It took two years of investigative work for Halloween author Lesley Pratt Bannatyne to add a fifth book to her collection. Bannatyne is an author who writes on folklore & popular culture. A foremost authority on Halloween, she has shared her knowledge for television specials on Nickelodeon and the History Channel ("The Haunted History of Halloween").Traveling across the country, the author visited and talked with horror fanatics, fang makers, haunters, mediums, psychologists and Halloween enthusiasts ranging from NPR's Garrison Keillor to Incubus guitarist Mike Einziger and The Simpsons' "Treehouse of Horror" writer Mike Reiss -- to find out what the increasingly popular holiday means to people and how they celebrate it.
"So much that's been written about Halloween has been about the holiday's history or about how to decorate, cook, and costume for it (guilty, all counts), but there's not been much written about what it is today, who makes Halloween, and why," writes Bannatyne in the book's introduction. Diving right into the heart of how fear turned into a form of entertainment, she asks: How does the 21st century relate to Halloween's icons-ghosts, witches, jack-'o-lanterns, monsters-and what is that makes Halloween so relevant for so many adults today?
Through the course of her research, Bannatyne hunted ghosts with paranormal investigators, participated in a Samhain ritual gathering, World Zombie Day march, the Village Halloween parade, and several off-season gatherings of Halloween fans such as the HAuNTcon. Read all about in the new book.
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