Tag: costumes

It’s hard to imagine what Halloween celebrations will be like this year. Will there be clusters of costumed kids at the doorstep calling out “trick or treat” from under their masks? Instead of the usual masks of princesses, animals, and superheroes, will this year’s masks be nose and mouth coverings to contain germs from possible coronavirus superspreaders? Will parents regard every package of candy as being a possible COVID carrier, the wrapper on each piece needing to be washed or wiped down?

If you are looking for a socially- distanced haunted Halloween activity, you might want to check out The Horrorland, a nighttime drive-thru haunted Halloween experience being held October 1 – 31 in Miramar. We haven’t tested the fear factor, but according to their website, it is not recommended for children under 13. For more information, go to https://thehorrorland.com.

While we can’t quite predict what Halloween will be like in the present or the future, we can tell you something about its past…

Halloween history highlights

The origin of Halloween is often credited to the Celts, who lived in what is now the general area of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France about 2,000 years ago. On October 31st, they celebrated the festival of Samhain, (pronounced sow-win) which marked the end of the harvest and the start of winter and a new year. Celts believed that the worlds of the living and the dead came close together at this time and that they could connect with spirits and ghosts of their ancestors.

While some spirits were thought to cause mayhem, others were thought to help see into the future. On Samhain, Celts feasted, made lanterns from hollowed-out gourds, told fortunes, built bonfires, and chose which animals would need to be slaughtered for the winter.

When Christianity reached the Celtic areas, the pagan rituals were strongly discouraged. The church recognized November 2nd as All Souls’ Day — a day to honor the dead — and November 1st as All Saints’ Day, also called All-Hallows (hallows meaning saints or holy people). Thus, October 31st was All-Hallows Eve (now known as Halloween), but the light-hearted celebrations with trick or treating, decorations, and parties we know today only evolved in the United States and Canada over time.

Colonists in New England, with their strict religious practices, did not embrace Halloween celebrations; southern colonies were more likely to celebrate by telling fortunes, sharing tales of the dead, dancing, and singing.

When Irish and Scottish immigrants came to the United States in great numbers during the second half of the 1800s, they brought their Halloween traditions with them, including community parties with games and costumes. One of the traditions that was popular around the turn of the 19th century and now long gone, was Halloween being a time for a young, unmarried woman, to foretell her future spouse. She would throw an apple peel over her shoulder, believing it would land in the shape of the first initial of her future husband, or that by looking in the mirror Halloween night, she would see an image of the man she would wed.