Halloween at the Millennivm

Abstract Halloween at the millennium is a contested and in many respects a controversial holiday. There is little consensus as to what it means or to how it should be observed. To be sure, Halloween still retains some vestigial links to the harvest. Its pumpkins and apples are part of the festive fare of harvest suppers and thanksgiving dinners. Newspapers and magazines routinely provide tips around Halloween as to how these seasonal frnits and vegetables might be enjoyed. Martha Stewart Living magazine produced a Halloween edition in 2000 in which the festive fare was scary yet upscale, with garlic soup, devil’s salsa, and pretzels in the shape of severed fingers with ladylike red almond “nails.” But it also featured mulled apple cider and reminded readers of the close association of Halloween with the end of the harvest in nineteenth-century America. In some places, of course, this seasonal association is still critical. In the rural areas of the American Northeast, for example, Halloween continues to be a marker of the hunting season, a time when farmers open their land to hunters, hikers, and snowmobilers.