<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568022037040010438</id><updated>2011-11-27T15:13:54.934-08:00</updated><category term='halloween costumes'/><category term='halloween song'/><category term='halloween'/><category term='halloween costume ideas 2009'/><category term='panic at the disco'/><category term='costume'/><category term='halloween sale'/><category term='history'/><category term='halloween candy'/><category term='halloween deals'/><category term='halloween accecories'/><category term='halloween costume ideas'/><category term='halloween dvd sale'/><title type='text'>Halloween Costume Ideas</title><subtitle type='html'>Halloween Costumes Ideas For Kids, Toddler, Boys, Girls, Adults and Couples</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://halloween-costume-ideas-2009.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7568022037040010438/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://halloween-costume-ideas-2009.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>nonik</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12570751208835053592</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>3</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568022037040010438.post-6318440033211160292</id><published>2009-10-08T20:20:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-09-21T20:13:29.688-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='halloween costume ideas'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='halloween'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='halloween accecories'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='halloween dvd sale'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='halloween costume ideas 2009'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='halloween sale'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='halloween deals'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='halloween costumes'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='halloween candy'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='halloween song'/><title type='text'>Halloween Deals</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 130%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 180%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;HALLOWEEN DEALS&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_p_6_0?rh=n%3A15684181%2Cn%3A%2115690151%2Ck%3ASkull+Accessories%2Cp_76%3A1-%2Cp_6%3AATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;amp;bbn=15684181&amp;amp;keywords=Skull+Accessories&amp;amp;ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1253814188&amp;amp;rnid=331541011&amp;amp;tag=pregnstage-20"&gt;&lt;img alt="halloween accecories" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390440091155953618" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_tReuYNPwRaQ/Ss6wtABf99I/AAAAAAAAADU/KGLleQkO5Ek/s320/scary+halloween+accecories.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 160px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 160px;" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/b?node=498868&amp;amp;tag=pregnstage-20"&gt;&lt;img alt="halloween dvd" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390440075218497730" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_tReuYNPwRaQ/Ss6wsEptsMI/AAAAAAAAADE/R7yryTABF_I/s320/halloween+dvd.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 82px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 59px;" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000428481&amp;amp;tag=pregnstage-20"&gt;&lt;img alt="halloween candy" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390440069606122050" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_tReuYNPwRaQ/Ss6wrvvnokI/AAAAAAAAAC8/pMi-pQFkqyY/s320/halloween+candy.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 110px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 110px;" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.amazon.com/b?node=258061011&amp;amp;tag=pregnstage-20&amp;amp;camp=0&amp;amp;creative=0&amp;amp;linkCode=ur1&amp;amp;adid=0472KMSFGFS1RSG7AKMP"&gt;&lt;img alt="halloween costume" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390440049125871698" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_tReuYNPwRaQ/Ss6wqjcv0FI/AAAAAAAAAC0/PsfKCgD7kxI/s320/halloween+costume.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 150px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 150px;" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It's almost halloween. We've selected popular deals for Halloween ranging from costumes to candy for you. You can prepare for halloween now. How fantastic, it's great. I like halloween ....!!!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 130%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;1.&lt;span style="color: #000099;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.amazon.com/b?node=258061011&amp;amp;tag=pregnstage-20&amp;amp;camp=0&amp;amp;creative=0&amp;amp;linkCode=ur1&amp;amp;adid=0472KMSFGFS1RSG7AKMP" style="color: #000099; font-weight: bold;"&gt;Halloween Costume Ideas 2009&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #006600; font-weight: bold;"&gt;2. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000428481&amp;amp;tag=pregnstage-20" style="color: #006600; font-weight: bold;"&gt;Halloween Candy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #990000; font-weight: bold;"&gt;3. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/b?node=498868&amp;amp;tag=pregnstage-20" style="color: #990000; font-weight: bold;"&gt;Halloween DVD Sale&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #663366; font-weight: bold;"&gt;4. