The Halloween Tree

This section covers the boys’ sojourn in ancient Britain, home of the Celtic (Druid) religion. This leg of the journey is significant in that many of the customs of ancient Britain directly influenced modern Halloween. For instance, the Druid god Samhain functions much like the Grim Reaper of traditional folklore: a personification of death who “harvests” souls with the help of a scythe. The novel humorously juxtaposes Samhain with his giant scythe against Wally Babb in his Grim Reaper costume. Throughout the narrative, Bradbury emphasizes that the boys’ costumes are miniaturized representations of larger, and scarier, realities that they do not understand until Moundshroud explains them. In this case, the Grim Reaper and his scythe function as a symbol of the inevitability of death and (relatedly) the true spirit of Halloween. The worms and other small creatures that scatter under the force of Samhain’s blade symbolize the helplessness of human beings in the face of death. The appearance of Pipkin as a frightened dog fills a similar symbolic function while reminding readers of the danger he is in.

The boys witness both the flourishing of the Celtic religion and its destruction by the Roman occupiers, a historical process that plays out before their eyes as if in fast-forward. Christianity in its turn replaces the Roman religion, and Bradbury emphasizes the seamlessness of this transition by having the Roman soldiers transform into Christian priests performing a liturgy around an altar. Moundshroud’s commentary emphasizes that the history of religions is one of sudden replacements or gradual transformations in people’s beliefs and forms of worship. These changes (and the speed with which they seem to take place in the novel) highlight the temporary nature of all things, thus serving as another reminder of The Need to Recognize Mortality. At the same time, the continuity of the change from paganism to Christianity suggests that some things endure, while also alluding to the theme of The Difference but Connectedness of Cultural Traditions.

The coming of Christianity sets the stage for medieval Europe, beginning with the “Dark Ages” (roughly, the early medieval era following the collapse of the Roman Empire) and an episode involving alleged witches. Witchcraft remained an element of popular belief in European communities during the Christian era. Bradbury implies that the belief that witches exist had no rational basis; rather, it reflected of fear of learning and intelligence, which aligns with the popular conception of the Dark Ages as a period of backwardness. In reality, however, the height of the witch hunts occurred during the 14th through the 17th centuries (roughly, the early modern period) rather than the centuries following Rome’s fall.

Bradbury’s (and Moundshroud’s) overarching point concerns the way cultures codify certain beliefs and practices to cope with basic human anxieties, like the fear of death. This process takes a physical form in the episode involving Notre Dame. Moundshroud emphasizes the sense of civilizational accomplishment by having the boys literally “build” Notre Dame from the ground up, aided by bricks that magically ascend on their own. This emphasis on building draws attention to the fact that Halloween is an artifact of human civilization. Many of the same beliefs that inspire the construction of Notre Dame also inform the traditions of Halloween.

One feature of Gothic cathedrals that Bradbury lingers on is the fanciful creatures that adorn their sides—especially gargoyles. Gargoyles often functioned as rainspouts, devices for keeping rainwater off buildings. This becomes a plot point in Chapter 17, when Pipkin, transformed into a gargoyle, sheds tears of rainwater. More broadly, the gargoyles represent an attempt to cope with humanity’s deepest fears by integrating them into a symbol of light and life—Notre Dame, which Moundshroud describes symbolically as a “lit candle.”