Halloween Costumes!

[Trapy]

What are your Halloween costumes going to be?

I ask because I still haven't got mine!I have a mask from V for vendetta, but I'll be at a party, and would like to have face clear for drinking. Otherwise I'm thinking of going as a victim in a horrible accident (Shirt with tire tracks, stained blood, etc), or evil-bloodied up surgeon. Thought Vampire for a while, but it's going to be HOT at this party (I don't mean like that, I mean, the temperature at this place is off, and it's constantly on "slightly uncomfortably warm) and I'm not sure white face paint is a good idea because of that, but maybe... maybe...

My 2 lil half-Swedish/American nieces are going trick or treating as Witches (6+4yrs)

[Aleco]

We don't normally celebrate Halloween here. Each year, about two groups come knocking at the door, but that's all. Most people aren't prepared, and haven't got anything to give, and the old people don't understand a thing.

[JackFrost]

I'm working on Halloween night at the club... So guess what I'm going to wear? Black shoes, black pants, black shirt, and black belt. Stupid.

[Eoghan]

I have absolutely no idea... I'm sort of thinkin' about going as a Scottish / Celtic ghost... We'll see about that...

[nighean-neonach]

I celebrate Samhain, not Halloween, and that doesn't include costumes.

[ILuvEire]

I celebrate Samhain, not Halloween, and that doesn't include costumes.

No costumes! Is Samhain a different cultures take on a similar subject, or is it a totally different holiday, that happens to fall on October 31?

[Trapy]

Hmm, I went out to get Surgeon outfit, and, to my surprise [/sarcasm], on Oct 30th... People are quite short on costumes! Yes, I should have thought about this earlier... but didn't know about this costume party till yesterday.

Anyway, everywhere <everywhere> is sold out of red dye. So I got some red jello (Jelly mix) and will use a cheap buttoned up shirt and sawdust mask, stain them strategically, and use that as a sort of "medical student gone wrong"

[Eoghan]

I celebrate Samhain, not Halloween, and that doesn't include costumes.

No costumes! Is Samhain a different cultures take on a similar subject, or is it a totally different holiday, that happens to fall on October 31?

I celebrate Samhain as well, happy new year to you too Nighean-Neònach, but it's not really an option to stay home tomorrow if you're a student and you want to keep your friends...

Samhain is a Celtic holiday, often regarded to be the Celtic New Year, a day when the gates to the other world is supposed to be open and a day when one can reflect on the things one did last year, as well as remembering the ancestors, and as my family brought me up celebrating the eight sabbats I of course do celebrate Samhain. This year however, I've been invited to a Halloween party and can't sort of decide whether or not to bother. I don't really want to dress up, as it seems stupid, and "dressing up" as a wizard seems as mocking my own religion...

The thing is that almost all things you non-pagans do on Halloween is stolen from Samhain - the Jack-Oh-Lanterns, the candles, the talk about the ancestors, the apple games, the pumpkins,and to some degree the costumes as well, it's a tradition from Isle of Man where the weeans used to dress up as ghosts to scare the evil spirits away.

As we invite the spirits into our homes on Oìdhche Samhna, we need to scare the evil ones away, hence the jack-oh-lanterns, and I always keep a candle burning all through the night on Samhain in order to guide my ancestors home...,

[sa wulfs]

Dressing up *is* stupid, but it's also fun. There's no need to overanalyze it, and dressing up and having fun in Halloween doesn't imply anything about your attitude towards Samhain, or towards anything but dressing up and having fun.

I'm not a big fan of Halloween, but I don't understand the whole anti-American spite many people show whenever it comes around. Not saying this is your case, but it's something that many people definitely do.

[Eoghan]

I'm not a big fan of Halloween, but I don't understand the whole anti-American spite many people show whenever it comes around. Not saying this is your case, but it's something that many people definitely do.

No, it definately has nothing to do with Halloween being an American costume; I would probably celebrate it whole-heartedly together with friends if I lived in the States, but in Sweden it's nothing but a commercial rip-off... Celebrating Halloween in the US would be something I would consider doing, here, it mainly seems like I'm making fun of my own family's traditions by commercialising them... But I've already decided on going to the party tomorrow so any tips on last minute costumes would be greatly appreciated

[nighean-neonach]

I celebrate Samhain, not Halloween, and that doesn't include costumes.

