On Halloween, be afraid, be very afraid ... but not really

Halloween hasn't truly arrived in China - not yet, anyway. Chinese people shy away from ghosts, which is unfortunate, because they're missing out on a lot of fun.

While the holiday traces its roots to pagan and Christian rituals honoring ancestors or cheering up departed spirits, it has long since lost those connotations - in the United States, at least.

It has become a playful excuse for turning the imagination loose and laughing at the macabre. Kids love it, and adults never seem to outgrow it. It's common in the US to find business offices decorated with cobwebs and graveyard headstones. Staff members dress up as witches, sorcerers or ghoulish creatures from the grave. And customers play along.