Halloween has turned out to be one of the most commercial holidays of the entire year, perhaps only behind Christmas and possibly Easter. The intrinsic value which was once so important to the Europeans has been call but lost on us Americans. In fact, I would wager that 90 percent of those who celebrate Halloween have no idea why they do it.
Unfortunately, like most other holidays celebrated, it’s an excuse to have a good time rather than an actual celebration. Despite this, Halloween is one of the most fun holidays to celebrate. The candy, thrills, and costumes are what make it all exciting to us. Costumes, especially costumes for children, are probably the one thing that we stress about as Halloween approaches each year. Browsing the web recently, I’ve found out some very interesting things about costumes. Let me impart to you some of my newfound knowledge.
Some of the first known evidence of costumes was that they were used by the Celts back when they celebrated the holiday Samhain (celebrated on November 1), when spirits supposedly walked the Earth. In order to confuse the spirits or perhaps to avoid being possessed, the Celts would wear costumes, most likely animal skins. They would also wear costumes or blacken their faces to try to emulate their dead ancestors.
While there is still evidence of costumes after that, the real first push of mainstream costumes in America did not happen until the 1930s, when some of the first mass produced costumes were put on the market. Since then, costumes have been the most integral part of the modern Halloween celebration.
According to a poll conducted by the U.S. National Retail Federation in 2008 (as reported by National Geographic News), the U.S. Halloween spending reached about 5.7 million dollars. The average person will spend an average of $24.17 on costumes alone out of the $66 per person spent each Halloween.
In 2008, classic costumes still ruled the roost, with about 14 percent of 52 million adults planning to dress up as a witch/warlock. 10 percent of children (though I would assume they mean mostly girls) were going to dress up as a princess, and in fact, the only two of the five most popular costumes were pop culture references, with 3.7 percent planning to dress up as Hannah Montana and 3.5 percent planning to dress up as Spiderman.
The amount of time that goes into the costume each year is probably the most time spent on the holiday and there have certainly been some creative costumes make an appearance. I know I’ve gained an appreciation for the tradition of Halloween costumes and I hope you have too, so maybe Halloween will have a little bit of purpose behind it instead of just being another day to celebrate for no reason.
Emma Rae Curtis is a costume/dressing up/makeup & accessories expert. She mainly writes about Halloween but also about all things costume and dress-up related.
