Goals:

• Inform students how cultures celebrate Halloween.
• Students will be able to create a mask using milk jugs.
• Students will be able to come up with creative ways to decorate masks.

Elements of Design: shape, form, texture, color, value
Principles of Design: variety, balance, proportion, movement (principles will vary depending on each student.)
Art Terms:

• Acrylic paints- non-water soluble paints
• Exacto knife- razor blade-like knife

Cross Curricular Applications:

• History- origin of Halloween
• Social Studies- study of other cultures

PRODUCTION

Objective: Students will design and decorate a mask from a milk jug.

Materials: milk jug, scissors, Exacto knives, acrylic paints, permanent markers, glue, craft sticks, sequence, feathers, yarn, elastic, newspaper, paint brushes, sponges, water tins, glitter, ice trays/paint holders, pipe cleaners, buttons and any other trim.

Safety and Tips:

• Don't let acrylic paint dry in sponges or brushes.
• Easier to use Exacto knives for eyes, scissors (depending on sharpness) for shape.
• Dark pen lines can be covered by trim or paint.
• Don't glob on paint
• Be creative while cutting!

Activity:

1. Using marker, draw masks on milk jug as shown on handout. The large mask uses the jug handle as a nose (A); the small mask uses the jug's front curve (B).

2. Cut out mask with scissors.

3. Paint base coat with acrylic paint.

4. Stop class and discuss origin of Halloween. The information is on the attached sheet and it also allows time for the base coat to dry.

5. Continue decorating mask.

6. Glue craft stick to underside of small mask. For large mask, cut small holes in the side and attach elastic or yarn. This can be done for the small mask also.

Evaluation:

• Did the students remain on task?
• Ask how one culture views Halloween? (answers will vary)
• In the past, what did people go house to house for? (food)
• As a group, discuss different elements and principles found in each other's masks.

MASKS
At Halloween horrible masks are a favorite part of the fun. But a mask is more than a costume, it turns a person for the moment into someone else. In the past, people all over the world have worn masks for serious reasons. When droughts, epidemics or other disasters have struck, primitive people wore their most hideous masks. They hoped the demons that brought the disaster would think they were demons too and be frightened off.

CULTURAL BELIEFS
Although Halloween no longer has any serious meaning in the United States, it has more ancient beginnings than any other holiday. Today, people in America celebrate Halloween by leaving the house after dark dressed in costumes to collect candy and other goodies door-to-door from neighbors. This is called trick-or-treating. Although the purpose for trick-or-treating is different, the custom is far from new. In fact, the origins of trick-or-treating dates back to about 3,000 years ago.

In parts of England, the poor once went from house to house, singing and begging for cakes or money on the All Saints Eve (Halloween). Belgian children had a similar custom, in which they would stand beside little shrines in front of their homes, begging for money to buy cakes. It was thought that for each cake they ate, the suffering of one dead soul would be eased.

Spanish people used to put cakes and nuts on graves after dark on Halloween. These gifts were bribes to keep evil spirits away. French children beg for flowers to take to cemeteries for All Saints Day. English children make Jack-O'Lanterns. They carry these from door-to-door singing songs and receive coins or new candles. In Ireland, people in costumes and masks went begging from farm to farm, reciting verses that described the damage that spirits would do to a farmer's house or barn if the farmer refused to give something. This is not unlike the American way of trick-or-treating, in which we sometimes recite the verse, "Trick-or-treat, smell my feet. Give me something good to eat!" It is assumed that a practical joke will be played on an unwilling neighbor.

TRICK-OR-TREATING
Trick-or-treating originated in Ireland when on the eve of Samhain, people would go house to house looking for food contributions to Muck Olla. The group was led by a man in a white robe with a horse-head mask. After him walked young men blowing cow horns. They would stop at each house recite some verses that told the farmer that his prosperity was due to Muck Olla and if he wishes to prosper he should make a contribution to the spirit.

A medieval custom of celebrating Allhallows in the church led to parades of parishioners dressed as saints, angels, devils and other church icon, around the churchyard which led to parades through town.

Costume parades still exist today like on Easter, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Halloween. Children dress up in costumes of all kinds, shapes and sizes and go from house to house yelling trick-or-treat or "anything of the goblins". Halloween is the last hurrah before the onset of a dreary winter. It is needed so people can be creative, joyful, energetic before a long, cold winter of being cooped up inside. It is a way of celebrating ancient Halloween rather than a modern, high-tech holiday.

Resources:

"Woman's Day Magazine", January 7, 1997 page 19.

Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts. The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth.