Halloween is a holiday where people can dress up in outlandish costumes and parade around the neighborhood collecting candy. However, Halloween has not always been like it is today. It used to be a holiday where adults would escort their children from door to door with the children dressed up in cute, scary and funny costumes. Now not only do children dress up for the occasion, but adults do as well, and they even buy dog costumes to dress up their furry friends. Halloween is no longer limited to small children with big imaginations. It is open to everyone and everything that has the spirit of Halloween in them.
Halloween has many different origins depending on the country being studied. The modern day Halloween, however can be traced back to Celtic Festival known as Samhain. The festival was celebrated by the Gaelic culture and marked the end of the crop season by taking stock of supplies and slaughtering live stock for the winter. The Gaelic culture believed that at this time the line between dead and alive was dissolved, and that the dead posed a threat to living individuals. Festivities include a bond fire where individuals would dress up in costumes to mimic the evil spirits. The term Halloween came at a later time and is in reference to All Hallows’ Day, also known as All Saints’ Day.
While many of the original traditions associated with Halloween have come and passed, there are still traditions that hold true every year on October 31. One tradition is carving a pumpkin. No matter what the age, you are never too old to carve a scary or even silly face into a big orange pumpkin. Families make traditions out of picking the perfect pumpkin and intricately carving it to be displayed on the front porch. Carving a pumpkin has even become and art for some people. There are contests held all over to award the best pumpkin carver in town.
Another tradition that has been around since the very first Halloween is dressing up in a costume. While the meaning of wearing a costume has moved away from mimicking and scaring away evil spirits, there still is a tradition to wear costumes. There are still individuals who dress up as witches, ghosts and evil monsters, however there are just as many people dressed up as super heroes and princess. Now more and more stores are selling adult costumes so that they can join in the fun with their children and even hold Halloween parties of their own. People can even allow their pets to join in on the fun with all the dog costumes and pet outfits available.
Many people take pride in the outfits that they choose to dress up in for that one night out of the year and spend months planning. Now that dog costumes are available, individuals can coordinate their outfits to match their pet. Coordinated costumes include dressing up as Darth Vader and getting a Yoda outfit for your furry friend. For women, you can dress your dog up as Mickey Mouse and get a Minnie Mouse costume for yourself. You do not have to coordinate your own Halloween costume with your pet however, because there are numerous dog costumes that will bring laughs and smiles on their own. You can dress up your Dachshund as a hot dog with catch up and mustard or put a sombrero on your Chihuahua. Needless to say if you can imagine the costume, there is probably one out there somewhere.
About the author of this article:
andy west is a writer for costume super center which offers a wide variety of costumes including dog costumes.
