How can you capture the essence of nature’s cycles of death and rebirth in your Halloween celebrations? Halloween traditions have origins in the Celtic festival of Samhain, marking the end of the harvest season and the arrival of winter. This time of year was believed to be when the world of the living and the dead were in close proximity, allowing the dead to visit the living and encouraging those who had passed to say their final goodbyes (Mark & Macwagen, 2022). In nature, we find countless examples of the boundaries between life and death marvelously blurred. These natural phenomena, where life and death intersect, offer rich sources of costume inspiration and a deep appreciation for the perfect chaos of nature's balance, inviting us to explore the bridges between the living and the dead in our Halloween celebrations.

Dead wood Stump

Consider embodying a ghostly tree, whispering encouragement to the forest as it prepares for new growth. Dead wood is an essential component of the forest ecosystem, serving as a hauntingly beautiful reminder of life after death. Hollowed-out logs offer safe passage for small mammals hiding from predators, while standing snags provide prime cavities for owls and other cavity-nesting birds. Fallen trees feed beetles and other decomposers, provide nutrient-rich sprouting grounds for mushrooms, and return carbon and other essential nutrients to the soil as they decompose. These skeletal trees leave a ghostly legacy, transforming death into a setting for life.

Monarchs

Every October, Monarch butterflies arrive in the state of Michoacán after an arduous journey south from the Midwest of North America, seeking a place to overwinter. In celebration of Día de los Muertos, towns are adorned with marigolds, whose sweet scent attracts the Monarch butterflies. In the Purépecha culture the butterflies are believed to be the souls of the dead returning to visit the living, embodying the mystical connection between life and death.

Make your mummy even scarier by inventing a chilling backstory. Some parasitoid wasps use aphids as hosts, with a result that is both eerie and beneficial. The wasp deposits its eggs inside the aphid, and as the larvae develop, they feed internally on the aphid's body. When the wasps reach adulthood, they exit the aphid’s body through a round hole, leaving behind what is known as an aphid mummy (Parasitoid Wasps, n.d.). This gruesome process benefits the ecosystem by controlling insect pest populations and protecting plants and crops. Just as Halloween celebrates the spooky and macabre, these wasps perform their own natural horror story, ultimately supporting a healthier environment.

Aphid mummy

You could put a creative spin on another classic by becoming a headless grasshopper zombie.  Zombies exist in nature, as exemplified by fungal genus Entomophthora, which takes over the bodies of insects (Elya & De Fine Licht, 2021). If you take a walk up Meadow Mountain in Minturn, look out for grasshoppers clinging to the tops of tall grasses. Their bodies are puppeteered by a fungus that takes over their organs and governs their every movement. The infected grasshoppers are directed by the fungus to climb higher and higher and to grasp on tight to the tops of the grass. The fungus eventually overwhelms their organs and kills the grasshopper. After they die, parts of their bodies drop off from high up on the grass, spreading fungal spores as they fall and hit the earth’s floor. This strange method of reproduction through zombification prevents grasshopper populations from overwhelming their environment, maintaining balance in the ecosystem and allowing plants that these grasshoppers feed on to flourish.

As you celebrate this October, stay attuned to nature's transitions and the ways in which the end of one life seamlessly paves the way for the continuation of another. Embrace these natural themes to inspire costumes that reflect the profound and enduring connection between life and death.

Sources

Elya, C., & De Fine Licht, H. H. (2021). The genus Entomophthora: bringing the insect destroyers into the twenty-first century. IMA Fungus, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43008-021-00084-w

Mark, J. J., & Macwagen. (2022). History of Halloween. World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1456/history-of-halloween/

Parasitoid wasps. (n.d.). Colorado State University. https://agsci.colostate.edu/agbio/ipm-pests/parasitoid-wasps/

Marieke Dailey is a Naturalist at Walking Mountains. She once dressed up with her best friend as a three-headed monster for Halloween, scoring extra candy for the newspaper-stuffed head carried on a stick between them.