Today, Halloween is celebrated by people dressing up in supernatural-themed costumes. Candy is handed out to little children, and adults revel in Halloween-themed night life. Teenagers attend haunted houses, in hopes of being frightened by the ghosts and other terrors that live in the mansions. However, today’s Halloween is quite different from the original holiday. Marion Paull’s book, Creating your Vintage Hallowe’en: The folklore, traditions, and some crafty makes is packed full of informative origin stories, artwork, vintage postcards and pictures, and Halloween-themed crafts.
In Creating your Vintage Hallowe’en, Marion Paull breaks down the origins and symbols of Halloween. She first explains that modern day Halloween is based on the Celtic religious festival of Samhain (pronounced Sah-wen). Samhain was celebrated not October 31st, but November 1st. It was celebrated as the festival of the harvest season and as the Festival of the Dead. The festival was held at the time when seasons were changing. It was also thought that spirits of the dead could move more freely between our world and the Otherworld. She explains how Halloween’s pagan roots were transformed by Christian rulers into the holiday we celebrate today.
Paull also goes onto explain how modern aspects of Halloween developed over time, such as Halloween parties, pranks, trick-or-treating, and haunted attractions, as well as how Halloween icons (pumpkins, scarecrows, cats, etc.) came to be. The second part of the book includes images of vintage collectibles and a few Halloween crafts.
Creating your Vintage Hallowe’en: The folklore, traditions, and some crafty makes is a visually stimulating book. Marion Paul gives an exceptional historical review of Halloween’s, origins, traditions, and icons. However, there are not many instructions on how to create your own vintage Halloween. For example, the author makes references to various treats in the book, but does not provide recipes. Overall, this book is visually pleasing, but leaves the reader searching other books and the Internet for crafts and methods to “create a vintage Hallowe’en”.