The Halloween Handbook : 447 Costumes (Paperback)

Book Description
It's dress-up for grown-ups, and the liveliest, most imaginative collection of Halloween costume ideas--447 costume ideas to be exact--from two hip, inveterate lovers of all things Halloween . . . plus dozens of other ideas for enjoying the holiday.

Bridie Clark and Ashley Dodd are the dynamic duo, in or out of capes. For every level of interest, time--and irony--they offer suggestions. There's the ultra-quick: Pin several pair of underwear to a shirt, and voilà, A Chest of Drawers. With a bit more time, wrap yourself in aluminum foil and don a beret--mmm, French Kiss. There are Angels and Devils, all with variations (add roller skates to your Satan costume, and go as Hell on Wheels). Come Hither costumes--Lady Godiva, Chippendales Dancer, Stripper Emerging from a Cake. Celeb sightings, from the Dalai Lama to Madonna (six Madonnas, actually, from all of her phases). Costumes for couples--Sweethearts Caught on Lover's Lane, Fred and Wilma Flintstone--and costumes for whole groups of friends, including how to appear as the Sopranos or the hapless castaways on Gilligan's Island. And for the children, check out Nursery Rhymes, Fairy Tales, and Other Costumes for the Young and Young at Heart.

Finally, for the friend who just can't bear the thought of dressing up but still wants to join the fun, suggest the Time Traveler from the Day Before Halloween.

About the Author
Bridie Clark lives in New York and works in publishing. Halloween is far and away her favorite holiday--originally for the candy, and now for the once-a-year opportunity to play dress-up. Ashley Dodd lives in New York and works in public relations. Halloween is far and away her favorite holiday--originally for the candy, and now for the once-a-year opportunity to play dress-up.

Review: Showcases 447 do-it-yourself costume concepts
The collaborative effort of Halloween costume experts and enthusiasts Bridie Clark and Ashley Dodd, The Halloween Handbook: Dress-Up For Grown-Ups showcases 447 imaginative, easy-to-make, do-it-yourself costume concepts. From traditional favorites such as Wonder Woman or Peter Pan, to more eyebrow-raising unique costumes like the One-Night Stand (the costumegoer appears as an actual stand with lampshade over the head, bra and pantyhouse dangling on the tablecloth) or the Green Card (wearing a large green sandwich board humorously displaying a parody what a real green card looks like). Black-and-white photographs illustrate fun, zany, sometimes edgy ideas with practical suggestions to efficiently and frugally make a Halloween guise to remember. Especially recommended not only for Halloween, but as a source of ideas for costume parties year round or even school and community theater apparel.



 

Clever Costume Creating for Halloween (Paperback)

Review" Prrrfect booook for the costume inclined!
From Boys to adults, everyone loves being someone (or someTHING!) else for Halloween. Singleton's book provides a wealth of ideas and resources, and the interior illustrations, photographs, and black-and-orange two-color printing make for a very attractive product.

Review: Fun! Fun! Fun!
This is such a fun book for Halloween! I have enjoyed looking at the photographs and illustrations. I can't wait to try some of the creative costumes out on my children. The book makes it so easy to put together and understand! In this day of rush, rush, rush, its so wonderful to have a book that makes life simple. Thank you for such a great tool!

Review: Clever Costume Creating for Halloween
I found this book to be very enlightning for ideas on creating Halloween costumes. It is full of so many good tips, many requiring a minimal amount of effort in putting together a costume. I would recommend this book to many, both young and old and particularly to parents who every year need to come up with a new and unique costume for their children to dress for Halloween.

Review: Clever Costume Creating for Halloween
Suzanne Singleton has certainly outdone herself on this release. Clever Costume Creating for Halloween is jam-packed with unique ideas for easy to make, NO SEW costumes. The illustrations help you visualize the overall effect and the instructions are packed with appropriate props and accessories.

Although I am an artist and consider myself to be pretty creative, when it comes to Halloween costumes I go blank. The creative part of me wants to do something original, unique. I definitely could never bring myself to buy those mass produced, plastic-masked versions available in the stores. When I flipped through Suzanne Singleton's book, my mind began to race with all the possiblities. I found myself thinking, "Why didn't I think of that? This is sooooooo clever!" Now my only problem is choosing which idea to try first!

Review: FUN & EASY NO SEW COSTUME Ideas w/visuals!
This title had just been published a view days when I purchased it. If you are like me and love Halloween but panic at the thought of what to be? what to wear? This is for you! Singleton has written a book with A to Z costume ideas that are fun and refreshing and all NO SEW!

What you also receive with this book purchase are pages filled with fun to view black and white visuals of the costume ideas. The pages are bordered with corn candy and various halloween graphics which only adds to the fun and festive halloween spirit.

Year after year, my husband and I along with our children are invited to dress up Halloween costume parties.These parties are usually fun and yet I am always feeling pressure for myself and my family. What to do? Like many women of today, I do not sew which only adds to my frustration. Well now here is the perfect remedy, this title is not only packed with fun and easy costume ideas but each page is sure to bring a smile with each costume visual!

