Six of the world’s weirdest and wonderful Halloween traditions

Samhuinn Fire Festival creates an incredible spectacle in Edinburgh (Picture: Getty Images)

Carving pumpkins, trick or treating and dressing up as ghosts or demons are popular ways to celebrate Halloween in the UK.

While some of the more traditional pastimes like apple bobbing have fallen out of fashion, the holiday is still enjoyed by children and adults alike, attending events from costume parties to pumpkin picking and haunted house tours.

Halloween isn’t a globally-celebrated holiday, but there are several countries and cultures around the world who mark All Hallow’s Eve in different ways.

For many countries it’s a time to dress up in silly costumes and eat sweets, but in others it’s a sacred time dedicated to honouring the memory of loved ones who have passed on.

Metro has rounded up some of the oldest, weirdest, and most interesting Halloween traditions from around the world.

Ireland – turnip carving

Turnips are smaller than carved pumpkins, but no less creepy (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)

Most people would visualise a large orange pumpkin when thinking about carving a vegetable for Halloween – but in Ireland, a different root vegetable is used.

Ireland and Scotland with their Celtic roots are thought of as the originators of what we know as Halloween today, and historically the Irish used to carve turnips.

The term Jack O’Lantern takes its name from the folktale about Jack, a spirit welcome neither in heaven or hell who was destined to wander the countryside forever, with just a lantern to guide him.

Candles would be placed inside the hollowed-out turnips and placed on doorsteps or in the window on the night of October 31 to try and ward Jack and other evil spirits away.

Nowadays you’re probably more likely to find carved pumpkins in Ireland rather than a creepy turnip, but the tradition still lives on and there’s even examples of carved turnips from the early 1900s preserved in Irish museums.

Scotland – Samhain Fire Festival

The festival includes live drum performances (Picture: Getty Images)

Halloween is thought to have originated from Samhain or All Hallowtide, a pagan festival which marks the transition of summer to autumn – and the time at which the divide between the worlds of the living and dead is at its thinnest.

Even in modern day Scotland, Samhain is still marked every year with the Fire Festival in Edinburgh.

The city’s narrow winding streets transform into a bustling theatre of ancient Celtic rituals, with elaborate costume performances throughout the night.

Nowadays the festival is held in the shadow of Arthur’s Seat in Holyrood Park, to accommodate for growing crowds of people watching fire dancing, acrobatics, drum performances, and theatre shows.

Mexico – Día de Muertos

Parades are held throughout Mexico (Picture: Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Arguably one of the most iconic Halloween festivals in the world, Mexico commemorates its dead and celebrates new life during Día de Muertos, or ‘the Day of the Dead’.

A three-day festival held from October 31 to November 2, the first day honours children who have passed away, the second remembers all of the other departed, while on the third, celebrations are held.

Families build altars to commemorate the dead, decorated with sweets, toys and other items meaningful to the deceased. Many wear colourful skeleton costumes and festivities continue into the night at cemeteries, where relatives gather to celebrate the life of those who have died.

In bigger cities, the streets come alive with parades, song and dance, and people hand out candied sugar skulls as gifts, share traditional ‘pan de muerto’ bread, and write lighthearted mock epitaphs dedicated to the living.

Philippines – Pangangaluwa

Pangangaluwa, which translates to ‘souling’, is a Tagalog folk tradition not too far removed from the trick or treating we see today.

Children and teenagers dressed in white sheets visit houses on the night of October 31 to sing songs related to All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day to solicit for gifts.

They pretend to be lost souls in purgatory, with visited homes expected to give gifts which those souls could take back to the world of the dead.

These gifts usually include food, like sticky rice cakes and products made from sweet potato and purple yam, and they’re said to be a tribute to those souls who are hungry for food and attention.

Japan – Jimi Halloween

A costume depicting ‘Person who was stingy and only paid for the smallest plastic bag’ (Picture: X/Nick Kapur)

‘Guy who just got back from the swimming pool’ (Picture: X/Nick Kapur)

Jimi Halloween, which translates to ‘Mundane Halloween’, is a Japanese tradition which turns the expectation of dressing up in elaborate spooky costumes o its head.

The festival sees hundreds of people dress up in costumes so mundane or specific that they need to be explained to others.

One of the most popular costumes this year is ‘one of those really low ceilings in Ueno Station’, highlighting a controversial area of a busy railway station where the ceilings are only about 1.7m (5ft6in) high.

Other fun examples from this year’s event include ‘person who foolishly ordered curry udon despite wearing white clothes’, ‘man who keeps getting mistaken for a store employee’, and ‘guy who just got back from the swimming pool’ complete with red goggle marks around his eyes.

Haiti – Fèt Gede

Vodou practitioners parade through the streets (Picture: Visit Haiti)

Ceremonies are then held at cemeteries (Picture: Visit Haiti)

Haiti celebrates its own ‘Day of the Dead’ festival which pays respects to loved ones who have died.

While its Protestant and Catholic populations mark the day in their own way, followers of the ‘vodou’ religion participate in a much more vibrant way.

Vodou practitioners dress elaborately to represent spirits known as gede – the reincarnation of a loved one who has come from the afterlife to live in the body of the relative who called for them to return.

The streets of Haiti’s towns and cities are filled by vodou practitioners, some possessed by gede, who visit cemeteries to make devotions, perform rituals, and honour the dead.

Those who have been possessed by the gede dress in white, black and purple, with their faces covered in white powder and black sunglasses, and sporting walking sticks.

They carry bottles of spicy pepper-infused alcohol around and pour it over themselves, writhing and dancing as they make their way to the cemetery.

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