Halloween Costumes:

Halloween costumes are outfits worn on or around October 31, the day of Halloween. Halloween is a modern-day holiday originating in the Celtic pagan holiday of Samhain (in Christian times, the eve of All Saints Day). Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to copy the evil spirits or placate them.[1][2]

Costuming became popular for Halloween parties in the US in the early 1900s, as often for adults as for children. The first mass-produced Halloween costumes appeared in stores in the 1930s when trick-or-treating was becoming popular in the United States.

What sets Halloween costumes apart from costumes for other celebrations or days of dressing up is that they are often designed to imitate supernatural and scary beings. Costumes are traditionally those of monsters such as vampires, ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils, or in more recent years such science fiction-inspired characters as aliens and superheroes. There are also costumes of pop culture figures like presidents, athletes, celebrities, or film, television, and cartoon characters. Another popular trend is for women (and in some cases, men) to use Halloween as an excuse to wear sexy or revealing costumes, showing off more skin than would be socially acceptable otherwise.

Halloween costume parties generally fall on, or around, 31 October, often falling on the Friday or Saturday prior to Halloween.

The most popular Halloween costumes for both kids and adults in 2009 were:

* Michael Jackson
* Kate and Jon Gosselin (from Jon and Kate Plus
* Sarah Palin
* Bernie Madoff
* Edward Cullen (from the Twilight book and film series)
* Sick Pigs (from the H1N1 swine flu pandemic)
* G.I. Joe
* Transformers (from the Transformers film series)
* Barack Obama
* Michelle Obama
* High School Musical 3 characters
* Star Wars and Star Trek characters
* Hannah Montana
* Vampire characters
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Beards
A beard is the collection of hair that grows on the chin, cheeks and neck, but not the upper lip, typically of men. Usually, only males going through puberty or post-pubescent males are able to grow beards. However, women with hirsutism may develop a beard. When differentiating between upper and lower facial hair, a beard specifically refers to the facial hair on the lower part of a man’s chin (excluding the moustache, which refers to hair above the upper lip and around it). The study of beards is called pogonology. © Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Moustache

A moustache (American English: mustache; pronounced /məˈstɑːʃ/ in RP and /ˈmʌstæʃ/ in General American) is facial hair grown on the upper lip. It may or may not be accompanied by a beard, hair around the entire face.
The word “moustache” derives from 16th century French moustache, which in turn is derived from the Italian mostaccio (14th century), dialectal mustaccio (16th century), from Medieval Latin mustacium (8th century), Medieval Greek moustakion (attested in the 9th century), which ultimately originates as a diminutive of Hellenistic Greek mustax (mustak-) “moustache”, probably derived from Hellenistic Greek mullon “lip”.[2] However, the Hindi word “moochh” for a moustache also bears a close resemblance.

In the course of history, men with facial hair have been ascribed various attributes such as wisdom and knowledge, sexual virility, masculinity, or high social status; and, conversely, filthiness, crudeness, or an eccentric disposition.

Styles

At the World Beard and Moustache Championships 2007 there were 6 sub-categories for moustaches:

* Natural – Moustache may be styled without aids.
* Hungarian – Big and bushy, beginning from the middle of the upper lip and pulled to the side. The hairs are allowed to start growing from up to a maximum of 1.5 cm beyond the end of the upper lip.
* Dalí – narrow, long points bent or curved steeply upward; areas past the corner of the mouth must be shaved. Artificial styling aids needed. Named after Salvador Dalí.
* English – narrow, beginning at the middle of the upper lip the whiskers are very long and pulled to the side, slightly curled; the ends are pointed slightly upward; areas past the corner of the mouth usually shaved. Artificial styling may be needed.
* Imperial – whiskers growing from both the upper lip and cheeks, curled upward (distinct from the royale, or impériale)
* Freestyle – All moustaches that do not match other classes. The hairs are allowed to start growing from up to a maximum of 1.5 cm beyond the end of the upper lip. Aids are allowed.

Other types of moustache include:

* Fu Manchu – long, downward pointing ends, generally beyond the chin;
* ‘Pancho Villa’ moustache – similar to the Fu Manchu but thicker; also known as a “droopy moustache”, generally much more so than that normally worn by the historical Pancho Villa.
* Handlebar – bushy, with small upward pointing ends. See baseball pitcher Rollie Fingers. Also known as a “spaghetti moustache”, because of its stereotypical association with Italian men.
* Horseshoe – Often confused with the Fu Manchu style, the horseshoe was possibly popularized by modern cowboys and consists of a full moustache with vertical extensions from the corners of the lips down to the jawline and resembling an upside-down horseshoe. Also known as biker moustache.
* Pencil moustache – narrow, straight and thin as if drawn on by a pencil, closely clipped, outlining the upper lip, with a wide shaven gap between the nose and moustache, widely recognized as being the moustache of choice for the fictional character Gomez Addams of The Addams Family. Also known as a Mouthbrow, worn by John Waters, Sean Penn and Chris Cornell.
* Chevron – thick and wide, usually covering the top of the upper lip. Comedian Jeff Foxworthy and NASCAR driver Richard Petty wear Chevrons.
* Toothbrush – thick, but shaved except for about an inch (2.5 cm) in the center; associated with Adolf Hitler, Charlie Chaplin, Oliver Hardy, and Robert Mugabe.
* Walrus – bushy, hanging down over the lips, often entirely covering the mouth. Worn by John Bolton, Dick Strawbridge, Wilford Brimley and Jamie Hyneman
* The GG – bushy hair grown only over the corners of the mouth, shaved in the middle. Named after musician and performing artist GG Allin, the most well-known wearer of the style. It is a shortened version of the one worn by Genghis Khan.

Notable moustaches

In some cases, the moustaches are so prominently identified with a single individual that it could be identified with them without any further identifying traits, such as in the case of Adolf Hitler. Moustaches were also common for many philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche and Karl Marx. In some cases, such as with Groucho Marx and Charlie Chaplin, the moustache in question was artificial for most of their lives.

The American composer and musician Frank Zappa is so identifiable by his moustache that after his death its image was copyrighted by the Zappa Family Trust. Numerous other notable musicians were known for moustaches at some time,

Kaiser Wilhelm II’s moustache, grossly exaggerated, featured prominently in Entente propaganda.
General Lew Wallace wore a full moustache and long goatee; this was the style at the time of the American Civil War

U.S. Air Force ace Robin Olds became celebrated for the flowing handlebar moustache he grew while commanding the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing “Wolfpack” during the Vietnam War, and when forced to shave it by his superior became the source of an Air Force tradition known as “Moustache March”.

In art and fiction

Moustaches have long been used by artists to make characters distinctive as with Charlie Chan, Snidely Whiplash and Dick Dastardly, Agatha Christie’s fictional detective Hercule Poirot, and the video game character Mario. They have also been used to make a social or political point as with Marcel Duchamp’s parody of the Mona Lisa which adds a goatee and moustache or the moustachioed self portraits of Frida Kahlo. At least one fictional moustache has been so notable that a whole style has been named after it, the Fu Manchu moustache.

Salvador Dalí published a book dedicated solely to his moustache.
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