Every Day Is Special: costumes

Showing posts with label costumes. Show all posts

October 13 - Costume Swap Day

(Second Saturday in October)

Posted October 13, 2018

There may or may not be a cold snap in the air, but if you live in a place where pumpkin patches are springing up, bags of mini-sized chocolate bars are going on sale, and Halloween colors have taken over your party-goods shop, you're probably thinking about what to wear for trick-or-treating or for an upcoming Halloween party.

And the thing is, there are all sorts of people out there who are doing the same thing. Almost nobody wants to wear last year's costume (and some have outgrown it). What would be brilliant would be to swap entire costumes or at least bits of costumes - like, just a wand and a cape that will fit multiple sizes - so everyone can have a new costume.

Depending on how you wear it, a cape and a wand
can be part of a costume for a traditional magician,
a wizard, a specific character from the Harry Potter
universe, a witch, even a queen or king.

Add a scarf, a lightning-bolt temporary tattoo, and
glasses for Harry Potter (and lose the pointy cap).

Switch the pointy cap for a top hat and add white
gloves for a traditional magician costume.

Use the blue side of the cape, and add a crown
and a spray-painted tennis ball on the top
of the wand to become your royal highness.

Use the star side of the cape, and add a witch's hat,
a broom, and maybe a wand-topper in the shape
of a crescent moon or a star, for a simple witch costume.

Once you make the swap, use the hashtag #NationalCostumeSwapDay to post on social media.

The idea behind this holiday is to save the environment by reusing costumes and masks and hats and accessories. If we swap, we buy less AND we throw less away. It's two parts of the 3-Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle).

Of course, families and friends can swap costumes easily and privately, but schools, churches, and entire communities can put on Costume Swap events where everyone who brings a clean costume in reasonable condition gets a ticket good for another costume.

Happy swapping!!

Also on this date:

U.S. Navy's birthday

X-Files Day

Musician Paul Simon's birthday

National Chess Day

Anniversary of the discovery of Whirlpool Galaxy

English Language Day

Rwagasore Day in Burundi

Fall Astronomy Day
(Every Fall, on the Saturday closest to the first quarter Moon between September and October)

Silly Sayings Day

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

October holidays

October birthdays

Historical anniversaries in October

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

November holidays
November birthdays
Historical anniversaries in November

December 30 - Masks at Balls Banned

Posted on December 30, 2017

Even though ballroom dance is fairly popular these days - maybe partly thanks to shows like "Dancing with the Stars" and "So You Think You Can Dance," I don't really think about modern-day people going to "balls." But a ball is just a formal dance party.

And - if you go to a dance party in fancy dress and a mask, you've just got to call it a masquerade ball, right?

In the British colonies and then the young United States, masquerade balls were becoming popular. (Masquerades had been increasingly popular in Europe for a while.) But, just as in Europe, there was also an anti-masquerade movement.

What's wrong with wearing beautiful clothes and masks, in order to have fun and dance the night away?

Well, the anti-mask folks pointed out that, when people are anonymous (their true names aren't known), they more often act badly. They feel more shielded in any wrong-doing.

I'm not necessarily talking about murder - although a Swedish king WAS murdered at a masquerade ball in the late 1700s - but more along the lines of flirting with someone else's spouse or getting drunk.

Anyway, with the Puritan influence over New England, including Boston, Massachusetts, some people wanted to outlaw the wearing of masks at balls. And on this date in 1809, Boston passed such a law.

In 1849, the law was extended. It wasn't just masks at balls that was illegal - it was ANY "public assembly, at which the company wears masks, or other disguises, and to which admission is obtained upon payment of money..." I guess that means no costume parties at Halloween time? No trick-or-treating? I mean, most mask-wearing festivities are probably private, not public, and money doesn't change hands - but still, I am pretty horrified by this law!

Of course, that was back in the past. Masks and "disguises" are legal now, even in Boston.

But - shockingly - the law wasn't actually repealed until 1963. I was actually alive during part of the time that the no-masks policy was the law of the land in Boston!

(I bet it was rarely enforced.)

Also on this date:

Announcement of the discovery of another “island universe”

Birthday of eSport hero Dendi

Bacon Day

Anniversary of the marriage of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin

Falling Needles Family Fest Day

Author Rudyard Kipling's birthday

Rizal Day in the Philippines

Birthday of seismograph inventor John Milne

Biologist Jerry Coyne's birthday

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest pages on:

December holidays
December birthdays
Historical anniversaries in December

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

May 15 – Bay to Breakers Race

Posted on May 15, 2016

It's billed as the oldest footrace in America. But the 12-kilometer route from the San Francisco Bay to Ocean Beach (which of course has "Breakers," as in waves) is actually the longest- consecutively-run footrace in the WORLD!

(Other races have skipped years or changed courses or changed lengths over time.)

It's billed as a race built by the people. It was first started as a way to lift the spirits of the city of San Francisco after the devastating 1906 earthquake.

Once the tradition got going, people kept it up. During World War II, few people came out for the race--fewer than 50. Still, some people came every year, even then, and so the tradition continued. The 1986 race set a world record for the largest footrace, with 110,000 racers. Nowadays some 30 to 40 thousand participants register every year, and many more thousands walk behind the runners, swelling the number of participants to 50,000 to 80,000.

Since 1912, over 1.8 million racers, many of them costumed, have run the Bay to Breakers Race.

According to the official website, that 1.8 million has included runners, walkers, and centipedes.

Centipedes?

Well, remember that some participants choose to dress in costumes. We're talking Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider Man, unique characters like this pink gorilla...

The centipedes are not people dressed up as the arthropods, as you might suppose. Instead, there is a special division of the race called “centipedes.” Thirteen runners run together while being tethered. The leader of the pack is called the Head Pede. An untethered fourteenth runner is allowed to run alongside the centipede; he or she can help pace the runners and can sub in if someone has to drop out.

This division is very competitive. Really good running teams such as University of California track teams sometimes participate in this division!

Check out a few more costumes: