Halloween is quickly approaching. Most people already know what their costume will be this year (except for me, who will probably figure it out the night before.) But this season, I realized that for how many times I have dressed up, gone trick or treating and feasted on candy with my friends, I know very little about how Halloween started. I also began to wonder how Halloween costumes have changed over time and with these questions in mind, I began my spooky search for answers.
I was surprised by the true origin of Halloween. You may have heard of the church-sanctioned All Saints’ Day that eventually morphed into the Halloween that we know and love today, but there is another tradition that really started things off. The Celtic holiday of Samhain marked their new year on the first of November and the beginning of the winter season. Winters were brutal back then and were often associated with death. This may have been part of what inspired Samhain for them. The Celts believed that on Samhain, “the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred.” On this day, fortune telling, costumes and bonfires were a common sight. Some of our other modern Halloween traditions like bobbing for apples began when Romans conquered the Celtic lands, combining two of their festivals with Samhain.
Another tradition, All Saints’ Day, played a big role in how we celebrate Halloween. This began when Pope Boniface IV created the event in the seventh century to honor the dead. It was celebrated with parades, bonfires and dressing up in costumes of angels, saints or devils. This was also known as All Hallows’ Day, making the night before it All Hallows’ Eve, which eventually morphed into Halloween. This was brought to America by the colonists and was eventually mixed with English and Irish traditions to start the practice of Trick-or-Treating.
As you can imagine, the costume styles associated with Halloween have changed as much as the holiday itself—if not more than it. In the 1900s, women would create their costumes by making papier-mâché masks. By the thirties, costumes were being mass-produced after popular characters by companies like Disney. In the 50s Hawaiian prints and cowgirl costumes were especially popular and many people went as “hula girls” due to related releases in the film industry. Superhero costumes were first popularized in the 60s—the debut of Cat-Woman and Wonder Woman on TV made for popular costumes during this decade. Masks maintained their popularity through the 80s, depicting political and pop culture figures such as E.T., Yoda and various presidents (which are still popular choices today). In the 90s, the Spice Girls were an extremely popular costume for both men and women. Trends continue to coincide with whoever is a prominent or popular figure that year, but throwback costumes are also still common choices.
Looking at these trends, it’s clear that after the 30s Halloween costumes were greatly influenced by the film industry and pop culture. This still applies today— just think of how many people went as the Stranger Things cast after that debuted. While choosing your costume this year, don’t be afraid to get creative! When in doubt, something relevant to this past year or putting your own spin on a classic costume is always a good choice.