Gweek 072: A History of Halloween

Have you ever wondered about the origins of Halloween? Where does the word Halloween come from? What is the origin of the term trick or treat? Why do we carve jack-o'-lanterns? And how did costumes come into play? I don't know the answers to any of these questions. But luckily we have someone here who does know. Joining me today is the horror author and screenwriter Lisa Morton. Lisa’s novels and short stories have won numerous awards, including the Stoker Award. She’s written screenplays for feature films and television and has appeared as a Halloween expert on The History Channel's The Real Story of Halloween. And that’s what we are going to talk to Lisa about today because she has a book that just came out called Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween, published by Reaktion Books.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

MORE: Gweek • halloween • Lisa Mortin

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FWIW Halloween is the same date as the start of Noah’s flood. Analysis: http://saturniancosmology.org/jup.php
http://twitter.com/jonnypowpow John Powell

I’m really excited about this podcast and thought the subject matter was so fascinating but the sound quality of the skype connection is really bothersome. I’m still really grateful that you would put this out but if you could do anything to improve the sound quality it would be super appreciated! All the best and thanks again.
- Mark_Frauenfelder
  
  Hi John,
  
  Sorry about the bad sound quality. It’s usually better!
  - http://twitter.com/jonnypowpow John Powell
    
    Don’t think I wont be back. I’m looking forward to it!
http://twitter.com/lukas_staunt Lukas

would it be possible to add your GWEEK-Podcasts to Bitlove ( bitlove.org ).
You can add the rss-link and bitlove will automaticly download it, create a torrent and seed the whole thing.

Would be quite cool :-)
- Mark_Frauenfelder
  
  Cool! Just did it: https://bitlove.org/boingboing/gweek/feed