It is cute, fun, festive and fills a need! Never again will you lose sight of the Halloween fun that costume panic brings!






Halloween Ideas and Tips

So you'd like to... Have Great Halloween Festivities

Out of all the holidays in existance, none can surpass my love of Halloween. Typically a holiday set aside where children dress up in costumes and go house to house in search of candy, there is so much more to this holiday which I hope to highlight. Halloween cheer encompasses parties, decoration, goodies, scary movies and friendly comradery.

First let's start off with the basics. You can't start off Halloween with an undecorated house. Atmosphere lends to establishing a great holiday mind-set. With that, there are a few books I recommend to help in transforming your home to a frightfully fun place to visit. 'Ghostly Frights for Halloween Nights' is a book the whole family can participate in using. The book covers basic projects from cutting and tying to more complex papier-mâché and stitching. The book 'Haunt Your House For Halloween: Decorating Tricks & Party Treats' is also a great tool to use in decorating your home for a more country Halloween style than spooky. And let's not forget the book 'Halloween Crafts: Eerily Elegant Decor' for some very decorative ideas for cleaver doorways and memorable parties. You might recognize the author Kasey Rogers as the actress who played Louise Tate on tv's 'A Bewitched Halloween'. Better Homes and Gardens covers all the main basics in 'Halloween Fun : 101 Ideas to get in the spirit'. Martha Stewart even gets into the act with her highly popular 'Halloween : The Best of Martha Stewart Living'. For even more tips on decorating you can also read through '101 Spooktacular Party Ideas' and 'The Halloween Book'. The books 'Tricks and Treats' and 'Halloween Pumpkins & Parties : 101 Spooktacular Ideas' are also fulled with great tips and ideas. If you have entertained the idea to turn your entire house into a walk through haunted house, the books 'The Do It Yourself Haunted House Guide' and 'Haunted House Halloween Handbook' are very helpful in supplying ideas. There are also some good scare tips found in 'Give Them a Real Scare This Halloween'.

So, you have your house looking fabulously spooky, how about some music to add that final important touch? Some of my favorite Halloween music for atmosphere are: 'Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Halloween', 'Halloween: Monster Mix', 'Halloween Sound Effects', 'Halloween Big Screen Thrillers', and for little kids: 'Spooky Favorites'.

Now that you have the atmosphere created, you can tackel the next step in providing a memorable Halloween: the food! For this I HIGHLY recommend some of the recepies published in the book 'Halloween Treats: Recipes and Crafts for the Whole Family (Holiday Celebrations)'. Not only do you get the wonderful cookies and treat ideas, but there are a couple imaginative ideas for enchanting brews for your friends to drink. The book 'Halloween: Customs, Recipes & Spells' also has some great recipe ideas, covering Halloween doughnuts, pumpkin bread, candied apples and even something called "Sugar Snakes In Graveyard Dust". Yum! For food a little more on the 'weird' side, try 'Creepy Cuisine'.

So you've got a spooky house and yummy treats, what else could you decorate? Why YOU of coarse! 'Halloween Costumes (Singer Sewing Reference Library)' brings to light some very cleaver and festive costume ideas. Dressing up the kiddies is pretty easy also with 'Illegally Easy Halloween Costumes for Kids' and 'Easy Halloween Costumes for Children'. You can even get really great face painting tips in the book 'Fun with Face Painting'. The book 'A Halloween How-To: Costumes, Parties, Decorations, and Destinations' does cover some aspects of costumes, but very generally.

Halloween wouldn't be Halloween without a few good scary movies. When getting friends together, you want to decide on the type of movie you want to see. If your children are having a little get together with friends I would highly suggest 'Garfield Holiday Celebrations'. This DVD set collects the three Garfield holiday specials made in the 80s. But don't let the date fool you. "Garfield's Halloween Adventure" is one of the best Halloween cartoons made to date! In this movie Garfield and his best friend Odie go out trick or treating and find an exciting adventure along the way involving ghost pirates! 'Lumpkin the Pumpkin', 'The Halloween Tree', 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown', 'The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (Disney Gold Classic Collection)', 'The Scooby-Doo Show: The Headless Horseman of Halloween' and 'The Simpsons - Treehouse of Horror' are also great Halloween cartoons. If live action is what the kids want, 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Widescreen Special Edition) (Harry Potter 1)', 'The Little Vampire' and 'Hocus Pocus' are wonderfully entertaining and fun to watch.

But if you're more for an adult party several movies can be viewed for scary good fun. A staple of any good Halloween party is the movie 'Halloween'. It's been bringing a good scream to Halloween parties since 1978. Other great Halloween movies are 'Silver Bullet', 'Bram Stoker's Dracula (Superbit Collection)', 'Sleepy Hollow', 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' and 'Fright Night'. And if you're in for a total scare,who could forget the classic 'The Exorcist (The Version You've Never Seen)'. But if you're in the mood for some hysterical Halloween laughs 'Elvira, Mistress of the Dark', 'Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein', 'Scary Movie' and 'Ghostbusters' are just the ticket.

