Joan­nah Bharose

When steel­pan rhythm meets the Hal­loween vibes, it al­ways cre­ates a stir around the USA. From shim­mer­ing masks to skele­ton swag, this is how you bring sweet pan to the spooky sea­son—with rhythm, style, and a whole lot of play­ful mis­chief. Tra­cy Thorn­ton of the renowned Pan Rocks made a few ap­pear­ances around North Car­oli­na in the last few days.

Hal­loween isn’t just about fright, it’s about fun, imag­i­na­tion, and be­com­ing what­ev­er mag­i­cal crea­ture your heart de­sires … even if it’s one that plays pan.

A lit­tle Hal­loween his­to­ry

Hal­loween traces its roots back over 2,000 years to the an­cient Celtic fes­ti­val of Samhain (pro­nounced “sow-in”). It marked the end of the har­vest and the be­gin­ning of the dark, cold­er half of the year.

The Celts be­lieved that on the night of Oc­to­ber 31, the bound­ary be­tween the liv­ing and the spir­it world grew thin, al­low­ing ghosts to wan­der the earth. To pro­tect them­selves, peo­ple lit bon­fires, wore masks and cos­tumes, and car­ried lanterns carved from turnips (the ear­li­est “jack-o’-lanterns”).

Over cen­turies, Samhain blend­ed with Chris­t­ian tra­di­tions like All Saints’ Day and even­tu­al­ly evolved in­to the mod­ern Hal­loween we know to­day—a cel­e­bra­tion of cos­tumes, can­dy, cre­ativ­i­ty, and a lit­tle play­ful spook­i­ness.