Informative Essay On Halloween

Thesis Statement: How Halloween has evolved from what it once was to what is now.

These traditions were connected with the lower class at the time and so they were also connected with crime, rowdy behavior and other stereotypes the upper class believed about the poor. Of course people who were part of the upper class did not like this and by the 1870s they had turned Halloween into a holiday to make children into “good American citizens.” Halloween was now targeted towards children and because of that families were encouraged to celebrate it at home where food, games and other entertainment would have adult supervision. By doing this children were expected to understand the values society holds, while also learning about their proper gender roles. At this point we are able to start to see how Halloween became so heavily influenced by gender roles/stereotypes and how that led to the over-sexualized holiday it is now. Trick or treating and wearing Halloween costumes became popular in America around the 1920s and by the 1950s children’s costumes were extremely reflective of their sex. (Bannatyne.) Girls were dressed as princesses and angels while boys were army men, hobos and so on. However, as cute and adorable as this is or may have been, this creates a very thick line between genders. When that line is present it is alluding to children that

Halloween was an ancient cultural festival taken by people who thought it was interesting. With the holiday's history steeped in cultural borrowing it’s a shame that many Halloween costumes suffer from cultural theft.

Every year millions of kids get dressed up, knock on doors, and beg for candy. With Halloween just around the corner, you all are probably wondering where this strange tradition came from. Every year I have experienced this holiday and have done research on this topic. According to a 2014 Smithsonian.com article, stated by Natasha Geiling, in just one year Americans spent over six billion dollars on candy, costumes, and ghoulish decor in anticipation for Halloween. Many people think all Halloween is about dressing up and going trick or treating but there's more to it than that. The roots and variations from all around are what makes Halloween what it is today. In order to understand this holiday, we will go into the history of Halloween, how it's celebrated around the world, and superstitions revolving it.

This is the first recorded activity that can be linked to trick-or-treating, and the similarities can be seen in the act of setting out food for people to take. This might also be the reason why the custom of children dressing up as monsters started. People set out for food for the evil spirits said to roam the Earth on this day, and kids dressed up as them to trick people into giving them

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. Since I was a child, Halloween was the event I looked more forward to throughout the year, even more than my birthday. Halloween was the day I got to be anything I wanted, and be rewarded for it by receiving candy. My love for the holiday during my childhood has played a big role in who I’ve become now. I love dressing up as different personas, and I’m attracted to the same eeriness Halloween has.

Long ago, the Celtic and pagan religions made Halloween more alive before we ever did. The essay says, “Carving pumpkins, bobbing for apples, dressing up in costume and even trick-or-treating were all pagan practices that were carried over.” All of these items made people more interested in the holiday, since they got to be scared and get to be whatever character from whatever show, movie, or play. Some people also think Halloween can be dangerous though because of broken down homes. The essay said that residential house built during the early 1800s were becoming worn down and dilapidated. That means the young children could get crushed by beams supporting the house, fall through floors, and get severe broken bones, but since then, Halloween been improved to where no parent or child will get hurt and haunted houses have been mending their special FX, actors or employees makeup and costumes and are getting better than

Halloween: the holiday where as kids we couldn’t wait to go door to door to achieve the golden goal of a full bag of candy. Halloween soon turns into a question mark for teens; in an instant, there is a change of when it is ‘appropriate’ to go trick-or-treating and when you should just move on. Are you the one who thinks Trick-or-treating is lame or the one who still walks around your neighborhood every year -- no matter how many dirty looks you may get. What teenagers decide to do on Halloween varies: going to a party, passing out candy, staying home are a few popular options. Throughout my highschool experience I have been able to witness and experience all different types of halloteens, each with their own traits.

Halloween originated as a time to remember the dead. Some take this aspect of Halloween very seriously. This brings the first type of costume at a party, the Spooky. These can be zombies, vampires, witches, mummies, Frankenstein, and of course creepy

Halloween is assumed to have been around in some form for the last 2,000 years. During this time costumes have been one of the main highlights for the festivities. However, the costumes that we have today are vastly different from the costumes that the Celts had 2,000 years ago when they established the ancient origins of this holiday.

Centuries before it become the Halloween we know today, the holiday served as a night of prophesy rather than partying. Halloween dates back to pre-historic time to group of paganism known as the Celts. According to Minnesota Historical Society, “The Celts lived 2,000 years ago in what is now Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales and northern France.” Samhain was their festival for the New Year, Which marked the day when summer ended and winter began. They associated winter with human death. According to Lewis Spencer, (author of Origins of Halloween) “The Celts

Furthermore, there are many traditional rituals and superstitions associated with Halloween. Since the ancient Celts thought the nonliving roamed the earth, they created costumes out of animal pelts to ward off evil spirits. Fortunetelling and the utilization of large bonfires for sacrifices and purification were also early customs. After the Christianization of the holiday to commemorate saints and martyrs, the same festivities, bonfires, and guising remained, but October 31st was renamed All-Hallows Eve. This inevitably turned into Halloween. Similar to European traditions, America’s Halloween has also evolved throughout the years. Halloween’s recognition was originally restricted in colonial America due to its non-Christian beliefs and practices, and it was practiced at a more local level. According to an online source, “The first celebrations included ‘play parties,’ public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead and tell each other’s fortunes, dance, and sing” (“History of Halloween”). Festivities were akin to European traditions, but also included ghost stories and pranking. Beginning in the twentieth century, Halloween

Most kids think that trick-or-treating is the Halloween tradition. Kids dress up as monster, mythical creatures, super heroes and other things, going door to door asking for candy. Well, “Trick-or-Treating hasn’t always been a part of Halloween celebrations. In fact, Halloween has only been celebrated in the US for a relatively short time.’’ (Author: N/A, (Date: N/A) Halloween History, http://www.halloweenhistory.org/trick-or-treating-history.html)

My perfect Halloween would be a night of just chilling and watching a marathon of halloween

Borrowing from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money. Over time this tradition turned in to today modern “trick or treating”. In the late 1800s, America turned Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, and witchcraft. As the centuries changed Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything “frightening” or “grotesque” out of Halloween celebrations. Because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century (Kammen).