BY TRISTA EDWARDS

It was truly kismet.

In the final weeks of August, I started scouring the internet for just the right Halloween podcast. I was craving something that delved into the history of the holiday. It had to be researched and educational and break down traditions and rituals. I wanted a deep dive. Serious in its purpose yet, of course, fun. Halloween is all about having fun, after all.

Halloween, as it is for so so many, is my favorite holiday. It is not just a holiday, if I may borrow some internet parlance, it is a lifestyle. This year, in particular, I turned to Halloween more than ever and decorated my hearth back in March (Remember #quarantineoween?) to help me through a rough patch of pandemic-related depression.

Now, like a true elder millennial, I needed a podcast to keep me company.

My search kept turning up show after show with Halloween in the title or description but what they all ended up being about was horror movies. Don’t get me wrong. I love horror.

Like a lot.

My house is decked out in vintage horror film wallpaper, Universal monster-inspired art is slowly taking over my living room, my whole entryway is a growing gallery of contemporary horror film posters, and I have every John Carpenter soundtrack on vinyl proudly displayed on the wall.

But Halloween and horror are not synonymous. It just wasn’t the itch I needed scratched.

After a few days, I gave up my pursuit and returned to my daily walks around my suburban Texas neighborhood pushing my baby in his stroller while moping to Bauhaus’ Press The Eject And Give Me The Tape for the thousandth time.

Then a dear friend in Michigan, clueless of my recent quest, texted me a link—It’s Always Halloween by Lucé Tomlin-Brenner.

It’s Always Halloween was the exact podcast I was yearning for. Witty, informative, packed with history, and dappled with all the best pop culture references and sound bites I didn’t even know I needed! The best part? This podcast isn’t just seasonal but a year-round celebration of all things Halloween.

Again, it’s a lifestyle.

I had to reach out to the spooky creator, Lucé Tomin-Brenner, and learn more.

Lucé, in addition to being an all-around Halloween Queen, is a comedian, actress, writer, and director, (What is she not creating, right? I need some of this energy in my life!) so I was beyond ecstatic to find that she had some time in her schedule to chat with me for Luna Luna Magazine via Zoom.

Her love, fascination, and curiosity for Halloween is infectious. Her innate inquisitiveness to get at the root of why things are the way they are drove her to create a podcast about her favorite holiday.

It’s Always Halloween debuted in early September and was immediately met with open arms among listeners. Lucé serves up two weekly episodes that are released every Tuesday and Friday. On Tuesdays, you can expect some Halloween history with episodes such as “Halloween Comes to America,” “Festivals of the Dead,” “Lumeria, Parentalia, & Feralia,” and “Victorian Halloween Parties,” just to name a few.

Friday’s episodes, playfully dubbed Small Frights, are a particular treat that features listener-generated content in the form of letters or voicemail messages (which you can leave by calling 802-532-DEAD) that allow for fans to share stories and ask questions.

And just this past month, the podcast hit over 10K plays and will be featured on the NPR One app. (You can download the app here and search It’s Always Halloween.)

Also, in addition to all the spooky episode related content over on the official podcast Instagram, (like Lucé sharing some of her favorite Halloween makers—Bunny Dee, Rhode Montijo, Loveless House, and Bedlam Supply Co.) the podcast now has a Patreon you can support!

So, if you find yourself asking questions such as, where did Halloween come from? How did it get to America? Why do we do the things we do—bob for apples, pull pranks, go to haunted houses, etc.—to celebrate this strange, shadowy time of year?

Then It’s Always Halloween is just for you.

Lucé and I talked for two hours! all about the podcast, witches, Halloween as self-care, personal ritual and traditions, and what listeners can expect from It’s Always Halloween throughout the year.

What follows is a condensed, transcribed version of our conversation.

It’s Always Halloween podcast graphic. Art by Rose Feduk.

TE: You mention in episode one that you think about Halloween all year round and that Halloween is “the getaway car you jump into when the world feels heavy and bleak.” You quote one of my favorite authors, Shirley Jackson, from one of my favorite books, The Haunting of Hill House, “No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream.”

