There are many holidays having to do with death including the Mexican holiday Days of the Dead. Another well-known holiday is Halloween. Various other holidays that have to do with death share the same basis: honoring the dead, ancestors or relatives. Besides Halloween and Days of the Dead, there are Qing Ming, Rusalii, Samhain and Memorial Day. 

Qing Ming, a Chinese holiday, falls in the third month of the solar calendar, our April, and is all about honoring one's departed relatives. When one celebrates this occasion, a small fire is built and money made for the spirits is burned so they can receive it. How fast the money burns determines how quickly the spirits have received the money. Money for the courier is placed in the fire as well. Qing Ming happens at night and one prays for the spirits' well being. 

Samhain was celebrated by the Celts on October 31. This was the time when demons and witches came out to walk the earth playing pranks and making mischief to the mortals. Bonfires were built and people dressed up like spirits to lure the evil beings away from the village, as the ghouls could then do no damage. Next Samhain was mingled with Faralia, a Roman festival. Ironically, the Roman holiday honored and welcomed the spirits. Later, Christians began celebrating All Saint's Day on November 1. The evening before that was called Hollow or Holy Evening, which changed to Hallow's Evening. This in turn became Hallow E'en. That developed into what we call Halloween. 

Halloween originated from Samhain, but do you know why people go trick-or-treating in the first place? When the Irish, along with many other cultures arrived in America, they brought many traditions with them. One of them was to go from the house to house asking for food or money to add to feasts honoring the dead. If refused they would play a trick on the apathetic person. After a little while, children began going from house to house, asking for treats, wearing costumes to keep their neighbors from finding out who had played tricks on them. In England Halloween was also called the Nutcrack Night or Snap Apple Night. 

Day of the Dead is a well-known Mexican holiday. It is not a time of sadness, but a time to defy death and make fun of it. People dress up as ghouls and little figurines of skeletons in everyday roles, like musicians and people playing pool are sold at shops. The first day is October 27 when the offerings for orphan spirits, the ones with no family to greet them, are placed in a church. October 28 honors the spirits of those who were killed in a violent way. Food is placed outside of the home. Upon the night of October 31 the ghosts of children visit and toys, clothing and an occasional bottle of Coca-Cola await them, and by the time the bell rings the next afternoon the juvenile spirits leave. The adult ghosts then arrive to cigarettes, tequila, and other earthly pleasures. Poor families greet their relatives too, though they do not have much more to give than a tiny glass of mexcal, an alcoholic beverage, and small cornhusk-wrapped tamal. At dusk the families will travel to the cemetery to stay for the night by the decorated grave of their relative. During the holiday the graves are cleaned, sugary confections are bought as well as special flowers for the holiday. The petals are strewn on the grave and in the house. Gossip and drinks are shared during the night. Musicians play the favorite songs of the ghosts and by an evening in November the holiday is over. 

Rusalii is a holiday with a totally different take on death as day of the dead. The Romanians celebrate fifty days after Easter on Whitsuntide. The rituals of this event lasts about a week and they include no working in the fields or with the animals, cleaning the house or washing yourself, or climbing trees. If any of these things are done, rusalii, evil fairies, will possess the person. I would think that there is not as much joy during this time, but grimness because one does not want to become possessed. The only way to exorcise the hostile fairies is by the ritual of the Calus, performed by a group of men called the Callusari. The Calus is composed of singing.

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