Samhainophobia: the fear of Halloween

Published: November 01, 2020

Halloween is one of the spookiest times of the year, but some of us get a little more creeped out than others over the holiday that stems from the Celtic festival of Samhain.

Does the Halloween season leave you paralyzed with fear? Does the sight of evil-looking grinning jack-o’-lanterns  leave you trembling? Do the “trick or treating” children clad as monsters, ghosts and witches leave you nauseous with anxiety and fearing that they might do something frightful to you or your home, or even worse, that the vampires and skeletons outside your window are real?

If you are more inclined to bolt your door - with the curtains drawn and lights dimmed on the night of October 31st - than to join the Jack the Rippers and Freddy Krugers collecting candy and throwing eggs, then you may be one of thousands suffering from Samhainophobia, the irrational and persitent fear of Halloween.

This time of year can also intensify a host of existing phobias, including the fear of  spiders (arachnophobia), cats (ailurophobia), witches (wiccaphobia), the dark (nyctophobia), cemetaries (coimetrophobia), tombstones (placophobia) and crowded spaces (agoraphobia).

Do you know anyone suffering from Samhainophobia?

Or have you been on the receiving end of some trick or treating that has left you fuming and with a strong dislike of Halloween? Take a friend of mine, for example, who developed an intense and persistent hate of the holiday after a group of kids slashed his bike tires when he didn’t hear them ringing the doorbell to have their stash of candy topped up.

Do you have any horror Halloween stories to share?

Christina Ricci is one of many celebrities suffering from a Halloween-related phobia, plasmophobia: the fear of ghosts. Other celebrities who have phobias include Woody Allen, Billy Bob Thornton and Justin Timberlake.

Read our spine-chilling article about zombies: Could the Walking Dead become a reality?

Images: Wikimedia Commons andhttp://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=1306743

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Published November 01, 2020 by Karoline in Health Conditions
Tags: Halloween, phobia