Sept. 26, 2015
What are you going to
be this year?
Don’t feel you have to
settle on just one choice, but you’d better get a move on. Time is running out,
and as a public-spirited Las Crucen, you have a lot of dressing up to do.
Your costume
inspirations might be guided by four crucial choices here in the Mesilla
Valley: Occasion. Occasion. Occasion. Occasion.
Actually, if you add in
private parties, school and church gatherings, comics conventions, mazes and fun houses, there are
even more.
But the big four here
continue to be, in order of their appearance, the Zombie Walk Oct. 24,
Halloween on Oct. 31, Dia de los Muertos celebrations Oct. 31 through Nov. 2 in
Mesilla and the Dona Ana Arts Council’s
Renaissance ArtsFair Nov. 7 and 8.
All those cosplay ops
may have their own devoted followers, but you’ll be welcome at any or all
events.
Especially if you’ve
dressed for the occasion.
Some of our favorite
local costume emporiums, like the Gen! and La Vieja, may no longer be with us,
but with all the theater groups and talented artists in town, there are a lot
of rich resources and creativity to draw upon.
And I’ve discovered the
commercial permanent and pop-up costume stores are catering more and more to
local tastes. I found separate Dia de los Muertos boutiques within ABC Party
World and Spirit Halloween this year, for instance, and many of the superstores
seem more attuned to our desire for fetching Renaissance and zombie ensembles.
For the last couple of
decades, even when we had just two big costume occasions, RenFaire and
Halloween, I’ve been in quest of the perfect universal costume for our FTFCS (Full-Tilt Fiesta Costume
Season).
For a while, I thought
I’d hit on the perfect costume with an epoch-ambivalent long gown with angel
wings.
It worked quite nicely
for three out of four of our big costume fiestas.
I’ve said it before and
I’ll say it again, costume aficionados: Angels are always welcome.
On Halloween, it always
felt right to be an angel, whether I was handing out treats at my front door,
or journeying off to a special party. (Angelic traveling tip: don’t put on your
wings until you arrive at your destination, especially if you’re driving.)
If I added a
Renaissance motif or two, some period trim and maybe draped the halo with a
flower garland, my angel outfit always
seemed suitable for RenFaire strolls around Young Park. And certainly, with or
without a Calavera mask or face-painting, it always felt appropriate to be an
angel at Dia de los Muertos events, whether I was strolling the Mesilla Plaza,
inspecting altars, or joining in the
twilight cemetery processions. (The procession is on Nov. 2. Don’t forget your
marigolds and noisemakers.) I always felt I was performing a public service, in
fact, for kids or newcomers braving what might be their first experiences with
all those merry but potentially scary skeletons.
Yet somehow, I could
never figure out how to make an angel work for the Zombie Walk. I suppose I
could have torn, singed and bloodied the wings and gown. And lurched with the
crowd, calling for brains.
But an angel is an
angel and a zombie is a zombie. Angels
fly, float, play harps and sing and act, well, angelically. Lurching is simply
not an angel thing.
Let me know if you’ve
come up with the universal, perfect costume for our FTFCS (Full-Tilt Fiesta
Costume Season).
In the meantime, get
out there and get ready. And don’t get daunted if seems like all the good
costumes – or the costumes of your dreams - have been taken.
Inspiration is
everywhere, and if you don’t feel your first FTFCS outfit is all you’d hoped,
you’ll have several more chances to get it just right, assuming that’s your
goal.
But for most of us,
especially kids of all ages, it’s all about the adventure of trying on a new
identity for an hour or a day, having an adventure and a good time.
S. Derrickson Moore may be
reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com, @derricksonmoore on Twitter and Tout, or call
575-541-5450.
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