Folklore

Festivals, legends and the stories behind the calendar, from Samhain and Saturnalia to Santa Claus, sorted into what is ancient and what was invented later.

• The Wild Hunt: Europe's Ghostly Riders of the Night From Peterborough to Bohemia, people heard a spectral hunt pass overhead. Its famous name, and much of its shape, came from Jacob Grimm.
• Día de los Muertos: What Is Aztec and What Is Catholic Marigolds, sugar skulls, all-night vigils, La Catrina. Some come from the Aztecs, some from Catholic Europe, and historians still fight over which is which.
• Samhain: What We Actually Know About the Celtic New Year Samhain was real. The Celtic New Year and the pagan feast of the dead owe more to Victorian scholars than to any ancient record.