anyone know how they celebrate Halloween in the 40k universe i was gonna make a mission involving the Menagerie with a mix of Nightmare Before Christmas

ThenDoctor said:

Hmmm. How do they celebrate Halloween in an Imperium that literally hunts down and kills most "Witches" and "Mutants" and in which "Demons" are a totally forbidden subject?

Answer: Very carefully.

In all seriousness, if you want to work something like Halloween into your game, do it through the indigenous planetary culture, as there is no such thing as a uniform or standard Imperial culture on all planets. There are Imperial influences, but things like holidays (to the extent they allow them at all) should vary widely from planet to planet. Personally, I'd do something like Dia de los Muertos (a/k/a Day of the Dead). Lots of death imagery in the Imperium of the Carrion God.

I've not a clue how they celebrate Halloween. Probably a witch hunt I won't be running any DH this halloween though. I tried a WFRP all nighter, played "Fear the Wurst" and my lack of a poker face ruined the whole story when 1 player refused to eat a sausage saying:
"I'm not eating that! It's probably human flesh!"

so i guess a pumpkin producing agri world would be ok...cool that helps i guess the Pumpkin Song will be sung MUWAHAHA (evil laugh because thats the ritual for the changing of faces)

Its the "Killawitch Day!"

Go by the mexican style of things for All Souls Day, where the planet recalls those all passed away and offer gifts to the spirits to appease them.

Failure to do so on a large scale, say when a high up ecclesiarchal confessor/witch hunter turns up, could lead to the spirits actually popping up and causing merry havoc...

ill take the mexican style but its not a lack of reverence, maybe an overzealous cleric falls to the menagerie and overdoes the usual rituals and pumpkins become daemons and the things people dress up as become them

ThenDoctor said:

Short answer: they don't celebrate halloween.

Long answer: many worlds in the Imperium have various special times which do bear a passing resemblance to the old American idea of Halloween.

On Solomon, there's the Thinin' Times which occur on the northern continents longest night. They are said to be the times when the spirit world and living world are closest, when one's loving dead will visit them in their dreams, and worse stirs in the shadows. Death Tieths are left for one's loving dead to appease them and show respect for them during such dangerous times. It's further believed by many that a particularly happy loving dead will surly put in a good word for their living relatives with the Emperor helping his benevolence to shine down upon them in the year to come.

Durring the Thinnin' Times, along many a boulevard and anywhere servitors are seen in the poorer parts of the hives, plates of meager food can be found lining the walkways as families leave artfully arranged and decorated food and treats to pay their teith to the dead. In more affluent portions of the hive, massive incredible displays of food and gift are arranged by rich gilders who seek to not only appease the dead, but also jockey for social status and position in the coming year by outdoing one another in their displays and offerings. When the food that is offered goes missing during the night, the family that left it can rest easy knowing that they will be looked upon favorably by the dead in the year to come while those whose food is still there when first sift comes can look forwards to a year of misfortune, illness, and death. And woe to the scamp who would think that the Death Tieths would make a good meal or quick snack for many are the tales told of someone who pilfered a Death Tieth only to be found horribly mutilated the next morning, the dead taking their tieth from the fools flesh. This, however, doesn't stop many a juvie from donning a disguise to fool the dead and absconding with a sugared treat or two from one of the offering plates, some motivated by hunger in the poorer districts while others are under pressure to prove their courage to their peers in the more affluent districts.

On Siculi, there's a legend told around harvest time, a tale of the world when the sector was but a black expanse blind to the Emperor's Light. The first year after the purification of the Tephaine system, the few settlers of Siculi were besieged by the mad, twisted, and blasphemous former inhabitants of the planet who had hidden from the purging fire and bolt of the crusade's forces. It took little time for these sad remnants of a once large and blasphemous empire to take control of the few brave settlers that had been left on the less then pacified world, and while they vested upon those poor settlers horrors no man should even know, those same settlers fought back the only way they could, they became the monsters monsters would fear.

In the dark of night, the settlers would strike out against their oppressors while disguised in horrid masks and paint in a desperate kind of psychological warfare. They skillfully assassinated key individuals wile leaving other witnesses alive to tell the tale. Rapidly, overblown stories began circulating through the maddened and corrupted minds of the original inhabitants of horrid monsters brought by the invaders, of a hungering darkness and daemons made free. The monsters that had tried to subjugate the Imperial settlers soon found themselves attacking shadows, seeing enemies were there were none but not seeing the ones that were right in front of them, and trembling in the night, fearing the new monsters that hunted them. In a year's time, the settlers had hunted the blasphemous Siculi to the last man, and, on a night when the wind suddenly grew cold and icy, the final original Sculi was burned in a magnificent pyre that could be seen for miles around.

To this day, the citizens of Siculi remember their heritage and the cunning bravery of the settlers with a week long harvest celebration. Children will dress in the most frighting mask and paint that they can fashion and do battle with one another wielding wooden chainswords while being rewarded for their bravery and piety in the form of freshly baked treats from the harvest and candied macolli in the form of an Aquila. On the final night of the Harvist Time, a massive effegy is burned in every town along the Harvest Lines with the largest buring just outside the capital city, an effegy that takes nearly the entier year to construct and one that sends the purifying fires high into the clouds. All masks and disguises are tossed into the fire as it burns and hyms are sung for on that night 1500 years ago, the Will of the Emperor through the pious settlers killed the last monster and none were needed nor seen ever after and any monster one harbors within their soul should be burned on that day as well, never to be recalled nor summoned again.

On Malfi, there is the Season of Vendetta, a trying and dangerous week in which it is said that the spirits of the dead shall break through the barrier between worlds to seek revenge on those who had wronged them in life. In order to avoid vengeance from beyond the grave, Malfians will disguise themselves, though never as someone else on Malfi for to do so would surly bring the vengeance meant for that individual down upon whom ever was foolish enough to dress like them. Of course, some individuals who seek to make a statement about a rival or someone they hold in disdain might actually tempt fate (or, more likely the one they mock) by dressing as that individual effectively stating that such a person is so powerless and ineffectual as to have never been in a position to anger or wrong anyone at all (a very hard thing to do on Malfi).

As the name would suggest, the Season of Vendetta is one of the bloodiest times on Malfi. While founded on superstition, the Malfians, who are never want to miss any opportunity to put a knife in a rivals back, have made it almost a tradition to clean out their hit lists through elaborate traps and ironic assassinations meant to invoke the idea that vengeance had come from beyond the grave. Many more seek this time to avenge fallen family members, donning disguises and masks made in the image of the fallen, while some truly dedicated will even undergo surgery to look like the fallen family member for who they wish to avenge. While most any time in the Malfian courts is an intoxicating mix of beauty, intrigue, and death, there is no equal to the strange sublime nature of the balls and parties that are thrown, the elaborate death traps that are conceived, and the assassinations that are carried out during this week.

wow...thats...what can i say thats quite a bit of useful information thank you, i think i might use the Siculi one change the planet to a pumpkin world and have a revelator cause a mass psycological hysteria with the old hunting ways hehehe