‘Tis the season for spooky festivities! While some current Halloween traditions have roots that stretch back to antiquity, our contemporary children’s holiday activities – like parties, games, costume parades, and even trick-or-treating – were actually devised in the 20th century as ways to keep kids from partaking in the destructive and dangerous pranks that plagued the season in the 1920s and 1930s.
The following Halloween party ideas come from a wonderful Halloween Program Kit distributed by the Cooperative Recreation Service in Delaware, OH, in the 1930s. My copy is stamped as the property of the Fresno, CA, Works Progress Administration. The kit – marked #28 in the series, revised – was edited by Lynn & Katherine Rorhbough. Continue reading “A 1930s Halloween”