A guide by Peter Saenz, Spooky Holiday Lover for Amazon

A Halloween How-To: Costumes, Parties, Decorations, and Destinations
by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne

Review:

Last fall, I checked this book out of the library looking for ideas for our annual Halloween bash and to decorate our yard. The book not only has a great wealth of ideas and tips, but also historical and sociological information on the holiday. This is one of the few books that I have found more geared towards adults wishing to celebrate the holiday. Most of what is out there leans towards the juvenile side of Halloween festivites.

I agree with past reviewers' main gripes about lack of graphics. The book doesn't need to have glossy coffee table book-type spreads, but it is seriously lacking in useful illustrations

This is a great book with many decorating ideas and references. This is the best book I found on the market. I applied a few of the ideas to my decorations last year and had a few children afraid to approach the door (though that was not my intent, nothing truly gory last year). Highly recommended!

If you are looking for a Halloween how to book for grownups, this is it. It is full of magnificent ideas for everything from parties to yard haunting. I love Halloween and I have many Halloween books. This one is the one I use the most. I especially loved the life-sized Grim Reaper. I made it for my yard haunt last year and received more compliments on it than anything else. I highly recommend this book.

Since so many other reviewers give a good overview of the book, let me tell you what I found unique and helpful about this book. The best section of this book tells you how to hold a themed adult Halloween party. It covers everything from the invitations (really cool invitations, with relevant literary quotes), to the decorations, music, and costumes. There are many themes listed. I have never seen this in any of the Halloween books I have bought. This chapter alone makes it worth the price.Full-disclosure: My tombstone-making instructions are featured in the book. But I don't get a cut of the profits, just the recognition (Thanks for the mention Lesley!)

The Halloween Book (Hardcover) - by Jane Bull

Review:

The Halloween Book is a veritable gold mine of creepy crafts to make Halloween the most spine-tingling night of the year. Unearthly decorations ("Silhouette Windows," "Flickering Faces," "Jeering Jars"), exquisitely eerie dress-up ideas ("Fearsome Features," "Creepy Costumes,"), and delectably ghastly goodies ("Buckets of Treats," "Beastly Buffet," "Hanging Horrors," "Cauldron Cocktails," "Spooky Potions") will provide days of creative fun leading up to the haunted holiday. The perfect resource for a Halloween party, with DK's superb photos and clever activities, games, and recipes, this volume is a steep step above the standard craft book. So pour yourself a mug o' vampire broth or hot chocolate bones, dig into some sausage fingers, and get started on your screaming streamers and menacing masks. (Ages 6 to 11) --Emilie Coulter

From School Library Journal
Grade 2-5-This is the "Martha Stewart" book of craft, costume, food, and party ideas for the ultimate Halloween experience. It shows how to carve a pumpkin, make hanging glass-jar lights, spooky window cutouts, and decorated flashlights. There are descriptions and photos of additions to fairy, pirate, witch, vampire, and ghost costumes, with elaborate face painting and perfectly cut-out, acrylic-painted, paper-plate masks. There are directions for a paper-m ch pumpkin and a cr pe-paper-decorated sand bucket for holding treats. Refreshments include sausage fingers, "bread roll monsters," gorgeous-looking creepy cupcakes, and "cauldron cocktails." Finally, there are instructions for a shadow theatre and other traditional party games. The photographs are stunning, but all of the projects look like they were made by adults or particularly handy, older children. One hopes that youngsters will not be disappointed when their creations don't look quite so perfect.
Cathie Reed, The Montessori School, Lutherville, MD

This is a fun book aimed at the younger set filled with a nice sprinkling of Halloween costumes, recipes, crafts, and party ideas. The ideas are by no means original, but as a mom and Halloween-freak , I found this book to be a good inspiration to cooking up your own ideas. (The monster sandwiches are priceless! )The photos are lovely, the printed varnished pages crisp and bright -- I can practically smell the pumpkin pie when I crack it open.

Halloween Treats: Recipes and Crafts for the Whole Family

Cocoa Cobweb Cupcakes, Black Cat Cookies, and Stained-Glass Spooks are just a few of the spirited tastes you'll encounter in Donata Maggipinto's delightful Halloween Treats. But it's not just recipes--you and your favorite little goblin will love creating spooky craft projects such as Candy Cauldrons, Leaf Lanterns, and Paper Bag Pumpkins together in anticipation of All Hallows' Eve. Maggipinto includes craft ideas for "Pixies" (children 4-8 years old) as well as older children, and nearly every recipe includes a safe task for younger helpers. (For example, while mom or dad should heat the milk for hot cocoa, kids can roll and stamp out marshmallow ghosts as accompaniment.) A few of the craft ideas will require a trip to the art supply store (such as lampshade paper for the very nifty flashlight lanterns), but Maggipinto leaves plenty of room for the magical combination of imagination and found objects. Her great "fanciful masks" are dime-store masks decorated with autumn leaves, candy wrappers, feathers, or anything else you might have at hand.
Maggipinto believes that Halloween festivities should last for at least a week; you'll find enough project instructions and recipes here for a month of Halloween fun. Grownups will love her Halloween dinner party menu (with Pumpkin Crackle Custard for dessert!) and kids can help by making corn kernel napkin rings and three-tiered pumpkin centerpieces. If you're looking for costume ideas, you won't find them here--the book is focused firmly on kitchen and decoration fun--but the beautifully illustrated Halloween Treats is a wonderful treasure trove of tricks and treats that every family will enjoy working on together. --Rebecca A. Staffel

