Biblical Costumes

Biblical Costumes on the Devil's Birthday!

One of the things that surprised me when I first moved to New York City was that a large segment of the population here doesn't actually celebrate Halloween. "That's weird," I thought, since Halloween isn't a secular or "sinful" holiday which I know some denominations steer clear of for their own reasons.

In fact, Halloween is actually called "All Hallow's Eve", which is the preclude to "All Saint's Day", defined by wikipedia as the following:

All Saints' Day (officially the Feast of All Saints and also called All Hallows or Hallowmas), often shortened to All Saints, is a feast celebrated on November 1 in Western Christianity, and on the first Sunday after Pentecost in Eastern Christianity in honour of all the saints, known and unknown.

In terms of Western Christian theology, the feast commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in heaven. Specifically, in the Roman Catholic Church, the next day, All Souls' Day, commemorates the departed faithful who have not yet been purified and reached heaven.

Halloween actually arose, then, out of Christian tradition, but surprisingly it was mainly Christians who didn't celebrate the holiday. This is because, I later found out, many Christian priests and reverends tell their parishioners that Halloween is actually the Devil's birthday.

Which of course makes biblical costumes the best Halloween costumes for my neighborhood. Anything to break people out of their backwards views and beliefs is right up my alley, so whether it's going as Noah and bringing my two poor cats with me, or a citizen or Sodom or Gomorrah, biblical costumes rule the day here.

(If you really want to check out what Sodom and Gomorrah must have looked like, I really encourage you to check out the West Village Halloween Parade in NYC every year. It's a spectacle that shouldn't ever be missed, and it's as close to the description of the biblical events as any I could imagine.)

Other biblical period costumes sure to get a rise out of the local yokels are dressing as the pharasies, or even better the devil himself - whether it's in serpent form or any other you can come up with. Horns and a pitchfork, red skin, whatever suits you best and will get the reaction you most want is what you should do.

Don't leave it to the last minute, though. Get on your biblical costume ideas now, so you're not left scrambling and end up with something that isn't what you want.

Return from Biblical Costumes to Online Costume Ideas Home Page