Bonus - The Origins of Halloween

As I'm away at Sound Education, this is a reupload of an old History of Witchcraft episode on the origins and development of Halloween.

Today we cover the development of Halloween - its development from a Celtic harvest festival, which may or may not have involved the ritual slaughter of infant children, and its merger with the Christian holy days of All Saints and All Souls, emerging from the melting pot of American society as something new and old, traditional and commercial.

Many thanks to Joe from the 80 Days - An Exploration Podcast for lending his voice to today's intro quote. Find his fantastic show on Facebook, Twitter, and 80dayspodcast.com

Today's show primarily relies on the following works:

Rogers, Nicholas, Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, 2002

Santino, Jack (ed.) Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, 1994

For a full bibliography, please see the website: 

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