Remember when we were kids, having a great time donning those Halloween costumes our parents had made, bought, or rented for us? We would gang up with the rest of the neighborhood kids and go around screaming “trick-or-treat!: like there’s no tomorrow, leaving our voices hoarse the next day. Well, we’ve basically experienced it; we let our kids practice it, but do we really know the origin of wearing Halloween costumes in the first place? Some of us may already know, but for the benefit of those who don’t, here’s the story.
The origin of the celebration can be traced back to the ancient Celts. They observed a feast called Samhain, a festival held at the end of the harvest season and marking the beginning of the Celtic New Year.
According to Celtic beliefs, during this time of year, the spirits of the dead will rise to the surface world and attempt to possess living bodies for the year to come. To prevent their bodies from being possessed, Celts would light bonfires and dress up in all sorts of morbid costumes to discourage the spirits of the dead from entering their bodies.
However, the practice of placing costumes in America can be traced back as recently as the 1900s. It was only in the 1930s that Halloween costumes began to be mass-produced. The typical costumes that people rent or make are those of various monsters, including, but not limited to, vampires, ghosts, ghouls, demons, witches, and skeletons.
Even on the night when evil is supposed to surface, “good” costumes are also a common choice among children and adults alike. In fact, princess, fairy and angel costumes often make it to the top ten list of top Halloween costumes.
Also popular are pop culture costumes that mimic famous personalities, fictional characters, celebrities, and even politicians, who share an equal share of exposure during Halloween. Women, no thanks to commercial advertising, have also found this a good time to wear sexy outfits to show off their bodies and sexual prowess. But that is another story.
Other costumes that seem to have a following are clowns, nurses, cats, and that lowly Halloween symbol, the pumpkin. Superhero characters are also fast becoming popular costumes, thanks in part to the comics-to-movie fever that has hit the silver screen in recent years. The demand for new and modern costumes has kept costume makers busy and rental services fully booked.
The fact that costumes for Halloween celebrations have become so varied that the modern tradition has overshadowed the earlier tradition, making wearing costumes during Halloween different from other dressing-up feasts. And that is the concept behind dressing up during Halloween: to mimic the supernatural, the ghoulish being, or basically, the scary stuff.
Nevertheless, who are we to keep traditions from adapting to modern times? Things will continually evolve; that’s just how things naturally work. We can’t simply insist on wearing only scary stuff during Halloween. Creativity will play a role in this aspect, and people will always crave new things.
So, notwithstanding the darker origins of wearing Halloween costumes, we and our children and their children will continue to celebrate this day for as long as there are candies to share and creativity to spare.