The Halloween Tree

Bones serve as a symbol of death and mortality throughout the book. Tom is dressed as a skeleton, and Moundshroud resembles a skeleton. In Chapters 18 and 19, bones and skulls play a prominent role in the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico, underlining the society’s integration of mortality into everyday life and developing the theme of cross-cultural continuities.

The scythe is a traditional Western symbol of death, often depicted as being carried by the Grim Reaper, who “harvests” souls at the end of their lives. The scythe also relates symbolically to the harvest season and thus to fall—a season in which the changes of the natural world render mortality particularly obvious. As the book links Halloween to the harvest festivals of early agrarian societies, it is little wonder that the scythe symbol appears again and again. In the book, Samhain wields a scythe to cause death, and one is carried by “Hackles” Nibley as part of his Halloween costume.

As the boys explore prehistoric caves in Chapter 10, fire functions as a symbol of civilization and humanity’s mastering of the elements of nature. Symbolically, fire also constitutes a way to bring sunlight into the dark cave during the winter, thus banishing fear of the dark and kindling hope for new life. It is thus a constant throughout the eras and cultures the boys explore, with candles burning everywhere from Egyptian tombs to Christian alters to the jack-o’-lanterns of 20th-century Halloween. As Moundshroud says as they leave the prehistoric caves, “[N]ow you have time to think of where you came from, where you’re going. And fire lights the way, boys. Fire and lightning. Morning stars to gaze at” (62). His words underscore the continuity of firelight as a symbol of hope in the face of darkness and death.