Series on the Festivals of Death

Posted by Katrien Vander Straeten Oct 17, 2006

How strange I had never really thought about it, even noticed it: so many of the festivals in October and November are about death, the dead and dying. I am thinking of Halloween, the Days of the Dead, All Hallows' and All Saints'... Why do they all occur at the same time, the beginning of Winter? Why do they look alike, not just in theme but often also in rituals and all the trimmings?

Well, what started out as an article about Halloween in Europe turned into a whole series.

After demonstrating the newfound popularity of Halloween in Europe, I felt compelled to offset this with an article on the European alternatives to Halloween. This led me to investigate what binds all the Fall festivals of death together, namely the theme of death (obviously) and their common timing at the end of Fall and the beginning of Winter. I found that there was a common ancestor of most of the Fall Festivals, namely the Celtic festival of Samhain, and how better to flesh that out than in another article on The origins of Halloween?

But wait! I was also intrigued by the Mexican counterpart of these Festivals. This lead to two more articles: one on the Days of the Dead, and one on the origins of that fiesta.

I think that will be all, for now, about these beautiful, touching, and funny feasts! Next up is Thanksgiving! And you can be certain that I will again need more than just the one article to present to you all I find out about that American holiday!