Happy Halloween from ANU Library
Boo! It’s Halloween.
Halloween originated as an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain. The Celts believed that on October 31, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On this night, people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts.
While not traditionally celebrated in Australia, over time we have seen more Halloween festivities around the country. And if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
ANU Library is marking Halloween by highlighting some of the spookiest resources in our collection:
- Halloween : from pagan ritual to party night (Menzies)
- The turn to gruesomeness in American horror films (Chifley)
- The witch-hunt in early modern Europe (Hancock)
- Serial murder : modern scientific perspectives (Law)
- Music in the horror film : listening to fear (Art & Music)
- The making of monsters : has the medieval monster been reassembled as the unbounded body of medical science and environmental horror? (Open Access Theses)
- Buffy, the vampire slayer (Chifley)
- The Hamish Hamilton book of goblins (Menzies rare book collection)
- Talking it Through: responses to Sorcery and Witchcraft Beliefs and Practices in Melanesia (ANU Press)
One of our very talented ANU Library staff members, Vanessa, has artfully carved Frankenstein’s monster into a Halloween pumpkin. This is on display as part of our Frankenstein exhibition at Chifley Library, celebrating the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s ground-breaking novel.
