Hosting a house-cooling party before moving wards off bad spirits

Scene: A cozy Toronto apartment, boxes stacked near the doorway. Snow falls gently outside. Two friends, Ravi and Alex, sip coffee amid the clutter.

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Ravi: (wrapping a fragile idol in bubble wrap)
Okay, okay, before we touch the couch, we have to host the house-cooling party. You know… to ward off any lingering spirits.

Alex: (laughs, sipping coffee)
House-cooling? Like… the opposite of housewarming? So you’re refrigerating the ghosts now?

Ravi:
Very funny. I’m serious, Alex. It’s an old tradition from back home. Before moving, you thank the house, serve food, light a lamp—basically, it tells the spirits, “Thanks, but we’re out.”

Alex:
Ravi, you do realize this is Canada, right? If your house is haunted, the ghost probably left months ago when the heating broke during that ice storm.

Ravi: (chuckling)
That was brutal. But listen—my cousin in Mississauga skipped the cooling ceremony, and within a week of moving, their new apartment had a plumbing disaster and a squirrel infestation. Coincidence? I think not.

Alex: (grinning)
Or… maybe the old pipes and loose attic vent were the issue. Not vengeful spirits with a rodent army.

Ravi:
You rationalists always reduce everything to science and statistics. What about intuition? Vibes? The unseen?

Alex:
I do believe in vibes—but usually when the Wi-Fi’s down and I have to talk to people. Look, I get it. Rituals can be comforting. They help us say goodbye, mark change. But that doesn’t mean ghosts are packing up with us.

Ravi: (sincerely)
It’s not just ghosts. It’s respect. It’s tradition. My grandmother used to say, “Don’t leave a house without feeding it one last time.” And it always felt… right.

Alex:
That’s beautiful, honestly. And I think saying goodbye to a space emotionally makes sense. Just maybe don’t light incense next to the cardboard boxes, please?

Ravi: (smirking)
Fine, I’ll use a candle. But you have to come. It’ll be chill—pun intended. We’ll eat biryani, light a lamp, and thank the walls. Who knows? Even your skeptic soul might find peace.

Alex:
Only if I get to deliver a eulogy to your old Wi-Fi router. May it rest in perpetual buffering.

Ravi: (laughs)
Deal. But if your new apartment has weird knocking sounds at night, don’t come crying to me.

Alex:
I’ll assume it’s the heating—until proven poltergeist.