Halloween

In 1733, as part of a plot to blow up a Protestant church, a group of Catholics claimed they were being terrorised by a poltergeist… or so the story went. (Illustration by Ben Jones for BBC History Magazine)

5 Georgian ghost hoaxes

This 1867 magazine illustration shows a group of children preparing for Halloween. (Photo by American Stock/Getty Images)

The origins of Halloween: tricks, treats and cobbled streets

A woman on a medieval ducking stool

Q&A Q&A: Were ducking stools ever used as punishment for crimes other than witchcraft during the Middle Ages?

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This 16th-century woodcut depicts King James VI at the North Berwick witch trials, the case that first sparked his obsession with hunting. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

James VI and I: the king who hunted witches . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Helen Duncan, a 20th-century medium and spiritualist, allegedly summoned spirits draped in ‘ectoplasm’ – organic matter emitted from her body. In the 1930s she was denounced as a fraud, and in 1944 prosecuted under the 1735 Witchcra Act, which forbade conjuring spirits. (Photo courtesy of Ashmolean Museum/University of London)

Conjuring up the dead: Helen Duncan and her ectoplasm spirits

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A depiction of a witch on a broomstick. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Quiz How much do you know about the history of Halloween? . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A view of the Reculver Towers, Reculver, England. (Photo by Loop Images/UIG via Getty Images)

8 of Britain’s most mysterious ruins

A view of a calander showing the date, Friday the 13th. (Photo by William C. Shrout/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

10 historical superstitions we carry on today

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In this painting from c1650, a witch wields a broomstick as demons and 'familiars' (helpers of witches) congregate before her. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

History quiz – witchcraft and superstition . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portrait of black cat – unlucky for some? (Photo by Getty Images)

Q&A Why are black cats unlucky?

Old Wardour Castle

Britain’s 7 most amazing ruins

An engraving from Ulrich Molitor’s ‘On witches and female soothsayers’, depicting witches bringing down the rain. Germany, 15th century. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

A spell-binding history of witches

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Professor Ronald Hutton © Jeni Nott

Witchcraft through the ages . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Woodcut of a meal shared at a witches' Sabbath. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Ronald Hutton on the Witch . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Detail from The Last Judgement, a fresco in the Sistine Chapel painted by the Italian Renaissance painter Michelangelo. The scene depicts the Second Coming of Christ and the final judgement of all humanity. (Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

Medieval zombies: how the walking dead haunted the Middle Ages