Denver Post
Ghost Witches Join Party Menu "Don't reserve your Halloween cookie cutters just for cookies. Consider these boo-tiful ideas from 'Halloween Treats', by Donata Maggipinto:

Flatten large marshmallows with a rolling pin, then use mini cutters to make a ghoulish garnish for hot cocoa.

Make 'ghost-wiches' by cutting sandwich bread or lunch meats (or both) with the cookie cutters; a pastry tip to poke eyes and mouth into the bread.

And here's a tip from Good Eating: If you're determined to think sweet, you can also use those cookie cutters for devilish brownies and cakes. Either cut the cakes into scary shapes, or use the cookie cutters as stencils to make designs - with frosting or colored sugar on top of the icing."

Halloween: Customs, Recipes & Spells

Silver Ravenwolf has finally taken on a subject she is aware of-Halloween. There was a lot of material to cover here. She has put forth her strongest effort. Halloween has become a truely American holiday. Silver combines her knowledge, research and experience into a coherent volume. Gasp!

That brings us to her self proclaimed "most popular Witch in America". Come on now, maybe the Billy Graham of witchcraft. I feel everyone who practices is the most powerful witch. I dont like preachers of any philosophy, let alone witchcraft! So much for free will..

All in all, many of the Llewellyn authors are full of themselves. I wished they knew how to be humble. Maybe this is why so many witches got burned in the middle ages.


I have read many of silver's books, and they are all basicly fluff and crap. One of my biggest issue with this book, is that Silver was always quoting other neo-pagan authors (who tend to mess up their history anyway...) than actual historical facts. Besides that, some of the history in the book isn't right anway. What's up with that? In her teen-witch books, so much of her writing was historicaly false and just not-true, that i almost threw it in the river. But enough of that.. Moving on to the rituals and spells. What is up with all the pumpkin!? Pumpkin has NOTHING to do with Samhain or Halloween historically. Pumpkin is native to North America, none of the Celts, or ancient "pagans" used pumpkin in anything. And all the "spells" in this book were fluffly, and completly un-magical. I wouldn't reccomend this book to my goldfish, and this time, i think non-neo-pagans would recignise the bad writing style (momma silver!? o.O) and history and false facts. This book just goes to show that just because your Wiccan dosen't mean that you know about the Sabbats and "pagan" festivals.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. In here the history of the holiday Halloween is explored as well as the second half is interesting recipes for Halloween goodies. Halloween is actually a neopagan holiday but a lot don't celebrate it because it scares them. Well it doesn't scare me. Finally a book that is a non-condemning tome about the subject.

Halloween is my favorite time of the year, so this book was a welcome addition to my library. It works best as a simple introduction to the history of this maligned cultural event (which has nothing whatsoever to do with dark and evil forces) and as an idea maker for recipes (two of which I plan to test at an upcoming party) and spells (if you are into that magic scene, I am not). I also hope to try out the Passion Pumpkin Dinner (minus the mumbo jumbo) at some point in the future, because it sounds so deliciously romantic. My only wish is that I could have tried it with my late wife - I think she would have loved it. I thought the book got a tad dull when it started its litany of spells, which I've already said is not my thing, so it did not interest me, and I just scanned over it. The speaking to the dead segment also offered some comfort, all my 'thinking out loud' and speaking to my deceased wife's pictures is normal and healthy, and maybe she hears it, I don't know. I do know that if you like Halloween, you will find much to enjoy in this book.

Halloween Pumpkins & Parties : 101 Spooktacular Ideas (Paperback)

Half of this book features Halloween celebrations and entertaining, while the rest highlights creativity with pumpkins.

All-new ideas for both crafters and noncrafters.
One-of-a-kind Halloween how-to with detailed instructions, patterns, and recipes.
Third in a series of highly successful Halloween books


Review: HALLOWEEN FUN

I FOUND THIS BOOK TO BE VERY USEFUL & EASY TO CONJURE UP SOME HALLOWEEN FUN. IT SHOWS STEP TO STEP INSTRUCTIONS WITH PICTURES YOU CAN FOLLOW. I ESPECIALLY ENJOYED THE PINATA, VERY EASY TO MAKE. IT RANGES FROM DECORATIONS TO FOOD & BEVERAGES. I LOVED IT, SUPER EASY.

