Halloween isn’t the only holiday that celebrates, honors and recognizes the Spirit World, and specifically, those who have crossed over from the physical world - our deceased loved ones.
There are 13 celebrations that take place throughout the year, spanning cultural groups, countries and traditions, all with the common themes of sending prayers, making offerings and honoring the beauty of life with celebration.
This Halloween, when you look to celebrate the Spirit World, you may also consider enjoying a few other festivities, also happening during this fall harvest time of year.
13 Festivals that Celebrate the Deceased
Observed by: China
When: The first week of April
About: This national Chinese holiday is also called Ancestors Day or Tomb-Sweeping Day, where families go to the tombs of their ancestors, clean them up from the winter and get together as a family to enjoy the outdoors. On this day, tomb sweeping, also called Shang Fen (to visit a grave in memory of the dead) in Chinese, is the most important and popular activity for offering sacrifice and showing respect to ancestors. However, other outdoor activities are also observed, such as kite flying.
This holiday is estimated to date back to A.D. 732, from the reign of Tang emperor Xuanzong. The emperor is said to have declared that there were too many celebrations of ancestors, and that such celebrations should be reserved only for one holiday - Qingming. The festival is often also used to pay respects to people who have died during significant events in China’s history, such as Tiananmen Square.
How to celebrate: Visit the graves of your relatives to clean them up after winter, leave flowers or provide other offerings such as food, tea, wine, chopsticks, paper accessories and fresh soil. You may choose to also place willow branches on the gates or doors to your home to ward off unwanted Spirits from visiting you during this time.
2. Famadihana (Turning of the Bones)
Observed in: The highlands of Madagascar
When: Throughout southern hemisphere winter (June to September)
About: During the winter, every 7 years after a person has died, the body is removed from the tomb by their living family members, re-wrapped and put back into the tomb with a festive party, often involving carrying the body around joyously to live music and dancing.
This tradition stems from the belief that the spirit of the dead cannot fully go to the land of the ancestors until the body is completely decomposed. This celebration brings together extended families and is a chance for an entire family to pay respects to the dead.
How to celebrate: Every 7 years, go with your living family members to your family’s tomb. Here, take the body from the tomb and lovingly re-wrap your dear departed in new scarves and spray them with pleasant perfume.
3. Hungry Ghost Festival
Observed in: China
When: The 14th Lunar day, in the 7th Lunar month (usually between July - August)
About: During the whole month, regarded as Ghost Month, it is believed that ghosts and pirits are able to exit the lower realm and come back to Earth. All spirits have this permission to leave the Spirit World for the Festival. Therefore, large amounts of food are prepared to treat their ascendant's spirits and homeless ghosts.
On the 15th night, these spirits are given a full-day pass to pop in to visit their living descendants. On this day, floating Water Lanterns will be put down to the river. Water Lanterns light up a road to welcome ghosts and spirits to our world for a dinner feast.
How to celebrate: During this month, make food offerings and place settings for the deceased in your family at dinner time, and on the 14th day, make a water lantern, in the shape of a flower and float it in lakes or rivers to help lead spirits back to the underworld.
4. Obon festival
Observed in: Japan
When: In the month of August
About: The three-day Japanese Obon festival, also called the Festival of Lanterns, is a Buddhist observance dedicated to the spirits of ancestors. During the festival, special food is prepared and placed on altars in temples and homes, and red lanterns are hung in front of houses. The celebrations end with the glowing lanterns set afloat on waterways to go out to sea. The string of colorful lights bobbing in the water are meant to guide the spirits of their loved ones back to the realm of the dead until next year. Obon has a family-reunion element, as those who celebrate will return to their ancestral homes to be reunited with relatives, both living and deceased.
As in the traditional festival of Halloween, the souls of the departed return to the world of the living during this time. However, unlike Halloween, in which the souls of the dead are often imagined as malevolent, Obon is a day when the spirits return to visit their relatives.
How to celebrate: Visit the grave of your Loved One and light a fire to guide your Loved Ones in Spirit back home. Hang a paper lantern in front of your house and end the celebration by sending it adrift on water, sending it out to sea.
5. Gai Jatra
Observed in: Nepal
When: During the months of August and September
About: Gai Jatra, also called the Festival of the Cows, is an eight-day festival. During the celebration a procession of cows is marched through the center of town led by family members who have lost a loved one within the last year. Sons of families will also dress up like cows and march in the processional, and in some cities, people dress up like Gods and Goddesses, instead.
Cows are considered holy in Hinduism, and it is thought that the cow can help guide the recently deceased to the afterlife. Gai Jatra is a light-hearted celebration of death, meant to help people accept death as a reality and to help ease the passing of those who have died.
