Celebrating Spooky Season Around the World

The transition from fall to winter is a time filled with ghosts, ghouls and celebrations, when the gates to the underworld are thought to be open and spirits from the other side mingle with the mortals. While Americans are drinking pumpkin-spice lattes, trick-or-treating and carving jacko-lanterns this month, cultures across the world are gearing up for their own spooky-season traditions. From Hong Kong’s Hungry Ghost Festival to Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos to Haiti’s Fat Gede, here are the ways people welcome otherworldly spirits and souls. MEGHAN GUNN

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Halloween

UNITED STATES

Early iterations of trick-ortreating began in the Middle Ages. Then called mumming,” people disguised themselves and went to neighbors’ doors performing dances and plays in exchange for food. The tradition made a big comeback with children in the United States after World War II, when sugar was no longer rationed and suburbs were flourishing. Today, trickor-treating is a Halloween activity practiced in the U.K., Ireland, Canada and Australia.

Fet Gede

HAITI

Each year, voodoo practitioners gather in cemeteries to honor the dead and make offerings of candles, pepper-infused alcohol—the spirits love spice—and bones. Attendees dress up in characterizations of important spirits, like Papa Gede, who is known for his top hat, sunglasses and cigar.

Día de los Muertos

MEXICO

Every year, families across Mexico gather at the gravesites of loved ones and create home altars bearing the deceased’s tradition, the gates of heaven open at midnight on October