French Halloween Celebrations Beginnings

There is this belief that Halloween was celebrated by Gauls with the name Samain. The holiday was seen as marking summer’s end and the start of the dark season. Between October 31^st and the first day of November we had the New Year at that point in time. Various druidical rites took place then.

The folk celebration we see now as Halloween appeared in the country during the eighties. At that point in time we saw just English speaking communities that celebrated the holiday in restaurants or bars. French started to celebrate Halloween at the start of the nineties. During the year 1992 we saw Cesar, a fancy dress costume company, working on doing business in France. That is interesting because in USA we saw the large Halloween celebrations starting only in the year 1997 so France was ahead of the curb.

Halloween Celebrations In France

In most cases Halloween is celebrated in France by people that are young. They wear costumes and go to parties in clubs, homes or other locations. Costumes are normally scary in tradition with ghosts, witches and vampires being highly popular as opposed to superheroes or princesses. The latter are more popular in Great Britain or United States.

In France we do not see trick or treating. The commercial centers and stores will normally decorate pastry, candy and windows with a Halloween theme. The actual trick or treating celebration is only seen among some French kids in smaller communities.

Modern French Halloween Celebrations

Right now, we see that French Halloween is seen as being quite controversial because of many different reasons. The large controversy appears because of the fact that the period between the last day of October and November 2 is when older French generations honor saints, attend religious services and visit some cemeteries. Halloween is considered as being a distraction by those people and they believe that it is a lack of respect in celebrating dead individuals.

We also see Halloween boycotting that appears because of the belief that the holiday is just a marketing strategy that is used by Americans.

In the past we did see that Halloween was highly successful, especially in the period around 2000. Nowadays, in the last 5 to 6 years, a lot of religious and political controversy appeared and opposition is stronger. Halloween in France is faced with a decline, with shops and streets not being decorated as often and as fabulously as they used to be.

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Adding creative lighting to show off your Halloween display is extremely important for several reasons:

1. If your home is too dark, kids (or their parents) might be too scared to approach.
2. Having plenty of light will help protect your home from those wanting to play a trick instead of get a treat.
3. The right balance of light and shadows can make all the difference between an average holiday decor display and a really amazing work of art.

Once you’ve decided to put up a Halloween lighting display, there are so many options to choose from. Get ideas by browsing photos online. Don’t forget to get the kids involved, because they may have the best ideas of all. Once you get a good idea, choosing the right lights can make a huge difference. Depending on your available time and budget, you may want to check with professional lighting decorators in your area. They will likely have put up hundreds, even thousands of displays and know a lot of the ins and outs of making yours extra special. Here are a few suggestions for great ways to use Halloween lights:

Spooky Spot Lights

The effective use of spotlights can be a great way to brighten up even the darkest and scariest display. Choose the items that are your favorites and make sure there’s a spotlight shining on them, or have a spotlight focused on a subtle side character that wouldn’t get much attention otherwise. One idea is to highlight a black cat getting ready to pounce off the top of the roof onto unsuspecting trick or treaters. Spotlights can help you tell the story of your display and direct viewer’s eyes to the areas you want them to see the most.

Batty Black Lights

Using black lights to illuminate your Halloween display can be an excellent way to transform your decorations into a truly haunting experience. This can create an especially scary effect when combined with a fog machine or dry ice floating across the scenery. For something really quick and easy that will have a big impact, simply swap your regular porch lights with black light bulbs just for the special Halloween season. For an added touch, use glow paint on gravestones, pumpkins, and other Halloween decorations, turning a drab yard into a truly enlightening and frightening experience.

Scary Strobe Lights

With their ability to disorient the senses, strobe lights can be a great way to add that final touch to your Halloween outdoor lighting display. Flash strobe lights into rising and billowing fog or steam for an extra special effect to delight the senses of unwary trick or treaters. These lights are favorites among many people and can make your home a coveted stop for many annual visitors. Do keep in mind that strobe lights shouldn’t be aimed into the eyes of pedestrians, but towards decorations and the home itself.

Jolly Jack-O-Lanterns

Some of the most memorable displays from your childhood likely had dozens of lighted pumpkins carved with fun and creepy designs, lining a path to your neighbor’s front door. If you don’t have the time to carve dozens of pumpkins or don’t want to deal with the mess, you can improvise. Try using plastic pumpkins, jack-o-lantern cut luminaria, or Halloween string lights. This creates a fun and easy display that is fast to setup and quick to take down.

