Many accounts say Halloween costumes began as Celtic disguises, but the evidence for that is thin. The Guardian notes that animal skins worn around a ritual fire “may have been part of it” at Samhain, then adds that actual evidence is thin to nonexistent.
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That caveat matters because the tale is everywhere. BBC Bitesize tells young readers that the Celts lit huge bonfires and sometimes wore disguises so spirits would not recognise them. Smithsonian Magazine says Celts dressed in costumes to stave off evil spirits.
What the tale says
Samhain was the Celtic new year, and the Celts believed the barrier between the living and the dead was thinnest then. Spirits were thought to wander the Earth and meet the living.
The Guardian sketches the logical leap. Samhain came with livestock slaughter, so skins may have appeared. Disguising yourself to confuse wandering souls is then a short step.
For the skins, the same article adds, the evidence is thin to nonexistent.
A homespun look
A clearer picture comes from a witness quoted in Nicholas Rogers’s history of Halloween. In the 1940s, one witness told the Irish Folklore Commission that young people sometimes wore strange garments, with boys going as girls and girls as old men or women. A mask might be a bit of cloth with holes cut for the eyes, nose and mouth. Beards and brows were drawn on with boot polish.
The Guardian says that homespun look reached the rural US as Irish emigration swelled in the 19th century. People then began taking photographs of it.
Where the witch came from
The witch is the classic example of how a costume travelled. Smithsonian Magazine says the Halloween witch arrived in the United States with European immigrants in the 1800s.
The racy witch is older than many assume. Slate argued it began in the 1970s, partly because retailers started selling pre-made suggestive outfits. Smithsonian’s author found images of scantily clad witches on broomsticks from the 1910s, which pushes the date back.
A modern habit, say some
Not everyone ties costumes to the Celts at all. Lisa Morton, author of a history of Halloween, points out that dressing up is a fairly modern tradition. TODAY reports that magazines in the 1920s showed children draped in sheets as ghosts.
Morton and the UCLA scholar Henry Ansgar Kelly both say the reason behind Halloween costumes remains something of a mystery.
That leaves a split. The old disguise story is widely repeated, while the surest evidence is much later and more homespun.
