Halloween has become a true challenge of creativity throughout the years, whether you choose the store bought route or opt for the DIY costume. When you were younger, you got to be a superhero or princess for the day and everyone in your neighborhood would give you candy. In college, it’s an excuse to go out and drink with your friends while dressed up as your favorite movie character or look like how your mom might have when she taught an aerobics class in her youth.
Dressing up on Halloween is rooted in an ancient Celtic festival where people would put on their most frightening masks to ward off ghosts. The door-to-door candy search began as a medieval tradition on November 1st, in which people went around the streets asking for food in exchange for prayers for the dead. However, the Halloween we know today wasn’t established until the 1920’s and 1930’s, where it became less secular and more based in community. 1950 marked the transition to the focus on younger children in order to limit vandalism.
This was not a complete success, however, as every kid who grew up in northern New Jersey like me remembers our holiday the night before Halloween: Mischief Night. All the moms in my town always remembered to bring in the newly carved jack-o-lanterns on October 30th, or risk them being smashed by the neighbors’ children. Families would wake up to shaving cream-covered lawns and toilet-papered trees. Laughter and skidding tires could be heard well passed 10:30 pm, and all of the adults in town accepted the pranks as part of the holiday festivities. I just wish that my mom had let me participate.
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Images courtesy of: History