As the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, people usher in the winter season with gatherings, costumes, and sweet treats. Halloween is here! Halloween is a holiday filled mystery, magic, and superstitions!

Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced so-in). The Celts believe that spirits of the dead returned to earth on the night of October 31st – you know, spirits just out there causing trouble and ruining crops, and stuff – and then they celebrated their new year on November 1st. This day marked the end of summer and the end of the harvest season where the Celt’s would then start to prepare for the long Winter ahead.

Did you know: The first Jack O’ Lanterns were actually made from turnips?

The first of Halloween celebrations included public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance and sing. By the 1920’s, Halloween evolved into a secular, but community based holiday with activities such as bobbing for apples, trick or treating – and of course, really cool costumes!

This year, EPE USA held its First Annual Costume Design competition to get in the spirit of Halloween. Using only scrap packaging materials like corrugated sheets and foam, each site was given 2 weeks to collectively design and create one (1) group costume by location for a chance to win fun prizes for their site. With only two rules: Be safe, and have fun – here is what our EPE team members came up with;

And the winner of this year’s Costume Design Competition goes to…

TEAM CHICAGO!

YOU GUYS ROCK!

EPE Chicago, using packaging material to make another package?  Simply genius!