Aside from the debut of the podcast, how has Halloween, particularly this year, been manifesting for you as a form of escapist self-care?

LTB: Aside from the podcast, which feels like my whole life right now, Pinteresting Halloween boards have kept me going. I value Pinterest as a place to collect images because I'm a very visual person. I think you can learn a lot about history through art. I have several different Halloween boards, one that's vintage Halloween, Halloween recipes, Halloween parties, etc.

I also have a board of general horror ephemera I've used to help me organize ideas for parties every year because I love throwing Halloween parties.

Whenever I would start to feel bummed about this year, I would think, why can’t I just go ahead and plan a Halloween party this year? I would remind myself that there's no reason I can’t enjoy planning a party, even if doesn’t happen. Planning helps me stay present and feel some semblance of my former “normal.”

I like using pen and paper, too. I do a lot of mind maps. I ask myself, how do you break down a Halloween party? What's everything that's involved? Just thinking about all the building blocks of Halloween is fun for me. I get a lot of comfort through history. Trying to understand our present moment through history helps me stay grounded. I do a lot of meditation to help with anxiety and depression. What I’ve learned through mediation is understanding that if you're uncomfortable in the present moment just remember it won't last forever.

TE: How have you witnessed others, friends, or even communities online, digging into Halloween this year, particularly as a form of self-care?

LTB: I remember early in the summer there was a lot of mounting anxiety around Halloween. People saying we got to wear our masks! Stay home! We got to save Halloween. It's on a Saturday! It's a full moon! That was replaced a month later with a tenor of panic around Halloween being canceled. That was bothersome to me because I think it speaks to a very specific way of experiencing Halloween that's public and money based. That is not how everybody celebrates or wants to celebrate. I think if you're a true fan of Halloween, you can create that spirit any time, all the time. That’s what I try to do for myself.

I believe in trying to create a reality that will help you survive. We don't have a lot of control over that but what we can control are our little mini-universes to a degree, of course. You may have access to films, you may still have access to friends, at least online. You may be able to buy yourself a few treats.

As I said in one of the Small Frights episodes, buy yourself a piece of Halloween art if you can. That can be a safe, new Halloween tradition. Help support an artist or a small business if you can.

We can't go to haunted houses and that makes me sad. We can't do Halloween parties and that makes me sad. But there's so much more to Halloween than just public displays of spending money. I know I just said you can buy art, but even if you don't do that, there are books, there are ghost stories, there are creepypastas online.

I think we have to learn to create our own joy if we're going to survive the intensity of this world and for me, and so many others, Halloween is one way to manifest joy.

TE: Exactly. And this time could also be a time to forge new Halloween traditions.

LTB: Most definitely. I had a Small Frights caller ask, is Halloween just a nostalgic holiday where we're trying to capture our childhood? Yes, there are elements of nostalgia for many, but another caller said they never even celebrated Halloween as a kid. The opportunity to create new traditions is so important. There's always room for growth and change. You're looking at something in a new way. I know that’s not easy. I view every challenge as an opportunity. So, let's look at this from a new direction. This side of the jack o' lantern is all smashed in, but the other side of the pumpkin is good. Let's carve that one.

Let’s think about what we can still create with what we’ve got.

TE: I really love and appreciate that you explore Halloween through a historical lens as well as providing a glimpse into various other cultures’ ways of mourning and celebrating the dead. You also don’t hold back about diving into the history of colonization and xenophobia that are related to the holiday. What is the most unexpected thing you have learned about the origins of Halloween?

LTB: Oh, there’s so much. I love to learn, which is a big reason I do this podcast. There is a lot that has been surprising to me. I got super into the ancient history of Halloween. I was fascinated by how the Celts were not just from the British Isles but a collection of tribes across all of Europe. That totally blew my mind.

I’m an innately curious person. I stay curious. I want other people to stay curious. This is something I am trying to push with the podcast as well. Curiosity, I think, can act as a savior. If we stay open and look at everything with curiosity and empathy it would help us care more for each other.