How to celebrate: Have a parade, even if it is just you and carry with you the Spirit of the Cow - either by wearing it on your body, or having one with you. Or, dress up as one of the many Gods or Goddesses who guide those in Spirit to the afterlife.
Observed in: South Korea
When: On the 15th day of the 8th lunar month (usually in mid-September)
About: Chuseok is a three day festival is a celebration of the harvest where during the festival, ancestors are celebrated and thanked for the blessing of the annual bounty. During the observance, memorial services are held for the departed and time is made to clean familial grave sites. Many Koreans make their way back to their ancestral home to perform rituals early in the morning including the preparation of a special kind of rice cake called a Songpyeon, which is left out for the ancestors. Traditional dress is donned and participants engage in dancing, wrestling matches and prepare foods.
As Chuseok has roots predating the division of Korea, it is also observed over the border. In North Korea it is celebrated by visits to ancestral grave sites for those who can obtain the appropriate travel certificates, as well as the paying of respects to their former Leader, Kim Jong-il.
How to celebrate: Pay respect to your ancestors, by visiting and cleaning their graves and preparing a special kind of rice cake called a Songpyeon. Attend memorial services, if available in your area. Don’t forget to eat, dance, drink and celebrate.
7. The P’chum Ben
Observed in: Cambodia and in Cambodian communities worldwide
When: 10th month of the lunar calendar (usually between September-October)
About: Cambodian Buddhists celebrate the Pak Ben, 14 days during which they will wake before dawn each morning to prepare offerings of food and other gifts to the monks living in the local pagoda and to their ancestors. On the 15th day villagers visit the pagoda with offerings of sweet sticky rice, bean treats and other special foods to mark the P’chum Ben, or the Festival of the Dead, which marks the close of the Pak Ben period. Here, music is played, speeches are given and the living family members gather wearing their finest clothing.
These offerings are meant for their relatives who have passed on, and each plate of decorated sweets and fruits are offered with a prayer that they will reach their loved ones. In addition, huge batches of rice mixed with sesame seed are prepared each morning and spread along the ground in front of the pagoda where it is left for the spirits who wander the world, without any living ancestors to take care of their memory are known.
How to celebrate: Where your finest clothes, get together with friends and family at a local pagoda, listen to music and speeches by monks and local figures, enjoy the delicacies and honor your family members who have crossed.
8. Pitru Paksha (Fortnight of the Ancestors)
Observed in: India
When: A 16 day period during the month of Ashwin, the seventh month of the lunisolar Hindu calendar, generally overlapping with the months of September-October.
About: This Hindu tradition is a fifteen-day period during the Hindu month of Ashwin where a person remembers their ancestors, particularly through offerings of food. In Hindu mythology, when the soul of deceased warrior Karna reached heaven, he found nothing to eat but gold. Karna then asked the lord of heaven—Indra—where the pantry was. Indra told Karna that he could only eat gold because he had never offered food to his ancestors while he was alive. After some discussion, Karna was permitted to return to earth for fifteen-days to make amends and give food and water. Additionally, Hindu mythology holds that three generations of deceased are in a netherworld, called Pitru-loka, that exists between heaven and earth and the living perform this rite in their memory to help them cross over.
Now, during this time, offerings are made to all the deceased, as well as daily death rituals completed by priests. In turn, the ancestors will bestow upon their living kin, wealth, health, and salvation.
How to celebrate: Send prayers and make offerings of food and water to your ancestors.
Observed by: Western Christians and many non-Christians around the world
When: October 31st.
About: The origin of Halloween can be found in the ancient Celtic festival of the dead, Samhain. From present-day Ireland to the United Kingdom to Bretagne, in Celtic tradition, this is the day when the normally strict boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead became mutable, and the ghosts of those who had passed away come back to earth. The celebration coincides with the final harvests of the year and when nature itself hibernates, dying until the rebirth of growth in the spring. With the later spread of Christianity, the Church attempted to subsume the festival under the celebration of martyrs and saints held on November 1st, All Saints Day. The Christian festival was called All-Hallows, while the evening before was called All-Hallows-Eve and later Halloween.
On this night, it is thought that the worlds blend and Spirit is present in the physical world with no boundary. In Europe and America, offerings of food that were left on doorsteps on All-Hallows-Eve in the hopes that it might prevent wandering spirits from entering the house. Many worried also that on the evening when the ghosts of the departed would be roaming the fields and roads near their homes, they might be accosted on their way to and from the celebrations. Thus, people began to wear masks and other ghostly gear in order to fool the spirits into believing they, too, were ghosts, so the spirits would let them pass on their way unmolested.
How to celebrate: Leave treats on your doorstep to protect yourself from the wandering Spirits and dress in costume to hide from those in Spirit who may try to approach you.