Be Creative and Have Fun

No matter how elaborate you want to get, or how simple you want to keep things, you can create great Halloween lighting ideas for your annual decorations. Just start brainstorming and have fun with it. Remember when you were a kid and Halloween had that mysterious, surreal feeling about October 31st? If you were anything like the typical American kid, you couldn’t wait to dress up in your costume and go door to door getting as much candy as your heart could desire. And your best memories are likely wound up in that one home that always had a really fun and interactive Halloween display. These are great memories to conjure up when you’re thinking about what fun stuff you can do with your home and yard during the Halloween season.

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Edward Scissorhands

Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands was released in cinemas in the US on December 6^th 1990. At the time of writing, that’s over 2 decades since eyes were first laid upon the Johnny Depp character on the big screen. Google Trends shows that searches for Edward Scissorhands have increased throughout the month of October leading to Halloween night for the last 3 years consecutively. This suggests, that even if searches have already peaked, it will still be a popular costume for both men and women to transform themselves into again this year. To coincide with the large amount of searches on Google, a women’s Edward Scissorhands costume has been designed and created and is readily available worldwide. This will be a popular costume for Halloween. Fact.

The Walking Dead

TV show The Walking Dead first aired on television network AMC in the States on Halloween night 2010. Since then, ratings for the show have more than doubled, proving to be the biggest hit in the history of the cable channel. At the time of writing, over on IMDB, The Walking Dead is the 35th highest rated TV show in all of television. It’s ranked against all other shows that have received at least 5,000 votes. Out of the 35, It’s 1 of maybe, 5 shows that are actually still on the air currently. The popularity of the series is massive. The fourth season is due to start just before Halloween in America. This will lead to zombies everywhere as a costume choice. Men, women and children. Although there is a generous range of official masks, make-up kits and costumes available, the real crux of the popularity that will carry it through this Halloween season is that people can throw on any undead costume and claim to be a Walking Dead zombie. With zombie doctors, nurses and a pretty cool looking Rick Grimes costume, the official range will be popular, however, I feel zombie costumes in general, will be massively popular again this year. The proclivity to take some old clothes and tear them about and drench them in stage blood will definitely be a solid low cost dressing up option.  

The Hobbit

The Hobbit, Peter Jackson’s follow-up to The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, saw the first episode, An Unexpected Journey released in the US on December 14^th 2012. Following the wave of fanatic support for LOTR, The Hobbit was always going to be a monster hit, and it was, as expected. According to Google Trends, searches for The Hobbit increased about tenfold following the release of the film. The books were always popular pieces of literature but the big screen editions appear to have reinvigorated the brand and breathed life back into the JRR Tolkien franchise. With 2 more Hobbit movies still to come out, and since the first was received so well, the anticipation of the next will be fresh in the minds of fans, and will surely lead to a common appearance of Hobbits’ trick-or-treating and attending Halloween parties this October. With more Hobbit costumes available for kids than adults, you’ll likely see home-made Hobbit costumes among adults while the kids will be decked out in the official outfits when trick-or-treating. Regardless, we’re digging the official range in the Jokers’ Masquerade offices and feel it does look authentic and worth a look.

Superman

With the release of Man Of Steel on June 19^th 2013, it was the first Superman movie in around seven years. It’s pretty obvious that mass appeal of the character will inspire many to dress like Superman this Halloween. Especially with the costume change, it’ll mean most that wish to transform into Clark Kent’s alter ego will probably go out and get the new style outfit. According to Box Office Mojo, Man of Steel is currently the 4th biggest grossing movie of 2013. With a worldwide gross of about $650 million dollars, at the time of writing, Zack Snyder’s big screen modernisation of one of the world’s most famous superheroes has proven to be a big money spinner for Warner Bros. Pictures. The DVD and Blu-ray for Man of Steel are due to be released around October. With the advertising promotion coinciding with this, it’ll be sure to inspire people to dress like ma and pa Kent’s baby boy. The official Man of Steel costume range looks wonderfully unique in the new styling and the men’s deluxe muscle padded version will likely be popular for the guys heading out to a costume party.

Carrie

The 1976 horror film Carrie, based on the novel by Stephen King has received the big budget remake treatment and will be released shortly after this coming Halloween. The timing is perfect for it to be topical and offer inspiration for women to dress up as lead character Carrie White. The paperback version of King’s Carrie novel sold over a million copies in it’s first year on sale. In 1976, the film starring Sissy Spacek generated over $30 million dollars giving the film studio a massive return on it’s investment of the film’s relatively low budget. The new film should generate enough publicity to ensure it’ll be on the minds of women seeking costume ideas. Obviously, the official Carrie costume would not be for every woman with the gore factor being quite high, however, for the right girl, this blood soaked prom gown is delightfully striking. It really is more than perfect for a Halloween party. I have a hunch Carrie costumes will be popular when the witching hour arrives. I’ll certainly be surprised if this isn’t the case.

