Halloween in the United States and the United Kingdom
The United States reigns with costume parties around Halloween. Children, adults and teens that are over the age of going door to door dress up instead and attend parties. Movies are rife with instances of costume parties in the United States.
Mardi Gras time, in Louisiana and other parts of the United States also draws many costume parties. Books and movie releases abound that carry a Halloween costume party theme, and science fiction and fantasy events all favor Halloween themes. Even Oscar parties that were focused on Lord of the Rings were in essence costume parties, and Episode I of the Star Wars trilogy were celebrated by a costume party. Harry Potter theme parties are also costume parties.
In the United Kingdom, ‘Boxing Day’, with a man dressed as ‘Wolverine’, the ‘X-Men’ anti-hero heralded the 2006 festivities, as ‘Boxing Day in Wigan’ is still popular with its fancy dress amongst revelers.
The Royal Family favors fancy dress parties, and these are popular all year round in England. Prince William of the British Royal Family celebrated his twenty-first birthday by having an ‘Out of Africa’ theme closely related to the movie of same name. On the other hand, Princess Beatrice for her eighteenth birthday chose an 1888 theme party, while in January of 2005, Prince Harry made headlines by wearing an Afrika Corps uniform with a Nazi armband to a costume party. Ms. Bridget Jones, on the other hand, favored a classical ‘tarts and vicars’ style theme for her latest party.
The largest outcry came against Prince Harry however, and he was splashed across tabloids in his costume, especially in the Sunday tabloid, ‘News of the World.’
