The History of Halloween from History.com

How Halloween Works from HowStuffWorks.com

Not Just Halloween: Festivals of the Dead from Around the World

The History of Halloween.  Skeptic, v7, i3 (1999): p97 (1).

Halloween in America: Contemporary Customs and Performances. By Jack Santino. Western Folklore, v42, n1 (Jan. 1983).

Spirits of Halloween. Early American Life, v33, i5 (Oct. 2002): p46(4). A history of Halloween focusing on decorations.

Uncanny Archaeology Archaeology Magazine Online Feature, October 29, 2009. A look at the archaeology of Halloween, witches and witchcraft, creatures of the night, and ancient curses and magic.

Why We Carve Pumpkins, Not Turnips from LiveScience.com, October 29, 2009.

Halloween [American Memory Project]  
Primary sources (documents, interviews, etc.) reflecting the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of Halloween in different times. Archived by the Library of Congress.

Halloween: the Fantasy and Folklore of All Hallows. [American Folklife Center]

A Selected Bibliography on Halloween and Related Topics. [American Folklife Center]

In the Library:

“Halloween, All Saints’, and All Souls’ Days.” The Folklore of American Holidays / Gale Research, 1987, p309 – 317. (Reference 394.26 F719)

“Halloween.” The American Book of Days / 3rd edition. H.W. Wilson, 1978. p.968 – 977. (Reference 394.26 H281a 1978)

Urban Legends: Halloween [Snopes.com]

SPCP: Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Pumpkins

Zombie Nutritionist Recommends All-Brain Diet [The Onion]

The Booming Business of Halloween. By Moira Herbst. Business Week Online (October 26, 2006), p1(1p)

Halloween Facts for Features 2009: U.S. Census Bureau

The Kiplinger Monitor. Kiplinger's Personal Finance, v60, i10 (Oct. 2006), p26(1/2p)

Trick-Or-Treat Spending--Verrry Scarrry.  By Barbara Wickens, Maclean's, v116, i44 (Nov. 3, 2003) p. 62(1/4p)

All Hallow's Eve [AmericanCatholic.org]

All Saints' Day [Episcopal Church Center]

Halloween [Christian Broadcasting Network]

Halloween: From a Wiccan/Pagan Perspective [ReligiousTolerance.org]

Halloween: Trick or Treat? [SpiritWatch.org]

Halloween: What it is from A Christian Perspective [Believer's Web]

Hallowing Halloween: Why Christians should embrace the devilish holiday with gusto -- and laughter [Christianity Today]

The Horror, the horror: Halloween has grown into a big deal -- too big. By Meghan Cox Gurdon. National Review, v55, i21 (Nov. 10, 2003): pNA

Should Christians Celebrate Halloween? [Worldwide Church of God]

What the Public and Various Faith Groups Believe About Halloween [ReligiousTolerance.org]

What to do about Halloween Enough for Everyone: Halloween is Coming [Presbyterian Church of the United States]

In Mexico, the two days after Halloween -- All Souls and All Saints Days -- are traditionally celebrated as the Day of the Dead.

• The Day of the Dead [Britannica Online]
• Day of the Dead [Wikipedia]
• Iconography in Mexico's Day of the Dead: Origins and Meaning. By Stanley Brandes, Ethnohistory (Spring 1998) v45 i2, p181(38).
  Assesses the origin and meaning of artistic representations of death, specifically in the Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico.
• Mexicans' Ancient Tradition of Honoring Their Ancestors. By Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor (Nov. 20, 1996), v88 i249, p12(1)
  How modern day less secular Mexico is invading traditional practice of the Day of the Dead.
• The Bread of the Dead. By Robb Walsh, Natural History, (Nov. 1998), v107 i9, p66(4).
  Focuses on the roles that food plays in the Day of the Dead celebration.
• Recipes:
  • Pan de Muerto
  • Candy Skulls

Today the globalization of Mexican culture is causing conflict between the traditional celebration and Halloween.

• The Day of the Dead, Halloween, and the Quest for Mexican National Identity. By Stanley Brandes, The Journal of American Folklore (Autumn 1998) v111 n442, p359-380.
• Mexico, Haunted by New Ghosts. Economist, (Nov. 6, 1999), v353, i8144, p36 (1)
  Discusses the growth of an industry around Halloween in Mexico.

