By Lisa Morton. McFarland, 2011. 103 photos. Appendices, bibliography, index. 263 pages, soft cover. Second Edition. $75. Orders: www.mcfarlandpub.com or 800-253-2187.
If you’ve been getting the most out of Halloween, you’ve never given much thought to how so many of its customs and icons came to be associated with the holiday. You’ve just been having fun.
Halloween has a more complex and colorful history than you ever imagined. You’ll be more fascinated with it than ever if you learn all about it. You know it has its roots in ancient times, but are you aware just how far back it goes? Farther than you can imagine. And its elements came from an amazing variety of cultures throughout the world. No other holidays have a more colorful legacy. Today, it is celebrated throughout most of the world in ways that are playful, reverent, and gravely serious. Probably no other holiday has a greater variety of ways to celebrate it.
Take a look at the Halloween decorations around you. Think back to how you’ve celebrated it. Do you know the historic significance of scarecrows, jack-0-lanterns, trick or treating, even something as minor as candy corn?
Whether you’re just curious or need to do some serious research, Lisa Morton’s second edition of her Halloween Encyclopedia, the first ever for the holiday, is a treat you should give yourself this year.
Oh, yes, there’s more than enough information to fill an encyclopedia.
Lisa Morton examines the histories of games and pranks, candy and foods, customs, symbols, paper ephemera, masks, fortune-telling methods, Halloween characters (witches, fairies, ghosts, etc.), superstitions, folk art, websites, crimes, urban legends, notable Halloween attractions (corn maizes, community haunted houses, tours, pageants) and collectibles. And more. She also covers related holidays, such as Britain’s Guy Fawkes Day, Mexico’s Dia de los Meurtos (Day of the Dead), and the Celtic celebration Samhain.
Something we at Fielding’s Review always look forward to in every McFarland book is its inclusion of concise appendices and chronologies. This new edition features a chronology of Halloween and another looking at Halloween in literature and the arts.
This second edition has more than fifty new entries, a revised bibliography, and more illustrations.
Each year, Halloween is a billion-dollar business, as much fun for adults as it is for children. You don’t have to feel guilty if you don’t celebrate it. There are no gifts to buy, no guilt to feel if you don’t want to make contact with family or friends. Just have fun. That’s what we experienced reading through this book. That, and nostalgia. Can’t wait for the day to get here now!
