Halloween most likely began around 2,000 years ago as a pagan harvest festival until the Church ‘borrowed’ the Celtic idea to remember the early departed. Many countries have a similar event to remember their lost relatives. Helen Raine suggests where to go for the biggest spectacles.

US: Long Beach, California

Where to go: The Queen Mary
Date: October 31

Southern California’s Queen Mary steamship was once the grandest ocean liner in the world. She’s now docked at Long Beach and acts as a hotel and entertainment venue.

At Halloween, the old girl comes into her own, decked out with multiple murderous mazes and a voodoo village for its Dark Harbour theme nights.

There’s also B340. Organisers say: “On a 1948 Atlantic voyage, third-class Queen Mary passenger Samuel was locked away in room B340 after a violent outburst.

“After hours of isolation, the crew found Samuel in his room, violently ripped apart. B340 is a new maze through Samuel the Savage’s schizophrenic journey of isolated descent into insanity. Samuel is on the loose, he’s dangerous and completely out of his mind.”

Once you’ve escaped his clutches, refuel at the ‘Monster Midway’ where “guests, zombies, food and entertainment intertwine”. Tickets start at €15.

Where to stay: Rooms aboard cost around €94 at the end of October (www.queenmary.com).

Getting there: Flights from Malta to Los Angeles cost around €900 with Turkish Airlines at the end of October (www.kayak.com).

Mexico: Dia de los Muertos

Where to go: Most major cities but particularly Patzcuaro and Mexico City
Dates: October 31 to November 2

As the name suggests, this ancient festival honours the dead in true Mexican style with parades, traditional food, mariachi music and sugar skulls all washed down with tequila.

This is a very ancient festival which has evolved over time. It’s thought that the Aztecs believed the innumerable monarch butterflies returning to Mexico’s fir trees in the autumn carried the spirits of the dead.

Friends and families place the favourite food and drink of their loved ones on small alters, sometimes with a basin and towel for the dead to freshen up prior to feasting. Dressing as a skeleton is de rigeur. On November 2, relatives gather at the graveside to have a picnic and reminisce about the deceased.

At Lake Patzcuaro, the town holds an all-night vigil. The altars are covered with marigolds, candles and fruit and crowds of people come to observe.

Mexico City puts up huge papier-mâché skeletons, called calaca at the Museo Dolores Olmedo and vigils are held in the cemeteries.

Where to stay: Hostels in Mexico City start at €5 and a guest-house in Pátz-cuaro is €8 a room. www.agoda.com.

How to get there: Flights to Mexico City cur- rently cost €1,191 with Lufthansa in October. (www.kayak.com).

 

 

 

Ireland:The Curious Carnival of Lost Souls

Where: Derry, Northern Ireland
Date: October 31

The Celtic festival of Samhain is alive and well in Derry over Halloween.

Some 50,000 people come together for fireworks, a huge street parade and a costume ball.

The local council says: “A curious carnival rolls into town appearing as if from nowhere.

“All sorts of sights and sounds abound: acrobats and danc-ing troupes, carriages filled with curious folk, strange creatures and mysterious contraptions and all about, the clattering of bones as hundreds of souls dance their way into the darkness of All Hallows night.”

Costumes for the observers are just as important and the pubs might not serve you if you aren’t wearing one.

Traditional Irish food is much is evidence. Try the barmbrack, an Irish fruitcake baked with coins and rings.

The superstitious say that if a woman finds a ring in her barmbrack, she will be married by the next Halloween.

Where to stay: A double room at the Hatmore B&B costs €44, including breakfast. (www.booking.com)

How to get there: Flights are tricky to find. Flying via London is probably the best bet.

Korea: Chusok

Where to go: All over; people leave the cities for their hometowns.
Dates: September 27

Chusok is a three-day Korean harvest holiday that honours the dead. Families return to their ancestral villages to give thanks to those who came before them and to celebrate the harvest.

