Ghost Stories & Witch Folktales by Candlelight
Victorian ghost or witch folk tales read by candlelight
A favorite past-time on both Hallow's Eve (and Christmas!) during the Victorian period was the reading of ghost stories by candlelight. It's understandable with infant mortality through the roof due to childhood diseases without vaccines, frequent loss of child and mother in childbirth, and first the Civil War shortly followed by the Spanish-American War and World War I then World War II how and why Spiritualism took root and Victorian Americans were so preoccupied with the otherworldly.
Here, you'll be acquainted with:
Six Victorian ghost stories likely well known to our great or great great grandparents (each taking 15-30 minutes to recite)
A recitation of a more modern language translation of Robert Burns' 1785 Halloween poem familiar to our forebears as a standard to be read at Halloween (taking about 15 minutes to recite),
A reading of three classic American witch folktales (each taking 20-30 minutes to recite)
read in a loop throughout the evening. Feel free if you feel moved to volunteer to read a story.
Upon audience request, our mysterious maven of the macabre will happily interrupt the reading of the stories in order for all to engage in creative cooperative story telling by rigmarole for audience participation. If requested, our maven will begin a story. For example, "It was a dark and dreary night, and the mist that had descended was so deep that you couldn't see two hands in front of your face," and then she'll stop at a climatic moment, and a participant can jump in and try to "add-on" and "one-up." If our maven likes your addition, you can earn prizes.
