The Athens News has published a very comprehensive history of Halloween in Athens.  If you want to know how the Court Street celebrations got started, that’s the place to look.  (The short version is that it started out small in 1974 and has gotten bigger and bigger ever since.)   They also have a slideshow with pictures from last year’s celebration.

To find out what was going on in Athens at Halloween any particular year, you can look at our local newspapers: The Post, the Athens News, and the Athens Messenger.  The Post has online archives going back to 2003, The Athens News to 1998, and the Athens Messenger for the past year only.  For articles older than that, you can look up these newspapers on microfilm on Alden Library’s first floor.  (If you’ve never used microfilm before, staff on the first floor can help you get started.)  Remember that Athens’ Halloween celebration may not always be held on October 31st, so you might need to look at issues from the last week of October and first week of November to find when Halloween was held on a particular year.

Jack o' Lantern

For more general research on Halloween beyond the confines of Athens, you might do well to search for entries in specialized encyclopedias. Try searching for halloween in either or both of these sources: Gale Virtual Reference Library or  Religion Resource. Besides the basic information in the entries in these online encyclopedias, be sure to look at the lists of references at the ends of the articles. You can use these lists to identify additional books and articles on your topic.

Our online library catalog, ALICE, also lists a number of books on Halloween. And, if you follow the link to Repeat your search in OhioLINK, you’ll find many more–and in most cases you can request that books at other libraries be sent to you here. They should arrive in just a few days.