Halloween: Pagan Festival to Trick or Treat

Halloween: Pagan Festival to Trick or Treat is a non-fiction book by Mark Oxbrow, about the history of Halloween. He starts back in the Iron Age with the Celts, then progresses up to the modern day, discussing the holiday's beginnings as a celebration of the new season/new year, the holiday as a celebration of loved ones who have passed on, as the Catholic saints' day, and as our modern notion of a night where people get dressed up and children collect candy.

I finished this book last night, and I have to say, I was kind of glad to be done with it. Not that it was a terrible book, because it wasn't. Not exactly. It was extremely informative, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. Oxbrow really does take us WAY back, and one goal of his in writing this book was to help dispel some of the myths surrounding the origin of Halloween. I think he presents enough information to convince someone that they've been misinformed of the beginnings of this holiday, but the bulk of the text is mainly quotes and excerpts from the sources he used; there is comparatively little of the author's own narrative. I would have liked to read more about what he had to say, rather than reading his sources and then his opinion on the passage quoted.