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Trick Or Treat: A History Of Halloween (2012)

by Lisa Morton(Favorite Author)

3.53 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1780230478 (ISBN13: 9781780230474)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Reaktion Books

review 1: A very good read. Unfortunately though the author didn't mention how in the 20th century Halloween dropped out of sight completely in England, Britain, Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Isle of Man and only resurrected in the 21st century. There was a fair part of detail into the History of Halloween in North America, primarily the U.S. Which is essentially the biggest exporter of Halloween back to its original home base and other countries. When my family lived in Pakistan the American school had a sort of Halloween event and when I lived in Qatar with my family as a child I went trick or treating in one of the expat areas. The author does say that there isn't much written history of the holiday, this since The Book of Hallowe'en by Ruth Edna Kelley is best so far. I... more would very much like to read Lisa Morton's other books on the subject, as well as read Ruth Kelley's book. Also I hope that in the future because of this book more will be written about Halloween and its history in particular.
review 2: Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween is precisely what it claimed to be—a history of the centuries old holiday that has become Halloween. Morton’s work is not a scholarly study, but instead strives for a more popular style of writing, including illustrations. As this is not a scholarly study, the question then arises as to why we need another popular history of Halloween. Morton begins her work with the Celtic holiday of Samhain. She provides a thorough background of the Celtic mythology and links to Beltaine as well. She then moves to the continent, focusing on an eclectic combination of holiday influences from Denmark to Guy Fawkes Day in England. There are chapters on The Day of the Dead from Mexico and other global traditions. The book closes with an extensive chapter on modern Halloween, including movies and theme parks. As I finished, I couldn’t help but feel as if I had just finished several Wikipedia articles. There was little fresh information here for fans of the holiday. The work was well-detailed, but those details could come from any decent blog site or encyclopedia article. Simply put, there was little reason to write this book and even less reason to read it. For horror fans, Halloween is the holiday of the year. Scares, frights, ghouls, and monsters come out of the shadows to invade our streets, our homes, and our imaginations. This holiday is rich with history and symbolism, and Morton tries to bring that history to life. Unfortunately, it’s merely a retelling of the basics instead of an enlightening journey into the past. Three stars because it’s well-written, but check out any of the major Halloween web sites for essentially the same material. less

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