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Category: Holidays

The Origins of Halloween Traditions

Posted by: Heather Thomas

Carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating, and wearing scary costumes are some of the time-honored traditions of Halloween. Yet, the Halloween holiday has its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (a Gaelic word pronounced "SAH-win"), a pagan religious celebration to welcome the harvest at the end of summer, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor saints. Soon after, All Saints Day came to incorporate some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before All Saints Day was known as All Hallows Eve, and later, Halloween. Here is a look at the origins of some of the classic Halloween traditions we know today.

A child carrying a bundle of newspapers in one hand, the other arm held high with a copy of the Anchorage Daily Times, the headline reading

Good News!

Posted by: Amber Paranick

Presenting feel-good news stories to round out our posts for the year and say farewell to 2020 on a positive note! Hopefully, these uplifting, heartfelt, funny, and touching stories from yesterday’s news in Chronicling America* serve as a diversion from the darker news of this year… In 1947, after scouring newspaper stories around the country, …

A child carrying a bundle of newspapers in one hand, the other arm held high with a copy of the Anchorage Daily Times, the headline reading

Cooking Up History: Holiday Baking with a Retro Twist

Posted by: Amber Paranick

This post was written by Rachel Gordon, Visitor Services Specialist in the Library’s Center for Learning, Literacy, and Engagement. It was originally published on Minerva’s Kaleidoscope: Resources for Kids & Families Blog and is the latest in her series “Cooking Up History,” which explore historic recipes in the Library’s collections. “It just wouldn’t be the …

A child carrying a bundle of newspapers in one hand, the other arm held high with a copy of the Anchorage Daily Times, the headline reading

Cooking Up History: Homemade Halloween

Posted by: Amber Paranick

This post was written by Rachel Gordon, Visitor Services Specialist in the Library’s Center for Learning, Literacy and Engagement. It was originally published on Minerva’s Kaleidoscope: Resources for Kids & Families Blog. For Halloween 2020, we’re all going to be staying much closer to home than is the norm. That made me wonder what we …