A Tale For Halloween

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/56420/56420-h/56420-h.htm

For my advanced search, I put in “Halloween,” and with the parameters I set, it gave me four options. This first poem is from one of those four options, entitled “MARCH. Man goeth to his long home,” out of Halloween, A Romaunt with Lays, Meditative and Devotional  by H.S. Parsons from 1845. The poem describes a song like chant, backed by strange music, of the people who have died marching down to the dead. It has different iterations between each verse, but the constant line is “Going down to the dead!” This definitely feels like something similar to the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, or even a weird Tim Burton animated film.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/35458/35458-h/35458-h.htm#Page_248

The second selection I made was a collection of short stories entitled The Green Forest Fairy Book, by Loretta Ellen Brady. I particularly was interested in the last story, entitled “A TALE FOR HALLOWEEN.” This story follows two children who when trying to find a jackolantern they carved the previous day, end up finding a whole patch of animated pumpkins and vegetables who lead them to witches. These witches are nice witches, however, and they all then proceed to sing and dance (even the vegetables). They flew on the witch’s broomstick and had a wonderful time until eventually being returned to their cottage. They were bestowed good luck by a black cat from the witches who decided to stay with the children. This story is more of a jolly take on Halloween, which I like because everything you expect to be scary ends up being nice and animated.

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