In honor of October 31st, this week’s blog post highlights a few items from Warner Library to help you celebrate Halloween and Reformation Day. First a brief history of the day….

Halloween was believed to be first celebrated by the ancient Celts to mark the end of Summer and the beginning of harvest.  They believed during this time that the spirits of the dead roamed the earth.  On November 1st, they had large feasts to celebrate All Saints’ Day or All Hallows. The night before, October 31st, was called All Hallows Eve. When the Irish settlers began immigrating to America in the mid-1800s, they brought with them their Halloween traditions and since then, American boys and girls have enjoyed dressing up on Halloween for tricks or treats. To learn more about Halloween and the holiday’s origins, take a look at our Credo Reference Online database.

For Protestants around the world, October 31st (known as Reformation Day in most Protestant denominations) marks an important occasion in church history- it’s the day Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg.  What happened next was a religious revolt throughout Europe and the dawn of the Reformation Age.

Looking for a great ghost story to read on All Hallows’ Eve? Here’s our recommendations

	Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell
	Five Victorian Ghost Novels edited with an introduction by E. F. Bleiler
	Dracula by Bram Stoker (this is our electronic version. Sign into MyAthens to read the novel online.)
	Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe by Daniel Hoffman
	One dark night : 13 Masterpieces of the Macabre collected by Kathleen Blease

Want to learn more about the Reformation? Here’s our picks!

	Humanists and reformers : a history of the Renaissance and Reformation by Bard Thompson
	Luther, directed by Eric Till, starring Joseph Fiennes and Alfred Molina
	The political consequences of the Reformation: studies in sixteenth-century political thought by the Rev. H. Murray
	The Reformation edited by Stephen P. Thompson
	The Reformation in Germany by C. Scott Dixon