- Attribution-NonCommercial
CC BY-NC
The content of this blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. -
Recent Posts
Facebook
Twitter
My Tweets- Follow READING HISTORY on WordPress.com
Tag Archives: halloween
Halloween: Our Childhood Traditions
It’s the spookiest day of the year! We asked some students and staff to share their favourite Halloween traditions. But first, some Halloween history… ‘The name Halloween itself is simply a contraction of All Hallows Eve. This derives from the … Continue reading
How to Find an Early Modern Witch, by Claire Smith
If you wanted to find a witch during the early modern period, one of the more notable people you could ask was Matthew Hopkins, self-declared Witchfinder General from 1644-1647. If, in the twenty-first century, you want to find evidence of … Continue reading
Toads mean Trouble: Amphibious Assassins in Gerald of Wales’ The Journey through Wales
by Dr Ruth Salter If you were asked to think of an unassuming British animal, I would hazard a guess that the first creature to come to mind would be something – small, brown, possibly squeaky – like a mouse … Continue reading
Magic, Medicine, Miracles: How Reading Abbey Helped to Invent Halloween
by Professor Anne Lawrence-Mathers On Saturday 27 October, I had the privilege of giving a public lecture for the Friends of Reading Abbey, in the presence of the Mayor of Reading, Councillor Debs Edwards. The event took place in St … Continue reading →