Where Have All the Creepy Children Gone?
It’s the scariest, spookiest day of the year! How did we get all of these Halloween traditions like trick-or-treating?
Wait… you mean Sexy Taco and all of those costumes from Girls’s Costume Warehouse haven’t always been a thing? Let’s look back at when this celebration was about appeasing dead people and wearing a burlap sack on your head.
Irish and Scottish immigrants brought Halloween to the US in the 1800s. The tradition is based on the Celtic celebrations of Samhain and Calan Gaeaf. These were held during a time of year it was thought that fairies, spirits, and the souls of the dead could cross over to the mortal plane. Wearing a costume/disguise was partly done to protect yourself from the spirits.
Costumes were based on terrifying supernatural beings and folkloric characters. The homemade costumes were made of cloth, paper mache, wax, and stage makeup. Trick-or-treating was known as guising. People went from house to house and recited verses or sang songs in exchange for food and good fortune to survive the winter.
The tradition was celebrated in the early 19th century with parades and parties and plenty of booze… until Victorian era morality demanded more civilized celebrations at home and that costumes and fun be limited to children.
In the 1930s, several firms began to mass-produce costumes. They added popular comic books and radio characters to traditional ghosts and goblins. The trick-or-treating tradition of plastic pumpkin buckets and getting a lifetime’s supply of Tootsie Rolls we have today started in the same era.
Here Are the Creepy Children!
With the required word count out of the way, on to the photos of children in creepy costumes!
