(It’s guest post Friday! Here is a special Halloween edition from SCL favorite Some Guy. If you would like to guest post, here’s how.)
Halloween Costumes by Some Guy
I’ve been wondering why we wear costumes on Halloween. I checked on the World Wide Web, (Have you been on that thing? It’s got everything, weather, sports, stock quotes. I mean everything.) And the Internet gave me a couple of different reasons.
Here’s why we apparently wear costumes:
1. To prevent ghost home invasions.
The first reason was that, in times long past, people were afraid that ghosts would occupy their houses if the ghosts saw them out and about. People would wear masks so the ghosts wouldn’t recognize them.
That explanation doesn’t work these days because a lot of people don’t wear masks. The costumes aren’t confusing anyone.
And, if that were the case, people would be wearing masks of their enemies, like the guy on the next block who never cleans up after his dog. That way, the ghost will see you out and about and think it’s him. Your house stays clean, and he inherits a problem. But that’s not very Christianly, and it requires you to somehow casually get a plaster cast of the face of the neighbor you don’t get along with, which is a huge hassle. So I don’t think this is a good reason for us to wear costumes anymore.
2. To punk evil spirits.
Are we still using “to punk” as a phrase? That show has been off the air for years. Is it so old that it’s retro now? So many questions. But the second reason people started wearing costumes is that they were trying to scare away evil spirits. I’m not really buying that, because the scary masks and costumes look like what I picture an evil spirit to look like. You’re not scaring them away if you look like them–they might try to befriend you. Or at the bare minimum follow you on Twitter.
If you want to scare away evil spirits, then why not go dressed as something that actually will scare them?
A. Bible (that’ll scare the heaven into them)
B. An angel (gotta be the intimidating type with the flaming sword, not the ceramic figurine type that looks a little like Cupid)
I don’t know that I would recommend going as Jesus.
“Trick or treat!”
“Oh, and who are you supposed to be?”
“I’m Jesus!”
Good witnessing opportunity? Check.
Tough to pull off without being blasphemous? Check.
Do this one at your own risk.
3. So people can’t tell who you are.
Yet another reason for going in disguise is so that your neighbors won’t know who you are. That’s only needed if the homeowner doesn’t treat, leaving you no choice but to pull a trick on him. Harmless trick, of course. And Jon’s even told us the levels of apology we might need to do depending on the size of the prank.
None of those three reasons makes sense anymore though. Stupid Information Superhighway. So I asked a kid, someone more in tune with the pulse of the elementary schools and got the real answer.
Why do we wear costumes on Halloween?
To get candy. (Really should have seen that one coming.)
Question:
What was your favorite Halloween costume as a kid?
