Three of our creative Directors of New Products here at Davison channeled their innovative and inventive spirits to create a costume that won them the award for Best Group Costume.

Lara, Laurie Ann, and Katelynn went above and beyond to tie in their costumes to our company! As you can see in the picture below, the group dressed as a piñata + a cupcake + Peter PAN and the result was the Piñata Cupcake Pan – get it?

“We all had such a great time putting these three costumes together. We worked really hard on them during our lunch breaks throughout the week, leading up to the very last minute! Laurie Ann is so creative and is always thinking outside of the box! We couldn’t have done it without her! Katelynn came up with the idea initially and we just built on it from there. We were so excited to win and even if we didn’t win a thing, the look on Mr. D’s face was rewarding enough! “said Lara.

This sweet costume was inspired by the Mrs. Fields Bake N Stuff Cupcake pan, a product that our friends over at Inventionland designed for the Love Cooking Company. Before airing on QVC, this innovative baking product was repackaged as the Piñata Cupcake Pan!

“We had so much fun with our costumes! Katelynn and Lara were troopers working so hard during lunchtime with all of my bossiness. I agree with Lara that seeing the look on Mr. Davison’s face was priceless. The hardest part was maneuvering around in a giant cupcake,” said Laurie Ann.

Just like the Piñata Cupcake Pan made an impression on QVC viewers, so too did this costume on the judges!

“This is the third Halloween party that I’ve attended to date at Inventionland and I must admit this year was the best! Laurie Ann is so creative in the way she put together the concept of the ‘Pinata Cupcake Pan’! It was so much fun getting to work together and bring the idea to life. The look on everyone’s faces was well worth the embarrassment of walking around as a Pinata! I’m excited about next year’s challenge and, who knows, maybe it will be another costume inspired by a great product!” exclaimed Katelynn.

We must admit that this costume was pretty sweet! Congratulations Lara, Laurie Ann and Katelynn for a job well done!

Copyright Davison, 2015

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It all began during the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. Nearly 2,000 years ago, the Celts that were living in the area now known as Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France celebrated their new year on November 1.  The purpose of this celebration was to acknowledge the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the darkness and cold winter that was on the horizon. This time of year was often associated with human death.

On the eve of the new year, the Celts believed that the lines between the living and the dead were blurred.  On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when they believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to the earth.

The celebration was filled with sacred bonfires, where people gathered to burn their crops and animals as a sacrifice to the Celtic deities. Clearly, the roots of the superstitious traditions of Halloween were planted.

After the Roman Empire conquered the vast majority of the Celtic territory, traditions were infused together; in addition to Samhain, two Roman festivals were now celebrated. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally remembered the passing of the dead. The second celebration was a day dedicated to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees.

Here is a little fun fact about the latter of the festivals. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this fruit into Samhain can possibly explain the tradition of bobbing for apples.

Perhaps one of the most common celebrations around this time of the year is the Catholic feast of All Saints’ Day on November 2, which became a day to honor the dead. All Saints Day was very similar to Samhain, because both holidays included bonfires, parades and the dressing up of saints, angels and devils (a foreshadowing of our current day costumes). The All Saints Day celebration also could be called All-hallows or All-hallowmas, a word derived from the Middle English word, “Alholowmesse” meaning “All Saints’ Day.”  The night before this holiday, the traditional night of Samhain was then called All-hallows Eve and eventually became what we know today as Halloween.

Now that we have covered the deep history, let’s take a look at how this holiday made its transition from Europe to America.

At first, Halloween wasn’t widely celebrated, due to the rigidity of the Protestant belief systems that were enforced in colonial New England. However, the holiday was much more common in Maryland and other southern colonies. Soon, a very distinctive American version of Halloween began to surface.

So, how were celebrations of Halloween in America celebrated? Well for one, the celebrations included play parties, public events that were held to celebrate the harvest, and neighbors gathering together to share their stories of the dead.

Through tragedy came the popularization of Halloween in America. With an influx of immigrants coming to the country, most of which were Irish who were fleeing Ireland’s potato famine of 1846, the celebration of Halloween became common nationally.

Tonight, if you go trick-or-treating, you can inform all of the people dressed in costumes that this tradition began when the Irish and English traditions joined forces and Americans began to dress in costumes and go from house to house asking for food or money. A word to the wise: tonight, you might want to stick with asking for just delicious candy!

After a hiatus, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was revived between 1920 and 1950. This tradition still remains and offers a fairly inexpensive way for an entire community to celebrate Halloween.  Now, unlike when this practice was reintroduced to Americans, the cost of Halloween is at an estimated $6 billion, making it the country’s second largest commercial holiday.

From the idea of celebrating a new year and the start of the cold, long winter months to a holiday that is used to celebrate tricks and treats, Halloween continues to be a “spook”tacular holiday that people across the United States continue to enjoy!

Happy Halloween from Davison!

Copyright Davison 2013

Sources:

http://www.history.com/topics/halloween

Images:

http://www.bubblews.com/assets/images/news/909653945_1382184385.jpg

http://nbarnett2.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/pomona-and-hogg/

http://thedarkglobe.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/happy-halloween-house-wallpaper.jpg

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