Welcome to Brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.

Hey, Brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here.

A November 1st marks the Mexican holiday El Vía de los Muertos, or The Day of the Dead.

Although it's celebrated around the same time of the year as Halloween, and the two holidays

share an affinity for skulls and sweets, they're really very different.

A Halloween started as a pre-Christian Celtic festival called Saoen.

The Celts had an idea that the veil between the living and the dead grew thin around the

fall harvest, also the Celtic New Year, allowing ghosts and ghouls to slip in.

The Celts dressed up as monsters and goblins to scare off evil spirits and have a little

fun in the process.

A Wednesday Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century.

The church incorporated some of the pagan traditions of Saoen into All Hallows Eve, observed

October 31st.

The modern holiday of Halloween was first popularized in America by Irish immigrants, and developed

from there into the spookfest we know and love today.

A meanwhile, a version of The Day of the Dead existed in pre-Hispanic Mexico as far back

as 3,000 years ago.

By the 1500 CE and the reign of the Aztec Empire, this had become a massive festival dedicated

to the dead, that was held during the entire 9th month of the Aztec calendar, corresponding

roughly to late July, early August.

In Aztec mythology, the Underworld is ruled by Mktec Asua, the Lady of the Dead.

Her duty was to watch over the bones of past lives, which were also the source of new lives

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