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You guys remember those Halloween costumes from the 70s and 80s? They certainly have changed over the years. It's crazy what you can dress up as now. Movie characters, celebrities, superheroes, and those ridiculous blowup things that deserve some fart spray.
Do you know what the original purpose for dressing up on Halloween was?
If you remember from Night One, people believed that Samhain was a time when spirits and other supernatural beings could move among the living. One explanation for Halloween disguises is that people covered their faces or changed their appearance so those spirits wouldn't recognize them.
The crap we tell ourselves… Lol.
The documented history of dressing up is a bit complicated. We obviously don't have solid evidence showing exactly what people wore back then during their celebrations, but what we do know is that people in Scotland, Ireland, and other parts of Europe had traditions involving masks, disguises, and visiting homes.
One of those traditions was called **guising**, from the word *disguise*.
People back then dressed up, often using whatever they could find, and went around their communities. This included darkening their faces, wrapping themselves in unusual clothing, wearing masks, and even using pillowcases over their heads. In Scotland, it eventually became closely associated with Halloween.
Here's something interesting that I found, though. Guising wasn't always a Halloween tradition. In earlier centuries, people would also dress up and go from house to house during Christmas, New Year's, and other winter celebrations. Sometimes they performed songs, jokes, or little plays, and in return they might receive food, drink, or money.
Have you ever heard of **mumming**? It's actually not what you think. This was a tradition that involved disguises and performances. These customs existed in different forms throughout Britain and Europe.
Can you imagine telling a bunch of kids today that they have to perform for their treats on Halloween?
Damn, I got another idea now… Lol.
Eventually, Irish and Scottish immigrants brought their customs to North America, and Halloween continued to change.
By the late 1800s and early 1900s, Americans were celebrating with parties, games, costumes, and plenty of mischief. Most of the early costumes were homemade. Popular frightening figures included ghosts, witches, and skeletons. But the point was often just to look strange or scary enough that nobody would recognize you.
Some of the costumes from the early 1900s are absolutely terrifying. Some of them actually creep me out more than the costumes out today.
During the first half of the 20th century, commercial costumes gradually became more common. By the 50s, mass-produced costumes were becoming more affordable, and children were dressing as everything from monsters to cowboys, princesses, and television characters.
And that, folks, brings us a little closer to the Halloween that most of us Gen Xers remember.
Those boxed costumes with the plastic mask, the elastic string that inevitably snapped… usually as I was trying to put it over my damn head, and that ridiculously small breathing hole.
You couldn't see, not only because of the small eyeholes, but because you were sweating profusely. And somehow you were supposed to make it around the neighborhood without falling over something.
But dammit, we loved them.
As you can see, Halloween costumes didn't come from one single tradition. They developed through centuries of beliefs about spirits, seasonal disguises, community celebrations, and eventually the Halloween parties and costumes we recognize today.
**So here's my question tonight: What was your favorite Halloween costume growing up? And were you one of the kids with the plastic mask, or did somebody actually make your costume?**
**Bonus question… What was, or maybe still is, your favorite candy?**
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