31 Days of Inspired Holidays: day 24: Taste

In my mind a good Holiday celebration appeals to and stimulates all senses. The sensory experience of a feast is a huge part of creating memories.
It is also the only way you can separate reality from movies and internet... those appeal only to eyes and ears. You can't feel the softness of a pretty afghan in a movie, you can't taste the delicious looking pie or smell the glorious flowers of a nice decorating photo on the Pinterest. You have to experience that in "real life".
This is very important and a big reason to why you should bother at least a bit and actually do SOMETHING to hallow the Sabbaths.

So, how to appeal and stimulate your sense of taste?

By food, of course. Food, drinks, sweets and snacks. Everything that we put in our mouth we taste.

Taste is not quite as straight forward as the other senses. Taste is more of a holistic experience. We can influence our taste experience by our thoughts. We all know that if we expect to taste something awful, we are most likely to experience the taste as absolutely awful. It's like asking a child to "just taste it, if you don't like it, you don't need to eat it!", and the kid tastes a little tiny bit of something with his/her face wrinkled, already prepared to refuse the food, and immediately when his/her tongue touches the food starts gagging and spitting and expressing in every possible way how disgusting the thing was. Whereas the reaction could have been quite different, if the child had tasted the new thing either without knowing it was there, without any expectations, or among peers who liked the food.
Also, we know that the looks of the food, the smell of the food, the feeling of the food in mouth, the texture, how "slimy" or "chewy" the food is, if there are bits of bone, shots or some such in the food, the sound of eating the food, all that influences the taste experience.

"Atmosphere, colors, aroma, texture and taste impact the sensory appeal of meals. Sounds, sights, smells, feelings and palates make up a total dining experience. Each of the five senses plays an important part in the eating experience."

So - you should really take care of all these things when planning the Samhain menu.

If you haven't got already menu traditions for Samhain, build it on the menu traditions of your family. (If your family doesn't have a menu tradition, or you don't like it, or it doesn't fit your values or for what ever reason, build a new traditions build on other menu traditions, for example Thanksgiving dinner, Pesach Seder or some other such big family dinner.

I know that "disgusting foods" is part of the modern Western Halloween traditions, but I think it would be better for a Samhain dinner to try to make the food look and sound as delicious as possible.

Put a little extra effort on decorating the dishes.
Easiest way is to use edible marigolds (Calendula Officinalis) - use only petals. Marigolds are symbolic to Day of the Dead festivities and they are called "the poor man's saffron". The taste can vary, but these flowers have taste, and they also dye the food yellow, like saffron and turmeric.
Nasturtiums are also very pretty and right color.

You could also carve vegetables, especially carrots. It's relatively easy to carve flowers of carrots.

The easiest way is though to add some fresh herbs. A sprig of parsley makes miracles.

No, not like this... this isn't easy :-D

But you don't need to bother this much :-D

This pinecone appetizer looks interesting, too.
You can use a piping bag to pipe your mash into pretty forms (or make ghosts...)
It's easy to create a "spiderweb" on your starter soup - I like it better like that, off center.
You can serve the stew from a pumpkin

Some other tips, hints and ideas about food:
- serve pickles and condiment sauces. That's a really easy way to add flavor and color to your dinner, and everyone may adjust the meal to their specific taste.
- Don't forget to make all the meals special, from breakfast and lunch to dinner and movie snacks
- watch the smell of cooking - see that you don't burn anything, but that there's a lovely, appetizing smell of food in the air
- warm the plates for warm dishes, cool them for cold dishes. That enhances the eating experience.
- don't throw away your work on letting people eat by the television. Take some time to dine together, and sit down.
- set the table. 
- you can have some nice, soft music in the background, if you want to.

Taste is linked to emotional states, and so it can alter mood and brand perception.

31 Days of Inspired Holidays: day 23: Smell

In my mind a good Holiday celebration appeals to and stimulates all senses. The sensory experience of a feast is a huge part of creating memories.

It is also the only way you can separate reality from movies and internet... those appeal only to eyes and ears. You can't feel the softness of a pretty afghan in a movie, you can't taste the delicious looking pie or smell the glorious flowers of a nice decorating photo on the Pinterest. You have to experience that in "real life".

This is very important and a big reason to why you should bother at least a bit and actually do SOMETHING to hallow the Sabbaths.

So, how to appeal and stimulate your sense of smell?

