The Origin of The Halloween Costume

For those of us who passionately love Halloween, the season's preparations have already begun.  Part of every child and adult's preparation is deciding on a costume.  This is perhaps the most beloved part of any Halloween celebration.  Dressing up as a sexy maid or a horrible zombie is the Hallmark of our modern Holiday celebration. But as Halloween creeps up on us, I always think it is fun to think back to where this tradition came from. It is good to know why we dress up on Halloween. Halloween's history is most commonly traced back to the Celtic festival of Samhain. During Samhain, the Celts believed that the divider between this world and the next became thin. This thinning allowed both malevolent and benevolent spirits to cross over to our world. This naturally caused a good deal of fear and anxiety for the ancient Celts. While family ghosts were welcomed, bad spirits had to be scared off. Celts used bonfires to drive evil spirits off. They also used apotropaic devices to scare off bad spirits.

Apotropaic literally means to ward off evil but apotopaic devices are often devices that are so terrifying that they scare away evil. My favorite examples of apotropaic devices are the gargoyles and terrible monsters that line the outside and insides of medieval cathedrals in Europe. The most holy places in the medieval world were lined with horrifying demons and monsters that are often depicted devouring people and animals. These horrors were so terrible that medieval people thought that even evil spirits would be frightened off.

Costumes were used as both apotropaic devices and disguises to confuse the spirits. In Scotland, young men pretended to be dead by blackening their faces. These costumes evolved over the years and were eventually used in the late medieval practice of souling when poor people would go door to door asking for food. This practice eventually evolved into costumed trick or treating. So as you plan your costume this year remember that it should not only be interesting, but it should scare off evil spirits as well!

My Top Picks for This Year's Halloween Costume!

September is here and I can almost hear Halloween knocking on the door. Spirit Halloween opened its doors.  Halloween decorations are everywhere and all the early birds are beginning their Halloween plans.  I am one of those Halloween early birds and I am already plotting and planning for my Halloween costume.  Here are a few of my top choices.  What do you think?

 

 

Costumes Shown can be found at the pyramid collection, costumes.com, new egg costumes, and The Lost Boutique on Etsy.

Why We Wear Halloween Costumes

One of the most popular parts of Halloween is the costumes.  Dressing up as a sexy maid or a horrible zombie is the Hallmark of our modern Holiday celebration.  But as Halloween creeps up on us, I always think it is fun to think back to where this tradition came from.  It is good to know why we dress up on Halloween.  Halloween's history is most commonly traced back to the Celtic festival of Samhain. During Samhain, the Celts believed that the divider between this world and the next became thin. This thinning allowed both malevolent and benevolent spirits to cross over to our world. This naturally caused a good deal of fear and anxiety for the ancient Celts. While family ghosts were welcomed, bad spirits had to be scared off. Celts used bonfires to drive evil spirits off. They also used apotropaic devices to scare off bad spirits.

Apotropaic literally means to ward off evil but apotopaic devices are often devices that are so terrifying that they scare away evil. My favorite examples of apotropaic devices are the gargoyles and terrible monsters that line the outside and insides of medieval cathedrals in Europe. The most holy places in the medieval world were lined with horrifying demons and monsters that are often depicted devouring people and animals. These horrors were so terrible that medieval people thought that even evil spirits would be frightened off.

Costumes were used as both apotropaic devices and disguises to confuse the spirits. In Scotland, young men pretended to be dead by blackening their faces. These costumes evolved over the years and were eventually used in the late medieval practice of souling when poor people would go door to door asking for food. This practice eventually evolved into costumed trick or treating. So as you plan your costume this year remember that it should not only be interesting, but it should scare off evil spirits as well!

Halloween Fashion

I really do wish Halloween were everyday and the costumes below are why.  I would love to dress up every day.   Here are my pick of my favorite costumes I've seen so far this year.  I found many of  them on etsy.com and a couple of them at http://wearydrearies.deviantart.com//    I also found several including the costume I'll be wearing this year tat cosplaysky.com.  It is a shame we can't dress like this year round!  This post was inspired by a post by labyrinth creations and her post on the same subject.  



