What's your costume this year?

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

What are you dressing as this year?

Usually, my wife and I dress as famous couples for Halloween, but this yesr we have been so busy with family and work that we didn't have time to plan our costumes in advance like we always do, so instead of going as a famous couple we decide to go as 2 of the killers from the Fear Street movies.

We will be dressing as the Skull Mask killer Ryan Torres, and Ruby Lane. There are pictures below if you don't know the characters. I know that the Skull Mask killer is very similar to the Ghost Face costume, and the Ruby Lane costume is very basic, but they are both quick and easy costumes to put together at the last minute, and it will be fun to try something new.

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[Murfreesboro]

I usually just throw something together. I have a long silvery gown that looks spectral, and a long-sleeved Halloween themed blouse I can throw over it, as well as a covid mask that is decorated like Day of the Dead. I discovered that last year I'd bought an oversize Day of the Dead t shirt, too. I'm thinking I'll do that this year. Because our Lutheran church was doing an Ocktoberfest/Reformation Day shindig this past weekend, Trunk or Treat got pushed to Nov 2, so the Day of the Dead costume will be especially appropriate. I'm actually glad to get a shot at it this Saturday, as our Halloween forecast is disappointing. We've had only one day of rain this month, last Saturday. Now rain is moving in all afternoon, evening, and night on Halloween. I foresee many of the little ghouls will be driven to their destinations.

[Andybev01]

Because I thought that I had lost it in my move but luckily found it a few days ago, I will be resurrecting this from a couple of years ago.

[Murfreesboro]

That's great! The mask is amazing.

[Andybev01]

It's definitely eye catching.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

It looks like both Andy and I will be rockin' the bones this Halloween!

I didn't even know that Trunk or Treat was still around, they introduced it in my area about 10 years ago and even though most older people like myself were not too happy about it, the schools pushed it with the younger crowd and it was popular for the first few years, but they stopped during the pandemic and they haven't done it since then.

I, and a few other parents, still brought our kids out for regular trick or treating, and we would also stop by the school to let them participate with their friends. Because my kids are younger, they have only done Trunk or Treat a couple of times before it was stopped in our area.

I understand why it was necessary to start the practice, as the world is very different than when I was growing up, but it just seems like you are cheating kids out of the real experience of trick or treating.

As for the thing about California mentioned in another thread, I haven't heard about that before, but I guess like Trunk or Treat it was introduced to help kids stay safe while they are out on Halloween. My mother grew up in California for the first 16 years of her life before she started to move around the country, and I asked her about this, she said it's definitely a new practice because when she was a kid they did their trick or treating at night.

[Murfreesboro]

I'm not sure daylight ToT goes on everywhere in CA, but I think it does in some communities.

I would never substitute Trunk or Treat for Trick or Treat, and never did when my kids were young. But around here it gets done on days other than Halloween. Our church does it as part of their Fall Festival every year. I've seen three different groups in various parking lots over this past weekend. I expect all these kids will be out ToTing door to door on Thurs, weather permitting. To me, Trunk or Treat just extends Halloween.

The thing that died out around here was the Halloween Hell House that some churches did about 20 years ago. I went to one of those at a Baptist church back in the day. Once was enough for me.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I didn't have kids yet when they introduced Trunk or Treat here, but I remember that they wanted to replace trick or treating with it,but it didn't catch on.

I remember when the Hell house started popping up in the late 90s, but around here they were called heck house because some of the more serious religious people here were afraid of the word Hell and they didn't want to offend anyone in the community. I was a teen at the time so I didn't ever go to one, but I do remember people talking about it, and I didn't hear anything good about it, which is probably why they don't do them around here anymore.

[Andybev01]

"...and they didn't want to offend anyone in the community."

Yeah why bother, when they have so many other ways of doing so.

[Murfreesboro]

That's funny, about not wanting to say Hell House. Reminds me of the expression "dressed eggs" instead of deviled eggs.

I think, the first year our church did Trunk or Treat, it was on Halloween, a Weds that year. I didn't go to it, choosing the neighborhood for my kids instead. But now they set it on a weekend. Not sure what they'll do when Halloween falls on Sat, but I think they've developed the sense to offset from the big night.

One year, during the Fall Fest, they told people to costume as a Biblical character. I came as the Witch of Endor.

Nowadays they just say don't wear horror costumes, but they don't tell adults how to decorate their cars. I've had a skeleton seated in my driver's seat with a skeletal pet dog. Most people found it humorous, which was my intention.

The one Hell House I went to had a little narrative, about a teenage couple. The girl was a Christian, but the boy was not. They depicted the young couple being killed in a car crash. The girl went to Heaven, but the boy didn't. I guess the concept was similar to those medieval morality plays, where death comes for the protagonist when he isn't expecting it. At the end they had rooms with counselors, and patrons were invited to go in and talk about salvation through Jesus. It wasn't bad and was, I guess, just another way to reach out to people. But it's not really what most people are looking for when they go out for Halloween, and my kids were raised in church, anyway, so they weren't ignorant about the Bible. I've always gotten a little frustrated by folks who can't just relax and have a good time with Halloween.