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For the Sci-Fi fans:

1.Star Wars wheelchair costume

Star wars has long been a favourite science fiction film which spans the generations, whether you prefer the original trilogy filmed in 1977 or their modern counterparts, you are sure to find a suitable emulation that you can bring to your wheelchair. This guy, for example, has fashioned the Darth Vader Fighter Costume from cardboard, a little bit of paint and a Darth Vader fancy dress costume. The cardboard is ideal as it is lightweight and can easily be attached to a wheelchair without hindering the user, particularly manual wheelchairs such as the one pictured. You just need to source a good Vader costume!

2. Dr Who

Take your pick of the doctors with this Doctor Who costume! Many party goers have dressed like the Doctor in the past, but how many of them have actually been accompanied by the TARDIS? Easily constructed around the frame of your chair with wood or sturdy cardboard and the trademark blue paint of the TARDIS, all you have to do is don a stripy scarf to transform into the Doctor of your choice.

Animation/Cartoon wheelchair costumes:

3. Superhero

For all the wannabe superheroes out there, now you can be the hero and have your wheelchair transformed into your choice mode of transportation. In this instance, a bat-mobile!

4. Wall-E

If you have a burning desire to replicate the loveable wall-E, your wheelchair is the ideal frame. Your wheels can be encased in Styrofoam triangles attached the axle.

Historical wheelchair costumes:

5. Train

It’s been mentioned before, but the lightweight nature of cardboard and the rigidity of Styrofoam are ideal materials to fashion more ambitious costumes. This Train attaches to the frame of the wheelchair without unbalancing it and looks fantastic.

6. Knight & horse

This is something a little bit different for those with mobility scooters: become like Henry VIII with a horse even the proudest battle lord would ride into battle. Simple, easy to attach, and sure to attract many admirers as you regally ride by.

7. Pirate Ship

In the same vein as the Viking ship this pirate-inspired costume is simple to produce from cardboard, albeit with a few additions. This is something you can be as basic or creative with as you like – and being that cardboard is the same colour as wood (at a pinch) you don’t need to invest in any paint either.

Or for something a little bit different:

8. Aeroplane

Whether you’re inspired by the Wacky Races cartoons or simply have an affinity for all things avian, beyond dressing your wheelchair into an aeroplane the costume itself is simple and comfortable – a bomber jacket and scarf plus some theatrical goggles. The only question left to ask is – what colour to paint your plane?

9. DJ wheelchair costume

If you put in enough effort you may be confused with the actual DJ, but then again maybe not if you’re at a party with a lot of your friends. Whatever the case, you can emulate the world’s best DJs with a simple boxed design and some elegantly placed duct tape. The great thing is if you ever feel like transforming back into yourself you simple need to remove the DJ booth and you’re all set.

10. Racing Car

Often a favourite with younger boys or F1 enthusiastic girls, racing cars will always be a popular choice. Whoever you support, be it Sebastian Vettel or Lewis Hamilton, you’ll certainly make a grand entrance.

And so concludes our 10 fantastic wheelchair costume ideas. With a little bit of creativity, a lot of time and patience, and a fair amount of cardboard, paint, duct tape and more – you can create a costume to delight and really take advantage of the shape or type of your wheelchair.

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Harry Potter Themed Decoration

Harry potter series is famous among all age. It can be a very interesting theme to have for a Halloween party. First thing to concentrate is the presentation of the harry potter theme around your party area with the help of decorations, wall art or posters and wizardry and witch craft items.

Here are few things to make it a good theme.

–          Lighting should not be bright but not too way too dim that people cannot see each other. After all it is all about costumes and the interior decoration on Halloween.

–          To save money, most of the things have to be picture images for giving support to the Harry Potter theme.

–          Put photo print of famous stars like

• Dumbledore
• Lord Voldermort
• Hagrid
• Dementors
• Werewolves

–          Divide the party area into four parts with flag representation of the four houses. Display the flag and the name of the house prominently. The pumpkin carving contest will take place between these four houses.

• Gryffindor
• Ravenclaw
• Slytherin
• Hufflepuff

–          Design a special entrance. The idea can be from any movie. Giving the entrance door look of train station platform or a dark alley will do the job.

–          Print famous dialogues of the Harry Potter movie characters and paste them on different places around your party area.

–          Make invitation card with Dumbledore printed in background with a wand in his hand.

–          Make sure to ask all the guests and invitees with a strict dress code of the theme Harry Potter.