I think the more that you learn, the more you see how much in common we all have with each other. That's what I learned exploring festivals of the dead from all over the world. We all want to honor our dead, all of us are scared of dying, and all of us just want to be remembered. That's the heart of humanity.

That why I love doing the Small Frights episodes. I'm trying to create the podcast as an ongoing conversation between the listeners and myself. I don't want it to just be my solely my project, I want to create a quilt that we're all sewing together. I want as all, as lovers of Halloween do, to connect.

That’s why I get excited about getting letters from Ireland and the U.K. I think, wow, I can't believe I reached people there. Getting the opportunity to hear what people are doing to celebrate globally is just so special. Without the podcast, I wouldn't have had that opportunity otherwise.

I hope that the podcast can keep growing so that I can continue to hear from people all over the world and we can continue to connect over this holiday we all love.

TE: I look forward to those Small Frights episodes. They make me feel so good. Not alone, you know?

With those episodes, you’re are really building a new space to meet—a new way to gather as a Halloween-loving community.

I do feel that I'm connecting with all these other people who call in or through the letters of theirs you share and experiencing that connectivity just feels good. So, thank you for making this space.

LTB: That's exactly what I want…is to have that community. This is especially important this year during quarantine.

Some people I've talked to say that quarantine isn't that different for them because they never went out before or they didn’t enjoy parties. I think even when we do start to interact in groups again, I think the podcast is still a great refuge for many people because you may be the biggest Halloween fan among your friends.

Maybe you have a group of friends and you all have an intense passion for horror movies, for example, but I think that's often rare. A lot of my friends have vastly different interests. I feel very fortunate to have this project and the space this podcast affords me where I know everybody here is on my same page.

TE: On the topic of personal traditions, customs, and Halloween rituals, as so many of your listeners share with you, I was curious to know what some of your personal traditions or rituals are that make Halloween Halloween for you?

LTB: I grew up outside of Cleveland but now I live in Los Angeles. The two places couldn't be more different. The weather, the landscape, the types of people, and the Halloween traditions. It is hard for me to capture that feeling of home this time of year in L.A.

A big tradition for me in Ohio was to go to four or five orchards on a Saturday. My family would get apples at one and apple cider donuts at another. It just was a great family, autumnal tradition.

I've attempted to continue that tradition in L.A. Not far from here is the city of Yucaipa. Yucaipa has a ton of different orchards and farms. I went to that for the first time last year and it was 90+ degrees. It was just so hot. I desperately just wanted to wear my Halloween III: Season of the Witch shirt with a sweater and have my “fall experience.” But it was just way too hot and miserable.

I do have some more successful L.A. traditions I enjoy such as the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride that goes through Griffith Park. My boyfriend and I always do that every Halloween. It is a really fun ritual for me.

It feels like the most Halloween because they do such a good job trying to create a full autumnal atmosphere, even though, again, it is usually really hot.

Also, there are certain horror movies I love watching every October. So many of them I watched with my parents growing up—Beetlejuice, House on Haunted Hill, The Haunting, Practical Magic. Watching those films does give me a sense of home.

TE: Okay, I got to know, if you close your eyes and visualize yourself living your best Halloween life, what does it look like? What’s the aesthetic? Are you Sabrina Spellman? Are you living in a cottage at the edge of the woods? Or are you vibing on nostalgic kitsch? Is it Beistle jack-o-lanterns? Is it cute ghosties? Is it sexy vampires? Lay it on me.

LTB: Oh, my God. I love this question. Thank you. I love that you said Sabrina Spellman, because. I've just loved that recent series so much.

I’m visualizing myself as a combination of Sabrina and The Addams Family.

I want to own a historic home in Salem full of weird taxidermy and have designated spaces for my ritual items. I’m so interested in witchcraft. I used to practice more than I do now but I’ve been overwhelmed with projects. I don't make the space in my life for rituals that I want to. So, in my dream life, I have space for a dedicated altar where I can get back to a regular practice.

