News & Events

Where did Halloween come from?

The answer is... it's complicated.

According to the Halloween topic page in the library's Credo Reference database, the name of the holiday is a contraction of "All Hallows' Even," or the day before All Hallows' Day, also known as All Saints' Day.

The traditions associated with the holiday, however, probably have their deepest roots in ancient harvest festivals or commemorations of the dead, possibly including the Celtic observance Samhain.

The season of Halloween and Samhain is still an important time in modern-day Ireland, but in other cultures since the 1700s, Halloween has largely become a holiday for children.

Trick-or-treating is an American invention dating from the 1930s, which came about to discourage youth from destructive pranking.

 

Halloween in the WCC Library

Trick-or-Treating

The library will be participating in the WCC campus' trick-or-treating event.

Please come bring your little spooks and goblins (or just yourself), show us your Halloween spirit, and get some candy.

When

Friday, October 31

2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

 

Books

Some Halloween-related resources right here at WCC to chill your bones.

 

Everything's eventual: 14 dark tales (print book, 2002) by Stephen King - Find it in our Good Reads collection
"Whether writing about encounters with the dead, the near dead, or about the mundane dreads of life, from quitting smoking to yard sales, Stephen King is at the top of his form in the fourteen dark tales assembled in Everything's Eventual."

 

On a windy night (print book, 2010) by Nancy Raines Day - Find it in our Early Childhood Education picture book collection
"On a windy Halloween night as a boy is returning home through the woods after trick-or-treating, he hears scary noises behind him."

 

Haunted: on ghosts, witches, vampires, zombies, and other monsters of the natural and supernatural worlds (print book or eBook, 2016) by Leo Braudy
"An award-winning scholar and author charts four hundred years of monsters and how they reflect the culture that created them."

 

Ghosts of Leavenworth and the Cascade Foothills (print book, 2017) by Deborah Cuyle
"The spirits of the early pioneers still roam the streets of Leavenworth and lurk in the lengthening shadows of the surrounding hills. Chas Gordon's murder sits unsolved after a century of mystery, as does the location of the lost Ingalls gold. Muffled sobs mark out the Thorp Cemetery, while a ghostly hand coaxes a soft tune from the piano in the lobby of the Tumwater Inn. Saloon shootings and railroad tragedies left their own legacy of restless souls. Author Deborah Cuyle reveals the fascinating history behind the ghost stories from this corner of the Cascade Mountains."

 

Stories and Novels from Project Gutenberg

Here are some classic spooky stories and novels in the public domain to read this season.

These are available through Project Gutenberg.

Click on the author link to read their Credo Reference topic page (or Wikipedia for Blackwood).

Frankenstein (eBook, 1818) by Mary Shelley
Sometimes considered a work of early science fiction, the novel Frankenstein is a dark exploration of what it means to be human.

Dracula (eBook, 1897) by Bram Stoker
Before Interview with a Vampire and way before Twilight, there was Dracula.

Tales of Men and Ghosts (eBook, 1910) by Edith Wharton
A collection of stories by a Pulitzer prize-winning author famous for writing about the Gilded Age.

Incredible Adventures (eBook, 1914) by Algernon Blackwood
This collection of novellas and short stories is considered by some anthologists to be "the premier weird collection of this or any other century."

 

Halloween Poetry

The Poetry Foundation has put together a collection of Halloween-related poems online. Get to know some classic and contemporary masters of spookiness! Here is one example from their page. This poem is no longer under copyright.

 

Theme in Yellow

by Carl Sandberg

I spot the hills
With yellow balls in autumn.
I light the prairie cornfields
Orange and tawny gold clusters
And I am called pumpkins.
On the last of October
When dusk is fallen
Children join hands
And circle round me
Singing ghost songs
And love to the harvest moon;
I am a jack-o'-lantern
With terrible teeth
And the children know
I am fooling.