Halloween origins and how the world marks the season.
Tonight’s selection — check back for a different corner of the world each night.
Not strictly a Halloween cousin, but the same harvest-and-ancestors thread. Korean families return home, share songpyeon rice cakes, and perform charye — a ceremony honoring the ancestors. The full harvest moon watches over it all.
A public holiday in Catholic states. Knives are hidden away on All Souls Eve to protect returning spirits from harm — an old superstition that lingers in some rural households. Cemeteries fill with candles at dusk.
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.
Filipino children in rural provinces still walk door to door on All Saints Eve, singing hymns for the souls in purgatory. In return, they receive kakanin (rice cakes) or coins. A gentler ancestor of trick-or-treat, still alive in the countryside.
The Festival of Cows — but not the way you think. Families who have lost a loved one in the past year lead a cow (or a child dressed as one) through the streets. Laughter, satire, and street theater fill the day. The idea: even grief has to breathe.