The beating heart of Halloween? Folklore

Professor describes the impact folklore has on Halloween

Halloween season is here, and people of all ages often enjoy dressing up and eating candy. Some may engage in spooky activities like visiting graveyards. Many of these traditions are inspired by history and mythology.

"With Halloween, there is a tension between fun and fear that makes the holiday special," said Merrill Kaplan, director of the Center for Folklore Studies at The Ohio State University.

"It's the season for not being entirely sure whether you believe in ghosts but walking up to that glass behind which lies the supernatural, behind which lies death, really, and tapping on the glass and running away," she said.

Kaplan enjoys the folklore surrounding Halloween.

"Almost anything you associate with Halloween is kind of folklore, it's some kind of custom, or it's some kind of story, or it's a belief that we entertain, or it's a costume that you make," she said.

Halloween folklore goes back centuries. Some believe it originated in ancient pagan culture, Kaplan said. Or perhaps it originated with Samhain, an old Irish festival where one might encounter the supernatural.

Halloween today draws some of its customs from medieval Christianity, she said.

"Visiting graveyards, candlelit processions, people in long robes, death visiting you, ghosts, unquiet souls, those are all things that are really from medieval Christianity."

Folklore is central to the holiday. In addition to stories, folklore can also refer to many other aspects of everyday life.

"Folklore is a huge category that is made up of things that we say, not just folktales, but also rumors and jokes and nursery rhymes, and some forms of gossip, things that we do. Anything that is customary is probably folklore," she said.

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