An detailed examination of Halloween’s history, its evolution into the holiday we currently celebrate, and its cultural significance.

It really is bad timing that Rogers and Skal would both choose to write a book concerning good ol’ Samhain, to be released within months of each other. I greatly recommend both books, but if you absolutely must choose between them, I’m throwing my support behind this one. Why? For multiple reasons.

First off, both books are very well written, but Rogers' work has just a little more oomph to it. Both authors display a love for their chosen subject, but this book is just a little easier to get into. Skal’s work has an unfortunate tendency to drag in some parts, as well as minor issues with repetition. Rogers' writing is clear and concise. He manages to impart a truckload of detail concerning the holiday and it’s history, without becoming stodgy.

Chapter 1 gives us the skinny on the ancient Celtic and Roman festivals of death and harvest which slowly developed into the modern Halloween. Never have I read such a well-researched and engrossing history of the holiday. Rogers managed to cut through centuries of treacle and give us the facts about the old traditions, exploding fundamentalist fairy tales left and right.

Chapter 2 Traces Halloween’s development in old Europe, from a solemn religious observance, to a raucous and bawdy carnival.

Chapter 3 gives us the low-down on just how piteously boring the puritan America was before the Irish arrived, bringing Halloween with us. (You’re Welcome!)

Chapter 4, “Razor in the Apple” , shows us how the violent, early 20^th century incarnation of Halloween was sanitized into a children’s holiday. It also takes time to explore, and dispel, some of the nastier modern myths about contaminated candy, etc.

Chapter 5 gives us a (very) short history of the American horror film, with a sharp focus on the “Halloween” series itself. This for me is the only real sore spot in Rogers' work. The subject of Halloween in American art, as well as the horror film in general is so fascinating to me, I would have liked this chapter to be about three times longer (and less myopic) than it was. While I realize that this topic certainly could not be exhaustively explored in a single chapter (or a single book for that matter) Rogers barley scratches the surface.

The following chapter explores the annual Castro street gay and transgendered Halloween celebration. Again, this really is of no interest to me, but the chapter branches out into a general examination of Halloween as a celebration of social license and it’s concurrent rebirth of popularity amongst adults. Therefore, for my use it turns out being more than just dead space.

Chapter 7 examines the Dia dos los Muertos and it’s significance in Hispanic culture. It finally answered my puzzled question of “How the hell did the Druids and the Aztec wind up celebrating the same festival on the same day?” (I’ll never tell! You have to read the book to find out for yourself.)

The final chapter is sort of a meditation on how Halloween might evolve in the future.

Overall, the book possess no real weak spots, is neither overly long nor short, and is a pretty fun read. If there’s a better book on the subject out there, I simply haven’t gotten to it yet.