Halloween Costumes And Ideas   by Dean Krnel

Since some Summer Camps celebrate themes and holidays, you might have an activity revolving around Halloween. So you ask, "What might me do?" You could go bobbing for apples, enter a haunted house, tell spooky stories, have a Halloween costume contest, watch a scary movie or scare your friends.

I have always thought it was fun to know a little about the folklore of what Halloween is really all about. You hear so many different versions of what Halloween is. Halloween is actually an Irish and Scottish celebration. For the most part this celebration was a ritual for games foretelling the future, particularly marital prospects. For instance an unmarried woman would place two nuts on her fire place grate one for her and one for her boyfriend. If the nut that she picked for him jumped or cracked, it was said that the boyfriend would be unfaithful. But if the nuts representing the woman and her suitor burned simultaneously, that would mean they would be married.

It is believed that Trick or Treat started when the villagers would go door to door asking for food for the needy. The generous villagers were promised prosperity, and the less generous were threatened by the villagers collecting food.

Also according to legend the first ever Jack-o'lantern was established by, of course a man named Jack. It went like this: Jack was an old drunkard that made a deal with the devil and then tried to renege. The devil was very angry at Jack and threw a burning piece of coal at him that landed in the half eaten turnip in Jack's hand, thus the making the first Jack-o'lantern. It was thought that was protection from evil. The actual pumpkin Jack-o'lantern didn't originate until our forefathers came to the United States, and pumpkins were used as a replacement of the turnips.

Ok, now that we got our history lesson, let's get back to Halloween Costumes. Well first you have to decide whether you are going to purchase a costume or make one the old fashion way. What does your child want to be? Some costume ideas will not be able to be purchased at the store.

If you and your child are of the creative nature, getting together and making a costume would be the optimum idea. This way you would get to spend quality time together. It seems we don't get this too much anymore. The both of you could go out shopping and make the decisions on what type of material to buy, what kind of craft items would be needed, and who knows, you just might end up coming up with something different all together.

So if you are going to make a homemade costume you need to come up with your idea, create a shopping list, purchase your items then assemble it. You might need paints, piping, flowers, makeup, shoes, old clothes, wigs, hats, gloves, finger nails. false eyelashes, scary hands or feet, or scary warts and scares, swords, knifes, hatchets but, all these items can be made either out of cardboard or wood or what ever else you can find laying around the house. You even might be able to find some items outside that would fit your costume design. Let your imagination run wild. What ever you find, play with it, experiment with different types of materials, you might be amazed at what you can come up with.

So go ahead and have fun with your creation. Hopefully you can win a costume contest with all your hard work. If for some chance you would not win, you would have the satisfaction of making your costume with your family, and this is something to be proud of.

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