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All about Halloween from Wikipedia
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Halloween"


Halloween is an observance celebrated on the night of October 31, most notably by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting sweets or money. It is celebrated in much of the Western world, though most common in the United States, Puerto Rico, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. Irish, Scots and other immigrants brought older versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th century. Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in the late 20th century.

The term Halloween, and its older spelling Hallowe'en, is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the evening before "All Hallows Day". In Ireland, the name was All Hallows Eve and this name is still used by some older people. Halloween was also sometimes called All Saints' Eve. The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European pagan traditions, until it was appropriated by Christian missionaries and given a Christian interpretation. In Mexico November 1st and 2nd are celebrated as the Day of the Dead.

Halloween is also called Pooky Night in some parts of Ireland, presumably named after the púca, a mischievous spirit.

On Great Britain and Ireland in particular, the pagan Celts celebrated the Day of the Dead on All Hallows Day (1st November). The spirits supposedly rose from the dead and, in order to attract them, food was left on the doors. To scare off the evil spirits, the Celts wore masks. When the Romans invaded Great Britain, they embellished the tradition with their own, which is both a celebration of the harvest and of honoring the dead. Very much later, these traditions were transported to the United States, Canada and Australia.

Halloween is sometimes associated with the occult. Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the liminal times of the year when the spiritual world can make contact with the physical world and when magic is most potent (e.g. Catalan mythology about witches).

Halloween in the UK
In some parts of the United Kingdom, Halloween was formerly known as Mischief Night. People would take the doors off their hinges on this night. The doors were also often thrown into ponds, or taken a long way away.

In England it is said that elves rode on the backs of the villagers' cats. The cats had fun but the villagers did not and would lock their cats up so that the elves could not catch them.

Children were told not to sit in the circles of yellow and white flowers where fairies have danced as they may be stolen by the fairies. It was also bad to sit under the hawthorn tree since fairies loved to dance on these and if they saw children their tempers would be prickled.

In England, the black cat was considered to be good luck, whereas a white cat was considered to be bad luck.

In England children make "pumpkin men" from large pumpkins. They cut out designs into the pumpkin. Then they place them on display in their windows to go along with the scary theme of Halloween.

Halloween in North America
Anoka, Minnesota, USA, the self-proclaimed "Halloween Capital of the World," celebrates with a large civic parade.

Salem, Massachusetts, USA, also has laid claim to the title "Halloween Capital of the World," though Salem has tried to separate itself from its history in the subject of witchcraft. Despite that, the city does see a great deal of tourism surrounding the Salem witch trials, especially around Halloween.

New York City, New York, USA, hosts the United States' largest Halloween celebration, The Village Halloween Parade. Started by a Greenwich Village mask maker in 1973, the parade now attracts over 2 million spectators/participants as well as roughly 4 million television viewers each year. It is the largest participatory parade in the country if not the world, encouraging spectators to march in the parade as well. It is also the largest annual parade held at night.

In North America people believed that it was unlucky for a black cat to cross one's path, to come into homes, or to travel on ships.

In the United States trick-or-treaters are welcomed by placing lighted pumpkins known as jack-o'-lanterns in their windows.

The North American tradition of trick-or-treat comes from the original idea that you must be kind to dead ancestors or they will play a trick on you.

The War of the Worlds, a radio adaptation by Orson Welles based upon H. G. Wells' classic novel of the same name, was performed by Mercury Theatre on the Air as a Halloween special on October 30, 1938 and the live broadcast reportedly frightened many listeners into believing that an actual Martian invasion was in progress.

Halloween in Australia
Halloween is not celebrated as much as it is in the U.S., despite this, most children still believe in "trick or treating". And most houses are decorated with a Halloween themed style, by carving pumpkins and placing a candle in the middle of the hollowed pumpkin, and are usually placed in their windows or in their living room. It is also a tradition in Australia for children to leave the candy on people's door mats.

In Adelaide, South Australia, a large festival takes place at the Norwood Oval (an oval close to the city) and people celebrate in a huge parade. Stalls include activities such as; Bobbing for Apples, Discos, carving Pumpkins, Rides, Candy and many more Dark Attractions.

Symbols
Jack-o'-lanterns may be carved with funny faces.Halloween's theme is spooky or scary things particularly involving death, magic, or mythical monsters. Commonly-associated Halloween characters include ghosts, ghouls, witches, bats, black cats, spiders, goblins, zombies, skeletons and demons, as well as certain fictional figures like Dracula and Frankenstein's monster. Homes are often decorated with these symbols around Halloween.

Black and orange are the traditional colors of Halloween. In modern Halloween images and products, purple, green, and red are also prominent.

Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins and scarecrows, are also reflected in symbols of Halloween.

The carved jack-o'-lantern, lit by a candle inside, is one of Halloween's most prominent symbols. In the British Isles, a turnip was and sometimes still is used, but immigrants to America quickly adopted the pumpkin because it was more readily available; additionally, it is much larger and easier to carve. Many families that celebrate Halloween carve a pumpkin into a frightening or comical face and place it on their home's doorstep after dark. The practice was originally intended to frighten away evil spirits or monsters.