"Smell is the sense most linked to our emotional recollection. It can create instant connections between a brand and other memories. Neuromarketing studies show that 75% of emotions are triggered by smell. Smell is linked to pleasure and wellbeing, emotion and memory. We remember just 1% of what we touch, 2% of what we hear, 5% of what we see, 15% of what we taste and 35% of what we smell."

To me the smell of Samhain is obviously the pumpkin pie spices and gingerbread spices :-D
But also the smell of wet soil and dying leaves, the crisp frost in the wind, the smell of cold water by the lake... The hint of snow...

Other people think about caramel apples; pumpkin and other root vegetables (not that they have much scent); butter and brown sugar, maple sugar; acorns, almond and nuts; woody scents; smoke... naturally the traditional foods one prepares for Samhain.
Here's some "Halloween Scents"

Most Samhain insences are tree based.

Bay leaves - leaves of several laurels and myrtles.
Resin of benzoin tree
Oil of camphor laurel
Cedar, cypress, pine, sandalwood
Copal and Amber are both tree resins.
Eucalyptus leaves
Frankincense or olibanum, resin from Boswellia trees.
Myrrh is also a resin. These trees one gets insence are called "frankincense and myrrh trees" or "incense trees".
Mastic is a resin obtained from the mastic tree.
Ylang-Ylang is an aromatic oil from the cananga tree's flowers.

Frankly, I would add Juniper to the list.

Artemisia family (mugwort, sagewort, wormwood and tarragon) might be associated with Samhain because of their magical qualities, their association with Artemis or because of their bitter scent with wood-y character. Or because they have sort of wood-y stalks.

Heather is a plant that typically flowers late autumn (and has a wood-like stem)

Lavender is to me typical "old lady scent" (and also has a bit of wood-like stem.)

Yarrow, a wood-y stalked plant used in divination.

Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and allspice and/or cloves are pumpkin pie and gingerbread spices. In the German gingerbread spice, Lebkuchengewürz, there's also coriander, cardamon and mace, sometimes even aniseed and black pepper, and sometimes citrus scents, orange, lemon, bitter orange (pomerange) and bergamot, but I don't associate citrus to Samhain and autumn, as they get ripe in time to Yule and Imbolc, and also as they are - to me - symbols of sun and summer.
Cinnamon, nutmeg and mace, cloves, allspice and black pepper, are all spices that we get from trees.

31 Days of Inspired Holidays: day 22: Sound

In my mind a good Holiday celebration appeals to and stimulates all senses. The sensory experience of a feast is a huge part of creating memories.
It is also the only way you can separate reality from movies and internet... those appeal only to eyes and ears. You can't feel the softness of a pretty afghan in a movie, you can't taste the delicious looking pie or smell the glorious flowers of a nice decorating photo on the Pinterest. You have to experience that in "real life".
This is very important and a big reason to why you should bother at least a bit and actually do SOMETHING to hallow the Sabbaths.

So, how to appeal and stimulate your sense of sound? And what are the sounds of Samhain?

Sound is very important part of evoking emotions to influence experiences. In movies, sound is even more important than the visual impact. It's the film music and sound effects that color the scenes and make us feel what the film maker wants us to feel. The same scenes change mood by the sounds. If one plays melancholy music behind a love scene, we think it's the last time they see each other. If the music is scary, we are expecting to find out there's something fishy going on. Perhaps one of them is about to kill the other? If the music is epic, magnificent, symphonic, we read great passion in the relationship. If the music is cute and sweet, we smile...

I think it's interesting that I haven't found anything written about this specific subject. All holiday decoration and preparation out there on-line is very much about the classic details, more or less modernized, but not about what in the classics make them classics. Classic love songs are those that create a response and resonance in most of us, of love and being in love. Classic Christmas carols are those that create the response and resonance of Christmas and the values and traditions and wishes we have about it.

So - what are the values, traditions, event, activities, experiences and emotions you associate - or wish to associate - with Samhain? I believe quite a lot of Christmas carols are "traditional", because we want to be connected with our history and culture. I, at least, want the "folk art" connection. I like the German folklore themed Yule, and I know I'm not the only one, because Santa and Mrs. Santa both are dressed in German style folk costumes in Yule-y colors; red, white and green. All the elves are dressed in some sort of Renaissance Fair Yule style. So, my favorite Christmas carols are from time at least 200 years ago. I love Piae Cantiones. (Of course I have some favorites among the modern songs, but my favorite music is very "Pagan". You know, folk music, ethnorock, meditation music, Gothic songs, fantasy and fairytale film music, songs with Pagan theme etc. Here's 15 Pagan songs that are quite OK. If you want to emphasize the fact that Samhain is a Pagan holiday, you use Pagan music to do that.

