Many mothers will be stretching their imaginations this year to find the perfect "creative" Halloween costume for their children's night of frolic or trick-or-treating. The "best" Halloween costumes may win prizes, or at least get the attention of other partygoers, but Halloween costumes have migrated into main stream more and more in the past few decades. The best Halloween costumes are planned sometimes for an entire year giving the wearer the desired results - either wining a contest or simply being the center of attention. The focus for most of us arrives a few weeks before the big event and we are left stranded and destitute, forced to settle for what Halloween costumes are left on the shelf.

The art of Creative Halloween costumes began thousands of years ago with the ancient Celtic people wearing disguises to hide themselves on the feast of Samhain - pronounced (Sah-ween), the Celtic New Year. On this day the Celtic's believed the dead could roam the earth. On this "Night of the Dead" the spirits would roam the earth wreaking havoc on suspecting and unsuspecting humans. Ghoulish costumes could keep a spirit from recognizing you as human thus passing you over to find another victim. The best Halloween costumes today are considered to be replicas of these ancient ones worn by the Celtic's over a thousand years ago. Other traditional Halloween costumes included witches and wizards, sorcerers, ghosts, and fairies.

All Saints Day, otherwise known as All Hallows (hallowed means sanctified or holy), continued the ancient Celtic traditions. The evening prior to All Saints Day consumed the most intense activity, for human and supernatural alike. People continued to celebrate All Hallows Eve as a time of the wandering dead, but the supernatural beings were now thought to be evil. The townsfolk continued to propitiate these spirits and their masked impersonators by setting out gifts of food and drink. Subsequently, All Hallows Eve became Hallow Evening, which became Hallowe'en, an ancient Celtic, and pre-Christian New Year's Day in contemporary dress.

Halloween traditions present today can all be traced back to the ancient Celtic "Day of the Dead". Many mysterious customs surround this holiday know as "Halloween", each having its own history or at best a story behind it. The wearing of Halloween costumes and roaming from door to door demanding treats can all be traced to the Celtic period and the first few centuries of the Christian era. Food and drink were left out in order to appease or placate the souls of the dead. As time passed the tradition of donning these old folklore costumes, performing antics in exchange for "treats" evolved into today's trick or treating. Halloween retains some of the original features of Samhain; bobbing for apples, carving vegetables and cider have their roots deep in Celtic traditions.