Whether it’s torchlit processions, folk dances or modernised pagan rituals, these events take ... dressed in menacing hand-carved, animalistic masks, fur suits and belts tied with bells.

who refused to let Christian beliefs get in the way of their pagan rituals. Today the Tschäggätta come alive through their masks – each one a unique expression of the wildest, and in some ...

Rather than jack-o’-lanterns, it’s linked to Karaboshka masks, the great literature of the Romantic ... That’s the core of Dziady – originally a pagan folk ritual that got mixed with Biblical faith ...