–          In the middle of the room, hanging from the roof, with help of big pieces of clothes you can make a living Dementor. You can put a small led light of red color on top to give it a more creepy effect.

–          You may also use live animals like owls and rats in cages to give your party a more realistic look. Having said that, do keep in that in mind that under no circumstance may the animal or bird be harmed according to the laws governing the land you live in.

–          Plan many contests and competitions as the houses love to contest for points against each other.

–          The Host may go for the costume of Dumbledore to be able to be the judge for the contests.

–          Make gift bags for the winners of contest with things like sweets, chocolate, a harry potter book, a wand toy or so on. Use your imagination and remember the novel and movies for other gift items to be won by contestants.

–          Place sweets, drinks and munching items on different corner table around the party area.

–          Make the duty of few friends to actively keep an eye at the food and beverages supply.

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Women Halloween Costumes Ideas

There are really no boundaries on the type of the costumes women tend to choose for the Halloween. Vampires, witches, she-devils costumes are already popular. However, the concept remains the same but it is designed with a different twist making it look sexier, flirty and bolder.

Sexy Pirate Halloween Costume

Almost everybody adores pirates; especially women look very sexy in the pirate costume. All you have to do is get a sexy red bustier and wear it with the large belt. Attach a plunger upside down and put a red bandana on your head with a black eye patch and you are all set to rock the party.

Cat Costume For Women

Love wearing black? In this cat costume you are surely turning heads in the Halloween party. The costume accessories are at minimal. Put on the tight leather shiny material pants along with the tight full sleeve shirt. For the makeup use black eyeliners and other darker shades to highlight your cheekbones, if possible put black or similar shade lipstick and nail paint.

Pinata Costume

The dress is supposed to be short and designed with the layers of streamers make it a Pinata costume. To make it look funky you can add a trendy hair band and accompany it with bright colored high heels.

Black Swan Costume

It will be very graceful costume, showing your curve while wearing this black swan Halloween outfit. You will need a short black dress attached with the black wings to your arms to get that birdie look. To add more accessories, you can wear a small silver head crown and glittering earrings that will give your Halloween costume an extra vigor.

Epic Avatar Costume

You very well remember those blue bodied people in the “Avatar” movie. You can pick that girlie character from it and dress up like an epic Avatar woman. You need to paint your entire body in blue and wear those primitive styled bikinis to get that edgier look.

Low Resolution Halloween Costume

You know how low resolution images look like? It is as simple as that. Since the costume should be in check pattern, you need to smartly choose one for yourself. Moreover, it requires careful makeup, as it should be matched with your costume. Do your makeup in check pattern mixing the lighter and darker shades around your eyes, and lips.

The above mentioned are the latest Halloween costume ideas for 2013. Wearing these contemporary costumes you are certain to be the head turners in the Halloween party. Ensure that you are converse of the night and make sure that the party on no account be forgotten.

If you are looking for other Halloween Costume Ideas For Women make sure you click on one of the images. 

Read more about: 2013 Halloween Costume Trends! 

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What to consider when dressing with  Authentic Superhero Costumes?

How much time do you have?

First off, when deciding which superhero costume you want to pursue, you should think about the amount of time and effort you are willing to commit to creating your costume.  If you don’t’ have much time to offer, you might want to consider a less elaborate and time consuming costume than Ironman.  Once you choose your superhero, you must then decide if you are going to purchase your costume or create your own.  Great places to purchase costumes could include local stores and costume stores.  The advantage of buying your costume in a store is that you get to try it on.  However, stores could run out of the costume you want quicker than buying the costume online.  Also, online often offers a wider variety and more quantities of the costumes.

Don`t forget the typical accessories of your superhero costumes

Second, accessories are probably the most important aspect of dressing as an authentic superhero.  Who is Batman without his yellow bat belt? Who is Superman without his cape? Who is Ironman without his glowing orb in his chest?  And of course it would be difficult to adequately portray Thor without his hammer or The Hulk without completely painting yourself green (or having muscles.)   Most purchased costumes will more than likely include these essential accessories.  However, if you are creating your own costume, it is important to remember that no superhero is complete without his defining feature.  Take some time to research how to make a homemade superhero costume. Chances are you can find easy ways to creatively make a homemade superhero costume that is pretty authentic, or maybe you are clever enough to come up with a great idea on your own.

Use sidekick fot your superhero costume

Third, consider using a sidekick!  How much more authentic would your Batman costume be if you had an equally authentic Robin by your side? Or if you are dressing as He-Man, why not have Sherah by your side?  Whatever your costume choice, do the research on your superhero so that you can look as authentic as possible.

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