I find Halloween to be perhaps the most unique holiday, with its rich history expanding to cultures across the globe. Halloween originated around 2,000 years ago in the area that we recognize today as Ireland, where the Celts (maybe my ancestors!) held their Samhain festival on October 31st to mark the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. The Celts believed that the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead blurred together on Halloween, so they wore costumes to ward off ghosts. The tradition has spread and evolved over the millennia, but on Wednesday, we will still don our costumes and a-haunting we will go!

My wife loves all things Halloween, and she has even gotten me into festivities this year. Still, as a longtime personal injury lawyer, when I think about costume parties and trick-or treating, my mind, by default, reverts to Halloween safety. The bottom line is: BE CAREFUL! If you’re walking door to door with your children, keep them close and make sure to wear reflective clothing and carry a flashlight or headlamp. No ghoul and goblin is as frightening as this statistic: children in the US are more than twice as likely to be fatally struck by a vehicle on Halloween than any other day of the year. Scary, right? So keep your heads up and your phones down, travel in well-lit areas, and don’t jaywalk.

And, for those of you daring enough to venture out on All Hallow’s Eve, be on high alert while on the road. Drive slowly through residential areas, be on the lookout for trick-or-treaters, and enter crosswalks, driveways, or areas with poor visibility cautiously. Most importantly, if you’re going to be celebrating Halloween with “boos” and “spirits,” don’t get behind the wheel!