Neopagans of North America honor their ancestors on October 31. It was once believed that on this night any souls who had not yet passed into the paradise of the summer lands might return to wander the streets and visit their old homes once more.

Trick-or-treating and guising
The main event of modern US-style Halloween is trick-or-treating, in which children dress up in costume disguises and go door-to-door in their neighborhood, ringing each doorbell and yelling "trick or treat!" This is a watered-down version of the older tradition of guising in Ireland and Scotland. The occupants of the house (who might themselves dress in a scary costume) will then hand out small candies, miniature chocolate bars or other treats. Some American homes will use sound effects and fog machines to help set a spooky mood. Other house decoration themes (that are less scary) are used to entertain younger visitors. Children can often accumulate many treats on Halloween night, filling up entire pillow cases or shopping bags.

In Ireland, great bonfires were lit throughout the breadth of the land. Young children in their guises were gladly received by the neighbors with some "fruit, apples and nuts" for the "Halloween Party", whilst older male siblings played innocent pranks on bewildered victims.

In Scotland, children or guisers are more likely to recite "The sky is blue, the grass is green, may we have our Halloween" instead of "trick or treat!". They visit neighbours in groups and must impress the members of the houses they visit with a song, poem, trick, joke or dance in order to earn their treats. Traditionally, nuts, oranges, apples and dried fruit were offered, though sometimes children would also earn a small amount of cash, usually a sixpence. Very small children often take part, for whom the experience of performing can be more terrifying than the ghosts outside.

Tricks play less of a role in modern Halloween, though Halloween night is often marked by vandalism such as soaping windows, egging houses or stringing toilet paper through trees. Before indoor plumbing was so widespread, tipping over or displacing outhouses was a popular form of intimidation. Casting flour into the faces of feared neighbors was also done once upon a time.

Typical Halloween costumes have traditionally been monsters such as vampires, ghosts, witches, and devils. In 19th-century Scotland and Ireland the reason for wearing such fearsome (and non-fearsome) costumes was the belief that since the spirits that were abroad that night were essentially intent on doing harm, the best way to avoid this was to fool the spirits into believing that you were one of them. In recent years, it has become common for costumes to be based on themes other than traditional horror, such as dressing up as a character from a TV show or movie, or choosing a recognizable face from the public sphere, such as a politician (in 2004, for example, George W. Bush and John F. Kerry were both popular costumes in America). In 2001, after the September 11 attacks, for example, costumes of Islamic terrorists, firefighters, police officers, and United States military personnel became popular among children and adults. In 2004, an estimated 2.15 million children in the United States were expected to dress up as Spider-Man, the year's most popular costume. [1]

"'Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF" has become a common sight during Halloween in North America. Started by UNICEF in 1950, the program involves the distribution of small boxes by schools to trick-or-treaters, in which they can solicit small change donations from the houses they visit. It is estimated that children have collected more than $119 million for UNICEF since its inception.

BIGresearch conducted a survey for the National Retail Federation in the US and found that 53.3% of consumers planned to buy a costume for Halloween 2005, spending $38.11 on average (up 10 dollars from last year). An estimate of $3.3 billion was made for the holiday spending.

A child usually "grows out of" trick-or-treating by his or her teenage years. Trick-or-treating by teenagers is accepted, but generally discouraged with genial ribbing by those handing out candy. Teenagers and adults instead often celebrate Halloween with costume parties, staying home to give out candy, listening to Halloween music, or scaring people.

Visiting a Haunted house or a Dark Attraction are other Halloween traditions. Notwithstanding the name, such events are not necessarily held in houses, nor are the edifices themselves necessarily regarded to possess actual ghosts. A variant of this is the haunted trail, where the public encounters supernatural-themed characters or presentations of scenes from horror films while following a trail through a heavily wooded area or field.

Games and other activities
There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween parties. The most common is dooking or bobbing for apples, in which apples float in a tub or a large basin of water; the participants must use their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. A variant involves kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between the teeth and trying to drop the fork into an apple. Another common game involves hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be eaten without using hands while they remain attached to the string, an activity which inevitably leads to a very sticky face.

Some games traditionally played at Halloween are forms of divination. In Puicíní (pronounced "pooch-eeny"), a game played in Ireland, a blindfolded person is seated in front of a table on which several saucers are placed. The saucers are shuffled and the seated person then chooses one by touch. The contents of the saucer determine the person's life for the following year. A saucer containing earth means someone known to the player will die during the next year, a saucer containing water foretells travel, a coin means new wealth, a bean means poverty, etc. In 19th-century Ireland, young women placed slugs in saucers sprinkled with flour. The wriggling of the slugs and the patterns subsequently left behind on the saucers were believed to portray the faces of the women's future spouses.

In North America, unmarried women were frequently told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the face of their future husband would appear in the mirror. However, if they were destined to die before they married, a skull would appear. The custom was widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting cards from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The telling of ghost stories and viewing of horror films are common fixtures of Halloween parties. Television specials with a Halloween theme, usually aimed at children, are commonly aired on or before the holiday while new horror films are often released theatrically before the holiday to take advantage of the atmosphere.

