If Halloween isn't your favorite holiday as an adult, what are you doing wrong? On this #ParanormalTuesday, Mike and Wendy celebrate the season by traveling the globe to look at Halloween traditions you might never have heard of, plus a few of their own.
They start in Scotland, where the word itself took shape. In 1785, poet Robert Burns wrote a poem called "Halloween" describing it as a night when witches, devils, and other mischief-making beings are all abroad. Then it's off to Cambodia for Pchum Ben, a 15-day ancestors' festival, and a conversation about how traditions like these keep the dead remembered.
In Haiti, the festival of Fête Gede is a day of the dead of its own, honoring the lwa, the spirits all around us. The hosts talk about Papa Gede, who meets you after you die, has a famously crude sense of humor, and has influenced traditional New Orleans funerals, and Baron Samedi, the skull in the top hat. They also look at Día de los Muertos in Mexico, which grew from Spanish All Saints' and All Souls' observances into its own vibrant celebration, with ofrendas full of the things loved ones enjoyed in life.
The episode wraps with a screening of Sunspot's Halloween video, shot at a haunted location in Wisconsin, and their song "I Don't Want to Be a Ghost."
Want to feel the spirit of the season in person? Join us on a Halloween ghost tour, or explore the city where Papa Gede's influence lives on with our French Quarter Ghost Walk.