The Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center is looking for pictures of your ghosts, ghouls, fairy princesses, superheroes, wizards, warriors, Norse gods, squirrels, zombies and Dia de los Muertos.
They want to see how the U.S. celebrates Halloween, All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1) and All Souls’ Day (Nov. 2) in all of its diverse ways and cultures.
From Oct. 22 to Nov. 5, the center will be looking on the Web – on Flickr in particular – for photographs with the hashtag #FolklifeHalloween2014 to “see what this time of the year looks like for others around the country,” says its press release.
If some of the photos meet their artistic and legal criteria, they might become part of the Smithsonian’s collection as well.
As Stephen Winick of the American Folklife Center blogs:
1) “The focus of the project is on what we do around these holidays.”
2) “We are particularly excited to see documentation of the diversity of practices, peoples, perspectives and places.”
3) “We are mostly interested in images of practices that are distinctive in their association with these holidays.”
4) “Lastly, the objective is to explore contemporary practices.”
More information, and the criteria, can be found on the Folklife Today site at the Library of Congress.