Halloween in Taos, New Mexico

Halloween in Taos brings out the creativity of our little art town. There are a wide range of events all over Taos but the main show is at Taos Plaza and along the John Dunn shops where hundreds of Taos creatives show off their costume works for the year. My daughter is not to be outdone. She begins planning her costume the day after Halloween and starts making it herself during the summer. She is not alone. Halloween in Taos is less about the trick or treating and more about the costume show!

Our Halloween is somewhat based on the ancient Celtic celebration of Samhain. This was a time when the shroud between what we think of as the real world (or at least the one we live in) and the world of the spirits became thin. Certain individuals and spirits could even slip between the threads of that veil and pass onto an alternative reality. This interplay with the spirit world is one of the reasons that Halloween costumes tend to be a bit creepy and mysterious. Samhain was also a time when those in our reality could break social expectations and barriers and transform into beings they could not inhabit in the normal workaday. In America, at some point a business person with a vision saw the opportunity to make some money and by the 1930s, the first store bought costumes were available in American stores

Take a gander and some of the great Taos costume art works to be found in the center of town on Halloween!

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

##