Sound is a very powerful way to make memories and create Holiday spirit. I know myself that Yule doesn't feel right without the "right" music, my favorite carols. I have a playlist on my MP3 player for just Yule Spirit. :-D Now, there's tons of Christmas songs, but very few for Samhain, with the Pagan message. I have started collecting autumn songs and other songs that deliver the message I associate with Samhain, and I suggest you do the same.

You can listen to the Christmas music, and see how it is build. It's not rocket science to write new lyrics to old songs, and most Christmas music (at least the eldest) is folk tunes with new lyrics. The lyrics aren't especially advanced or great poetry, and mostly just repeating something about Jesus.  I'm not expecting that all Pagans become composers and poets just to get nice music that sets the correct mood, but, as I said, it's not rocket science, and "done is better than perfect". You don't need to write award winning songs and lyrics, just enough to have something that works for you. We really cannot expect that the Western popular culture, that builds on 1700 years of Christian spiritual monopoly, does that for us non-Christians. :-D

Also, one needs to remember that music is not the only auditory stimulant there is. Again, think about Yule.
Jinglebells? The mere sound of sleighbells makes you think of Yule.
What does snow sound? Not only the sound of snow under your steps, but I can hear snow fall. I bet you know exactly what I mean... I'm back in the forest at Yuletime, walking among the trees when the snow falls softly around... I can feel the crisp coldness, the moisture of frozen water, the silence, all voices muffled by snow, I can see the dark branches against the whiteness of snow and the grey, colorless sky... and I feel the winter and Yule.

So - the last day of Autumn, the first day of Winter... what is it like outside? What do you hear when you picture yourself walking in the forest on the first day of November.

Rustle of the leaves? You could always bring in some autumn leaves and sprinkle them on the floor. That way they would not only create the "walking in the autumn leaves" sound, but also the smell and touch, and even the visual effect.

You could also make your leaves of tinted vellum so that you can use them every year. Here's some free printable templates and instructions on how to make autumn leaf wreath and garland.

Here in Stockholm there might be snow already at that time of the year, but most likely it's very wet. It's also cold. It's frosty during the night, so the puddles have been frozen over during the night, so you might here that ice cracking.

How could you repeat that experience in a home?

You could put the punch bowl in the freezer for a while, to make it froze over.

You could make slush punch. If you make cola flavored jello, your punch will looks exactly like the snow slushy puddles of this season. :-D Here's a recipe to ghoul-ade

You could make candy ice. The "sugar glass" looks like clear ice, I think.

Broken Glass cupcakes
stained glass cookies - use clear or light blue candy for ice. If you make the cookie of meringue, you get a little block of ice in snow. If you make it of chocolate cookies, it looks a bit like frozen puddle. The thing is that you are after getting the auditory experience of ice crackling... so make the sugar glass very thin.
Sea glass candy

What about the wind and rain? Autumn storms? I think most songs about wind and rain are very suitable for Samhain. This is Kansas and Dust In The Wind - and I think the melody is so lovely melancholic and the message is very appropriate for this season. :-)

You could also, in stead of the moaning and howling of ghosts and other such sound effects, try to wind the wind whispering in the forest and other such sound effects.

Again, I want to repeat, that this just as everything else I say, is 100% on your terms. Don't do anything that doesn't get YOU to Holiday Mood.

31 Days of Inspired Holidays: day 21: Sight

In my mind a good Holiday celebration appeals to and stimulates all senses. The sensory experience of a feast is a huge part of creating memories.

It is also the only way you can separate reality from movies and internet... those appeal only to eyes and ears. You can't feel the softness of a pretty afghan in a movie, you can't taste the delicious looking pie or smell the glorious flowers of a nice decorating photo on the Pinterest. You have to experience that in "real life".

This is very important and a big reason to why you should bother at least a bit and actually do SOMETHING to hallow the Sabbaths.

So, how to appeal and stimulate your sense of sight?

That's really easy. By providing pleasant sights. :-D

How to do that?

Colors, shapes, symbols, structure, light and shadows, composition, balance, the Golden Ratio... all these things that concern good interior decoration and art.

