Halloween postcards were produced during the golden age of picture postcards, roughly 1905 to 1915, when the medium was enormously popular in the United States. Historian Lisa Morton estimates that around 3,000 unique spooky designs were created in that period alone. Many of these cards helped standardise the holiday's imagery, from black cats and jack-o'-lanterns to witches' brooms. Others show games and rituals that have since faded, such as scrying in mirrors and bobbing for apples. Immigrants from the British Isles helped shape the American celebration as it took its modern form.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.