Happy Halloween Everyone!
I just posted this image in the image gallery:
Happy Halloween 2026 - Death is Nothing to Us!
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Happy Halloween!
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Halloween doesn't mean much to me, but my favorite line from the English subtitles of the 2010 remake of the samurai film 13 Assassins is relevant:
Wife: "When will you return?"
Shinzaemon: "Soon. But if I'm late... I'll be at the Festival of the Dead. -
Shinzaemon: "Soon. But if I'm late... I'll be at the Festival of the Dead.
I had to look that up...internet says: "The Festival of the Dead in Japan is known as Obon, a Buddhist celebration that honors deceased ancestors and is typically observed in mid-August. Families welcome the spirits of their ancestors back home, perform rituals, and conclude the festival by sending the spirits back to the afterlife with lanterns and bonfires."
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Sounds very similar to the Mexican Dia de los Muertos 🤔
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And among the Romans, an analogous festival was Parentalia, held in February in honor of family ancestors, culminating in the Feralia, when offerings were made to appease the spirits of the dead.
A second festival called Lemuria was held in May, for purging malevolent, restless, or vengeful spirits. These were the ghosts of those who were not given proper funeral rites by their families at death, or who had no families to bury them, and who thus could not make the journey to the underworld.
edit: Lucretius makes an oblique reference to Parentalia in Book 3: 31-58 with the word parentant: "to make a sacrifice in honor of the dead".
