Today, we know Halloween as the holiday on October 31st where people dress up in costumes and participate in activities such as trick-or-treating, carving pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns, and attending festive gatherings. However, Halloween wasn’t always like this. Halloween’s origin dates about 2,000 years back to an Ancient Celtic festival called Samhain,
where the Celts believed that the worlds of the living and the dead would become intertwined. During the event, Druids (Celtic Priests) would build large bonfires, and the people would gather and sacrifice crops and animals. During the celebration, the Celtics would wear costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempt to tell each other’s fortunes.
However, Halloween costumes have immensely evolved from animal heads and skins. Costumes in the 1900’s were much more frightening than today. Costumes were not characters from shows or pop culture references but were aimed at an overall spooky theme. With the vandalism and violence of the Great Depression, many neighborhoods started traditions such as passing out candy, costume parties, and haunted houses to try and shift the holiday to be more positive. During this time, many of the costumes were homemade and the materials used for the costumes were very harsh and not very breathable. Especially in the masks, it was difficult to see and breathe, and the plastic was extremely hot, but the children loved every moment.
Today, Halloween costumes are very different. Aside from the materials being much more breathable, costumes are typically a reference to something in that year’s pop culture. For example, according to Forbes, in 2023 the most popular costume was Barbie. This obviously is an homage to the Barbie movie coming out that year. Halloween costumes have also become extremely diverse. According to a Google Search data collection in 2022, the top five costumes in the United States from least popular to most popular were a fairy, Stranger Things, a dinosaur, Spider-Man, and a witch. For the most part, all of these costumes fall into completely different categories and show how extremely diverse and fun Halloween costumes have become.
As costumes have become more breathable and fun as opposed to scary, one thing has remained the same. The joy children feel while donning their costumes and trick-or-treating has and will never change. Happy Halloween!
About the Author
Charlie Scriven Young is a freshman majoring in Film and Television with a minor in cinematography.
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