A WORLD WHERE THERE ARE OCTOBERS

Tutor Stephanie has many years of experience teaching English, specializing in literature, conversation, and cultural exploration. Originally from Nova Scotia, Canada, she enjoys sharing Canadian literature, history, traditions, and culture with students around the world.

Her seminars combine English learning, storytelling,and history, helping students explore familiar subjects from new perspectives. This October, she explores the autumn landscapes, folklore, Halloween traditions, and Celtic influences that appear throughout the writings of PEI author L. M. Montgomery.

• 1. Introduction (5 mins) - An introduction to October in the world of L. M. Montgomery, beginning with the famous idea of “a world where there are Octobers.” We will consider why autumn has such a strong connection with beauty, imagination, mystery, and changing seasons, and introduce the central themes of the seminar: autumn, harvest, folklore, Halloween, and the supernatural.
• 2. Autumn in Montgomery’s Writing (10–12 mins) - Explore L. M. Montgomery’s vivid descriptions of autumn in Prince Edward Island through *The Woods in Autumn* and *An Autumn Evening*. We will look at Montgomery’s colourful autumn landscapes, forests, falling leaves, twilight, fires, and changing seasons, while examining how she gives nature its own personality and transforms ordinary places into magical ones.
• 3. The Celtic Imagination & the “Good People” (8–10 mins) - Explore the fairies, “Good People,” wood sprites, elves, and other supernatural imagery that appears in Montgomery’s writing. We will consider the influence of Celtic folklore and traditions from the Scottish and Irish communities of Atlantic Canada, and examine why forests, hills, streams, fire, and twilight became such powerful settings for stories about the supernatural.
• 4. Halloween & Autumn Traditions (10–12 mins) - Explore Halloween as it would have been understood around Anne’s time, looking beyond modern costumes and trick-or-treating to older traditions involving harvest, darkness, fire, storytelling, fortune-telling, apples, and seasonal celebrations. We will also consider how Halloween developed through a mixture of older Celtic traditions, Christian observances, and later Victorian customs, including the traditions brought to Canada by Irish and Scottish communities.
• 5. Anne’s Haunted Wood (8–10 mins) - Return to Anne of Green Gables and explore Anne and Diana’s creation of the Haunted Wood. We will examine how Anne transforms an ordinary spruce grove into a place filled with ghosts, white ladies, skeletons, and mysterious stories—and why Anne admits that she does not really believe in these things “in daylight,” but finds them very different after dark. This section explores the relationship between imagination, fear, folklore, and the familiar landscape of Avonlea.
• 6. Twilight, Fire & the Magic of October (8–10 mins) - Bring Montgomery’s autumn writing and Anne’s Haunted Wood together through the imagery of twilight, mysterious forests, autumn fires, and the changing boundary between the familiar and the unknown. We will consider why the same landscape can feel peaceful during the day and eerie after dark, and how Montgomery uses imagination to make ordinary places feel extraordinary.
• 7. Closing Discussion & Q&A (5 mins) - Bring the seminar together around a final question: Why does autumn feel both beautiful and a little frightening? We will return to Montgomery’s ideas about October, imagination, nature, and mystery, while considering what makes autumn such a powerful season for storytelling.