Why is Halloween such a popular holiday? Why is Superman so much sexier than Clark Kent? We all prefer the secret lover who can fly, right? Or moonwalk.
Or go to Hogwarts and play championship Quidditch.
Or sink their teeth into our jugulars.
Or counsel Captain Kirk from an emotionally detached, logical perspective.
(The five most popular Halloween costumes in 2009 were Superman, Michael Jackson, Harry Potter, vampires and Captain Spock from "Star Trek.
") For one night out of the year - with the help of the right Halloween costume - we can shed our prosaic everyday identities, protective mimicries that protect us but conceal us, and reveal our secret personas to the world.
It's liberating.
More than that, it's intoxicating - it revs up the production of chemicals inside your brain, serotonin, dopamine, vasopressin and oxytocin, neurotransmitters linked to happiness and passion.
For one night every year, on October 31, imagination is king, there are parties everywhere and TV networks run awesome, all-night horror marathons.
Plus there's the candy.
Those sugary, tricolor kernels called candy corn; those tasty, corn syrup replicas of witches, black cats and harvest moons.
Seventy five percent of all candy corn is sold around Halloween, but the sweet treat has proven so irresistible it's been customized for other holidays as well: Santa Claus brings reindeer corn (red, green and white), Valentine's Day brings Cupid Corn (red, pink and white) while the Easter Rabbit brings Bunny Corn (pastel colored.
) The Tooth Fairy, as you can imagine, sits the candy giveaway out.
Halloween originated over 4,000 years ago as a Celtic holy day called Samhain.
The Celts occupied what is now the United Kingdom, as well Brittany and Aquitaine in northern France, and Asturias and Galicia on the Iberian Peninsula.
They observed their New Year on November 1, which they marked as the beginning of the winter cycle, a time associated by their Druid high priests with human death.
On October 31, or so the Celts believed, there was a brief interval between the old year and the new during which the ghosts of the dead returned to earth to wreak havoc.
To appease these vengeful spirits, the Celts built huge bonfires at which they sacrificed crops and animals, disguising themselves in animal skins.
These were the earliest Halloween costumes.
By 43 A.
D.
, the Romans had conquered much of the Celtic territories and the indigenous festival of Samhain had merged with a Roman holiday called Feralia, a celebration of the goddess of apples.
Even today, bobbing for apples is a favorite pastime at Halloween parties.
Six hundred years later, the Roman Empire was history though the Holy Roman Catholic Church was going strong.
Still, the spooky pagan festival of the dead was still being celebrated.
Pope Boniface IV decided to replace the idolatrous festival with a church-sanctioned holy day - and so All Saints Day, observed November 1, was born.
The night preceding it - still a window through which tormented souls might creep - was called All-hallows Eve, later shortened to Halloween - the holiday we love to celebrate today.
Hard up for a costume this year? Consider remembering those early Celts with a wild boar skin and a pigs head!
Or go to Hogwarts and play championship Quidditch.
Or sink their teeth into our jugulars.
Or counsel Captain Kirk from an emotionally detached, logical perspective.
(The five most popular Halloween costumes in 2009 were Superman, Michael Jackson, Harry Potter, vampires and Captain Spock from "Star Trek.
") For one night out of the year - with the help of the right Halloween costume - we can shed our prosaic everyday identities, protective mimicries that protect us but conceal us, and reveal our secret personas to the world.
It's liberating.
More than that, it's intoxicating - it revs up the production of chemicals inside your brain, serotonin, dopamine, vasopressin and oxytocin, neurotransmitters linked to happiness and passion.
For one night every year, on October 31, imagination is king, there are parties everywhere and TV networks run awesome, all-night horror marathons.
Plus there's the candy.
Those sugary, tricolor kernels called candy corn; those tasty, corn syrup replicas of witches, black cats and harvest moons.
Seventy five percent of all candy corn is sold around Halloween, but the sweet treat has proven so irresistible it's been customized for other holidays as well: Santa Claus brings reindeer corn (red, green and white), Valentine's Day brings Cupid Corn (red, pink and white) while the Easter Rabbit brings Bunny Corn (pastel colored.
) The Tooth Fairy, as you can imagine, sits the candy giveaway out.
Halloween originated over 4,000 years ago as a Celtic holy day called Samhain.
The Celts occupied what is now the United Kingdom, as well Brittany and Aquitaine in northern France, and Asturias and Galicia on the Iberian Peninsula.
They observed their New Year on November 1, which they marked as the beginning of the winter cycle, a time associated by their Druid high priests with human death.
On October 31, or so the Celts believed, there was a brief interval between the old year and the new during which the ghosts of the dead returned to earth to wreak havoc.
To appease these vengeful spirits, the Celts built huge bonfires at which they sacrificed crops and animals, disguising themselves in animal skins.
These were the earliest Halloween costumes.
By 43 A.
D.
, the Romans had conquered much of the Celtic territories and the indigenous festival of Samhain had merged with a Roman holiday called Feralia, a celebration of the goddess of apples.
Even today, bobbing for apples is a favorite pastime at Halloween parties.
Six hundred years later, the Roman Empire was history though the Holy Roman Catholic Church was going strong.
Still, the spooky pagan festival of the dead was still being celebrated.
Pope Boniface IV decided to replace the idolatrous festival with a church-sanctioned holy day - and so All Saints Day, observed November 1, was born.
The night preceding it - still a window through which tormented souls might creep - was called All-hallows Eve, later shortened to Halloween - the holiday we love to celebrate today.
Hard up for a costume this year? Consider remembering those early Celts with a wild boar skin and a pigs head!
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