TITLE: Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween
AUTHOR: Lisa Morton
PUBLISHER: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 9781789141580
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Hilary Wilson
Ask many in America what their favorite holiday is and they will eagerly answer Halloween. The holiday, once believed to have been a Christianization of an early Celtic harvest festival and now more widely regarded as having liturgical roots, has come to be emblematic of the sheer joy of living. How did a holiday, once reserved for the remembrance of the dead and feasting before the coming of winter, come to be synonymous with fun frights, candy, and the begging practice of trick-or-treating?
Lisa Morton, in her book Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween, published in 2012 by Reaktion, casts light onto these questions and more. Morton’s enthusiasm for the holiday comes through in her vivid literary style, as does the depth of her research. From the outset she seeks to disabuse readers of the misconceptions that surround the history of the holiday, while also acknowledging how much previous scholarship did to make such misconceptions pervasive. Through detailing the scholarship, Morton shows just how much is yet to be done. Thankfully, the extensive notes and bibliography give anyone eager to begin work in the field a great deal of ideas to build upon.
This book is a delightful microcosm of history. Throughout the book there are pictures of various bits of artwork depicting the holiday, as well as an extensive array of memorabilia. Morton dives into nuances of Halloween such as why cats and pumpkins are so associated with the holiday, when fortune telling fell out of favor as a common Halloween party pastime, and just when and how the holiday came to be associated with frights rather than mischievous (and sometimes vandalous) pranks.
There are many interesting surprises in store for the reader. Who would have guessed that the omnipresent candy corn predates the practice of trick-or-treating by nearly a century? There are also many bits of speculation that are begging for more research to be done in the future. The history of Halloween and its failure to take off in Asian and South and Central American countries, for instance, is something that would be interesting to explore and was only lightly done within this text due to its relatively recent introduction to such countries. While only briefly touched upon in Trick or Treat, an entire book could be written on the history of haunted mazes, and books have been written about the collection of Halloween postcards and other assorted memorabilia.
Coming away from this book, it is clear what a joy Halloween has been to those who practice it. In the coming decades it is safe to say that Halloween will only continue to spread and grow throughout the world. It will be interesting to see what future writers have to say about the holiday as more research is done, and this book makes an excellent starting point for just that.
AUTHOR: Lisa Morton
PUBLISHER: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 9781789141580
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Hilary Wilson
Ask many in America what their favorite holiday is and they will eagerly answer Halloween. The holiday, once believed to have been a Christianization of an early Celtic harvest festival and now more widely regarded as having liturgical roots, has come to be emblematic of the sheer joy of living. How did a holiday, once reserved for the remembrance of the dead and feasting before the coming of winter, come to be synonymous with fun frights, candy, and the begging practice of trick-or-treating?
Lisa Morton, in her book Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween, published in 2012 by Reaktion, casts light onto these questions and more. Morton’s enthusiasm for the holiday comes through in her vivid literary style, as does the depth of her research. From the outset she seeks to disabuse readers of the misconceptions that surround the history of the holiday, while also acknowledging how much previous scholarship did to make such misconceptions pervasive. Through detailing the scholarship, Morton shows just how much is yet to be done. Thankfully, the extensive notes and bibliography give anyone eager to begin work in the field a great deal of ideas to build upon.
This book is a delightful microcosm of history. Throughout the book there are pictures of various bits of artwork depicting the holiday, as well as an extensive array of memorabilia. Morton dives into nuances of Halloween such as why cats and pumpkins are so associated with the holiday, when fortune telling fell out of favor as a common Halloween party pastime, and just when and how the holiday came to be associated with frights rather than mischievous (and sometimes vandalous) pranks.
There are many interesting surprises in store for the reader. Who would have guessed that the omnipresent candy corn predates the practice of trick-or-treating by nearly a century? There are also many bits of speculation that are begging for more research to be done in the future. The history of Halloween and its failure to take off in Asian and South and Central American countries, for instance, is something that would be interesting to explore and was only lightly done within this text due to its relatively recent introduction to such countries. While only briefly touched upon in Trick or Treat, an entire book could be written on the history of haunted mazes, and books have been written about the collection of Halloween postcards and other assorted memorabilia.
Coming away from this book, it is clear what a joy Halloween has been to those who practice it. In the coming decades it is safe to say that Halloween will only continue to spread and grow throughout the world. It will be interesting to see what future writers have to say about the holiday as more research is done, and this book makes an excellent starting point for just that.