Halloween Costumes

The tradition of dressing up in costume for Halloween goes back a long way - although the variety of costumes has changed considerably. Early costumes were, of course, all home made. Commercially produced Halloween costumed appeared on the US market in the 1950s and were popular for trick-or-treating. Since then the scope of the Halloween celebration has grown as has the range of costumes available to buy. Its certainly not just the kids who enjoy dressing up and a surprising number of guys seem to enjoy the excuse to wear drag!

Original pagan costumes tended to be related to the theme and ideas of Samhain - the night when the dead rose and evil walked the earth. Hence demons, witches and other scary creatures were common. These were possibly worn as part of a symbolic acting out of the threat from and eventual defeat of evil. Another suggestion is that people believed that by wearing these costumes they would blend in with the evil forces and be safe. Or maybe the pagans just knew how to have a good party!

When the Christian church adopted Samhain as All Hallows Eve, such pagan ideas and costumes were strongly discouraged. Eventually the rules were relaxed to allow dressing up as inspirational characters such as saints. That must have made for a rather dull costume party.

Today costumes come in many forms, you can buy everything from traditional spooky themes like skeletons and ghosts through to unusual outfits such as cartoon characters and - for adults - evil cowgirls and even parodies of politicians!

Come to think of it, certain politicians probably fit very well with the traditional approach...