Top 10 Painting Tips for Strong Composition

It might be unusual to think that when you decorate your home for Holidays, YOU ARE AN ARTIST. You are providing the visual impact to manipulate the emotions of the people visiting and living in your home, yourself included. I think this is important to understand. A room is a 3D-painting, in a way. You are inside the artwork and part of it. This is also the reason to why it matters to think about what you and your family are wearing.

Now, Holidays are passing moments, and the decoration needs to be easily changed by the change of seasons. It's always easier to do this with a "blank canvas" - if you have a home with neutral colors and unified style. The base, the furniture and the overall layout, all the permanent decor is to support this style and not fight it. I don't expect you to change your home all together for Samhain - or for any other of the Big Ones - but I want you to think about this and whenever it comes time to change something; a piece of furniture, or the layout of the home, you think about this and go for a solution that makes your home more yours AND easier to decorate for Holidays. :-D
[Yes, I know, I'm Sabbath Crazy :-D As if you didn't know that too, by now :-D]

If you are feeling in any way uncertain of what is your style, what is the "neutral" canvas for you, I suggest you go to Pinterest and start pinning two kinds of pictures. 1) The neutral, non-Holiday, non-seasonal interior design pictures and 2) Seasonal, holiday decorating pictures, that please you. You can review your boards as many times as necessary, and if you only find a couple of pleasing photos, that's fine. (Now, I'm Pinterest Mad, too, so I have more than 2 boards - more than 1 board for the general interior design and 8 boards for Holiday decorating... :-Z) The thing with that is that when you collect pictures that please you, you'll see your taste and style. This is the general interior design board of mine and this is my Samhain specific board. (Not only decorating, but other ideas and some photos that make me think of Samhain and late Autumn).
One can see with one glance that my style is colorful, bohemian, eccentric arts&crafts style. It's not very modern and clean, and I like having clutter around me. It's a bit baroque.
It's not as easy to see what I like in the Samhain board, as there are not only decorating ideas there, but I should have black, white and oranges, a lot of candles and lanterns, and bats in my home for the "perfect" visual impact to set me to mood for Samhain :-)

This, the visual impact, is one reason to why I talk so much about cleaning. I have a lot of stuff, and it looks easily cluttered and untidy, and that doesn't put anyone in the mood for party, on the contrary. That is depressing and stressful, and that is very much the opposite of what we are trying to achieve here. It's easier to be joyful and serene in a clean, uncluttered environment. Also, maybe we all can't buy all the materials and items needed to create the "perfect" holiday, but we all can clean and tidy up our environment. It's also totally OK to bring in some decoration from outside. If you can't afford any extra decoration, bring in the autumn leaves.

One of the most effective and somewhat affordable ways to decorate for Samhain - or any Holiday - is the textiles. It doesn't cost a lot to get a couple of decorative pillows, a blanket in right color, perhaps even change the curtains and table cloth. Have a Samhain "still life", decorate your altar, have a centerpiece on your dinnertable... something, just one little detail, a focal point, that makes you think about the Sabbath and its significance, is quite adequate. You don't need to go all crazy and decorate to max.

Another way to create the Holiday mood is lighting. The more lamps, candles and lanterns you have, the better. You could move a couple of lamps from other places in your apartment to your living room/entertaining area for the mood, if you can't buy more lamps. There is also easy and cheap ways to create new lampshades to create more seasonal decoration details. Also, don't forget color. A simple piece of tissue paper around a lamp or a silk scarf or piece of organdy over a lamp to change the color of the light is a very effective way of creating mood.

Read also this: 101 decorating secrets from top designers

Just remember what is the Sabbath's significance TO YOU. Don't go by what others want, think or feel. Use the Sabbath correspondence lists as advisory, not as musts or shoulds. If you disagree with something, it's OK. No-one can tell you what things and Holidays mean TO YOU. You need to find it out yourself. I would wish you had a Samhain spirit, a clear vision of what Samhain is all about, and that it was good things.

(Also, some people don't celebrate anything at this time of the year, and that's OK too. I know you don't need my approval, but sometimes it's nice to hear that other people think it's OK too :-D)

31 Days of Inspired Holidays: day 20: The Reason of the Season

I am organizing my Sabbath planners, and I came by some papers I had written some time ago.

