Summary:
As the spooky season is upon us, Laine and Cory decide it’s time to put on our masks, grab our pillow cases, and head out to do some trick-or-treating. It’s Halloween on New World Witchery, where we discuss the origins of the holiday both historical and folklorical, the value of spookiness for kids, favorite Halloween movies and traditions, and why Laine gives out full bars on her doorstep.
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Play:
Download: Episode 154 – Halloween
Play:
-Sources-
Some excellent sources on the origins of our contemporary Halloween practices include Halloween, All Around the Year and New Old-Fashioned Ways, by Jack Santino, and Consumer Rites, by Leigh Eric Schmidt. Cory also turned to his Holidays, Festivals, & Celebrations of the World Dictionary, edited by Helene Henderson for some of the information he shared.
We also mention Jake Richards’s book Backwoods Witchcraft, which has information on apple-head dolls.
In the realm of video, Cory mentions the documentary Halloween in a Box about the making and marketing of plastic masks. He also espouses his love for the Garfield Halloween Adventure and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! They both discuss the Halloween-themed episodes of Bob’s Burgers and Gravity Falls as well.
Check out Cory’s town and the light kerfuffle over an IT-related prank, and learn more about the Teal Pumpkin Project.
Promotional image modified from image via Pixabay, public domain.
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Promos & Music
Title and closing music is “Homebound,” by Bluesboy Jag, and is used under license from Magnatune. Incidental Music is (Magnatune).
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New World Witchery - The Search for American Traditional Witchcraft 
I love this podcast, and this was such a good episode! I thought you guys might be interested in this description of a Halloween party in 1906, where participants used bowls of differently colored water and a blindfold for divination. It sounds a little like the one you talked about at 1:04.00: https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ptE0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=3u4HAAAAIBAJ&pg=6559%2C5688904
(Also interesting, from that same newspaper, though it might have been a regional thing: Yellow rather than orange was associated with Halloween until the 1940s. No idea why.)