Halloween, also known as All Hallows Eve, All Saints’ Eve, Samhain, Spooky Day, and Snap-Apple night, is celebrated all over the world on October 31st of each year. Both children and adults participate in this fun-filled celebration that emphasizes dressing up in costumes, carving pumpkins into faces, trick-or-treating, and attending costume parties. Other activities include watching horror movies; visiting houses (or other structures) that have been transformed into spooky, scary places; and participating in traditional autumn activities such as going on hayrides, having bond fires, and picking pumpkins. It is also a time to delve into fantasy, gore, and horror.

A major part of Halloween involves children dressing up in costumes from fairy princesses to ghoulish characters. Children often visit houses and even businesses to collect candy and other treats (trick-or-treating).

This holiday began as a Pagan festival among the Celts in Ireland and Great Britain. In the 19th century the Irish, Scots, Welsh, and other immigrants brought various versions of the tradition to North America. Early celebrations of Halloween in the United States involved Scottish-American and Irish-American societies holding dinners and balls to celebrate their heritages. Home celebrations focused on children’s activities such as bobbing for apples, playing divination games, and playing pranks on people.

The commercialization of Halloween began in the early 20th century with the manufacturing of Halloween postcards and decorations. Mass produced costumes such as Halloween horror masks did not appear in stores until the 1930s, and in the 1950s trick-or-treating became a part of the holiday.

Today Halloween is the sixth most profitable holiday in the United States for retailers. There are a large variety of costumes, masks, and paints that revelers both young and old use to transform themselves from ordinary people into whatever they want to be. Halloween means different things to different people, and celebrations reflect different tastes. For instance, some emphasize horror and gore when choosing a costume; thus, Halloween horror masks are quite popular. Commons depictions of these masks include monsters, ghouls, witches, vampires, spooky clowns, devils, demons, and disfigured faces.

Some Halloween horror masks are well-crafted and look almost real. Even though people, especially adults, know that scary Halloween masks are not real, they can still be intimidating and chilling. According to the National Retail Federation witches, pirates, vampires, cats, and clowns are the most popular costumes amongst adults. Although many children’s costumes focus on more tame characters, ghouls, pirates, and other Halloween horror masks are made for children as well.

Halloween is a holiday that focuses on having fun, being with friends, and delving into fantasy. Masks and costumes are a big part of the celebration. Since the holiday has become such a commercial success, both young and old can find the kind of masks or costumes that help them live out a fantasy (however sweet or scary) or express themselves in creative or unusual ways.