[MauEvig]

I went as a witch last year. But to be honest? I hadn't put much thought into it.
When Halloween falls on a weekday and you've worked all day, you really don't feel like doing much.
But I still plan on handing out candy. I might see what I can dig up. I've got a ton of costumes that I can recycle. No need to buy new ones every single year when I got plenty of things like masks, cat ears, and the like.

Humorous as in...the bone? I saw a shirt where it showed a ghost holding up a bone saying "I found this humerus" and I thought the little pun was funny. I realize the spelling is different, but I couldn't help but crack a little joke.

Murf, don't even get me started. I think the comparison to medieval morality plays is kind of interesting though, and as someone who studied literature I do remember a discussion about those. There was one in particular that was a Christmas story that turned into a semi-parody of the baby in the manger.

I've been to a couple presentations like that, where they did a skit involving Christians going to heaven and meeting Jesus and the angels, and non-Christians going to hell. My grandmother loves those. Personally...I think they're kind of cheesy and they kind of turned me more off to Christianity than anything.

But as far as Halloween goes? A lot of the more religious Christians don't celebrate it at all instead opting for a fall harvest gathering. Which is fine I guess if that's what they want to do. Neither of my grandmothers like Halloween in the slightest, and now my dad has joined in on the "Halloween is evil" bandwagon it seems. -sigh-

At least my mom and step dad love the holiday, and I'm going to continue to celebrate it every year in some capacity.

Another note on hell houses though...I always thought they were just haunted houses but people dressed up as demons and made it look like you stepped into hell? I've never been to one...I don't really have the interest...especially if they're preachy.

But there's nothing wrong with doing a trunk or treat. Maybe it's a good thing the church decided to do theirs on a separate day to not compete with the actual trick or treating tradition. School's do it too. I actually attended "boo bash" last year with a friend and had a great time. Instead of decorating car trunks, we decorated tables. I just wish it wasn't on a week day.

Honestly I do wish we could have the same respect for Halloween and get the day off like we do for Christmas, but it is what it is I suppose. At least we'll be doing a little something for the teenagers tomorrow with some snacks and a movie!

[Murfreesboro]

I bet that semi-parody of the Nativity was the Second Shepherds Play. I used to teach that years ago, when I was a grad student at Vandy. It's very famous.

Once, when I'd taken my younger kids to the TN Renaissance Fair, a local theater group put on Everyman. I'd read it before, but I was quite impressed with how stageworthy it was, and how much humor they found in it.

Technically there's a difference between the Medieval morality and miracle plays. Morality plays are more allegorical and depict the good and bad angel sitting on the protagonist's shoulder. They are about moral choice in everyday life. Everyman is a morality play. Miracle plays are based in Scripture. Second Shepherd is a miracle play, albeit with much elaboration.

[Murfreesboro]

I revisited this thread to correct myself in my previous post. Medieval drama based on Scripture is called a mystery play. Miracle plays are about Christian saints and the miracles they've performed. Second Shepherd is a mystery play.

Many years ago I saw an abbreviated mystery cycle at Belmont College in Nashville. Second Shepherd was among the plays they performed. For the shepherds' rustic accents, they used an East TN accent.

That cycle was very dramatically performed. When I have a little more time I'll come back and mention one stage effect I never forgot.

ETA: the cycle was divided into two sections, plays about events leading up to the birth of Jesus, and plays about the passion and Resurrection. The last play in the first section was the Slaughter of the Innocents. They made it slightly less dark by showing one woman escaping with her baby, but the rest were slain, of course. A figure representing death appeared at the center of the stage and strode deliberately into the middle of the audience, down a center aisle. He was lit by a brilliant spotlight, and as he walked, he spread his arms, so that he cast an increasingly large cross-shaped shadow on the stage. Suddenly the light went dark and he disappeared from view. On stage, occupying the space of the cross-shaped shadow, was an actual cross. It was a brilliant moment of stagecraft, and I've never forgotten it. It was actually thrilling to witness.

Now that I think of it, those old medieval plays can still be so very good on stage. Perhaps people who want to do the Hell House experience should consider performing them instead.

[MauEvig]

Kept my costume simple this year since it’s a weeknight. Just wore a pumpkin shirt and put some cat ears, gloves, and tail on. I’m a cat in a pumpkin.

These ears in particular were from a convention I went to with my boyfriend this year. We got to meet the legendary Jim Cummings!



The miracle plays do sound interesting. I guess I forgot the difference between morality and miracle plays, but it'd been a while since we'd studied them.

Wasn't Dr. Faustus a morality play then? Edit: Actually, it was an Elizabethan tragedy. I looked it up just now.

And it might have been the second Shepard, but I can't remember. Maybe if I saw the script to it, I would!

I'll have to brush up on those. I know I kind of fried my brain a bit when I studied for the praxis exam cramming a bunch of old pieces of literature, and some new! I think one of the practice questions asked about Percy Jackson and the Olympians!

Happy Halloween everyone! It's going to be low key and simple. We might extend our celebrations into the weekend where we'd have more time to do fun stuff like a horror movie marathon and binge on junk food.

But at least I have a costume on in case we get a trick or treater. And if not, I bought the kind of candy we like; Reeses peanut butter cups.

[Andybev01]

Your cat gloves are adorable.