Halloween is a time of year for carving pumpkins, watching spooky movies and of course, dressing up in costumes.
Halloween costumes as we know today started with a Celtic pagan festival of Samhain during the end of summer to bring into the darker, spookier fall season by lighting a bonfire, making sweet treats, and wearing costumes to rid off evil spirits. Though Halloween didn’t start in America, the holiday started to gain traction when Scottish and Irish Immigrants came to America during the turn of the century.
Costumes back then were largely handmade, and quite a bit scarier compared to the costumes we have today, that are largely manufactured and aren’t as quite uncanny. Because of this Halloween costumes were mostly things people were able to make at home such as Ghosts, Pumpkins, Witches or Cats. But, as pop culture and cinema grew, more and more people wanted to dress up as the characters they saw on the big screen, especially children.
This brings us to two big Halloween costume manufacturers, H. Halpern Company and Ben Cooper. H. Hapern started in the 1920s making costumes of popular cartoon characters, such as Popeye. Ben Cooper would appear later on the scene, getting licenses to make costumes of characters as quickly as possible. Halloween costumes have also evolved over time. Gone were the days of children mostly all dressing up as ghosts, now kids could dress up to be an entire league of superheroes if they so desired.
We can see how Halloween costumes have become about connecting with the dead and warding off evil spirits and more about escapism, to indulge with our inner fantasies and dress up as our favorite characters.
Now in the 21st century, no longer are we strictly limited to costumes sewn by our mother. Now, we can go out and get a costume from Spirit Halloween for about 30 dollars. People today are dressing up as their favorite celebrities, such as Chappell Roan, or their favorite superhero, such as Spiderman, and some even dress up as funny niche memes. In our modern times, Halloween costumes are more of a way to self express who we are, what we like, what we find funny. Most people no longer wear Halloween costumes for the original pagan tradition concepts.
Halloween as we know it now has evolved far past it’s roots, turning into a consumerist yet fun holiday, with lots of value for many who enjoy watching scary movies, eating plenty of candy, and of course getting dressed up in a costume.
