Bibliograph

Halloween and other festivals of death and life, edited by Jack Santino

Type

Label

Halloween and other festivals of death and life, edited by Jack Santino

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-271) and index

resource.governmentPublication

government publication of a state province territory dependency etc

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Halloween and other festivals of death and life

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

28549780

Responsibility statement

edited by Jack Santino

Summary

Why do we celebrate Halloween? No one gets the day off, and unlike all other major holidays it has no religious or governmental affiliation. A survivor of our pre-Christian, agrarian roots, it has become one of the most popular and widely celebrated festivals on the contemporary American calendarJack Santino has put together the first collection of essays to examine the evolution of Halloween from its Celtic origins through its adaptation into modern culture. Using a wide variety of perspectives and approaches, the thirteen essayists examine customs, communities, and material culture to reveal how Halloween has manifested itself throughout all aspects of our society to become not just a marginal survivor of a dying tradition but a thriving, contemporary, post-industrial festival. Its steadily increasing popularity, despite overcommercialization and criticism, is attributed to its powerful symbolism that employs both pre-Christian images and concepts from popular culture to appeal to groups of all ages, orientations, and backgroundsHowever, the essays in this volume also suggest that there is something ironic and unsettling about the immense popularity of a holiday whose main images are of death, evil, and the grotesque. Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life is a unique contribution that questions our concepts of religiosity and spirituality while contributing to our understanding of Halloween as a rich and diverse reflection of our society's past, present, and future identity

Table Of Contents

Harvest, Halloween, and Hogmanay : acculturation in some calendar customs of the Ulster Scots / Philip Robinson -- "Safe": spooks : new Halloween traditions in response to sadism legends / Bill Ellis -- Halloween pranks : "just a little inconvenience" / Steve Siporin -- Bonfire night in Brigus, Newfoundland / Catherine Schwoeffermann -- Trick or treat : pre-texts and contexts / Tad Tuleja -- Carnival, control, and corporate culture in contemporary Halloween celebrations / Russell W. Belk -- Day of the dead : the Tex-Mex tradition / Kay Turner, Pat Jasper -- Adult Halloween celebrations on the Canadian prairie / Michael Taft -- The seasonal context of Halloween : Vermont's unwritten law / A.W. Sadler -- Wishes come true : designing the Greenwich Village Halloween parade / Jack Kuglemass -- Things that go snap-rattle-clang-toot-crank in the night : Halloween noisemakers / Carl B. Holmberg -- Halloween imagery in two southern settings / Grey Gundaker

Classification

Contributor