World TraditionsNo. 5364 · The 2026 edition
Halloween in the Anthropocene, 2015
What happens when Halloween meets the human-dominated era?
Our own summary of the original — the full post and photos live at poetryfoundation.org.
A look at how Halloween traditions and celebrations have evolved in the Anthropocene, the current geological age shaped by human activity, with a focus on the year 2015.
About this
A Poetry Foundation page presenting the full text of Craig Santos Perez's poem "Halloween in the Anthropocene, 2015," credited to Poetry magazine (April 2016). The poem weaves a children's trick-or-treat chant into a litany of praise for exploited and endangered people and ecosystems, moving from oil plumes and bleached coral to child laborers, veterans, Native youth, and dying oceans. The page also links to three related themed collections: Halloween Poems, Poetry and the Environment, and Fall Poems.