No costumes! Is Samhain a different cultures take on a similar subject, or is it a totally different holiday, that happens to fall on October 31?

Samhain is what the whole Halloween stuff comes from It is a traditional Gaelic holiday, the end of the year, and for me it has a spiritual / religious / philosophical meaning.

but it's not really an option to stay home tomorrow if you're a student and you want to keep your friends...

So much peer pressure?
For me this is the single most important holiday of the year, and I don't give a *** about what other people might think. I'm simply not available that night. But anyway, Halloween is just not that big here in Germany. Some teenagers might celebrate it, and there might be some fancy club nights or stuff like that, but I suppose for many people it's just going to be an ordinary Friday night out.

[Eoghan]

but it's not really an option to stay home tomorrow if you're a student and you want to keep your friends...

So much peer pressure?
For me this is the single most important holiday of the year, and I don't give a *** about what other people might think.

Oh hell yeah, but mostly because I'm one of the three co-directors of the International Student Union at our university so I'm supposed to be present at every single lil party where exchange students meet, but I've told them so many times I'm not really up for it, but sort of agreed to go - anyway, there'll be Halloween parties on Saturday as well so I might end up staying home tomorrow after all, celebrating Samhain... We'll see about it...

Hope you'll have a blessed Samhain anyway

[Trapy]

But I've already decided on going to the party tomorrow so any tips on last minute costumes would be greatly appreciated

Pirate is really popular, so are politicians. Ninjas, or going to the stereotype frankenstein, Vampire, Werewolf and Mummy are also classics. The main thing is to have fun with it, so anything that is origional scores bonus points, as long as people get it.

Heres mine in bad quality:

[JackFrost]

The thing is that almost all things you non-pagans do on Halloween is stolen from Samhain - the Jack-Oh-Lanterns, the candles, the talk about the ancestors, the apple games, the pumpkins,and to some degree the costumes as well, it's a tradition from Isle of Man where the weeans used to dress up as ghosts to scare the evil spirits away.

Stolen? Are you being a tad dramatic? It was the Irish that brought over Halloween to the USA and the Americans made a tradition out of it by their style. Is that wrong?

By the way, pumpkins come from North America. The Celtic pagans never knew what they are or what jack-o'-lanterns are (jack-o'-lantern is an American invention). I guess you're talking about the old European tradition of carving out turnips and put a candle in them. That's where Americans got the idea of using a pumpkin for similar effect. Jack-o'-lantern predated the Irish immigration and the arrival of Halloween traditions themselves in North America and it was a symbol of harvest, not a symbol to scare out the evil. It didn't become a symbol of Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century. Then the Irish came along and said that the purpose of jack-o'-lantern is also to ward off the evil. And why pumpkins and not turnips? Simple...pumpkins were easier to grow and carve in North America than turnips­.

When I was a boy, my family always grew (and still do grow) pumpkins at the backyard and they're always last to get harvested (usually at the end of September before the first frost). Then we place them on the front porch. It's always been a tradition for me telling me that gardening is over and to get ready for winter. I never knew one of its roots was to ward off the evils until a few years ago. I had more like the impression of "Oh, the pumpkins are ready! I guess it's the end of havest and winter is coming soon", not "Goody, now I can scare off the evil". ;p

That's the origin of jack-o'-lantern in North America.

So the Americans didn't steal your pumpkins.

Nevertheless, in respect to you and Mona, Happy Samhain.

[nighean-neonach]

So the Americans didn't steal your pumpkins.

I don't think Eoghan meant it that way. Of course, every country and region has its own local traditions, which develop and change through time, but some are actually quite ancient. Harvest is such a basic and important thing in every agricultural society that depends on the seasons, so of course it is interwoven with special customs and beliefs. And autumn/harvest as the end of the agricultural year (not only bringing corn and fruit in, also e.g. butchering animals before the winter and organising some household stuff) is also quite a logical thing. In many European cultures this later developed into various Christian customs around Thanksgiving, St Martin's Day, as well as All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

[Eoghan]

The thing is that almost all things you non-pagans do on Halloween is stolen from Samhain - the Jack-Oh-Lanterns, the candles, the talk about the ancestors, the apple games, the pumpkins,and to some degree the costumes as well, it's a tradition from Isle of Man where the weeans used to dress up as ghosts to scare the evil spirits away.