10. All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days
Observed: Worldwide (anywhere with Catholic church observants)
When: November 1 and November 2
About: These days are religious holidays celebrated together and observed primarily by the Catholic Church. They are celebrated on the first and second of November directly following All Hallows’ Eve, or Halloween.
Considered a national holiday in many countries, All Saints’ Day has roots in early Catholicism as a festival to honor unknown saints and martyrs. The day after this—All Souls’ Day—people commemorate the souls that are now in Purgatory, a place believed to be for cleansing or purifying before entering Heaven fully.
How to celebrate: Attend services at a local Catholic Church and send prayers to Saints, and Loved Ones on the Other Side to help them cross over fully and enter into Heaven.
11. El Dia de los Muertos
Observed in: Mexico and Latin America
When: The first days of November, often coinciding with the Catholic observances of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day on November 1 and 2.
About: El Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) has its origins in an Aztec harvest celebration, where nearly two month-long observance was overseen by the Goddess Mictecacihuatl—the Lady of the Dead, both celebrating the fall harvest and those who have crossed. The imagery associated with El Día de los Muertos is not meant to be ghoulish, instead it is intended to be a grand celebration of the deceased. Masks are worn and there is much feasting, singing, and dancing.
Aztecs and Mayans believed in days of the year the souls of the departed would return to the realm of the living, where they could visit their families and loved ones. With the arrival of the Spanish, and Catholicism, however, the new rulers of Mexico attempted to marshal the fiestas dedicated to the dead under the auspices of All Saints Day (November 1st) and All Souls Day (November 2nd). The dates of these two Catholic holidays are now celebrated in Mexico as Los Dias de los Muertos, no longer a month long tradition.
This fiesta is marked by the invitation by the living to the dead to return to their family home for a visit. Families place photographs of their loved ones who have passed on at the deceased’s gravesite or on a family altar. Altars are often decorated with flowers, whose brief life span is meant to be a reminder of the brevity of all life. Brightly colored and intricately cut tissue paper decorate the altar. Sweets, fruits, and other foods are joined by nourishing foods of bread, salt, and water. Grooming supplies, such as a washbasin and soap, are provided for the spirits to tidy themselves after their long journey. The well-known Calaveras (skulls) statues depicting skeletons participating in the activities of the living- from cooking to playing in mariachi bands- take their place on the altar, where their comic appearance brings a smile to the faces of the grieving.
How to celebrate: To mark these days, make an special altar constructed and dedicated to the dead, decorate their grave sites with flowers, candles, mementos and their favorite foods.
12. Fête Guédé (Ghede)
Observed in: Haiti
When: November 2nd
About: Haitians also celebrate a day of the dead known as Ghede, a Vodou (Voudon) tradition that's celebrated in conjunction with Catholic All Souls' Day. This is a celebration for Ghede spirits, led by the Spirit, Baron Samedi, God of Death in Haiti's Vodun tradition. Baron Samedi is known as the protector of children, provider of wise advice and the last best hope for the seriously ill. Ghede then, as the ruler of death, also embodies the principles of wisdom and renewal. It is the celebration of the Life, Death, Rebirth cycle.
Overall, the Guédé are the family of Loa (Spirits) that embody the powers of death and fertility. The Loa, are also referred to as Mystères and the Invisibles, in which are intermediaries between Bondye (Bon Dieu, or good god)—the Creator, who is distant from the world—and humanity. Unlike saints or angels however, they are prayed to and served.
How to celebrate: Play music to awaken the Baron and dress in costumes of white, black and purple to draw in the Spirits. Paint your face with make-up, dusting it with color to match the faces of the deceased, even if you simply whiten your face with flour. Once dressed, go to your ancestor’s cemetery, where those who have ancestors there will clean the tombs of their loved ones and leave food for them in remembrance.
You can also make an altar to honor all Ghede spirits including cigarettes, Clarin (a special white run with habanero peppers), a small white skull of image thereof, candles, fabrics, and things colored black, white and purple, crosses, miniature coffins, pictures of St. Gerard, and a small top hat and a cane.
13. Dia de los Natitas
Observed in: Bolivia
When: November 9th
About: In Bolivia a festival known as Dia de los ñatitas or Day of the Skulls is celebrated in November, a week after All Saints' Day. It stems from a historic tradition of keeping the bones of ancestors in the home to watch over and protect the family. Where in pre - Columbian times the indigenous Andean people maintained a tradition of spending a day with the bones of their relatives 3 years after their deaths, today, the celebration merely involves their skulls.
How to celebrate: Give the skulls of your Loved Ones are given fresh adornments like hats or crowns of flowers, and bring them to the cemetery for prayers and blessings.
And there you have it, the 13 festivals celebrating the deceased from around the world.
Choose one to celebrate this year that resonates with you - or create your own.