Foods
Main article: Poisoned candy scare

Because the holiday comes in the wake of the annual apple harvest, Candy Apples (also known as toffee, taffy or caramel apples) are a common treat at Halloween. They are made by rolling whole apples in a sticky sugar syrup, and sometimes then rolling them in nuts. At one time candy apples were a common treat given to children, but this practice rapidly waned after widespread rumors that some individuals were embedding items like pins and razor blades in the apples that they would pass out to children. While there is evidence of such incidents occurring they are very rare and have never resulted in any serious injuries. Nonetheless, many parents were under the assumption that the practice was common. At the peak of this hysteria, some hospitals were offering to x-ray children's Halloween haul at no cost in order to look for such items. Almost all of the very few Halloween candy poisoning incidents on record involved parents who poisoned their own children's candy, while there are occasional reports of children sticking needles in their own candy (and that of other children) more in an effort to get attention than cause any harm.

A Halloween custom which has survived unchanged to this day in Ireland is the baking (or more often nowadays the purchase) of a barmbrack (Irish "báirín breac"). This is a light fruit cake into which a plain ring is placed before baking. It is said that whoever finds this ring will find his or her true love during the following year.

Other foods associated with the holiday:

candy corn
bonfire toffee (in the UK)
Toffee Apple (in Australia, instead of "Candy Apples")
hot apple cider
roasted pumpkin seeds
"fun-sized" or individually wrapped pieces of small candy, typically in Halloween colors of orange, and brown/black.

Cultural history
Main article: History and folklore of Halloween

Christian festival
Pope Boniface IV established an anniversary dedicated to the Virgin Mary and the martyrs when he consecrated the Pantheon on May 13, 609 (or 610). This Christian feast day was moved to November 1st from May 13th by Pope Gregory III in the eighth century in order to mark the dedication of the All Saints Chapel in Rome — establishing November 1st as All Saints Day and October 31st as All Hallows' Eve. Initially this change of date only applied to the diocese of Rome, but was extended to the rest of Christendom a century later by Pope Gregory IV in an effort to standardize liturgical worship.

The feast day of All Souls Day, celebrated to commemorate those souls condemned temporarily to Purgatory, was inaugurated by St Odilo, at the time the abbott of the influential monastery at Cluny, on November 2, 998.

Halloween's Origin: Celtic observation of Samhain
According to what can be reconstructed of the beliefs of the ancient Celts, the new year began around November 1 or on a New Moon near that date, a day referred to in modern Gaelic as Samhain ("Sow-in" or alternatively "Sa-ven", meaning: End of the Summer). Just as sundown meant the start of a new day, shorter days signified the start of the new year; therefore the harvest festival began every year on the night of preceding the autumn new year date. After the adoption of the Roman calendar with its fixed months, the date began to be celebrated independently of the Moon's phases.

As November 1 is the first day of the new year, the day also meant the beginning of Winter, which the Celts often associated with human death. The Celts also believed that on October 31 (the night before the new year), the boundary separating the dead from the living became blurred. (There is a rich and unusual myth system at work here; the spirit world, the residence of the "Sidhe," as well as of the dead, was accessible through burial mounds. These mounds opened at two times during the year, making the beginning and end of Summer highly spiritually resonant.)

The Celts' survival during the cold harsh winters, depended on the prophecies of their priests or Druids. They believed that the presence of spirits would aid in the priests' abilities to make future predictions.

The exact customs observed in each Celtic region differ, but they generally involved the lighting of bonfires and the reinforcement of boundaries, across which malicious spirits might cross and threaten the community.

Like most observances around this season, warmth and comfort were emphasized, indulgence was not. Stores of preserved food were needed to last through the winter, not for parties.

Norse Elven Blót
In the old Norse religion an event believed to occur around the same time of the year as Halloween was the álfablót (elven blót), which involved sacrifices to the elves and the blessing of food. The elves were powers connected to the ancestors, and it can be assumed that the blót related to a cult of the ancestors. The álfablót is also celebrated in the modern revival of Norse religion, Ásatrú.

Halloween customs
Observance of Halloween traditions faded in the South of England from the 17th century onwards, being replaced by the commemoration of the Gunpowder Plot on November 5. However, it remained popular in Scotland, Ireland and the North of England. It is only in the last decade that it again became popular in the south of England, but as an entirely Americanized version.

The custom survives most accurately on the island of Ireland, where the last Monday of October is a public holiday. All schools close for the following week for mid-term, commonly called the Halloween Break. As a result Ireland and Northern Ireland are the only countries where children never have school on Halloween and are therefore free to celebrate it in the ancient and time-honored fashion.

The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have evolved from the European custom called souling, similar to the wassailing customs associated with Yule. On November 2, All Souls' Day, beggars would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes" — square pieces of bread with currants. Christians would promise to say prayers on behalf of dead relatives helping the soul's passage to heaven. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits at the Samhain.