Stolen? Are you being a tad dramatic? It was the Irish that brought over Halloween to the USA and the Americans made a tradition out of it by their style. Is that wrong?

Nevertheless, in respect to you and Mona, Happy Samhain.

Haha, "tad dramatic" is my middle name - I meant "stolen", in the sense where stolen would've meant covered up with christian beliefs and stuffs like that... I never meant to sound like a whining bitch, complaining about people playing apple games, talking about ghosts or doing the same things as the people celebrating Samhain but in a much more commercialized way, and a way where Christians wouldn't be called heathens for celebrating non-christian holidays.

And yes, the Celts used turnips, and indeed other vegetables as well, but still, they made some sort of Jack-o-lanterns, even though the name emerged in the States and there's a huge debate whether or not the Celts really did carv their lamps in order to guard of spirits at Samhain so...

But as Mona said, similar costumes to honour the harvest have always been central to agricultural societies, so it's not strange that they chose to use pumpkins in America as they're by far more common there. I guess people adapt their costumes to the environments in which they're living.

And thanks! I wish you a Happy Hallowe'en as well!

By the way, most Christian holidays have been slightly pushed in time to co-incide with at that time already existing pagan beliefs; eg. Christmas is celebrated around Yule, All Hallow's Eve takes place on the same day as Samhain, John the Baptist's Day is celebrated during the summer solstice, Easter and the vernal equinox use to co-incide, Brìghid and St. Bride's Day co-incide... I guess the Church thought it would be easier, not to ban ancient beliefs but simply to give them new, Christian meanings.

Anyway, I expect to see photos of all of you in your costumes tonight!

[loqu]

Oh please. Just the thought that tonight I will have to stand little stupid kids asking for candy thinking they are in the US makes me sick. I will be as rude as possible with them, I know.

I will spend the night at home with my mother. It's been two weeks since I last was in Cádiz so I miss her and my sisters.

[Car]

But anyway, Halloween is just not that big here in Germany. Some teenagers might celebrate it, and there might be some fancy club nights or stuff like that, but I suppose for many people it's just going to be an ordinary Friday night out.

Hmm, I've seen lots of ads for Halloween parties, but if I'm not mistaken, some of them clearly said 30th. I'm 99% sure the uni party did. Well, uni parties usually are on Thursday. In many forums, you also read stuff like "What will you do on Halloween" and it seems that in some areas, children do ask for candy - although most people aren't prepared for it. There are other days for it, anyway (like St. Martin's day).
But yeah, it's recent, mostly for young people, and they surely know next to nothing about its origins. Just a big commercial event.
Needless to say I don't celebrate it. Eoghan does have a point about peer pressure: If you don't go to parties, it's hard to find friends. I don't go to parties despite of that, but it surely makes it harder.
I find it a bit sad that while many local customs are lost, people "import" other traditions, without knowing what the tradition actually is about. Just another excuse to party and get terribly wasted.

[Trapy]

Oh please. Just the thought that tonight I will have to stand little stupid kids asking for candy thinking they are in the US makes me sick. I will be as rude as possible with them, I know.

In other parts of the world, do they have the tradition of "If the lights on the outside of the house are not turned on, they do not want to be disturbed. If the lights on the outside of the house are turned on, they are offering candy. (?)

[sa wulfs]

Oh please. Just the thought that tonight I will have to stand little stupid kids asking for candy thinking they are in the US makes me sick. I will be as rude as possible with them, I know.

Thank god, that part of the tradition hasn't reached us yet. We only borrowed the silly costumes and the pointless drinking - which is why I don't have anything bad to say about Halloween.

I think if some brats came to my door and shouted "¡Truco o trato!", I'd give them a lecture on calques and literal translations. "Truco o trato". Come on, that doesn't even make sense.