The History of Halloween Costumes

Halloween is such a special time of year for people of all ages. It assuredly does not matter who it is there is all the time an opportunity to have fun. Some people show it in different ways.

The first to scrutinize Halloween were the Celts sometime in 2867 B.C. The holiday was known as Samhain back then. Celts believed that deceased family and enemies rejoined the earth dressed as beasts on Samhain. As you can imagine, this produced quite a feeling of fear among the Celts, particularly the children. It is opinion that this is where the tradition of dressing up as something unlike yourself began.

All Halloween Costumes

Many people dress up in Halloween costumes or put on make up to alter their appearance. It can be as easy as wearing a hat that you would not normally wear. Some people will go to the other greatest though and totally alter all about them. This means wearing makeup or masks that convert the color, texture and thickness of their skin. This could also mean wearing very extravagant clothing or costumes to fit the part of the character they want to portray.

The History of Halloween Costumes

Others will take it to a different level and decorate their homes with Halloween themed pictures, placards, signs, lights, skeletons, mummies, and vampires. It is also pretty coarse to purchase a smoke machine to create a confident mystical ambiance when trick-or-treaters or party guests coming the house and enter their home. Big cob webs and engaging red glistening blood splatters and puddles add an especially great touch to the whole scene.

Mothers also love Halloween because it is such great time to shower their babies, children, and pets with love. The love is shown straight through cute, comical halloween costumes that are either handmade or store bought. either way, many pictures are taken as well during these fun times to make sure all is documented for later on in life.

Halloween is normally a wonderful neighborhood bonding opportunity as well. There are not many other times in the year where it is perfectly appropriate to coming your neighbors houses at dusk, ring their door bells and say hello by yelling "Trick or Treat". Even more strange about the whole caress is that you do this for almost your whole neighborhood, or as many houses are occupied at the occasion and answering their doors.

Although every person would like Halloween to be a safe and joyous time of year, it is not necessarily all the time that way. There are a few things that every person should be aware of either child, adult, or elderly. First, children have to be on the watch out for other kids who take the opportunity to reek havoc on this unconventional day. They will often straight through eggs at other children. Sometimes they are just plain eggs, but sometime they are rotten eggs or even worse eggs filled with Nair hair remover. Parents have to worry about candy that is not safe getting into their children's candy sacks. Every year there are stories of kids receiving candy with poison on it or even apples with razor blades inside. Very macabre indeed. Elderly should also be on the look out themselves. Right around this time of year, many parts of the United States and Canada have trees that are losing their leaves as fall approaches winter. These leaves can get very slick as they get wet and begin to decompose slightly, and therefore elderly folks should be more aware of the steps they are taking out on the street.

The History of Halloween Costumes

A Brief History of Halloween

On Halloween, children of all ages don their determined chosen costumes of ghosts, super heroes, monsters, and all things in between, and head out at sunset to roam the streets, going door to door request neighbors for candy and other yummy treats. In the beginning, though, Halloween was more than just a fun time for children. Halloween is a very old holiday, dating back to pagan traditions.

Celtic Tradition

All Halloween Costumes

Its origins date back to a Celtic festival called Samhain (pronounced Sah-ween or Sow-in). The Celts paramount the beginning of the new year on November 1st. On the last evening of the year, October 31, they believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to the earth. These ghosts roamed the world, causing damage to crops and performing other mischief, as they searched for living bodies to possess.

A Brief History of Halloween

Not surprisingly, the living were not keen to have their bodies inhabited by these ghosts, so on that night, they would dress in scary costumes, and parade the town, hoping to frighten the spirits away, and make it to the morning unscathed.

After the Celtics lands were taken by the Romans, Samhain was absorbed with two Roman holidays. Feralia was a day in October to commemorate the passing of the dead. Pomona was a day to celebrate the goddess of fruit and trees. (The symbol of Pomona was an apple, which may account for the adoption of the Halloween tradition of bobbing for apples.)

All Saints and All Souls

In the 7th century, in an exertion to replace substitute Samhain with a Christian holy day, the Catholic Church named November 1 as All Saint's Day, a day to honor saints and martyrs. The church tried again in the 9th century, development November 2 All Souls Day, a day when the living prayed for the souls of the dead. Neither exertion was very successful. Trick-or-treating is said to have advanced from the All Souls Day custom of habitancy going community to community begging for "soul cakes" bread made with currants. The more cakes they received, the more prayers they would offer on profit of the givers dead relatives who were in purgatory. However, some sources say that this tradition had all but disappeared long before the North American tradition of trick-or-treating began.

By the 1500s, All Saint's Day had become All Hallows' Day, and Samhain had begun to be known as All Hallows' Evening, Hallow Evening, and eventually, Halloween. After the Reformation, Halloween celebrations were combined with Guy Fawkes' Day (November 5).

Halloween in North America

In the New World, Halloween was not celebrated. In fact, because of the Puritan tradition, all celebrations were determined immoral and even Christmas was scarcely observed before the 1800s.

Halloween was not a beloved festival, but it did growth in popularity with the arrival of two million Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine. Nonetheless, by the end of the Civil War, in 1865, less than 5% of the United States habitancy (mostly the Catholics and Episcopalians) paramount Halloween and All Saints' Day. determined to continue these traditions, the churches started campaigns to popularize the celebration. There is limited documentation, however on Halloween prior to the 1900s.

In 1921, Anoka, Minnesota had the first valid citywide Halloween celebration. In 1923, New York joined in and La in 1925. It was not long before Halloween was a nationwide celebration.

A Brief History of Halloween