subject: Halloween The Festival Of Party Costumes [print this page] Halloween is marked with costume parties, children going around in groups asking treat or trick? which is responded by older people who give kids candy or sweets or even some money. Halloween costumes are also special with horror being the theme, orange and black being the traditional and much-used colors and dressing up as cadavers, monsters, skeleton, ghosts and witches are common Halloween party costumes.
As October is the end of autumn and the harvest season is just getting over, Halloween costumes are accessorized with the products of the season; sheaves of wheat and ears of corn and carving lanterns out of pumpkins is a must. Apart from the religious services that mark the Halloween festival, parties with fancy dress costumes or themed parties with Halloween themes of horror, death and gore are very popular.
Halloween is one festival when playing pranks on others especially the older people is socially acceptable. Children in Halloween costumes guising in the neighborhood is a common sight and parties in the evening are enjoyed with fancy dress costumes and Halloween themes.
History of Halloween
A recorded reference of Halloween has been found in Scottish literature of the late 1700s. This festival has been celebrated in Scotland, Ireland and England with all the fanfare of guising and parties with party costumes since then. In America, the first recorded reference of Halloween is from 1911 and the way this festival is celebrated is much the same as in England.
Halloween costumes are being used in America both by children and older people and guising has also been popular since the first decade of the twentieth century. For a few years the Halloween costumes were home-made attire and were not bought off the shelf in a store. This changed since the third decade and factory produced Halloween costumes, party costumes and even fancy dress costumes became available in stores.
There are also some games that are associated with Halloween parties that can be called traditional since they are being played since the last decades of the nineteenth century. Games such as apple bobbing and eating syrupy scones without touching them with hands that were played then are still popular at Halloween parties.
The favorite traditional fruit of the Halloween festival is the apple since it is the apple season. Apple treats in various forms such as candy apples, toffee apples, caramel apples that are covered with sugary syrup are the most traditional sweet treat that kids get when they come from door to door in their fancy dress costumes.
