Top of page

#FolklifeHalloween2014 Rolls On!

Share this post:

Schiller Park, Columbus, Ohio, October 30, 2014.  Photo by Katherine Borland.
Schiller Park, Columbus, Ohio, October 30, 2014. Photo by Katherine Borland.

If you’ve been following Folklife Today recently, you’ll know that we’re in the midst of collecting people’s photos of Halloween and Dia de los Muertos in a new online collecting initiative.

We still want you to share your photos!  Find out how in our previous blog posts featuring an overview of the project and step-by-step instructions.

As you can see from the photo above, one of the most popular kinds of Halloween photos features people in colorful or scary costumes.  Sometimes a few people will coordinate their costumes, as the above two subjects did. Other times, a whole family may play along together, like these playful gnomes I encountered near the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill:

15679980096_8fa72d7cad_k
Gnome Family. October 31, 2014. Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. Photo by Stephen Winick

For Halloween, we also decorate our houses and yards, as this photo from Trevor Owens shows:

15644370632_87fb5228bc_k
Ghost blocks in the yard: Part of a sequence of photos taken documenting how people in the Capitol Hill neighborhood decorate their homes in 2014. October 27, 2014. Photo by Trevor Owens.

And no Halloween would be complete without decorated pumpkins.  We like the unusual designs shown in the photo below:

Buddha Lanterns on the Steps: Nancy Grant's Halloween 2006 Buddha Lanterns, on our front steps.  Photo by Birrell Walsh.
Buddha Lanterns on the Steps: Nancy Grant’s Halloween 2006 Buddha Lanterns, on our front steps. Photo by Birrell Walsh.

In addition to Halloween, AFC is very interested in celebrations of Day of the Dead among Latinos and Latinas, as well as the uses of Day of the Dead imagery by other groups.  The photo below is an example:

Father and Daughter: Dia de los Muertos themed make up and costume in Grover Beach, CA.  October 18, 2014.  Photo by  Michelle Damian
Father and Daughter: Dia de los Muertos themed make up and costume in Grover Beach, CA. October 18, 2014. Photo by Michelle Damian.

 

Finally, we’re interested in new ways in which people create and share documentation of holidays, including selfies like the one below:

Halloween selfies! Location: The George Peabody Library of The Johns Hopkins University Photo by Eric Chen, JHU Class of 2016
Halloween selfies!
Location: The George Peabody Library of The Johns Hopkins University
Photo by Eric Chen, JHU Class of 2016.

If you took any good photos during this Halloween or Dia de los Muertos season, would you please consider sharing them on Flickr with the #FolklifeHalloween2014 tag and a Creative Commons License?  We’d love to see your pictures!

Add a Comment

This blog is governed by the general rules of respectful civil discourse. You are fully responsible for everything that you post. The content of all comments is released into the public domain unless clearly stated otherwise. The Library of Congress does not control the content posted. Nevertheless, the Library of Congress may monitor any user-generated content as it chooses and reserves the right to remove content for any reason whatever, without consent. Gratuitous links to sites are viewed as spam and may result in removed comments. We further reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to remove a user's privilege to post content on the Library site. Read our Comment and Posting Policy.


Required fields are indicated with an * asterisk.