Halloween origins and how the world marks the season.
Tonight’s selection — check back for a different corner of the world each night.
The ancient Celtic festival that started it all. Samhain (pronounced "sow-in") marked the end of harvest and the beginning of winter — the night the boundary between the living and the dead thinned. The Celts lit bonfires and wore costumes to ward off the roaming spirits. Every jack-o-lantern on your porch traces back to this night.
The Hungry Ghost Festival. On the fifteenth night of the seventh lunar month, the gates of the afterlife swing open and spirits walk the earth. Families burn joss paper, prepare feasts, and stage operas — leaving the front row empty for the unseen audience.
The Manx tradition that predates Halloween itself. Children carve lanterns from turnips (not pumpkins), sing songs door to door, and eat "mrastyr" — a mash of potato, parsnip, and fish. The turnip lanterns still glow every October 31 on the Isle of Man.
Long before trick-or-treating crossed the Atlantic, Scottish children walked door to door in disguise, performing a song or a poem in exchange for treats. The costume was the ticket. No performance, no candy. That tradition rode the boat to America with the immigrants and became what we know today.
A three-day festival in the town of Dan Sai where locals wear enormous, brightly colored ghost masks made from coconut husks and rice steamers. The origin is part Buddhist merit-making, part harvest revelry. Loud, weird, and joyful — the exact opposite of the somber ghost.