They clean graves and make offerings of rice and fruits. Food is key, with traditional feasts being prepared. Dishes include songpyeon, a rice cake kneaded to the size of a golf ball and stuffed with sesame seed, chestnuts or beans then steamed with pine needles. The family will get together to make them.

Circle dances called sanggangsullae are held and there may also be ssireum (Korean wrestling). People buy new clothes and some may still wear traditional Korean dress.

The festival is well observed in South Korea, but in North Korea the poor infrastructure and poverty make it hard for many to keep up the tradition.

Where to stay: The Mercure Seoul Ambassador Gangnam Sodowe costs €91 per night.

How to get there: Lufthansa has a flight from Malta to Seoul for €920 in September.

Thailand: Bangkok

Where to go: Silom Soi 4 Street Halloween Party
Dates: October 31

Bangkok has started to go all out for Halloween and nowhere does it better than the party street, Silom Soi 4.

Clubs, bars and restaurants decorate and their staff dress up. There’s a costume contest too. You don’t have to participate, but go anyway for the people watching.

The Khao San Road, haunted by backpackers at the best of times, also goes crazy at Halloween with live music revving up the freaks well past their bedtime.

Where to stay: The five-star Eastin Grand Hotel Sathorn costs just €71 per room with Travelocity.

How to get there: Flights from Malta with Turkish Airlines cost around €830 with www.kayak.com in October.

China: The Hungry Ghost Festival

Where to go: Hong Kong
Date: August 28, 2015

The Chinese believe that in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, restless spirits will return to roam the earth, requiring sustenance from the living.

Some say the gates of hell are meant to open during this time; or that those who met a violent end and have no children will return for revenge.

The origins of the festival are similar to Halloween, connecting with the Chinese tradition of venerating their ancestors.

It’s a great time to visit Hong Kong and see people in the city appeasing the ghosts by making roadside fires to burn money from the bank of hell and providing food for the dead too (main meals will be eaten after the offering, but rice, peanuts and fruit will be left out on the street).

People tend to avoid water as they believe that the spirits might pull them under.

Chinese opera plays a big part in the celebrations. Try the King George V Memorial Park in Kowloon, the Morton Terrace Playground in Causeway Bay or the Hill Road Flyover where locals will gather before the matsheds (bamboo stages) to listen to the music.

Where to stay: Hao’s Inn costs around €44 a night. It has a great location outside the MTR station, six minutes away from the airport but close to Victoria Bay and the Avenue of Stars with Kowloon Park right across the street.

How to get there: Flights from Malta to Hong Kong with Priceline in August 2015 cost around €875 with Etihad Airways. (www.priceline.com)

Japan: The Obon festival

Where to go: Kyoto’s Daimonji Gozan Okuribi Fire Festival or the Awa Odori Festival in Shikoku Island
Dates: July 15 or August 15 (depending on location)

The Obon festival is an ancient Buddhist holiday, mainly celebrated in Japan.

It lasts for three days and involves visiting and looking after the graves of ancestors, making offerings of food at the altar. Buddhists believe that the spirits of the ancestors do return during Obon.

Probably the most notable part of the festival for visitors is the bon odori. Beneath red lanterns, people dance in a circle, an endless whirl of circular movement that honours the dead.

Candles are also placed in lanterns and floated on rivers or the sea and a fire is lit every night to remind the ancestors where their family are.

In rural communities, they also sweep the path from the grave to the home and do a “summer clean”.

Food is offered and some people might ask a priest to chant for their dead. Kyoto’s Daimonji Gozan Okuribi Fire Festival is one of the most famous Obon festival in Japan. Bonfires are set up in the shape of letters on the mountainsides and burnt one after the other, creating an impressive visual display.

Or try Shikoku Island; the dance performed here has been passed down from 1578.

If you want to join in, you can take some lessons and then become one of the “drop in” dancers.

Where to stay: Booking.com has central Kyoto hotels from €57 a night (location revealed when you book). www.kayak.com offers the APA Hotel Marugame-Ekimaeodori for €40 a room in July.

How to get there: Flights with Alitalia to Tokyo cost €780 in July with www.skyscanner.net.