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_p_6_0?rh=n%3A15684181%2Cn%3A%2115690151%2Ck%3ASkull+Accessories%2Cp_76%3A1-%2Cp_6%3AATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;amp;bbn=15684181&amp;amp;keywords=Skull+Accessories&amp;amp;ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1253814188&amp;amp;rnid=331541011&amp;amp;tag=pregnstage-20" style="color: #663366; font-weight: bold;"&gt;Scary Skull Accecories&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #ff6600; font-weight: bold;"&gt;5. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bel-Art-F388740000-Dry-Ice-Maker/dp/B0013J1UTM?tag=pregnstage-20" style="color: #ff6600; font-weight: bold;"&gt;Create an eerie fog effect in your haunted house&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #6600cc; font-weight: bold;"&gt;6. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://hitsfavouritemusic.blogspot.com/2009/10/top-10-halloween-songs.html" style="color: #6600cc; font-weight: bold;"&gt;Halloween Songs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7568022037040010438-6318440033211160292?l=halloween-costume-ideas-2009.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://halloween-costume-ideas-2009.blogspot.com/feeds/6318440033211160292/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://halloween-costume-ideas-2009.blogspot.com/2009/10/halloween-deals.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7568022037040010438/posts/default/6318440033211160292'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7568022037040010438/posts/default/6318440033211160292'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://halloween-costume-ideas-2009.blogspot.com/2009/10/halloween-deals.html' title='Halloween Deals'/><author><name>nonik</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12570751208835053592</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_tReuYNPwRaQ/Ss6wtABf99I/AAAAAAAAADU/KGLleQkO5Ek/s72-c/scary+halloween+accecories.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568022037040010438.post-1998823767661030218</id><published>2009-09-29T21:14:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2009-10-08T19:42:22.541-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='halloween'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='panic at the disco'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='halloween song'/><title type='text'>It's almost Halloween</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Panic at The Disco - "It's almost Halloween"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hitsfavouritemusic.blogspot.com/"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 95px; height: 141px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_jj1J8nUEMbU/SRmVGR41kBI/AAAAAAAAAQw/HyBF2nEYRAA/s320/panic4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267405174300053522" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hitsfavouritemusic.blogspot.com/"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 136px; height: 88px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_jj1J8nUEMbU/SRmVGbbX7uI/AAAAAAAAAQo/GIscrzOE-j8/s320/panic3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267405176860831458" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hitsfavouritemusic.blogspot.com/"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 109px; height: 133px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_jj1J8nUEMbU/SRmVGKDZ_hI/AAAAAAAAAQg/lSOz0pxvMLE/s320/panic2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267405172196900370" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hitsfavouritemusic.blogspot.com/"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 110px; height: 136px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_jj1J8nUEMbU/SRmVFyYag7I/AAAAAAAAAQY/drGPI2OkxiA/s320/panic1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267405165842564018" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;object width="425" height="344"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ov3UQDobur8&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;fs=1"&gt;&lt;param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ov3UQDobur8&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Panic at the disco - It's almost halloween lyrics&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'm carvin' pumpkins&lt;br /&gt;It's almost Halloween&lt;br /&gt;And all my friends are wonderin'&lt;br /&gt;What they're gonna be&lt;br /&gt;The Monster Mash is playin'&lt;br /&gt;You're movin' to the beat&lt;br /&gt;And now we're gonna teach ya&lt;br /&gt;To do the Trick-or-Treat&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Everybody scream&lt;br /&gt;Everybody scream&lt;br /&gt;It's almost Halloween&lt;br /&gt;Do the Trick-or-Treat&lt;br /&gt;Do the Trick-or-Treat&lt;br /&gt;It's almost Halloween&lt;br /&gt;Everybody scream&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There's a devil in the corner&lt;br /&gt;In candy apple red&lt;br /&gt;Dressed up like a fire&lt;br /&gt;Burnin' through my head&lt;br /&gt;I got a little closer&lt;br /&gt;And offered her a drink&lt;br /&gt;Who took me to the grave yard&lt;br /&gt;And we did the Trick-or-Treat&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Everybody scream&lt;br /&gt;Everybody scream&lt;br /&gt;It's only Halloween&lt;br /&gt;Do the Trick-or-Treat&lt;br /&gt;Do the Trick-or-Treat&lt;br /&gt;It's only Halloween&lt;br /&gt;Everybody scream&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Before I learned her name&lt;br /&gt;We were already asleep&lt;br /&gt;When I woke up in my coffin&lt;br /&gt;She was no where to be seen&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Was it all a dream?