Review: The Book of Hallowe'en

The Book of Hallowe'en by Ruth Edna Kelley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An absolute minefield of Halloween themed information, from ancient religious practices, to more contemporary table arrangements, Ruth Edna Kelley has dug deep - including ample references to literature and poetry which references her theme.

This was one of the first forays into documenting Halloween through history, written in 1919 - it isn't the most scholarly effort, a bit of a patchwork at times, and admittedly it isn't collated in the best possible way, sometimes the information seems scattered, and some of it is incredibly dated, but it's a fascinating trove nonetheless.

The main section details folkloric practices and beliefs for the different parts of Great Britain and surrounding areas. There is also a notable section on American belief. If you're interested in this kind of thing, suspend your doubts and indulge in the sheer weirdness and scope of this little book, stuffed full of fascinating facts and lore.

Read on archive.org and listened to on LibriVox.

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