Authentic pirate costumes for Halloween 2009
Authentic pirate costumes aren’t that hard to put together if you do a little research. Pirates have well known tropes that I’ll list for you here.
First, you need the correct hat. This is typically going to be a tricorne, or three-cornered, black hat. The traditional hats of pirates in the movies, it is the first piece for authentic pirate costumes of all types. On that hat itself should be an image of a skull and crossbones, or “The Jolly Roger” as it’s known. Wikipedia gives the history of The Jolly Roger here:
The name “Jolly Roger” goes back at least to Charles Johnson’s A General History of the Pyrates, published in 1724.
Johnson specifically cites two pirates as having named their flag “Jolly Roger”: Bartholomew Roberts in June, 1721 and Francis Spriggs in December 1723. While Spriggs and Roberts used the same name for their flags, their flag designs were quite different, suggesting that already “Jolly Roger” was a generic term for black pirate flags rather than a name for any single specific design. Neither Spriggs’ nor Roberts’ Jolly Roger consisted of a skull and crossbones.
Richard Hawkins, captured by pirates in 1724, reported that the pirates had a black flag bearing the figure of a skeleton stabbing a heart with a spear, which they named “Jolly Roger”.
Despite this tale, it is assumed by most that the name Jolly Roger comes from the French words jolie rouge, meaning “pretty red”. During the Elizabethan era “Roger” was a slang term for beggars and vagrants who “pretended scholarship” and was also applied to privateers who operated in the English Channel. “Sea Beggars” had been a popular name for Dutch privateers since the 16th century. Another theory states that “Jolly Roger” is an English corruption of “Ali Raja”, the name of a Tamil pirate. Yet another theory is that it was taken from a nickname for the devil, “Old Roger”. The “jolly” appellation may be derived from the apparent grin of a skull. Theories that the epithet comes from the names of various pirates, such as Woodes Rogers, are generally discredited.
So you can see why the Jolly Roger is such an important part of authentic pirate costumes.
Also required in real authentic pirate costumes are such accoutrements as a flintlock pistol, a hook for a hand, a pegleg and a parrot. And if you can grow one (or buy one from a costume shop), a handlebar moustache can go a long way to completing the look.
