The Past, Once, and Future Halloween

My goodness! How things have changed during the holidays over the years! In previous articles for Hagenbuch.org we have explored Christmases, Easters, and patriotic holidays of years gone by. And, we’ve touched on what some Halloween celebrations were like back in the day. Our celebration of “All Hallow’s Eve” is not the same as it once was, especially in the likes of costuming.

Children and adults enjoy Halloween immensely. When once it was a fun time seemingly just for children, now the Halloween season includes more parents dressing in costumes as they accompany their children on the nightly excursion to get candy from neighbors with treats and not tricks! This makes it more fun for adults, and also assures that their children are safe as they make the rounds.

Mark and Linda (Gutshall) Hagenbuch wearing Halloween masks from the basement

I do have memories of adults dressing up for Halloween parties that were held at local fire halls and churches. Our parents would dress as hoboes, clowns, and, of course, the easy-to-make ghost covered in a white bed sheet. As the years went by, adults jumped more into the fun by having their own parties, where they could let themselves go and enjoy the night. Instead of making up their own costumes from articles found in the basement (that’s where our family shops for Halloween costumes as Linda saves all sorts of garb that she has purchased at yard sales), Halloween stores open up several weeks before the holiday. Here one can purchase just about any type of costume; be it funny, ghoulish, or culturally popular as in characters from comic books and video games.

Granddaughter, Hadley, dressed as a witch

Children’s costumes have certainly evolved from what adults once wore as Halloween costumes back in the day (e.g., animals or characters from Disney films and other television shows). Today, there are a plethora of new cartoon characters, dinosaur outfits, and super hero costumes. We make sure our children are safe by accompanying them door to door and wearing costumes to join in the fun. My premise is that Halloween should still be for our children—a night when our young ones can share a fun evening with parents and neighbors, gathering mouth watering treats, and showing off different dress up clothes that chill our funny bones.

Grandson, William, dressed as a monster

Recently, for many of us older folks who now have grandchildren, Halloween has been reborn as a fun evening. A few years ago, we were visiting our daughter, Katie, her husband, Nelson, and their two daughters in Maine during the night of Halloween. As mentioned, my wife Linda is a great collector of all sorts of dress up clothing, many of which act as costuming for trick or treating. So, on our visit we took along costumes for ourselves and some supplemental fun clothing for our granddaughters, Hadley and Ada.

Granddaughter, Ada, dressed as a cat

The girls had their own costumes which they used for Halloween night, but Linda had other pieces of fun clothing to try on and have fun with. I believe half the fun of Halloween is selecting what one wants to dress as, mixing and matching, and also making up parts of one’s costume. We had a wonderful evening as Nelson drove the six of us to different neighbors’ homes to shout the customary “trick or treat” and to not only show off what we were dressed as, but also to admire what others were wearing. I couldn’t help thinking as I looked around that the costuming of 50 years ago—cowboys and sheet-covered ghosts—had now upgraded to Spider-Man and pirates. Others were similar to my youth, like those who wore the cute costumes of pumpkins and princesses.

Grandson, Henry, dressed as a masked fire chief

However, I would be remiss if I didn’t write about the adult costuming that has become so popular within my own group of hobbyists, living historians. Just take a look at the colonial clothing that I now wear as I have presented programs to folks over the past 40 years. Although I costume in the 18th and 19th century way many times during the year, my garb from those time periods are popular with so many of my friends. When Halloween comes around, it’s a simple way to dress for the Halloween celebration by putting on some of my “old timey” clothing that I enjoy so much.

Granddaughter, Josefina, with a traditional Nicaraguan mask, the Macho Raton—one of the beasts of burden— from a folkloric play

So, what will the future bring? As with so many of our holidays, the cultures of our country, and now the world, these change how we hold celebrations—especially with Halloween costumes. From the simple, uncomplicated costumes that our parents put together in the mid-1950s to Halloween costuming that evolved from TV and movies, we adults now share “all Hallow’s eve” together as we enjoy mimicking what we are all wearing. Future celebrations will be examples of how we shared Halloween with our children and grandchildren today, as we have a fun evening together and remember what our grandparents would have worn to get treats and not tricks.

Mark Hagenbuch (back row, left) with friends wearing 18th century garb and masks