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Halloween Day

If you don’t believe in ghosts at all then never mind. If you do or you are open to the possibility then go ahead.


Halloween is a festival celebrated in North America & Western Europe on 31st of October. It is related to Hallowmas and All Saints’ Day which is a Christian festival of the dead. People of America celebrate Halloween by having costume parties, mostly spooky and kids collect toffees from the neighbourhood. Although it’s a Christian festival it is celebrated as a non-religious festival.

It is Festival of the Dead, in short it is believed that the dead comes to earth & visit our realm. But this is not the only festival which talks about the ghosts of the dead visiting our world. All over the world there are different festivals of the dead from different civilizations & different religions. These festivals are celebrated from mid-August to October end.

Here are some of such festivals:

Bon Festival:  It is Japanese festival of the dead. They light lanterns and offer food. Its date also varies as per their calendar. At some place they follow traditional lunar calendar while at some while at some places they follow the Georgian calendar. It was also celebrated on August end this year.


 Hungry Ghost Festival: It is the Chinese counterpart of the Japanese Bon festival. It’s a Chinese festival of the dead. In this festival too they offer food to the dead who come to visit the human’s realm. They also burn paper money for their dead ancestors and light paper lanterns in the river. Celebrated by Buddhist, Taoist and people of Chinese folk religion, this year it was on August 20th.



Pitru Paksha: It’s a Hindu festival of the dead in which people offer food to their ancestors on a banana leaf. It lasts for 15 days. The dates vary as per the Indian lunar calendar. This year i.e. 2013 it was from September 19 to October 4.




Then comes Halloween & All Saints' Day which is on 31st October.

Day of the Dead (Mexico): This festival is a combination of the Christian All Saints’ Day and the traditional festival of the indigenous Aztec civilization. It is celebrated on 1st to 2nd November. It is like Halloween’s cousin.

As per the timing of these festivals, it seems like the ghosts visit our world from mid-August to October end. They start from Japan, China, gradually come towards India, then heads to Europe and later to North America and Mexico. Now may be this pattern has something to do with the position of Earth during its revolution around the sun, or may be some other star, planet or galaxy.
If you are open to the belief that ghost may exist then it’s worth thinking that is the ghosts may be around us between mid Augusts to October end? Anyways, Happy Halloween. 

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