If a friend seems to be immune to your spooky, ghost story this Halloween, ask them if they can see the story unfold in their mind’s eye.
Whatever costume you wear, put on your ‘sorting hat’ after trick-or-treating to help children lay the foundation for higher-level mathematics.
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Today viewers may be preoccupied by the methods used by spirit photographers, but spirit photographs had a notable impact on the bereaved who commissioned the portraits.
Death waits for no man – and pandemics drive the point home.
Pieter Brueghel the Elder: 'The Triumph of Death'
Halloween, with its mix of the macabre and the playful, provides a moment to reflect on how closely life and death are interwoven – especially in the COVID era.
Northern European folklore had different ways of referring to distant lights known to spontaneously appear on peatlands, including will-o’-the-wisp, and the more familiar jack-o’-lantern.
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Peatlands have been central to how northern European folklore has explored fear and a sense of the supernatural for hundreds of years. Their persistence is also key to slowing down climate change.
The ‘Malleus Maleficarum,’ a medieval handbook, was used to try and execute supposed witches. Its influence lasted for centuries – including at the Salem Witch Trials.
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Samhain will be particularly poignant this year for Wiccans who are members or veterans of the US military as they process the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan.
Perfumes, potions and witches have been entwined for centuries.
Frederick Stuart Church/Smithsonian American Art Museum/Wikimedia Commons
The role of witches in society relates directly to the role of women in society. And during times of social upheaval and changes, witches represent access to women’s power.
Witch-identified folks are sharing spells online in an act of magical resistance in advance of the U.S. election.
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As the U.S. election approaches, various groups have mobilized to vote. But witches have taken it a little further, organizing online spellcasting meet-ups to engage in magical resistance.
A home in New York decorated for 2020 Halloween.
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For members of the minority religion of Wicca and witchcraft – part of contemporary paganism – Halloween is not just a children’s holiday: It is both a celebration and acceptance of death.