There is more to the “dark season” than Halloween, as these traditional English rituals show.

There are men who carry flaming barrels of tar through a Devon village, folk who pour cider over apple tree roots and cross-dressing troupes who perform something called Soul Caking to ward off evil spirits.

There is also a village in Somerset called Hinton St George which has a tradition of pumpkin carving and night-time walks that sounds remarkably similar to the Halloween rituals we all know. [ . . . ]

Read More at: Halloween: England’s strange and ancient winter rituals – BBC News