&lt;br /&gt;Who can I believe?&lt;br /&gt;It can't be what it seems&lt;br /&gt;It was only Halloween&lt;br /&gt;What does it all mean?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Everybody scream&lt;br /&gt;Everybody scream&lt;br /&gt;It was Halloween&lt;br /&gt;Do the Trick-or-Treat&lt;br /&gt;Do the Trick-or-Treat&lt;br /&gt;It was only Halloween&lt;br /&gt;Everybody scream&lt;br /&gt;Everybody scream&lt;br /&gt;It was Halloween&lt;br /&gt;Do the Trick-or-Treat&lt;br /&gt;Do the trick-or-Treat&lt;br /&gt;It was only Halloween&lt;br /&gt;Everybody scream&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://hitsfavouritemusic.blogspot.com/2009/10/top-10-halloween-songs.html"&gt; &lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Top 10 Halloween Songs &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7568022037040010438-1998823767661030218?l=halloween-costume-ideas-2009.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://halloween-costume-ideas-2009.blogspot.com/feeds/1998823767661030218/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://halloween-costume-ideas-2009.blogspot.com/2009/09/its-almost-halloween.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7568022037040010438/posts/default/1998823767661030218'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7568022037040010438/posts/default/1998823767661030218'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://halloween-costume-ideas-2009.blogspot.com/2009/09/its-almost-halloween.html' title='It&apos;s almost Halloween'/><author><name>nonik</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12570751208835053592</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_jj1J8nUEMbU/SRmVGR41kBI/AAAAAAAAAQw/HyBF2nEYRAA/s72-c/panic4.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568022037040010438.post-2666515327991105686</id><published>2009-09-29T00:41:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2009-09-29T00:50:38.574-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='halloween costume ideas'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='halloween'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='costume'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='halloween costume ideas 2009'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='history'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='halloween costumes'/><title type='text'>The History of Halloween Costumes</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;The History of Halloween Costumes&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On November 1st over 2000 years ago, in what is now known as the United Kingdom, Ireland and northern France, the Celts celebrated their new year. This date marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the cold, dark winter season, often associated with death. It was Celtic belief the on the night before the New Year the veil between the land of the living and the land of the dead because blurred. This night they celebrated Samhain. Celts believed ghosts haunted the land and damaged crops. This night was also thought to allow the Druids and Priests to possess a heightened ability to predict the future. For the commoner, these predictions would be a comfort and an insight into the coming dark winter that lie ahead.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Druids built large bonfires where the people would gather to sacrifice crops and their animals to ancient deities.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Druids also wore costumes consisting of animal skins and animal heads to mark the celebration and to spread their prophecies. When the celebration subsided the Celts would re-lite their home fires from the celebration bonfire to protect their home with the worshipped god help during the coming dark winter. After the Romans had invaded and conquered most of Celtic land by 43 A.D. two traditional festivals, the Celtic Samhain and the Roman, were combined.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Feralia, the first day of the Roman festival traditionally occurred in late October and we celebrated to remember the passing of the dead. The second day, Pomona, was to honor the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. This may be an explanation of the traditional Halloween practice of today called "bobbing for apples". Christianity had become a part of the Celtic lands and in the 7th century, Pope Bonfire IV designated Nov 1st as a day to honor Martyrs and Saints, All Saints Day. This celebration was also known as All-Hallowmas or All-Hallows and was widely believed to be the popes attempt to make the dead related Celtic festival a church-sanctioned holiday. The night of Samhain, the night before it, started to be called All-hallows Eve, which soon was named Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, November 2 was named by the church as All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. Like Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and people dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. The combined three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were then called Hallowmas.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Halloween Traditions of Trick or Treat and Halloween Costumes&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"Trick-or-treating", the American tradition of celebrating Halloween is very similar to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. Poor citizens would beg for food and be given pastries called "soul cakes" by families and in return they promised to pray for their dead relatives.