by Len Morse

Created on: October 12, 2007   Last Updated: September 25, 2009

Go ahead, dress as someone (or something) else. It's okay. That's what Halloween costumes are all about. Almost everyone I know has an inner-actor that begs to be released every October; we help our kids pick out costumes, or get our own for a Halloween party, or simply to show our Halloween spirit when giving out candy.

== History ==

It is believed that the practice of sporting creepy clothes originally started with the ancient Celts of Ireland, who supposedly ran around in their scariest creations to keep away the souls of the dead who wanted to possess the living. This window of opportunity only lasted for one night, and always on All Hallow's Eve, the night before All Saint's Day (Nov 1).

Over time, belief in evil spirits lessened and the costume traditions spread to many other countries. Today, much of western civilization regards Halloween costumes as nothing more than a completely innocent, fun tradition for kids and many adults. Personally, I believe that nothing bad comes from a little harmless change of clothing for Halloween. I've tried various costumes for various reasons, and enjoyed many of them with various degrees of success.

== Most Frequent ==

When I was but a wee lad, I always wanted to dress as a vampire. So even though I branched out when I got older, the most frequent costume over my lifetime would still be the old fangs and cape.

I don't remember any sort of streamlined prosthetics in the 1970s, and I thus had to use an extremely cheap set of choppers. They were made of hard plastic and probably sold with the overused "one size fits all" tagline. Yeah, I don't think so. Those fake fangs were so big, I could barely stop from drooling, and my porch greetings would come out as a slobbering "Shrick or shreet!" Still, it was cool to see my cape billowing out behind me as my sister and I ran from house to house.

== Most Frightening ==

Skip ahead to college. While living on campus, I found a community "haunted house" that was held in the local armory. I wanted to help out one year, so in addition to painting tombstones and doing other crafty activities, I was asked to fill in as one of the characters, a get-up in which I've scared the most people. They had me wear jeans, a flannel shirt, and a jacket, then they gave me a hockey goalie mask and a fake knife: I was Jason!

My job was to scare the people coming out of a dark maze. I would hide around a corner, still inside the maze so they wouldn't see me. The mask was rather tight, which made my

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