Elks Halloween Ball 2013

Did You Know? - Halloween costumes are costumes worn on or around Halloween, a festival which falls on October 31. The Halloween costume has a relatively short history. Wearing costumes has long been associated with other holidays around the time of Halloween, even Christmas.

Among the earliest references to wearing costumes at Halloween is in 1895, where "guisers" are recorded in Scotland, but there is almost no mention of a costume in England, Ireland, or the United States until 1900.

Early costumes emphasized the pagan and gothic nature of the holiday, but by the 1930s costumes based on characters in mass media such as film, literature, and radio were popular. Halloween was originally promoted as a children's holiday, and as a means of reining in the wicked and destructive behavior of teenagers.

Early Halloween costumes were aimed at children in particular, but after the mid-20th century, as Halloween increasingly came to be celebrated by adults, the Halloween costume was worn by adults as much as children.

Did You Know? - A jack-o'-lantern is a carved pumpkin, turnip or beet, associated chiefly with the holiday of Hallowe'en, and was named after the phenomenon of strange light flickering over peat bogs, called will-o'-the-wisp or jack-o'-lantern. In a jack-o'-lantern, the top is cut off, and the inside flesh then scooped out; an image, usually a monstrous face, is carved out, and the lid replaced. It is typically seen during Halloween. In origin, in the British Isles, turnips and beets were used whereas, in North America, pumpkins are used almost exclusively.