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A costume party (chiefly in the U.S. and Canada) or a fancy dress party (chiefly in Britain and Australia), mainly in contemporary Western culture, is a type of party where guests dress up in a costume.

Costume Parties are especially popular in the United States around Halloween, when teenagers and adults who may be considered too old for trick-or-treating attend a costume party instead. Halloween costume parties are occasionally featured in popular movies, such as Mean Girls.
Costume parties are also popular during the Carnival season, such as at Mardi Gras. Costume parties are also held for popular science fiction and fantasy events, movie openings and book releases. Website theonering.net held a The Lord of the Rings dress oscar party that was attended by Peter Jackson. Star Wars parties were held to celebrate the opening of Episode I. Many bookstores have held Harry Potter themed parties to celebrate the releases of the series' later novels.

Fancy dress parties are popular year round in England. Bridget Jones features the popular and classic theme "Tarts and Vicars". Fancy dress parties are also a favorite of the British Royal Family. Prince William celebrated his 21st birthday with an "Out of Africa" theme, Princess Beatrice chose an 1888 themed party for her 18th birthday, and Freddie and Gabriella Windsor celebrated a joint birthday party with a pre-French Revolution courtly theme. Prince Harry infamously wore an Afrika Corps uniform with a Nazi armband to a "Colonials and Natives" themed party in January 2005. There was a large international outcry after the Sunday tabloid News of the World published a photo of him in the costume.

The term costume can refer to wardrobe and dress in general, or to the distinctive style of dress of a particular people, class, or period. It can also refer to the artistic arrangement of accessories in a picture, statue, poem, or play, appropriate to the time, place, or other circumstances represented or described, or to a particular style of clothing worn to portray the wearer as a character or type of character other than their regular persona at a social event such as a masquerade, a fancy dress party or in an artistic theatrical performance.

Theatrical costumes
One of the more prominent places people see costumes is in theatre, film and TV. In combination with other aspects, theatrical costumes can serve to portray characters' age, gender role, profession, social class, personality, and even information about the historical period/era, geographic location and time of day, as well as the season or weather of the theatrical performance. Often stylized theatrical costumes can exaggerate some aspect of a character for example Harlequin and Pantaloon in the Commedia dell Arte. Without theatrical costumers, the audience would be left wondering who is related to whom, and which person is which.

Holidays and festivals
The wearing of costumes has become an important part of such holidays and festivals as Mardi Gras and Halloween, and (to a lesser extent) people may also wear costumes in conjunction with other holidays, such as Christmas and Easter. Mardi Gras costumes usually take the form of jesters and other fantasy characters, while Halloween costumes traditionally take the form of supernatural creatures such as ghosts, vampires, and angels. Christmas and Easter costumes typically portray mythical characters such as Santa Claus (by donning a santa suit and beard) or the Easter Bunny by putting on an animal costume. Costumes may serve to portray various other characters during secular holidays, such as an Uncle Sam costume worn on the Independence day for example.

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