Further information: Puck
In Celtic parts of western Brittany, Samhain is still heralded by the baking of kornigou. Kornigou are cakes baked in the shape of antlers to commemorate the god of winter shedding his "cuckold" horns as he returns to his kingdom in the Otherworld.

In the Isle of Man where Halloween is known as Hop-tu-Naa children carry turnips instead of pumpkin, and sing a song called Jinnie the Witch.

"Punkie Night"
"Punkie Night" is observed on the last Thursday in October in the village of Hinton St. George in the county of Somerset in England. On this night, children carry lanterns made from hollowed-out mangel-wurzels (a kind of beet; in modern days, pumpkins are used) with faces carved into them. They bring these around the village, collecting money and singing the punkie song. Punkie is derived from pumpkin or punk, meaning tinder.

Though the custom is only attested over the last century, and the mangel-wurzel itself was introduced into English agriculture in the late 18th century, "Punkie Night" appears to be much older even than the fable that now accounts for it. The story goes that the wives of Hinton St. George went looking for their wayward husbands at the fair held nearby at Chiselborough, the last Thursday in October, but first hollowed out mangel wurzels in order to make lanterns to light their way. The drunken husbands saw the eerie lights, thought they were "goolies" (the restless spirits of children who had died before they were baptized), and fled in terror. Children carry the punkies now. The event has spread since about 1960 to the neighboring village of Chiselborough.

Sources: on-line report from the Western Gazette and a National Geographic radio segment. Chiselborough Fair is memorialized by Fair Place in the village. The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) reported that there was "a fair for horses and cattle on the last Thursday in October."

"Mischief Night"
The night before Halloween, known alternately as "Devil's Night", "Mischief Night", "Mizzie Night", "Gate Night", "Cabbage Night", "Mat Night", or "Goosie Night" is often associated with pranks or destructive activities performed by adolescents. Some of the acts range from minor vandalism to theft (e.g. of door mats — thus the name "Mat Night" in some areas), or even arson. Many youths involved in Mischief Night would be considered too old for traditional trick-or-treating. One of the most common wrong-doings is "egging", the act of throwing eggs (sometimes left out for several days to rot) at neighbors' houses, the eggs' yolk causing damage to the paint. Another common Mischief Night act is "T.P.ing", in which people's houses, lawns, and trees are covered in toilet paper streamers.

In parts of northern England, "Mischievous Night" occurs on the 4th of November, the night before Bonfire Night(associated to Bonfire night because the last phases of the plot were coming together). It is celebrated in the same way, although minor vandalism often includes fireworks, which appear in shops in the United Kingdom around this time for legitimate reasons — to set off alongside bonfires on the following night.

Religious viewpoints
The majority of Christians ascribe no doctrinal significance to Halloween, but the Celebration of Halloween by the support of Catholic and other Christian sects exist because how it mocks Pagan beliefs by presenting outrageous superstition and religious concepts, and supports the more easily accepted Christian beliefs.

The mingling of Christian and Pagan traditions in the development of Halloween, and its real or assumed preoccupation with evil and the supernatural, have left many modern Christians uncertain of how they should react towards the holiday. Some fundamentalist and evangelical along with many Eastern Orthodox Christians and Orthodox Jewish believers consider Halloween a pagan or Satanic holiday, and refuse to allow their children to participate. In some areas, complaints from fundamentalist Christians that the schools were endorsing a pagan religion have led the schools to stop distributing UNICEF boxes at Halloween. Another response among conservative evangelicals in recent years has been the use of Hell houses, which attempt make use of Halloween as an opportunity for evangelism.

Other Christians, however, continue to connect the holiday with All Saints Day. Some modern Christian churches commonly offer a fall festival or harvest-themed alternative to Halloween celebrations. Still other Christians hold the view that the holiday is not Satanic in origin or practice and that it holds no threat to the spiritual lives of children: being taught about death and mortality actually being a valuable life lesson.

Likewise, to many Protestant churches, October 31 is also the date of Reformation Day, a minor religious festival. Some families, churches, and religious schools combine the holidays.

Halloween Costumes
Halloween costumes are outfits worn on October 31st, the day of Halloween. Halloween is a modern day holiday (spun off of the Gaelic/Druidic/Pagan holiday of Samhain (in Christian times, the eve of All Saints Day). Originally a day to remember the dead by celebrating the darker and more gruesome side of human existence, celebrants would dress as their deceased relatives. It has now become a very commercialized celebration. Because of this, popular costumes are often mass manufactured and sold in specialty stores.

What sets Halloween costumes apart from costumes for other celebrations or days of dressing up is that they are often designed to be gruesome or scary. Popular monsters of legend or fiction are regular themes for Halloween costumes, as are pop culture figures like presidents, film or television characters.

Some of the most common and popular Halloween costumes are:

Ghost
Vampire
Frankenstein's Monster
Witch
Skeleton
Mummy
Fairy
Giant baby