Chentel Carlton

UWRT 1101
Ethnography
18 November 2014

Halloween: Tricks or Treat?

Halloween is a fall holiday that is notorious for dressing up and the distribution of candy. As a
child, the holiday seems innocent and all about the fun and treats. Since it is the kick off the
holiday season, it is one of the most memorable holidays in the year. Customs for the holiday are
activities like pumpkin carving, dressing up in costumes and trick-or-treating. However, over the
years the holiday has became less innocent and more sexually driven especially for the females.
The holiday was once mainly for the children. Halloween has been commercialized and has
become a part of a sexualized industry that takes away from the purpose of the holiday and
demotes females.
The History of Halloween:
Since much of the history of Halloween wasn't written down for centuries; some of it is still
subject to debate. The most plausible theory is that Halloween originated in the British Isles out
of the Pagan Celtic celebration of Samhain (Rogers). It goes back as far as 5 B.C. It was believed
that spirits rose from the dead and mingled with the living on this day. The Celts left food at their
doors to encourage good spirits and wore masks to scare off the bad ones.
Some historians believe that the Romans who invaded England added a few of their own
traditions to the celebration of Samhain; such as, celebrating the end of the harvest and honoring
the dead. Others say that since the Romans never conquered the Celts (Ireland and Scotland)
there was no mingling of cultures, and that the Celts celebrated the end of the harvest and
honored their dead in this way (Thompson.) The modern name, Halloween comes from "All

Hallows' Evening," or in their slang "All Hollow's Even", the eve of All Hallows' Day. "Hallow"
is an Old English word for "holy person," and All Hallows' Day is just another name for All
Saints' Day, eventually, becoming abbreviated to "Hallowe'en" and then "Halloween."

Trick-or-Treating:
In the Celtic times and up until the medieval ages, fairies (a.k.a., faeries) were also thought to run
free on the Eve of Samhain. Faeries weren't necessarily evil, but not particularly they weren't
good; they were mischievous. People of those times liked rewarding good deeds and did not like
to be crossed. On Samhain, faeries were thought to disguise themselves as beggars and go door
to door asking for handouts. Those who gave them food were rewarded(Sherry). Those who did
not were subjected to some unpleasantness. Today, children "disquise" themselves as ghosts,
witches, princesses and their favorite superheroes and get rewarded with candy.

Method:
During course of study, retail stores like Party City, Wal Mart and Halloween City, were visited
and a contradiction was found in the costume department. Halloween City rents its space
temporarily for the Halloween season. After Halloween, it is transformed into another seasonal
specialty store. As the name implies, Halloween City contains different types of accessories to
make the holiday complete. One would think that an adult costume would be considerably
bigger in size and in the amount of fabric used, but it was found that almost all women costumes
were skimpy. A lot of costumes for women had "sexy" as a prefix; "sexy nurse", "sexy witch",
"sexy genie" and even "sexy teacher." Costumes are very diverse and there are plenty of new
inspirations for costumes for Halloween as more movies and television shows come out. Why is

it woman feel the need to be sexy on Halloween? Why is it that showing more skin is considered
to be sexy?

Halloween at UNC Charlotte:

Halloween of 2014 was celebrated at the University of North Carolina Charlotte with a variety of
events that took place on and off campus. It is said amongst the college students that there are
two types of girls during Halloween time. The first kind of girls are the girls who wear costumes
that have a realistic likeness. The other kind of girl are the kind who take the "Mean Girl"
approach. A quote from the popular teen movie Mean Girls says :
"All girls know that Halloween is the one time of year you can dress like a total slut and
no one can judge you for it." - Regina George
At UNCC's Halloween celebration in the Student Union, observations were made on the
different types of costumes females chose to wear and how their behavior had been throughout
the night. Girls who were dressed more conservatively did not attract much attention from the
males in the building, but still seemed to have a good time and were very comfortable. Girls who
were dressed in costumes that showed much more skin got a lot of glances from everyone in the
room. Interesting enough, the feedback is not positive. The guys who approach the girls in
"slutty" costumes lack a sense of respect for the girls. On more than one occasion some girls are
touched involuntarily. Other girls cut their eyes in a displeasing way toward the girls who are
dressed that way. A lot of these girls you can see on campus any other day dressed in a more
respectable way. College and high school students also want to be accepted by their peers and try
to accomplish this by dressing in similar costumes. When a group of eight college roommates
was asked if they had considered dressing up, they responded, "We want to dress up as a group."

They had made a list of themes which included all eight of them. Their main choice was inspired
by the movie The Purge. In the end some of the girls in the group wore all black mini skirts and
dresses with a mask, and said "As long as we go as the same thing that will be cool." This was
interesting when the characters they set out to portray wore baggy clothes and sweatshirts and
were covered head to toe. Why sexualize the costume?
Conclusion:
The birth of the contemporary incarnation of the slutty Halloween costumes naturally seems to
be in that glorious decade of sexual liberation, the 1970s. It was then that a more raunchy and
racy version of Halloween was liberated it from church basements and community centers and
thrust into nightclubs and the streets, such as in New Yorks famously scandalous Halloween
Parade. And as cheap, plastic costumes from overseas became more easily available to the point
where you cant even walk into a Wal Mart or Dollar Tree without seeing at least two aisles full
of glittery masks, synthetic-looking wigs, brightly colored makeup, or eerie accessories in the
weeks preceding Halloween, womens choice became skimpier and skimpier, mirroring the
trends in fashion of the time, a slippery slope that we have descended into a world where sexy
baby costumes exist. While there are certain looks that should never be given the sexy
Halloween treatment, the like the Sesame Street characters coming under so much scrutiny this
season, it definitely is fun to put on a ridiculous outfit and the personality that comes with it,
especially for people who dont get to engage in this act as often as others. *There is also a
growing movement of women who fight against this trend of slutty costumes in an attempt to
take back Halloween . They suggest dressing as one of your favorite female historical figures,
goddesses or feminist icons, proving there are other options for women beyond just sexy.

Works Cited

Rogers, Nicholas (2002). "Samhain and the Celtic Origins of Halloween". Halloween: From
Pagan Ritual to Party Night, pp.1121. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19516896-8
Sherry, John F. and Mary Ann McGrath (1989), "Unpacking the Holiday Presence: A
Comparative Ethnography of Two Gift Stores," in Interpretive Consumer Research, ed.
Elizabeth Hirschman, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, pg 148-167.
Thompson, Sue Elled, ed. 2003. Holiday Symbols and Customs. 3rd Edition. Detroit, MI:
Omnigraphics, Inc.