What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Halloween? For many people it’s costumes. What am I going to be for halloween or I need to plan and think of the best Halloween costume are all the talk once October hits. Although it is one of the most fun parts of Halloween besides the candy, of course do the majority of people who dress up know the true meaning to why we dress up and how it started?

Junior, Sara Bobiak, said that people used to dress up in the olden days to scare away the evil spirits and now dressing up has just become a tradition and it has carried on. Halloween’s origin according to National Geographic dates back to almost 2,000 years when people in Europe called the Celtic peoples celebrated a certain Holiday called Samhain, New Years Day. On Samhain Eve, Oct 31, what we know today as Halloween it was said that spirits, fairies, and demons would walk around the Earth. The Celtic peoples to scare and ward off these creatures would sacrifice animals and gathered around bonfires but costumes come in to play in this tradition because the Celts in order to confuse the spirits and not become possessed they wore costumes.

In today’s holiday a part of dressing up is going trick-or-treating, going from house to house in the evening asking for candy. This same tradition may have been based off the Celts who would go from house to house performing silly acts and behavior in hopes of receiving food and drinks.

Halloween in today’s culture has turned more into a fun activity. We don’t need to worry about avoiding any demons or evil spirits, but we can thank the Celtic peoples for starting this tradition of dressing up and going door to door. When talking to Sara Bobiak and Jillian Timmons they both love the idea of dressing up for Halloween because as Jill said it brings her back to her childhood when she would dress up and go trick or treating and Sara said “I like dressing up because I can get creative with my costume and really put a lot of effort into it and show it off.”