Halloween

Halloween, the hallowed holiday for the candy lovers and mischief makers. While today we enjoy candy, pumpkins, and costumes, we wanted to learn more about how this holiday came to be.

This image is from 1953 and is from the Kitchener Waterloo Record Photographic Negative Collection in Special Collections & Archives.

Halloween has undergone a few facelifts since its origin a few millennia ago. It began as a Celtic festival of Samhain. At that time, it was believed those who had died long ago were coming back for a ghostly visit in familiar grounds, while those who died during the year were embarking on their journey to the beyond. Frightening masks and costumes were worn to ward off visiting ghosts.

The move to North America sparked a drastic change to Halloween when Irish immigrants came to the United States, bringing their traditions with them. While previously there were harvest celebrations, Halloween soon became a secular holiday for the community. Here we saw the ‘trick-or-treat’ tradition evolve; you were either given a trick in the form of foodor money for a treat. If you were not given any candy, you would perform a mischievous trick!

While today Halloween is one of the largest commercial holidays, you can still see its other-worldly roots. It may come as a surprise to newer students that the UW Libraries have a reputation for being haunted! This, of course, has never officially been proven or declared by Library staff. Some students may hear the high-pitched, shrill moan of a student from decades ago. Some may see faintly flickering lights, or hear mysterious noises. Others still may feel the sharp tinge of terror when the item that should be on the shelf has disappeared. Rumours of the library's haunting are passed down from class to class, with hushed comments and whispers on the internet. When Halloween comes around, with every mask worn, and every superstition followed, we see the ghosts of Halloweens past nod their approval. 

Have you experienced any hauntings or otherworldly experiences in a library?  

This photo of Dana Porter library was taken by Marjorie Barber in 1965, and is from the University of Waterloo Archives in Special Collections & Archives.

"Halloween." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 Oct. 2015. Web. 13 Oct. 2016.

History.com Staff. "History of Halloween." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 19 Oct. 2016.