Halloween: Romantic Art and Customs of Yesteryear by Diane C. Arkins

Halloween has not always been the occasion for confections, costumes, and cunning tricks that it is today. Halloween: Romantic Art and Customs of Yesteryear is a colorful and exciting celebration of Halloween past. The book artfully blends narrative and old-fashioned poems, prose, and chants with eye-catching images of vintage ephemera and fanciful illustrations. Halloweens of the early-twentieth century were occasions for hopeful romantics to try their fate in love, with a variety of soothsaying games and revels. Festive occasions often included “Ducking for Apples,” “Blowing out Lighted Candles,” and “Cutting the Flour Cake.”