Weird Halloween traditions from all around the world

Traditions and customs serve an important function in our society, especially around calendar landmarks like Halloween.

They unite us with our ancestors, preserve our heritage, provide common ground for social interaction, and strengthen our sense of community, continuity, and togetherness. Right?

Well, not everybody is as keen on hanging onto old traditions as you might think – some anti-traditionalists consider them stale, arcane, conservative, uninventive and even dangerous, while other peoples objections rest on more practical considerations…

So whether you find the mass burning of pallets and tyres environmentally unconscionable, or you are simply sick of your clothes smelling like the inside of Keith Richards’ lung for three weeks after attending the local parish pyre, the following list of traditions from across the globe might provide you with some fresh ideas on how to celebrate Halloween this year.

Obon – The Japanese Festival of Lanterns

Instead of going for a noisy, in-your-face, cocker spaniel-killing pyrotechnic display this year, why don’t you take a more Japanese approach to the task of setting the night on fire…

During the Japanese festival of lanterns, people light paper floats and push them out into still water, and thousands of small glowing ships light the way for roaming spirits.

It says something about the cultural differences between East and West that we choose to celebrate with a towering inferno of rubber and wood, while in the Orient they solemnly nudge floating candles into a lake – who is the more dignified hemisphere?

Leaving out bread and water – Austria

In Austria they practice the rather austere tradition of leaving out bread and water for the dead…

A far cry from the cans of Guinness and packets of Tayto that Santa gets when he stops off in Ireland, the Austrians appear to think it unnecessary to spoil their returning ancestors.

I know if I was making my annual visit across the veil I’d be disappointed if I returned to find my family had left out bread and water – I wouldn’t demand stout and crisps but I’d expect a cup of tea and a few biscuits at least.

German tradition of hiding knives

Yes, apparently around Halloween, the Germans – a nation known for being almost mechanically rational – become very paranoid indeed…

They hide all the knives in their house to prevent said knives posing any danger of accidental injury to the soon-to-arrive spirits.

I find this very odd – I understand hiding knives on imprudent children, angry teens, or drunken husbands, but given the immaterial, substance-less nature of spirits, they seem like the one entity that would literally be unstabbable.

Yue Lan burnings – Hong Kong

Yue Lang (Festival of Hungry Ghosts) is China’s version of Halloween – but as a semi-independent state, Hong Kong like to do things slightly differently from the rest of China.

All over China, food is left out to sate the appetite of the starving spirits. However, in Hong Kong, on top of this, people also burn food and money as an offering to the spirit world.

I’d say the people of Tyrone are already half-way onboard with this tradition – I know plenty of people who haven’t ate a dinner that wasn’t burned in years.

Convincing those same people to put a flame to a fiver might not be so easy though!