31/10/2025
Only few people know that in Czech/Slovak regions people also used to dress up in costumes on All Souls' Day and go around villages singing rhymes and carols. According to our ancestors, this was a time when the gates between the worlds of the living and the dead were open. Traditional costumes for this holiday included, for example, the grim reaper, a witch, a ghost, etc. However, children never dressed up in such masks here; it was always adults. Unfortunately, this tradition had almost disappeared by the beginning of the 20th century.
Even pumpkin carving is not only a recent phenomenon here. Also pumpkins were carved in the past, as evidenced, for example, in paintings by the artist Joža Uprka from the late 19th century from the Moravian Slovácko region. However, pumpkins were carved without eyes and teeth, only with an opening at the top, and served as lamps.
