Thank you guys, yes the mask looked even better under natural light, very reminiscent of the closet scene in some of this picture, yesterday the sky was perfect for cosplaying outdoor, cloudy, no sun, no rain.
I did, and I’m now waiting for bigger cons to come, judging by my reasearch so far it seems like I can boast to be the only one who owns a NAG in my country, those few Myers cosplayers I’ve seen here either had very cheap home made masks or Tots H40, Elrod, or H6 at best .
since around 1998 it is, traditionally october 31st is the Saints’day’s eve, (november 1st we celebrate the saints and it’s holiday) and november the 2nd is the day of the deaths, basically people here started to celebrate Halloween by copying the Americans from Movies and TV series, but eventually they realized there are so many local traditions here so close to it that they always ignored, such as cutting turnips with eyes and mouths, turning them into lanterns, and offering a meal to the death, normally a lost relative (in the south kids receive presents during the day of the death, making them believe it was from dead grandparents or other lost relatives), some other prepare the cookies of the deaths, believing that dead relatives would pay them a visit during november the 2nd, so they leave these cookies on the table as a treat, and eventually pretend to party all together possibly, this folklore is not from my area, but it was very interesting to read it and find out how many similarities there are, let’s not forget that Halloween was a pre Christian European celebration brought to the US by Irish immigrants mainly, but all Europe had its pagan era, and many Pagan aspects were absorbed by Christianism, for example, on January the 6th it’s supposed to be the day where the 3 wise men brought Jesus Gold, incense and myrrh, but even more popular among kids is the story of the Befana, basically a witch who flies on a broom at night bringing sweets to kids who behaved, and coal to the ones who misbehaved, this is a typical pagan figure that survived in our culture, same as the Xmas Tree, Christians never worshipped Trees (Nothern Pagans did) and always burned witches during the midevil cause they were considered evil and close to Satan, on the contrary in the Pagan world a witch was a cultured and wise figure.
yeah today it’s basically a celebration for kids or just a pretext to party till the wee hours for adults since the day after you’re off working, the original Samhain was more complex and included many other aspects, but I think today’s Halloween is a metaphor of the incoming harvest and cold season and the Celtic new year’s eve, including this tradition to celebrate the dead dear ones by offering sweets and candies the day they’re believed to show up, and this reflects the treat part of the celebration to kids dressed like monsters who knock at the door, but new folklore stories eventually added up, like that even evil and mischievous spirits would break free during the Halloween night, and that reflects the trick part, in case you don’t treat them.
When I was little we knocked on the neightbours’doors asking for a treat and money only on January the 1st or at Xmas, now kids do that on Halloween too, but it’s very recent, as I said it started to catch on here in very late 90s, along with night costume parties, traditionally we have the Italian carnival that takes place all around the nation in February, I don’t know if you’re femiliar with the Venitian masks, the well known Harlequin is a Venetian character, and it was originally a demon who served satan, you could even see the way he walked, he had demon’s goat hooves, then they turned it into a more kid friendly and comical character, but most of our masks represented demons.