Dress You Up

SOME holidays cast their spirit over many months. Ebenezer Scrooge told the last ghost that he would honor Christmas in his heart and try to keep it all the year. For 30 years after Appomattox, America kept one long Decoration Day. Our endless holiday is the one we just celebrated, Halloween.

The Halloweens of my childhood are preserved in the Kodaks of memory: tiny people in odd bits of costume, much of it homemade (sheets for ghosts), wandering among the short trees of suburbs with paper bags and UNICEF boxes. That still goes on, with more expensive costumes and among taller trees, but modern Halloween has grown up.

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

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SOME holidays cast their spirit over many months. Ebenezer Scrooge told the last ghost that he would honor Christmas in his heart and try to keep it all the year. For 30 years after Appomattox, America kept one long Decoration Day. Our endless holiday is the one we just celebrated, Halloween.

The Halloweens of my childhood are preserved in the Kodaks of memory: tiny people in odd bits of costume, much of it homemade (sheets for ghosts), wandering among the short trees of suburbs with paper bags and UNICEF boxes. That still goes on, with more expensive costumes and among taller trees, but modern Halloween has grown up.