Dear Ghosts, Ghouls and Goblins,
Happy Halloween! Another issue is upon us, and we have yet another occasion to celebrate. We commemorated nine years of Medievalists.net in September, and this time around, we're celebrating our 100th issue, and Halloween!
I've always loved scary, spooky, and creepy things since I was a kid. As I got older, my love of things that go bump in the night shifted to horror movies, books, and vampire and zombie shows.
As a historian, that abiding love of horror translated into a fascination with how people in the past viewed death, treated the dead, and envisioned the afterlife. I never tire of hearing stories of superstitions, or traditions. I love reading about supposed vampires buried with rocks jammed into their mouths to prevent them from rising from the dead, or reading about the Early Modern witch craze, and the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain.
Halloween has medieval roots. It has been celebrated in Ireland and Scotland for hundreds of years, traced as far back as the tenth century, according to early Old Irish texts
Happy Halloween!
Celebrating our 100th Issue!