Halloween Costume

Halloween, also known as Halloweíen, is a religious/cultural holiday that is celebrated every year on the night of 31st October. The festival of Halloween traces its origin to the Pagan Celtic holiday of Samhain, which in Christian times was also the eve of All Saints Day. Halloween is a rather unique festival and spans activities such as ghost tours, bonfires, trick-or-treating, visiting "haunted houses", carving Jack-oí-lanterns, costume parties, reading scary stories and watching horror movies. The festival of Halloween is very popular in Ireland (the place where Halloween originated in the first place), the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, Puerto Rico, Australia and New Zealand.

The festival Halloween, as we know it in its current form, is very recent. Halloween originated with the Irish immigration to the New World in the nineteenth century; during the Irish immigration to the United States, many Irish immigrants bought along with the rich culture of Ireland. Among the things the Irish immigrants introduced into America were the traditions and practices related to Halloween. Halloween was adopted by other western countries in the late twentieth century. Today, though Halloween is spreading all across the globe, it has become more associated with the American pop phenomenon, and has arguably lost some of its religious/cultural significance.

Perhaps the most common image that one associates with Halloween is people dressed in crazy and whacky Halloween costumes. Halloween costumes are theme costumes worn by people while celebrating Halloween. It is speculated by many that Halloween costumes are as old as Halloween itself and date back to the ancient Celtic celebrations of the Samhain; however, no information or evidence has been found to certify this claim. In fact, evidence states that Halloween costumes and masks are very much a modern day affair, and started off in the twentieth century. Halloween costumes gained popularity in the United States in the early 1900s. In the 1930s, with the rise in the popularity of trick-or-treat games, mass produced Halloween costumes began appearing in the United States.

Most Halloween costumes are designed to imitate supernatural and evil creatures, and more often than not feature monsters such as vampires, ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils. Primarily, Halloween costumes are categorized into two, kids and adults. Kids Halloween costumes portray both traditional Halloween characters and modern-day popular personas. Boys Halloween costumes often portray superheroes (such as Batman, Spiderman, etc) or popular fictional personas such as Harry Potter, Thomas the Tank Engine, etc. Among boys, pirate costumes are also very popular. Girls Halloween costumes, more often than not, portray princesses or witches. Fairies, angels, and Disney characters are also very popular. Also available are infant Halloween costumes which are specifically designed for babies and toddlers. These usually portray cute and pretty characters and are seldom scary.

Adult Halloween costumes are somewhat different from kids Halloween costumes in the sense that these are darker. Mens Halloween costumes typically portray vampires, clowns, mythological animals, etc. Ladies Halloween costumes typically portray nurses, vampires, witches, etc. There is also an increasing trend among womens Halloween costumes of particularly revealing attiresófor example, Playboy costumes.

There are many online stores that sell Halloween items such as Halloween masks, gloves, wigs, shoes, accessories, costume sets, etc. Some sites also contain elaborate tips on how to organize a rather better Halloween party.