Halloween: an American Holiday, an American History
by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne, 1990.

"On one autumn night each year, the fires of Druid priests burned high upon the Irish hillsides while Celtic tribesmen prayed that their sun would not wane and disappear over the winter. In Wales, each member of a family marked a white stone and threw it into the hot ashes of a bonfire before going to sleep; if any of the stones were missing by morning, they believed a death would surely occur before the next Halloween. Scottish farmers lit torches made of braided straw and marched deosil (with the sun) around the perimeters of their land to ward off witches and bring fertility to the fields. The Celts of Gaul imprisoned cats in wicker baskets and burned them in sacrifical fires. And in old Brittany, families put out warm pancakes and cider for dead souls to eat when they rose from their cold, barren graves to visit their homes before the coming of winter."

"The history of Halloween traces a path from ancient Druidic times to the present. Originally a Celtic festival of the dead, Halloween owes much of its character to the Roman harvest celebration of the goddess Pomona and even more to the customs of the early Catholic church. It is the blending of these three traditions that produced the holiday we celebrate in America today."

1.  A Blending of Traditions
2.  Forerunners to Halloween in the American Colonies
3.  An Autumnal Feast in the New Nation
4.  The Immigration Years: Old World Customs in Melting Pot America
5.  Halloween in Victorian America
6.  Halloween in the 20th Century
7.  Contemporary Halloween: Old Traditions Made New