Should I be Mrs Lovett?

So I bought my Halloween costume months ago, but I'm seriously tempted by this.  I love Sweeney Todd.  For the line,,, "The History of the world, my love, is those below serving those up above.  How gratifying for once to know that those above will be serving those down below."  alone.   So should I change my mind and be Mrs. Lovett?  I even have her insane curly hair.

The Origins of Halloween Costumes

Halloween's history is most commonly traced back to the Celtic festival of Samhain.  During Samhain, the Celts believed that the divider between this world and the next became thin.  This thinning allowed both malevolent and benevolent spirits to cross over to our world.  This naturally caused a good deal of fear and anxiety for the ancient Celts.  While family ghosts were welcomed, bad spirits had to be scared off.  Celts used bonfires to drive evil spirits off.  They also used apotropaic devices to scare off bad spirits.  

Apotropaic literally means to ward off evil but apotopaic devices are often devices that are so terrifying that they scare away evil.  My favorite examples of apotropaic devices are the gargoyles and terrible monsters that line the outside and insides of medieval cathedrals in Europe.  The most holy places in the medieval world were lined with horrifying demons and monsters that are often depicted devouring people and animals.  These horrors were so terrible that medieval people thought that even evil spirits would be frightened off.  

Costumes were used as both apotropaic devices and disguises to confuse the spirits.  In Scotland, young men interpreted the dead by blackening their faces.  These costumes evolved over the years and were eventually used in the late medieval practice of souling when poor people would go door to door asking for food.  This practice eventually evolved into costumed trick or treating.   So as you plan your costume this year remember that it should not only be interesting, but it should scare off evil spirits as well!

The White Lady of the Philipines

It is probably no surprise that I love Halloween.  I wait all year for Halloween, so I was thrilled when my Halloween costume came today.   I ordered this one and in order to celebrate my love of ghost stories,  I am going to be a white lady this year for Halloween.  White Ladies are my favorite ghosts.   They are tragic, romantic figures wandering the shadowy realm between this world and the next.   White Ladies are the ghosts of young women who died tragically, often times for love.  They are always seen in long white dresses.   Every culture seems to have these white lady phantoms.   Carl Jung would have loved them.   It is no surprise that they are popular in the Philippines, as they seem to be popular everywhere.  My father is Filipino, so when I found this story, I couldn't resist putting it here as one of my favorite white lady stories.

The most popular Filipino white lady is the White Lady of Balete Drive. Like most white ladies,  this white lady appears as a long haired beauty in  lovely white gown.   During World War II,  the Japanese occupied the Philippines and were particularly cruel and brutal to the locals.   This is no surprise.  The Japanese atrocities during World War II were legendary and never were they worse than the Rape of Nanjing and the Rape of Manila, in the Philippines.  They called what the Japanese did to these two cities rapes, because they not only committed genocides, but did particularly perverse and sexually deviant things to the city's residents before they killed them.  Although this white lady is not from Manila, she was a victim of rape at the hands of Japanese soldiers during  World War II.   According to legend, she was raped and killed by Japanese soldiers during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II.   Most of the stories associated with her are told by taxi drivers who have seen her on the road late at night.   Other drivers and travellers have also seen her wandering the lonely moonlit road of Balete Drive.  She is often blamed for the accidents along this road.  that Most of the stories that have come out about her were told by taxi drivers doing the graveyard shift.   One taxi driver even claims she asked him for a ride.

I found another interesting Filipino white lady story at http://www.castleofspirits.com/whitelady.html .  This is a first hand account of an encounter with a white lady and as I could not do the story justice by retelling it,  I thought it was more appropriate to put a link.  As I get ready for Halloween,  I will be thinking of these tragic white ladies.  I hope my costume does them justice.  My dress is above.