We need our Holidays, and we need them evenly divided over the year.
As we work during the days and rest at night,
as we work during the week days and rest at weekends,
so should we also work for 6 1/2 weeks and rest for one week...
People, in every generation, in all cultures and continents, have noticed that this diviton; 86% work and 14% rest, works best. That way we won't get too tired to work nor to not work.

We need the Holidays to be able to rest and notice the passing of the seasons.
We need the Holidays to be able to work the rest of the time without getting burned out.
We need the Holidays to vent our emotions, aggressions and spirit of independence, to remember we are free and lords of ourselves, our feelings and thoughts.
We need the Holidays to get traditions and structure to our lives, an anchoring to the time, culture and society. To history and humankind.
We need the Holidays to get beauty, pleasure, joy and comfort to our lives and something to look forward to.
We need the Holidays to forget for a while all our troubles, worries and strife, our burdens and our misery, and to remember the joys, blessings and pleasures.
We need the Holidays to celebrate these felicities of our lives, to honor and glorify them, to enjoy of and to thank for.

We need the "props" and the settings; food, decorations and activities, to get us to the right mood, so that the Holiday fulfills its purpose.
Some people need a lot of persuasion, outright manipulation, brainwash, to let go of the everyday life, and the USonian holiday movies are very effective at creating the "need". They appeal to our emotions, engage us, and remind us of the good things in life. Watch some of these movies to see what it is they do and how they manipulate our minds.
Unfortunately, if the manipulation is so rough and blunt it can't be ignored, it has the exact opposite effect. We don't want to be manipulated, we don't want to be emotionally blackmailed and forced to feel. We don't want the "holiday message" pushed to our faced and expected to enjoy things just because "it's Christmas!". It gets very uncomfortable and unpleasant, and both those feelings are not what one should feel at Holiday time. One should WANT to celebrate the Sabbaths, not feel FORCED to celebrate them.
Also, these holiday movies and heavy manipulation of our emotions and minds creates a perfect, flawless holiday fantasy, which in turn creates expectations and stress, and that too is counteracting the true purpose of holidays.
So what we need is inspiration, not manipulation.

We also need to follow the seasons and adjust the holidays to the nature, our environments, culture and lifestyle, to our ideology, lifestance and world view. The holidays should strengthen our values. That is the only way we can avoid that the celebration becomes too much, unnatural, unrealistic, complicated, expensive, incomprehensible burden, mere expectation, uncomfortable, stressful and difficult to organize. If we build the holiday on our values and thoughts, the reasons to celebrate are clear, the traditions are practical and sensible and every part of the holiday; food, decoration, entertainment, activities, enhance the good in life.

This is why we need to remember the "reason for the season", focus on the message, the meaning and purpose of the holiday, the symbolism, the cause, and build the holiday structure, traditions and routines on that core.

This is very important to me. 

This is Samhain altar by "katt343"

It looks like a really nice table setting for a "dumb supper", 

except that I would have ironed that tablecloth... >:->

I don't much care if (or why) Christians celebrate Christmas or not, it's 100% their business and none of mine, but I care very much when Christians try to force their values to the Pagan Yule ("Jesus is the reason for the season" and "war on Christmas"), or when they kidnap Jewish holidays and infuse them with their own symbolism, which is very foreign to the Jewish mindset. ("Jesus is the Hanukkah Light of the World", "Jesus is the sacrificial lamb of Pesach"). What ever you believe about Jesus, Christianity is very much younger religion than both Paganism and Judaism, and if you celebrate Pagan or Jewish holidays, you don't start claiming Jesus has anything to do with those celebrations n their original shape and religion, the time of those celebrations, the symbols of those feasts or the reasons of those celebrations. Midwinter Feast IS 100% Pagan holiday. Celebrate Christmas, if you wish, celebrate the birth of your God at Midwinter, like the Pagans do, if you wish, it's as good a date as any, but DON'T EVEN THINK OF CLAIMING JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON. He's not, and you should know better. Don't mix your religious myths with history of religion and anthropology. Know where your TRADITIONS come. 

It's OK to "steal, adopt and borrow" any tradition from any culture and adjust it to your own lifestyle. I have taken much from the Finnish Christian culture, because that is the culture I grew up in, and the symbolism is there. I do share a lot of the values of Finnish Christians, even when I don't share their religious views. Values and ethics have no religion.

