Halloween is a festive and much anticipated moment for some.
However, every year a question comes up: what mask and disguise to wear?
In this article, we will present you some original possibilities to distinguish yourself, and thus, mark the spirits for sure!
I - Halloween Meaning
Halloween, contraction of All Hallows' Eve, is a holiday celebrated on October 31, the day before All Saints' Day. The celebration marks the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day and initiates the All Saints' Day season, which lasts three days and ends with All Saints' Day.
In much of Europe and North America, the celebration of Halloween is largely non-religious. Halloween is celebrated on Saturday, October 31.
II - The origin of Halloween
Halloween has its origin in the festival of Samhain among the Celts of ancient Britain and Ireland. On the day corresponding to November 1st on contemporary calendars, it was believed that the new year was beginning.
This date was considered to be the beginning of the winter period, the date when the herds returned from the pastures and the land tenure was renewed. During the festival of Samhain, it was believed that the souls of those who had died returned to visit their homes, and that those who had died during the year went to the other world.
People lit bonfires on hilltops to rekindle their homes for the winter and to scare off evil spirits, and sometimes wore masks and other disguises to avoid being recognized by the ghosts believed to be present.
Thus, beings such as witches, tramps, fairies and demons came to be associated with this day. It was also thought to be a time for divination on subjects such as marriage, health and death.
When the Romans conquered the Celts in the 1st century CE, they added their own festivals of Feralia, commemorating the death of the dead, and Pomona, the goddess of the harvest. In the 7th century CE, Pope Boniface IV instituted All Saints Day, which was originally on May 13.
In the following century, perhaps in an effort to replace the pagan holiday with a Christian celebration, it was moved to November 1. All Hallows' Eve became a holy, or sacred, day, and thus Halloween. In the late Middle Ages, secular and sacred days merged. The Reformation essentially ended the religious holiday among Protestants, although in Britain, Halloween in particular continued to be celebrated as a secular holiday.
Along with other festivities, the celebration of Halloween was largely outlawed among early American settlers, although by the 1800s festivals were developed that marked the harvest and incorporated elements of Halloween. When many immigrants, including the Irish, arrived in the United States beginning in the mid-19th century, they brought their Halloween customs with them.
In the twentieth century, Halloween became one of the main American holidays, especially among children. As a secular holiday, Halloween is now associated with a number of activities. One of these is the practice of playing generally harmless pranks.
Celebrants wear masks and costumes for parties and trick-or-treating. Thus, people in costumes go from house to house threatening to cast a spell if they do not receive a treat, usually candy.
In addition to skeletons and black cats, the holiday has incorporated scary beings like ghosts, witches and vampires into the celebration. Another symbol is the jack-o'-lantern, a hollowed-out pumpkin, originally a turnip, carved into a demonic face and lit with a candle inside.
1) All Saints' Day
On May 13, 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Saints' Day was established in the Western Church. Later, Pope Gregory III extended the feast to all saints and martyrs, and moved the celebration from May 13 to November 1.
In the ninth century, the influence of Christianity spread to Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted the ancient Celtic rites. In 1000 A.D., the church established November 2 as All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It is believed today that the church attempted to replace the Celtic Feast of the Dead with a related, church-sanctioned holiday.
The Feast of the Dead was celebrated in the same manner as Samhain, with large bonfires, parades and disguises of saints, angels and devils.
The celebration of All Saints' Day was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from the English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-Hallows Eve and eventually Halloween.
2) Halloween in the West and America
The celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England due to the rigid Protestant belief systems that were in place there.
Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European and Native American ethnic groups intermingled, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. Early celebrations included "play parties," which were public events held to celebrate the harvest.
Neighbors would tell stories about the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance and sing.
Colonial Halloween festivities also featured stories of ghosts and mischief of all kinds. By the mid-19th century, annual fall festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated nationwide.
In the second half of the 19th century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing the potato famine, helped popularize the celebration of Halloween nationwide. History of Trick-or-Treating Borrowing from European traditions, Americans began dressing up and going from house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became the current "trick-or-treat" tradition.
Young women believed that on Halloween they could guess the name or appearance of their future husband by performing tricks with wool, apple peels or mirrors. By the end of the 19th century, Halloween began to become more about community and neighborhood gatherings than about ghosts, pranks and witchcraft.
By the turn of the century, Halloween parties for children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. The parties focused on games, seasonal foods and festive costumes.
III - Evolution of the Halloween Party
By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular but community-centered holiday, with parades and Halloween parties throughout the city as the featured entertainment.
Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague some celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, city leaders were able to curb vandalism and Halloween became a holiday that primarily catered to youth.
Due to the large number of young children born during the baby boom of the 1950s, parties moved from city civic centers to classrooms or homes, where they could be more easily organized.
Between 1920 and 1950, the age-old practice of handing out candy or sweets was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share in the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also avoid the tricks that were played on them by giving the neighborhood children small treats.
Thus, a new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend about $6 billion a year on Halloween, making it the second largest commercial holiday in the country after Christmas.
Funny thing is that more and more people today are buying costumes for their pets.
IV - Halloween masks
In addition to candy, it is the costumes and especially the masks, which are at the heart of Halloween each year.
But then what masks to choose?
Here are some ideas, to make sure you have a scary and original look:
1) Classic masks
The classic and most common solution is to buy full face masks. They can either simply cover the entire face by attaching with a simple elastic band at the back of the head, or slip on and cover the entire head.
There are many masks, with different textures, materials and quality. They will often be very effective in scaring people, but they often have a major problem: they are not comfortable!
Indeed, we have all experienced this sensation of suffocating under our mask. We are thus often obliged to remove them very quickly, and their interest is then very often, very quickly limited...
But fortunately there are other alternatives, and in particular the masks which we will present to you below:
2) Original masks
Unlike the classic masks, they are light and comfortable. They can be worn for long periods of time without any problem. They also have the advantage of covering and protecting your face.
Very light and elastic, they adapt to all morphologies and face sizes. They come in many designs and patterns: from the most frightening to the most amusing!
You can take a look at our collection below if you are looking for an original mask for Halloween.
You will find your happiness!
You now know everything there is to know about Halloween and are ready to have an unforgettable party!