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The ancient practice of leaving wine and food for spirits was replaced by the soul cakes with blessing of the church. Soon children adopted the practice of "going a-souling"; visiting the houses in their neighborhoods to collect money ale and food.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The modern tradition of dressing up in adult Halloween costumes and kids Halloween costumes has both Celtic and European roots. Many hundreds of years ago the winter was an uncertain time. With people being scared of the dark and low on food the constant uncertainty of the short winter days would set in. On Halloween it was believed that ghosts would come back to the earth plane and would be encountered if anyone left their home. To avoid being recognized by these unearthly spirits, people would adorn masks and Halloween costumes when they ventured out after dark in the hopes these ghosts would mistake them for one of their own. To appease these ghosts, people would also leave food and drink outside their homes to prevent them from entering.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Evolution of Halloween&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;New European immigrants brought their Halloween costumes and their customs with them to America. Because early New England contained a strict Protestant belief system, celebration of Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge as the beliefs and customs from the different European and American Indians melded. In Maryland and the southern colonies this holiday was much more common. During "play parties", citizens took part in the public celebrations of the harvest by telling stories of the dead, dancing, singing and telling each other's fortunes. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and jokes. Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the middle of the nineteenth century, but yearly fall festivities were common.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Towards the end of the nineteenth century the full celebration of Halloween began. With the new rush of English and millions of Irish immigrants escaping Ireland's potato famine of 1846 Halloween was celebrated nationally. Along the same lines of Irish and English traditions, Americans began to wear Halloween costumes and go house to house begging for food or money, a practice that is now today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Youthful women believed they could predict the appearance and the name of their future husbands by doing tricks with apples parings, string or mirrors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the late 1800s, the tradition gravitated away from pranks, spirits, divination and witchcraft to a more neighborly holiday. At the turn of the century, Halloween costume parties for families became the most common way to celebrate the holiday. These parties focused on Halloween costumes seasonal foods and fun Halloween games. Now parents were encouraged through local media to remove the grotesque and superstitious overtones that Halloween was typically associated with. By the beginning of the twentieth century these efforts came to fruition and once again the Halloween traditions were altered.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By the 1920s and 1930s, the October 31st Halloween holiday had become a celebration with Halloween costume parties, Halloween parades as the national Halloween entertainment. All that attended wore Halloween costumes of ghosts, ghouls and goblins. Despite the best efforts of communities, vandalism began to ravage the Halloween celebrations during this time. By the 1950s, community leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween mainly evolved into a holiday for the young. Because of the baby boom of that era, parties were moved from the local centers into the family home and the local schools to accommodate the numbers. Also from 1920 to 1950, the ancient practice of trick-or-treating was also rekindled. Door to door "trick-or-treating" was a great inexpensive way to bring about the community to share in the Halloween spirit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Top costumes worn today are:&lt;br /&gt;Pirate Costumes&lt;br /&gt;Witch Costumes&lt;br /&gt;Spider-Man Costumes&lt;br /&gt;Superman Costumes&lt;br /&gt;Disney Princess Costumes&lt;br /&gt;Renaissance Costumes&lt;br /&gt;Star Wars Costumes&lt;br /&gt;Vampire Costumes&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Today Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion every year on the Halloween tradition, making it the second largest commercial holiday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;source: http://www.costumecauldron.com/Halloween-History.html&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7568022037040010438-2666515327991105686?l=halloween-costume-ideas-2009.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://halloween-costume-ideas-2009.blogspot.com/feeds/2666515327991105686/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://halloween-costume-ideas-2009.blogspot.com/2009/09/history-of-halloween-costumes.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7568022037040010438/posts/default/2666515327991105686'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7568022037040010438/posts/default/2666515327991105686'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://halloween-costume-ideas-2009.blogspot.com/2009/09/history-of-halloween-costumes.html' title='The History of Halloween Costumes'/><author><name>nonik</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12570751208835053592</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>
