The Spirit Season: Asia–Pacific Ways of Remembering and Reverence
When October rolls in, a familiar chill shrouds the air, and it’s time to get spook-tacularly festive with jack-o’-lanterns, costumes, haunted house decorations, and ghost stories. When it comes to the Asia–Pacific region, the boundary between the living and the dead has long been a little less trick and a lot more treat — full of ritual, story, and language. From lantern-lit river crossings to hungry ghosts, from whispering winds to shooting stars, spirits come calling all year round — and Halloween is just one way we notice them.
Japan: Obon and the Ghosts with the Most
In Japan, August brings the major festival of Obon (お盆), a time for ancestors and families to reunite and spend time together. Families light lanterns (chōchin) to guide their loved ones home and release tōrō nagashi, floating lanterns to help them return. It’s a celebration that is warm, blending remembrance with joy.
The accompanying Bon odori dance reminds us that sometimes spirits are invited to the party — not to haunt the halls, but to waltz among the living.
China and Southeast Asia: Hungry Ghosts, Hungry Hearts
In Chinese-influenced cultures, the seventh lunar month opens the gates to wandering spirits. The Ghost Festival (中元节 Zhongyuan Jie) fills temples and streets with offerings, incense smoke, and even operas or puppet shows for spirits who might otherwise roam hungry.
Here, ghosts are guests of honour. The living feed them, bow to them, and ensure they leave contented.
Pacific Phantoms: Ancestors Always on Call
Across the Pacific, ancestral spirits never check out. In Polynesian cosmologies, atua and aitu inhabit the mountains, the waves, and the wind. Ceremonies honour them through chants, carvings, and dance — moments when humans step aside, letting spirits take centre stage.
In Fiji, a colonial-era building on Kadavu Island is said to host the spirit of a white man in the old courtroom, reminding visitors that ancestral and colonial histories often linger in unexpected ways. In Samoa, legendary spirits protect sacred sites, such as the women guarding the cave pool at Piula Theological College — showing that spirits aren’t always malevolent, but part of community and place.
Even the night sky carries messages: in the Torres Strait, meteors (maier) streak across the heavens, signalling transitions between the living and the dead. Across the islands, spirits are never far — their presence is woven into the land, the sea, and even the stars.
Closer to Home: Haunted Happenings in Canberra
You don’t need to cross oceans to meet a ghost. Even among Canberra’s neat avenues and leafy suburbs, history leaves a spectral footprint — a reminder that stories, old and eerie, are never far away. At the National Film and Sound Archive in Acton, shadows, cold spots, and mysterious footsteps are said to linger. The Air Disaster Memorial on Mount Ainslie marks a 1940 bomber crash, where flickering lights and ghostly whispers make the gum trees seem alive. Blundells Cottage, dating to the 1860s, hosts the lingering spirit of “Florrie Blundell,” who died tragically in a fire.
Lanterns and Lurkers: Listening Between the Shadows
Across the Asia–Pacific region, the season of spirits is as much about connection as it is about delightful spooks — connection between the living and the departed, the natural and the supernatural, the human and the cosmic.
So, this Halloween, when the winds whistle and shadows lurk and linger, pause and listen. Ghosts may not just haunt — they echo, they guide, and they remind us where we come from, sometimes with a lantern in hand and a gentle tap on the shoulder.
Happy Halloween!