During All Souls’ Day in England, the poor, mostly children, went from door to door begging for food. Families baked and shared ’soul cakes’ with them 26 for their prayers for a dead relative – possibly the origin of trick-or-treating. The tradition of 27 costumes most likely originated from Christians who wore masks or costumes in order to conceal their identities. There is no evidence of Halloween celebrations 28 many Irish migrants fleeing from the Potato famine introduced it to Americans in the 19th century. 29 , it still remained mainly confined to the immigrant communities until it slowly assimilated into mainstream society in the early 1990’s. In the late 1800s, Halloween was transformed into a holiday focusing on community 30 ghosts and witchcraft, and ’frightening’ or ’grotesque’ elements were discouraged.

       Clubhouse is unlike any other app on the market. It allows users to create a room where they can invite others to participate in discussions. The chats are not done through text, but through audio. This way, everyone in the room can literally have a voice and participate in conversations with strangers. Clubhouse differs from other platforms in that the chat rooms are created with certain topics. These can range from the stock market to cooking to politics to…well, there is no limit. One difference, and major benefit, of Clubhouse is that the audio isn’t saved after it’s heard. People can chat without much fear of their opinions being recorded, shared, and saved on the Internet.

        People in China and Taiwan took advantage of that feature early in the app’s emerging popularity. It provided an opportunity for people in both countries to talk honestly and peacefully with each other. Some Chinese citizens seemed to express support for Taiwan, mentioning that their schools had forced them to learn only the Chinese side of Taiwan’s history. Many users wanted to know more about Taiwan, and people on both sides had a civil dialogue about their cultures and governments. The heartwarming chats ended soon after, though, when the Chinese authorities blocked the app.

        Elsewhere, politicians, such as South Korea’s prime minister, are beginning to use Clubhouse, believing it might one day become essential for keeping in touch with voters. If you’re interested in joining, be aware that you must be invited into the service by an existing user. The same was true for Facebook in its early days, so there is a chance that the invitation-only feature could be dropped in the future.

       As employers adapt to remote work, the biggest question facing them is what to do with their physical offices. Even before the pandemic, many employers had begun questioning the wisdom of open-plan offices, which became popular in the past two decades. With employees seated in close quarters side by side and sharing kitchens and break areas, the offices enabled constant distractions. Once the pandemic hit, they also proved potentially lethal. Now, many companies are questioning the worth of offices at all. Tech companies, including Twitter, Facebook and Shopify, have said they will let many employees work from home permanently. Pinterest paid $89.5 million to cancel a new planned office space in San Francisco, saying more of its employees were going to work remotely in the future. But going fully remote carries its own set of problems.

       New employees and those in search of mentorship will have a hard time at a company if they’ve never met their colleagues in person； if people can’t chat often with colleagues, they trust them less, according to a study from business school professors at Columbia and Northwestern Universities. Remote work can also deal a blow to employees’ mental health； when Ctrip, a Chinese company, let more than 100 employees work from home for four days a week starting in 2010, they were happy for three months, but within nine months, about half wanted to return to the office, according to a study.

       That’s why some business owners are still investing in offices； they are just building a different kind of office. John Sweeden, who runs a small software firm in Oklahoma, broke ground last month on a new office building on a 25-acre plot. The complex is on land that costs a whole lot less than real estate in a crowded city center. Though it’s an office space, much of it will be “a place where zero work gets done,” he says. There will be a large salon for socializing； employees will be encouraged to spend hours there, talking about anything.