For centuries, All Hallows eve (Samhain/Calan Gaeaf ) has been the traditional event to mark the end of the harvest season. It was seen as a last chance to be festive before facing the dark and uncertainty of the winter.
Also associated with the holiday was the belief that spirits, fairies, wee folk and celestial beings could more easily visit our world. To mark the season, I’ve chosen a number of New York UFO sightings that have occurred on Halloweens past.
- It was twenty-eight years ago on Halloween 1985, at about 8:30 p.m. A New York City guy was enjoying a romantic walk through a school yard with his girlfriend. Suddenly, he caught sight of a silver metallic disk hovering a few hundred feet above a six-story apartment building. He pointed out the object to his girlfriend, and they watched the silent, motionless disk for about 15 seconds before the craft darted off at high speed toward Central Park, leaving a streak of light behind it.
- Upon a Halloween evening 14 years ago in Nassau, a father and daughter had close encounter. It was about 6:45 p.m. A dad was scheduled to take his 5-year-old daughter to a relative’s house to meet with his wife and cousins to go trick-or-treating. The man was driving his car through the rural countryside until the auto unexpectedly stalled on the crest of a small hill. There he was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by huge fields of drying cow corn. His car had been known to overheat, so he put it in neutral, coasted down the hill and pulled to the side of the road. With his hood up to cool his engine and his daughter snoozing in her car seat, he decided to have a smoke outside. After a few drags, it began to rain. Frustrated he stomped out his cigarette and got back in the car. Then he noticed something odd: It was pouring in the surrounding corn fields; in the immediate area of his car, it wasn’t raining. He opened his car door, looked out and up and he was awed to see huge triangular craft hovering silently over his car. He got out of his car and stood there looking at the football-field-sized craft, when suddenly from the bottom came a very bright light. Scared, he got back in the car and locked the doors. After a few minutes, the light was gone. He rolled down the window and noted that the craft was silently and leisurely floating away. The man says that to this day, the memory of this Halloween event is as vivid in his mind as the day it happened.
- Halloween was no big deal for a 12-year-old Jewish boy from New York City who didn’t bother with trick-or-treating. It was 2000, at about 8:30 p.m., and the young man was out and heard some adults screaming, frightened. The adults were all pointing at something. Cautious, he backed away from the scene. That’s when he looked up to see something “green” floating down. He glanced further upward to see where the green stuff came from and saw a large disk-shaped craft surrounded by lights that slowly cycled between very bright and very dim. Scared out of his wits and unable to speak, the young man yanked on some girl’s hair to get her attention. The two of them, along with many other people, watched as the craft slowly began to move. As it moved over their heads, it seemed to stop for just a moment before it “zoomed off” and out of sight. Similar reports of this object and the green stuff phenomena were reported all over the Midwest that evening.
- It was 2003 when the North Country hamlet of Rooseveltown had its Halloween sighting. About 9:30 p.m., a resident was sitting outside enjoying the evening stars, when he spotted two odd bright lights silently coming towards him. As the lights approached and dropped to tree-top height, a third and much larger light came on. The craft was perhaps a hundred feet off the ground and at least a football field long in length. While he couldn’t make out a great deal of detail, he noted the object was circular and masked out the stars as it passed overhead. Suddenly, all the white lights changed to red and blue, and the craft silently and rapidly moved away heading north.
- On Halloween 2008 in Bay Shore, a resident observed a bright orange star-like object moving from the northwest toward the southeast. The object had no blinking lights, like a normal aircraft. The observer watched the object for perhaps 15 seconds as it moved overhead. While he observed a bright flash around the object, it continued on its course and faded from view. He reports a unique excitement from the observation.
