The World’s Greatest Fancy Dress Events
There are several contenders for the title of the world’s biggest fancy dress party. The following are but a few of the world’s more popular fancy dress occasions, with carnivals the world over offering ample opportunity for dressing up.
Halloween.
The tradition of Halloween originated more than two thousand years ago among the Celtic tribes of Ireland. In those days people believed that the spirits of the dead came to walk among the living on the last day of the year, which was October 31st. They would dress up in scary costumes to pass themselves off as spirits and thus avoid harm from the “real” spirits. The significance of Halloween has changed down the centuries but we still enjoy the excuse to dress up as someone else on this night of the year and the tradition is particularly popular in the US.
St Patrick’s Day.
St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. He brought Christianity to Ireland and is credited with having driven snakes from that country, although this is more likely to be symbolic of driving the “serpent” of paganism from the land. Besides its traditional meaning as a day of spiritual renewal and of prayer in support of missionaries worldwide, it has become a day of celebrating all things Irish. An estimated 70 million people world-wide can claim Irish ancestry and each year on March 17th they (and many