Also, I would love to have art from different makers all over the place. I visualize the rooms being dark and beautiful, full of purples and greens and reds. A real natural history museum vibe.

I want a big porch that I could have tons of jack o' lanterns! I want people to think that my house is haunted and that I'm a scary witch. You know, Stockard Channing’s character, Aunt Frances, from Practical Magic? That is who I want to be.

I would have her hair and wear those drapey Victorian gowns she wears all the time.

TE: On the subject of the witch—the witch is a symbol that inspires, fascinates, and possesses a great deal of metaphorical power at Luna Luna Magazine. No doubt, this icon comes into hyper-focus during spooky season. What is your relationship to this symbol?

LTB: Oh, I love witches. I've loved witches my whole life. I have always been very drawn to the symbol of a witch and, as I mentioned, the film Practical Magic.

When it came out in 1998, Practical Magic was billed as a romantic comedy but it is so much more than that. It's a movie about female empowerment, sisterhood, and women banding together to overthrow the patriarchy.

It rocked my world. I was obsessed with it. I didn't know about feminism then, but that was my introduction to feminism. I was budding into a little feminist without realizing it.

As I got older, I became more curious about the symbol of the witch. When I was in college, I took a class on witchcraft in America taught by an expert on Salem. The entire class focused on the history of Salem…real deep dives into reading the original documents, rewriting them, transcribing them into modern language so we could understand them.

Learning that women who worked in midwifery and as healers—the women people would go to for help—were the ones that society ended up turning on really riled me up, but I loved learning about it.

In thinking of my more recent relationship with the witch and witchcraft, when I moved to Los Angeles I remember thinking it was so different than anywhere I'd ever lived. I came here for my comedy career and people were often cruel compared to where I started in D.C. I wasn't ready for the culture shock of the West Coast.

I became depressed. I started going to therapy and taking medication. In that healing process, I started going to yoga for the first time, which led me to get more into crystals, which then led me back to witchcraft.

I found that rediscovery to be incredibly healing and meditative. It allowed me to be with myself and live in a very present way that helped my depression.

I used to host a comedy show called Cursed by the Moon. Each show would focus on the house the moon was in that month. I would take the “cursed” traits of that house and use that as a prompt for my performers to tell stories and craft their set.

After each person's story, they would say goodbye to the thing that they felt cursed by. There just was this incredible feeling of communal release and calm after each story.

My friend had this incredible witchy shop called A Love Bazaar where she let me host the shows every month. Sadly, quarantine not only killed the show but also the store and my practice. Doing that show every month was a big part of my practice and I miss it.

I do want to get back into it and Halloween especially reminds me of how important it is to reflect and care for yourself. It's a great time to get back into witchcraft because the witch is so prevalent.

TE: So true. It sounds like it was a wonderful, creative, healing show. Maybe it will find its way back into the world again.

Well, to round off our conversation, what can we expect in the future for It’s Always Halloween? What’s in store for the rest of the year?

LTB: I have a lot planned. One thing I plan to do is to pick a series, such as animals that are associated with Halloween—bats, snakes, rats, cats—and explore how they became symbols related to the holiday. We use so much iconography to celebrate Halloween and it all has its own history. We see these animals all the time but what is their connection to the holiday? At what point do we start using these animals in our Halloween traditions? I just start to pull out a thread and keep asking questions.

My curiosity drives me. I love intensive breakdowns. Spooky things don’t stop with Halloween, they happen all year round. Everything is scary in our world. I want to examine it all through the lens of Halloween.

For more Halloween, horror, and comedy delights, follow Lucé on Twitter and Instagram.

Trista Edwards is an associate editor at Luna Luna Magazine & author of the poetry collection, Spectral Evidence. (April Gloaming Press). She is also the curator and editor of the anthology, Till The Tide: An Anthology of Mermaid Poetry (Sundress Publications). You can read her poems and more here and you can check out her candle shop, MARVEL + MOON, here.