Lily: A Halloween season tradition The tradition of protection from ghosts during October returns with Lily. Host a Ghost. Lily makes for a fun tradition and a powerful amulet against the evils of October... but, watch-out, if Lily isn't happy, or if you disrespect her, she will turn her hauntings towards you! October is the eeriest of all months for a reason. October culminates in what we now know as Halloween on October 31 and is celebrated in many cultures. Halloween's October 31 is also known as “All Hallows' Eve” in the United Kingdom and Ireland; “Día de Muertos” or Day of the Dead in Mexico and the Philippines. Halloween is believed to have originated as a Pagan holiday in Ireland, known as the Celtic Festival of Samhain, a day in which the souls of the dead return to visit their homes, while sinister forces roamed free through the night. In the spirit of ‘better the devil you know' people would invoke the help of equally sinister powers, like Lily, to keep unknown ghouls at bay. “Her name is Lily… Keep her on a short leash.” Protector or fiend? Angel or villain? Lily was made to ward off malevolent forces in October. Historians have tracked Lily's background to the early 1600s, and warding rights imported from Europe by the Dutch Colonists of Lower Manhattan. Handmade figurines like Lily were left out to frighten off local spirits and new world ghosts. Lily was made in the image of Countess Elizabeth Bàthory de Ecsed, a noblewoman imprisoned in the 1600s, referred to as the ‘Blood Countess' and ‘Countess Dracula'.