When it comes to Halloween costumes, you've more than likely bought, rented or assembled something out of your closet. Or maybe you're still on the hunt for a costume.

All of your decorations are on display and your treat bags have been purchased and are ready to go into the hands of trick-or-treaters, but do you really know the history as to why children and adults wear costumes and why we have Halloween decorations and parties?

A holiday with many origins

There are different beliefs as to how the origin of Halloween celebrations started, but most believe the ancient tradition that is rooted back some 2,000 years ago to an ancient Celtic pagan festival of customs and superstitions. The festival was called Samhain, which stands for "summer's end," or "Hallowtide," the night of the great fire festival. The festival marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of the dark winter season. It was celebrated Oct. 31.

In the 800s, the Christian church established a new holiday, All Saints' Day, on Nov. 1. All Saints' Day was also called "All Hallows'" since Hallow means saint or one who is holy. The evening before All Hallows' was known as All Hallows' Eve, and was soon shortened to Halloween. Costumes were worn by the Celts to blend in with ghosts during the eve when the veil between life and death was at its thinnest. These costumes were said to be worn to scare off the spirits.

As the Scottish and German immigrants began to settle in America, they brought their autumn tales of ghosts, witches, elves and gnomes to this country. They also brought the swapping of carved turnips for jack-o'-lanterns and courting for trick-or-treating.

Whatever the actual past history is, what is important is that Halloween is a key holiday in the United States since the 1900s and is celebrated free from any religious association.

Trick-or-treating did not come to a head until the 1930s. Parties were held to bring children together and several companies were making or importing figurines and decorations from Germany.

Tips from the Dennison Paper Company

To help in the giving of a party, only one early American business firm, the Dennison Paper Company in Framingham, Mass., produced an amazing array of decorative cutouts, according to Paul Larsen and Ron Ruport of Mantorville Square Antiques & Collectibles in Mantorville. Dennison's annual "Bogie Books" (1912-1924) showed which products were available and offered ideas for Halloween decorating and entertaining.

Vintage Halloween costumes were often handmade out of crepe paper. Some of the first costumes were fairies, gypsies and burglars. These vintage crepe costumes are actually, as I have been told in the past, the most popular collectible, although they were often discarded after Halloween. The Dennison Paper Company doesn't not yet have a lot of experience with the vintage paper costumes in our shop today.

"In the '50s, factory-made costumes of popular figures from movies and television appeared. Popular costume makers included Collegeville, Ben Cooper and Halco. These packaged costumes came in a box with an outfit and mask," Larsen says. "Trick-or-treat bags, plastic containers and toys, hats, Bakelite stickpins, post cards, ceramics, noise makers and jack-o'-lanterns are all symbols that capture the holiday spirit, but the jack-o'-lantern is actually the most popular collectible."

The hunt for old Halloween items

The earliest lanterns were made of pressed paper and had cut outs for the eyes, nose and mouth. Openings often were backed with pieces of thin colored paper that would light up when a candle was placed inside the pumpkin.

By the 1920s, pressed and formed paperboard was used, followed by papier-mache in the '30s to a plastic material in the '50s. Carved wood folk art items like black cats and witches were also popular, and still are today as reproductions selling in thrift stores for about $1.25.

"Today's collector's value pricing ranges from $25 on up, with a wide variety of Halloween items listed mostly from the 1960s," Larsen says. "Those now, what we call Vintage Halloween costumes and decorations, were often found at Woolworth's and other five-and-dime stores and are now not that easy to find since we didn't save these costumes or decorations like we did with Christmas decorations, so this makes the hunt for old Halloween items a bit expensive on Web sites and in antique shops. Sometimes you may be lucky and find some at a thrift store, estate and garage sale, antique and collectible show or even at an auction."

Sandy Erdman is a Winona freelance writer. If you have an antique business or a collectible and want to be considered for an article, contact Sandy at life@postbulletin.com.

Next week: Harvest canning and collecting.

There are 0 comments - Display All Comments