Why costumes on halloween

Historically, Halloween stems from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. Druids Celtic priests would frequently burn enormous bonfires for the purpose of animal sacrifice since the Celts thought these spirits caused mischief. These masks were most likely made from animal skins or heads. During the medieval period, Christianity embraced October 31 in order to reinterpret pagan traditions as its own.

However, many folkloristic features of Samhain were adopted and handed down, including costumes only with minor alterations.

Because 11th century Christians chose to pray for the spirits of the dead instead of hiding from them, Halloween developed to be more about dressing up in costumes for the sake of ritual. Simons and Sons, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The costumes produced in America are testaments to the creative powers of ordinary people. The makers demonstrate a technical and aesthetic skill that reflects the handmade techniques used in home production and in factories before mass-machine production took over.

These costumes express the personal, social, and cultural identity of the people, and transcend the barriers of class and ethnicity. Halloween has become a uniquely American ritual, not only for children but for adults as well, and it grows in popularity from year to year.

Halloween has also become an important holiday for the gay community, with large, elaborate costume parades in San Francisco, New York's Greenwich Village, and other gay centers. Halloween allows individuals to experience and explore the shared ethnic, cultural, and folk celebrations that have engaged diverse peoples since ancient times.

The Jewish festival of Purim, which commemorates the Biblical story of Esther, is celebrated on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the twelfth month of the Jewish calendar, usually in March. In America, Purim celebrations have taken on many of the trappings of Halloween, with costumed children wielding noisemakers and giving gifts of food or donating to charity.

See also Occult Dress. Galembo, Phyllis. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Rogers, Nicholas. New York: Oxford University Press, Santino, Jack. Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life. Memphis: University of Tennessee Press, Folk Roots Halloween itself has deep folk roots.

Ben Cooper Halloween Costumes Clothing, Costume and Dress Halloween Costume Patterns Samhain was the first day of the Celtic New Year, and it was believed that the souls of those who had died were extremely restless this night, which marked the porous border between the living and the dead, the old and new year, and summer and winter. Style Origins View All. From pagan spirits to Wonder Woman: A brief history of the Halloween costume. A black-and-white photo from the early s shows a woman in rural America, her face covered with a sinister white mask.

In another, from , a tall figure stands in a field tightly wrapped in what looks like a white sheet and black tape, while a image shows three people driving to a party in hair-raising skull masks. Halloween costumes from the first half of the 20th century were terrifying. Drawing on the holiday's pagan and Christian roots -- as a night to ward off evil spirits or reconcile with death, respectively -- people often opted for more morbid, serious costumes than the pop culture-inspired ones of today, according to Lesley Bannatyne, an author who has written extensively about the history of Halloween.

Ancient roots. The genesis of Halloween costumes may date back over 2, years. Historians consider the Celtic pagan festival of Samhain, which marked summer's end and the beginning of the year's "darker" half in the British Isles, to be the holiday's precursor.

Photo taken in of a person wearing a ghost costume in a rural schoolhouse. And as for the witches and wizards that you've come to associate with it? They're part of the story, too. Here's the true tale of how Halloween officially came to be. You already know that Halloween takes place on the last day of October, but here's something you might not know: The word itself literally means "hallowed evening," and was previously known to early European celebrators as All Hallows' Eve.

The name was eventually shortened to "Halloween," which we know and love to this day. The pagan and Christian occasions hadn't always been back-to-back, though. Perhaps in an attempt to offset the occasion with a religious celebration, Pope Boniface IV ultimately made the call to change the observance to its current November 1 date.

Halloween falls on October 31 because the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain , considered the earliest known root of Halloween, occurred on this day. It marked a pivotal time of year when seasons changed, but more importantly, observers also believed the boundary between this world and the next became especially thin at this time, enabling them to connect with the dead.

This belief is shared by some other cultures; a similar idea is mentioned around the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, which also typically occurs in October and involves saying prayers for the dead. This is also where Halloween gains its "haunted" connotations. The early pagan holiday of Samhain involved a lot of ritualistic ceremonies to connect to spirits, as the Celts were polytheistic.

While there isn't a lot of detail known about these celebrations, many believe the Celts celebrated in costume granted, they were likely as simple as animal hides as a disguise against ghosts, enjoyed special feasts, and made lanterns by hollowing out gourds hence, the history of jack-o'-lanterns.

Over time, as Christianity took over and the pagan undertones of the holiday were lessened, the basic traditions of the holiday remained a part of pop culture every year; they simply evolved and modernized. The mystical rituals of earlier times evolved into more lighthearted fun and games.

For example, the somewhat heavy concept of connecting to the dead was replaced with the more lighthearted idea of telling the future.