Now I have ranted enough. :-D

31 Days of Inspired Holidays: day 19: Desserts

I like eating soups in Autumn. In my home soups are not quick meals, but they take care of themselves. If there's not enough fluids, the soup becomes a stew, and that's good too, though I like it less than soups. With soup I like to have buttered bread, usually black Scandinavian rye. (I'm Finnish, my husband is Danish, we are both people raised with black rye. Unsweetened. The Swedes like a bit sweeter bread than the Finns and Danes, and back in the 90's it wasn't easy to find unsweetened black rye in Sweden. The situation is much better now.)



What I think suits well as dessert for a bowl of hot soup, is something baked. Like pies and cakes. My husband loves sauce (like most Libras do, have you noticed?) and he wants sauce with cake, too. Frosting is adequate, some glaze, or just whipped cream, but some sort of sauce he must have :-)
Chocolate and coffee (mocca) is also great as Autumn dessert, with the rich brown color that goes so nicely with the Autumn leaves and bare tree branches and bare soil of Autumn.

Falling in Love dessert table from Jenny Cookies

I think crumble pie is a very nice Autumn dessert, with the rustic feel to it. It's really good eaten with a good vanilla custard or ice cream, perhaps a light dusting of cinnamon, to finish the dessert plate.

 Fall Dessert Table from Elizabeth Anne Designs

Also try this sticky toffee pudding without dates - or with dates, as it's usually made - it's delicious both ways.

Sandra Downie French Country Fall Dessert Table

Another thing that to me belongs to Autumn are nuts and almonds. Try this walnut crust for your pies. You can use any nuts to make that paleo pie crust.

And of course "pumpkin pie spices" - gingerbread spices... cinnamon, allspice, gloves, nutmeg, ginger, cardamon... this chocolate pumpkin cheesecake combines about everything about Autumn into one delicious treat. This roasted pumpkin spice cake doesn't sound bad either :-)

 Country Living's dessert table. 

I love that aqua pedstal in the middle of all the brown and orange shades... 

such a nice contrasting color click!

Here's a very nice article about "holiday open house" - and the dessert table.  That would not be a bad idea for Samhain. Perhaps a combined "open house" and "mute dinner"?

For cookies, you could try this pecan shortbread with chocolate drizzle.

Very nice fall dessert recipes

Now... to me lemons and oranges have absolutely nothing to do with this time of the year. Cranberries and lingonberries are there to provide the tartness, if that's what you desire. You could try a cranberry meringue pie. [Replace cranberries with lingonberries, if you life in Scandinavia ;-)]

31 Days of Inspired Holidays: day 18: Family Devotion

My husband and I have a devotion every morning and evening. We discuss about our plans for the day in the morning, and about how our day was in the evening. We talk about other things, too, and do some other things, and end it with a prayer and a kiss.

Yes, I know, sounds like Christianity, and neither of us is Christian, but God, prayer, devotion and spirituality is not Christian. (Or Christian only, I suppose I should say.)

Now, I'm going to talk about family devotion time and kids' activities, even though we don't have children. [If we did, they would be included to this. My husband would also bless our children at every Shabat, just like he reads the "A woman of valor" to me every Shabat :-) (And even though I am not Jewish, it's me who lights the Shabat candles and bless his G-d, and I bake the Challah.)]

I started this blog to increase the spiritual aspect of Paganity, and the connection with God. (Or Gods, if you have more than one. I am such a rarity as monotheist Pagan, so my husband's and my spiritual views fit well together, even though there are some elementary differences, which make us a Jew and a Pagan :-))

The Church of  LDS have this "family home evening", and I think it's a great idea.
 
Songs and Stories for Samhain

recipe for a soul cake :-)

Family Halloween activities - sounds great :-) Though I miss the spiritual part of Samhain.
Halloween shouldn't be about scary things only. Vampires, mummies and zombies don't even really belong to this time of the year... because the scary "monsters" and ghosts of Samhain are part of the borders being open at this time of the year, so the spirits of ancestors (= ghosts) and lifeforms from other dimensions and worlds (= monsters) were being perceived, experienced, sensed... it's not about the monsters of this world, like fully human serial killers or corps.
On the other hand... part of our modern culture is to put all the monsters to live in "their world", like in "Addams Family", "Halloween Town" or "Hotel Transylvania".
Who am I to say that a mummy isn't someone's forefather coming to visit their descendants?
Also, I believe all the alien stories are today's version of all the fairy stories of olden age. (That's also something to discuss...)