HALLOWEEN BALL 2021

REQUIRED COSTUME THEME: 19th Century (1800s)

DATE: Sunday, October 31, 2021

TIME OF ARRIVALS: 3PM-4PM

LOCATION: Ching Shih Hideaway (The Rockaways, NY)

(Outdoor event with games, music, food and drinks. Age 21+ Only. Exact Address Will Be Shared 3 Days Before Event for Confirmed Guests. There is plenty of street parking. Event is free for all attendees unless you fail to follow the dress code.)

As some in our country are still fighting against the reality of COVID-19 and modern advancements in medicine and technology, I hope this themed ball will serve as a reminder that over 100 years ago, the 19th century birthed some of history’s greatest innovators, progressives, thinkers, musicians, artists, scientists, writers, world leaders, etc. The first vaccine was invented in 1796, and the 1800s was the first century where millions of lives were saved because of vaccination. In a tone of hope and light, let’s go back in time for a day to the 1800s.

I encourage everyone to dig deep and have fun with your costume… I hope this can be a different kind of Halloween for you and that you will have fun creatively picking a costume that reflects the intellectual, artistic, poetic, regal, whimsical, glamorous, and innovative vibrations of the 19th century. I hope you go all out and fantastical in all of your beauty and glory in this task!

Nevertheless, I hate to have to mention this, but I feel it’s best to write it out. I know my friends all know better, but please make sure your guests are aware of the following too… If your outfit will offend someone, don’t wear it especially if you touch the Civil War era and Antebellum. Any costume referencing the American Confederacy or slavery directly or indirectly is banned for all who are not American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS).

Modern Halloween and horror are all very influenced by the 19th century as the 1800s gave us novels such as Frankenstein, Dracula, and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and bloody historical figures such as Jack The Ripper, Lizzie Borden, and Typhoid Mary. However, before you pick up a Dracula or Frankenstein outfit from Party City, I encourage you to read the original books and translate your costume to align with the original novels.

I made a few lists to help you in your costume preparations! Hope this helps!

Eras in the 1800s:
– Romantic Period
– Georgian Era
– Victorian Era
– Qing Dynasty
– Age of Steam
– Napoleonic Wars
– First French Empire
– Latin American Independence
– Abolition and the American Civil War
– Industrial Revolution
– British Regency
– Bourbon Restoration
– July Monarchy
– Edo Period
– Meiji Period
– Joseon Dynasty
– Zulu Kingdom
– Tanzimat
– First Constitutional Era
– Russian Empire
– American Manifest Destiny
– The Gilded Age
– Wild West

Operas / Musicals / Movies / TV Shows based in the 19th Century (1800s):

– Bridgerton
– Warrior (TV series)
– Carmen
– The King and I
– Moulin Rouge!
– Emma
– The Age of Innocence
– Price and Prejudice
– Les Misérables
– Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
– Miss Scarlet and The Duke
– Penny Dreadful
– Victoria
– Anne with an E
– Dickinson
– The Alienist
– Dickensian
– Fingersmith
– Gone With The Wind
– Yojimbo
– The Prestige
– Gangs of New York
– Glory
– Lincoln
– 12 Years a Slave
– Jezebel
– Doña Perfecta
– The Elephant Man
– Wuthering Heights
– Victoria & Abdul
– Chocolat (2016)
– The Leopard
– Anna and the King of Siam
– Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
– Amistad
– Nang Nak
– The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi
– A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop
– Towards the Republic (TV series)

Books based in the 19th Century (1800s):
(You should see movies by the same name for costume ideas.)

– Anna Karenina
– Les Misérables
– Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
– Anne of Green Gables
– On the Origin of Species
– Frankenstein
– Great Expectations
– Any Jane Austen novel
– Jane Eyre
– Vanity Fair
– Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
– Uncle Tom’s Cabin
– Little Women
– Moby Dick
– Dracula
– The Picture of Dorian Gray
– The Count of Monte Cristo
– Love in the Time of Cholera

Famous People Who Lived During the 19th Century and Made A Mark:

(If you are planning to dress as a specific historical figure, please check with the host to claim the person. It’s impolite at this ball to have identical people existing in the same room – you will mess up time travel! LOL! Text Damian to confirm first dibs on your costumes.)

– Ching Shih
– Emily Dickinson
– Charles Dickens
– Frederick Douglas
– Napoleon Bonaparte
– Charles Darwin
– Jane Austen
– Queen Victoria
– Marie Curie
– Thomas Edison
– Jean Lafitte
– Thomas Jefferson
– Theodore Roosevelt
– Sitting Bull
– Booker T. Washington
– Geronimo
– Gregor Mendel
– Michael Faraday
– Alexander Graham Bell
– Karl Marx
– Louis Pasteur
– Harry Houdini
– Simon Bolivar
– Calamity Jane
– Ada Lovelace
– Victor Hugo
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
– Henry David Thoreau
– Walt Whitman
– Typhoid Mary
– Madame C.J. Walker
– Oscar Wilde
– Leo Tolstoy
– Mark Twain
– Ludwig van Beethoven
– Jack The Ripper
– Claude Monet
– Florence Nightingale
– Vincent Van Gogh
– Giuseppe Verdi
– Sojourner Truth
– Susan B. Anthony
– Harriet Tubman
– Raja Rammohun Roy
– John D. Rockefeller
– Edgar Allan Poe
– John Keats
– Mahatma Gandhi
– Billy the Kid
– Lizzie Borden

See you at the ball!  xo Damian, Master of Ceremonies