Every good super hero has an ‘origin’ story. It’s sort of an unofficial requirement to make the hero compelling, humanizing and ultimately something we – as readers – would care about. The same goes for just about anything in the world. As humans, we crave knowledge and understanding. We want to know exactly why things are the way they are. Even if we’re not exactly obsessed with discovering the origins of say the cell phone, or street lights, or a Snickers bar, when we’re told the origins, there’s that magical “A-ha!” moment where it feels oddly satisfying knowing WHY something is rather than just blindly being aware of its existence.
Halloween is a great example of this. Most people in the world (or at the very least, in North America) know what Halloween is. We may have some general ideal of Halloween’s past. We may know for instance that black cats where associated with the dark side, and women who were declared ‘witches’ were routinely burned at the stake in Salem by the fearful Puritans. However, there’s much more to the Origins of Halloween than most people know.
I cannot possibly feature a Halloween website without some sort of brief guide to Halloween’s illustrious, mysterious, and surprising history. So please read on, explore the site and learn and share the knowledge!