Grab a cup of tea (or perhaps a witch’s brew) and enjoy the cauldron fun times in today’s Kathy’s Corner event. Participants joined from Scotland, Canada, and the United States, and we indulged in stories of our childhood and children’s Halloween adventures in days gone by.

Along the way, we compared notes on the historical roots of the holiday and traditions:

* So-called Pendle Witches and the 1612 witch trials the area surrounding Pendle Hill in Lancashire, England

* Witches in both Connecticut and Salem in the United States, and the current effort to gain exoneration for the victims in Connecticut

* Origins for Jack-o-lanterns in Ireland

* About Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the story of Ichabod Crain, full text from Project Gutenberg

Additions from Kathy Stone about Halloween in Canada:

* About Halloween in the Canadian Encyclopedia

* From Oxford County Archives, the History of Halloween in Canada

* From the City of Edmonton

* Halloween in Edmonton

* Trick or Treating as it Evolved

* And… from the Wisconsin State Farmer: Outhouse tipping was a Thing!

We had such a good time that it’s clear we’ll be doing this again. Bring a costume… just play with Zoom’s virtual costumes. 🎃 Who knew how much cross-cultural knowledge would be shared across our Anglophone world.

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