, tell others about it, send in stories or photos, or post reviews of haunted attractions in your neighbourhood. Yes friends, together we can make a difference. Thank you, and good night.