Halloween is here. 

The “holiday” is so popular and now for both children and adults that temporary stores like “Spirit Halloween” exist and occupy empty retail spaces by renting them from late August to early November in order to sell all things Halloween. 

Rae Jensen is a general manager at the Tempe Marketplace location, and she has worked at Spirit for three years. 

Jensen has seen the trends come and go with costumes that customers like to buy.

“I’d say one that is pretty consistent is definitely, Ghostface,” Jensen said.

Ghostface came out in the year 1996, and the costume has been seen in almost every neighborhood around the nation. 

But with different years comes new costume and mask popularity. 

When asked about this year’s trends Jensen told Northeast Valley News, 

“I think this year, Wednesday Adams is pretty popular and Barbie.”  

Costume popularity can change year to year due to trending television shows, movies, believe it or not, Tik Tok videos or the often caricatured political figures. Movies that come out relative to Halloween are often big. The release of the Barbie movie gained traction and characters and costumes were quickly stocked on the shelves. 

Temporary store spaces, like Spirit create temporary jobs each year.  

One of those employees, Arasley Webb decided to work at Spirit because of all the things that are sold there, just the surroundings and she especially likes the themed items such as cups and even blankets.

Next to New Year’s Eve, Halloween parties have become the second biggest party excuse for Americans and indeed Halloween is celebrated in many other countries and is one of the oldest holidays dating back to pagan times. 

Unfortunately Halloween night doesn’t always cooperate and land on a weekend so most adults opt for a weekend before party and save the night of for the kiddies.

But kids and adults alike enjoy dressing up and there’s something about the whole, witches, ghosts, monsters and scary Halloween movies and of course the door-to door trick-or-treating that is both fun and little scary. 

Halloween traditions have grown too. Americans can’t seem to get enough of the holiday and some spend thousands on elaborate decorations that attract neighbors and even the surrounding community to visit their houses for a scary experience—these elaborate designs can begin many weeks before Halloween.

It’s estimated that Americans will spend upwards of $10 billion annually on everything from Halloween decorations, gifts, costumes, party food and drink and even pet costumes.  

So what’s the deal with Halloween and why do we celebrate it?

According to the Library of Congress, Halloween is celebrated because Oct. 31 is the eve of All Saints Day, or a day in which Christians remember and honor the dead.

But other Halloween experts say, “Not so fast.”

“Scholars, especially folklorists, for the last hundred years or so, have been associating it with ancient Celtic times, saying that there was some festival of the return of the dead on October 31,” says Henry Ansgar Kelly, research professor specializing in medieval and renaissance studies at UCLA. “But that turns out to be bogus.”

Kelly said during a TODAY.com interview that Halloween began in the U.S. sometime around the 19th century when the Irish came to America, bringing their celebrations, including All Saints’ Day, with them.

“All Saints’ Day was a feast day on the Catholic calendar,” Kelly said. “November 1 was the day on which you celebrate all the people that have gone to heaven.”

The night before All Saints’ Day, people would hold vigils for the souls that hadn’t yet gone to heaven and were trapped in purgatory. 

In essence, it was a night to pray for the dead — and thus Halloween was born.