History of Halloween Costumes

Since centuries, October 31 is marked as a day of family celebration throughout much of the Ireland and United Kingdom and is renowned as Halloween. It is a secular holiday which is celebrated as a combination of customs with relics of traditional harvest festival. During Halloween, people wear different costumes, decorate their houses for hosting Halloween parties, they perform trick or treat, pranksterism and so many weird things that depict some ghostly activities. Halloween costumes, decorations, treats are more specific and are based on imagery of the supernatural, souls and death. History of Halloween costumes reveals some scary facts that support this custom.

As a part of Halloween celebration people ate traditional foods which include oats, apples, cabbages, nuts, potatoes. Playing scary games, disguises, fortunetelling and tricks, all these activities contributes to the celebrations in much of Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland. Fireworks, trick or treat are not only enjoyed by the kids but even the adults have fun doing all these activities. Though until the end of the last few decades it was regarded as a children's holiday, in recent years all the general Halloween activities like theme decorations, preparing Halloween treats , hosting costume parties, trick or treating, wearing masks have became quite popular among the adults too, making Halloween a holiday of all ages.

What is the history of Halloween Costumes?

Over 2000 years ago, October 31 was marked as the end of the harvest season and November 1st was marked as the beginning of winter and the cold dark season was usually linked with death. November 1st is celebrated as New Year by the Celts in the Ireland, Northern France and United Kingdom. It was the belief of the Celtic that on the night before the New Year Halloween night, the cloak between the land of the living world and the dead becomes blur; this night is celebrated as Samhain.

Celts believed that on the Halloween night, the evil spirits haunted the land to harm the human life and the harvested crops. This night was thought to be time when the Priests and Druids acquire greatest ability predict the future. For the common people or the folks, these predictions would work as an insight which sometimes provides comfort from the dark cold that may lie further on. Druids light large bonfires where the folks join to sacrifice their animals and crops to primeval divinity.

According to the history of Halloween costumes, during this celebration the Druids used to wear the costumes that are made from the skins and heads of the animals, this activity marked to spread their foresights and celebrating the dark winter night. When the celebration comes to an end, the Celts used to relight their dwellings from the bonfire lights of the celebrations to shield their home with the help of the God they worshipped during this dark winter. After the Celtic land was conquered by the Romans in 43 A.D.,two traditional festivals were merged: the Roman and the Celtic Samhain.

Facts related to the Halloween Costumes

The history of the Halloween costumes says that the folks wore the scary costumes with an belief that on the Halloween night the evil spirits come into the living world to harm the earth, so in order to hide or do not get recognized as an human, people wear ghostly costumes. They try to shield themselves from the awful intentions of the evil power.

Ancient Halloween costumes highlighted the gothic and pagan nature of Halloween and were usually aimed as a part of children's celebration. People usually designed their costumes at home, by using certain things that are easily available. But after some decades these costumes get evolved to a variety of outfits. Halloween costumes are usually designed to emulate ghostly beings, monsters and supernatural things. These costume designs involves skeletons, vampire, witches, ghosts and devils. In recent years, the characters like super heroes and aliens that are inspired by the science fiction came into existence.

Some costumes are based on pop culture figures like celebrities, athletes, presidents, or television and movie characters. Non scary Halloween costumes for young girls would be farm animals, angels, princesses, flowers and fairies while for adult women it would be something sexy that will look trendier as well.

So! What's your plan to wear this Halloween? History of Halloween costumes reveals many facts related to the outfits that people often wear during Halloween.