Videos:

• Day of the Dead - even though it's subtitled "trailer" it's not a trailer for the George Romero movie!
• Dia de Muertos UAM-X - from the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Xochimilco, Mexico
• Mexico: the Day of the Dead Celebration - in Patzcuaro, Mexico
• Dia de los Muertos - Day of the Dead in Los Angeles, California
• El Dia de los Muertos - a street puppeteer's skeleton rocks out to Lucille

In the LSC Library:

• The Day of the Dead: a Latino celebration of family and life / Enslow Elementary, 2005. (Juvenile Collection 394.264 Gn)
• Everybody's ethnic [videorecording]: your invisible culture. Learning Seed, 2001. (Audio Visual Media Collection Q Video 306 Ev277)
  "Helps viewers hold a mirror to their own culture" (container). Includes footage of Mexico's Day of the Dead celebration, a Balinese funeral, street life in New Delhi, and compares these to cultural norms in modern American society.
• The skeleton at the feast: the Day of the Dead in Mexico / Univ. of Texas Press, 1992. (394.26828 C212s).
• Under the volcano [videorecording] / MCA Home Video, 1985. (Audio Visual Media Collection Video 791.4372 Drama Un21)
  Based on Malcolm Lowry's novel, this production, shot on location in Mexico, follows the three protagonists as they head toward a grim meeting with fate on the holiday known as "Day of the Dead."

In other VSC Libraries: (You can request these titles in the VSC Online Catalog.)

• Calaveras [videorecording] / Dog's Life Productions, 1996.
• The Day of the Dead: when two worlds meet in Oaxaca / Berghaha Books, 2004.
• Days of death, days of life: ritual in the popular culture of Oaxaca / Columbia Univ. Press, 2006.
• Skulls to the living, bread to the dead: [the Day of the Dead in Mexico and beyond] / Blackwell Pub, 2005.

Adult Books

• Book of were-wolves: being an account of a terrible superstition. Originally published in 1865. (398.21 B239b)
• Cavalcade of goblins. (398.4 G171c)
• Classic ghost stories. (823.0872 C569d)
• Famous monster tales. (808.831 D273f)
• Great tales of madness and the macabre. (808.83873 G798)
• Great tales of terror and the supernatural. (808.831 W754g)
• Gothic tales of terror: classic horror stories from Great Britain, Europe, and the United States, 1765-1840. (808.83872 H127g)
• Great ghost stories of the world: the haunted omnibus. (808.83 L144g)
• In search of Dracula: the history of Dracula and vampires. (809.93351 M232 1994)
• A Lycanthropy reader: werewolves in Western culture. (398.469 L981)
• Night battles: witchcraft and agrarian cults in the 16th and 17th centuries. (398.41 G435n 1992)
• Oxford book of English ghost stories. (823.0872 Ox2)
• Persuasions of the witch’s craft: ritual magic in contemporary England. (133.430942 L968p 1991)
• Spellcasters: witches and witchcraft in history, folklore, and popular culture. (133.4309 B281s)
• The Spiritualists: the passion for the occult in the 19th and 20th centuries. (133.9 B734s)
• Three supernatural novels of the Victorian period. (823.0872 T413)
• The vampire: a casebook. (398.45 V257)
• Vampires werewolves and demons: 20th century reports in the psychiatric literature. (616.89 V257)
• The werewolf. Originally published in1933. (398.21 Su64w)
• Victorian ghost stories: an Oxford anthology. (823.0873 V666)

Children's Books

• Beware the Brindlebeast. (Juvenile collection E Ri)
• The Bone Man. (Juvenile collection J 398.2 Si)
• The Buried Moon. (Juvenile collection J 398.2 Wa)
• By the Light of the Halloween Moon. (Juvenile collection E St)
• Child of Faerie, Child of Earth (Juvenile collection E Yo)
• The dancing skeleton. (Juvenile collection E De)
• The dark thirty. (Juvenile collection. J808.83 Ma)
• The Fearsome Inn. (Juvenile collection E Si)
• Ghost of Nicholas Greebe. (Juvenile collection E Jo)
• The Golem. (Juvenile collection J398.2 Wi )
• Halloween hoots and howls. (Juvenile collection J811 Ho)
• Headless horseman. (Juvenile collection E Ir)
• In a dark, dark room, and other scary stories. (Juvenile collection Sch)
• In the haunted house. (Juvenile collection E Bu)
• Legend of Sleepy Hollow. (Juvenile collection J Mo)
• The magic wood.(Juvenile collection E Tr)
• The man who tricked a ghost. (Juvenile collection E Ye)
• Night of the gargoyles. (Juvenile collection E Bu)
• Night terrors. (Juvenile collection J808.83 Ni)
• Oxford book of scary tales. (Juvenile collection J808.83 Pe)
• Pumpkin Jack (Juvenile collection E Hu)
• Save Halloween! (Juvenile collection J To)
• The sea witches. (Juvenile collection E Ro)
• Seven strange and ghostly tales. (Juvenile collection J 808.83 Ja)
• Short and shivery. (Juvenile collection J398.2 Sa)
• The spider and the fly. (Juvenile collection E Ho)
• The spooky book. (Juvenile collection E Pa)
• The widow’s broom. (Juvenile collection E Va)
• Witch Hazel. (Juvenile collection E Sch)
• Witches, pumpkins, and grinning ghosts: the story of Halloween symbols. (Juvenile collection J394.2683 Ba)