Julia Xia, Staff Writer
Everyone loves Halloween. You get to stay up past your bedtime, trick or treating in fun costumes while celebrating the classics of Halloween traditions like carving pumpkins, hanging up terrifyingly spooky decorations, and spreading creativity with haunting spooking ghost stories. But have you ever wondered why we celebrate Halloween? What is the reason behind putting on costumes and going door to door asking for candy. The celebration of this spooky holiday dates back to a Celtic festival called Samhain. During Samhain, people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. This happened on the first of November. Over time, the day before All Saints Day, October 31, came to be called Hallows Eve, and eventually, Halloween.
When Halloween spread to America, the different Halloween traditions the Europeans had come along with them. Many of these traditions clashed with Native American traditions which created a distinctly American Halloween. Although during the middle of the 19th century, Halloween still wasn’t celebrated everywhere. However, over time, people began to familiarize themselves with the holiday and soon enough Halloween was one of the most celebrated holidays along with Christmas and Thanksgiving in America.
When you think of a Halloween costume, your mind usually goes to a witch or your favorite movie or TV show character. But have you ever wondered what people wore 2,000 years ago when there weren’t any movie characters to dress up as? And what was the reason behind the tradition in the first place? The reason why people dressed up on Halloween was that they believed that during Halloween ghosts would pass over to the living world. They wanted to ensure that they would be safe. The Celtics would wear masks and costumes to trick a ghost into thinking they were the same.
As time went on, and Halloween was publicized, people began to dress up as their favorite movie or TV show characters, scary or not. Back in the 1920s, parents were against the idea of a scary holiday and pushed the idea that instead of dressing up as a scary ghost or vampire their kids could dress up as their favorite non-scary movie character.People began to dress up as their idols or as their favorite animals. Many companies tried to lease famous cartoon characters to create costumes that looked like them. One man, in particular, Ben Cooper, leased characters before they became famous, and soon became the King of Halloween.
Nowadays, Halloween has become a holiday where you can express yourself by wearing clothes you wish you could all the time, or just a day when you can look like your favorite characters. It is the day when kids can roam free and have fun with their friends and get lots of candy. Remembering how our Halloween traditions came to be is fascinating, but at the end of the day, it can’t compete with the fun of the actual day itself. So enjoy Halloween. Enjoy the time with your friends and family that only comes once a year.
