Halloween

It's that time of year again: get ready for tricks, treats, costumes and appropriately-timed bonus podcasts.

Arising (temporarily) from their slumbers in the deepest depths of the carpet shop, your hair-raising hosts are here to guide you through the terrifying yet fascinating history of everyone's second-favourite over-commercialised holiday: halloween.

Did you know that the origins of halloween go back over a thousand years to an ancient pagan festival called Samhein? It was held every year on 1 November--about halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice--when the pagan's believed the barrier between the living and spirit worlds was at its weakest.

People would light fires, play tricks on each other, feast and drink copious amounts of alcohol. If this is all starting to sound a bit familiar, that would be because--despite some meddling from the Catholic Church in the middle ages--many of our halloween traditions have survived unscathed from those ancient times.

It's a graveyard smash, it'll catch on in a flash--that's right: it's the Gallimaufry Halloween Bonus Podcast!

Whether you're the ghost with the most or you just don't know jack-o-lantern, join nightmareish Nick and wailing Will as we dive head-first into the punch bowl of terrifying traditions and fearsome festivals that is halloween.

Have a ghoulishly good time and we'll be back soon for more hodgepodge history banter in Series 2.