Native Americans wore animal costumes of various kinds for millennia for religious dances and other ceremonials. Ceremonies of propitiation to gain favors from gods take on various forms. There are imitative movements such as the rain dance, acts of commemoration that reenact some important happening of the past, impersonations in which the actor becomes for the time being an animal, a tribal hero, a god. The individuals chosen to enact these ceremonies renounce their own personalities temporarily and don garments appropriate to their roles and may take on the persona of the animal, tribal hero, or god.
The eagle dance costume of the Hopi tribe includes wings with which the dancer imitates the swooping motions of the eagle and a headdress that symbolizes that bird. The Hopi eagle dancer wears a mask-headdress of more than human size, of highly unrealistic design, symbolic but not imitative which is actually a sacred symbol.
In the same category is the Shalako mask, which in the Zuni tribal ceremonial represents an ancestral spirit with “god-like potency.” For, as Virginia Roediger explains, “As soon as the impersonator dons the mask of the supernatural, she or he is believed to become that spirit. As a consequence she or he is supernatural and must not be approached or touched during the ceremonies and must be uncharmed before she or he again becomes mortal.” Body paint also has magic power as it too renders the wearer untouchable and must be washed off ceremonially before he again becomes mortal.
Outsiders unaware of the important ritual meanings in the Pueblo ceremonial are stirred by the aesthetic appeal of the costumes; their vibrant colors, ingenious construction, abstract designs pleasingly applied and such ornaments as sashes, fringes, tassels, and rattling shells that combine in a syncopated accompaniment to the basic rhythm of the measured steps.
From such dances and other primitive religious dramas, scholars infer that similar conventions developed in prehistoric civilizations. Scripts of a few Egyptian religious plays do exist but there is no indication of the costuming. However, many Egyptian figures in stone, in fresco, and on papyrus have the look of theater costume designs.
There are hawk, dog, etc. headed men in loincloths and round beaded collars. Those animal heads could well be the masks of priests impersonating gods. There are female figures that wore headdresses representing the folded wings of birds and whose bodies were wrapped in feather painted sarongs.
Egypt was one of the contributors to the religious thought of Greece. Another was Thrace, whence the god Dionysus came. With the worship of Dionysus began lusty Greek drama with satyrs and dancing women. The satyr impersonators imitated nature creatures with hairy legs, bushy tails, and animal-like masks.
There is a vase in the Staatliche Museum in Berlin, Germany showing knights in the chorus of an early Greek comedy riding on men disguised as horses. The horse men have tails, a body covering, and a horse head that leaves the wearers face visible.
The most important feature of the Greek costume was the mask, which indicated the character's age, sex, station, and customary mood. The masks were made of linen, cork, or wood, and were skillfully carved and painted.
Mimic horses, satyrs, bird figures, and other animal imitations were much in evidence. Aristophanes, in The Wasps, The Birds, and The Frogs, calls for all manner of such figures and clothing. Actors performed in skins and wore horses' heads, birdlike visors, and mock wings.
Just as Greece had its satyrs and misshapen clowns, the middle ages had its devils. Some recall the old satyrs with shaggy goat legs, cloven hooves, and horns; some developed new drolleries with bat wings and scorpion tails; some were embellished with ornaments on the knees, elbows, and bellies as well as grotesque masks on the face.
The European craft guilds and the societies dedicated to producing the sacred dramas, as well as the leaders of the Italian city-states, strove to present their plays as sumptuously as possible. No construction problems baffled them. The produced instantaneous transformations, talking beasts, and practicable wings for angels as needed. The costume parade included tyrants outfitted in papier-mache heads with scarlet wigs and beards and crowns, turbans and robes that glittered with jewels; demons whose huge grotesque masks and lashing tails put fearful pleasure in the hearts of the beholders; and angles with shining garments and gilded limbs.
The medieval combats at arms developed into shows that had rudimentary plots. These stage conflicts were grim contests in which costume pageantry was furnished by distinguishing colors, crests, plumes, shields and other paraphernalia of heraldry.
Other outdoor spectacles furnished the opportunity for dressing actors in magnificent mythological, sylvan, pastoral, and marine costumes. Outdoor spectacles made free use of masks, almost a necessity when men had to impersonate women. At court balls both men and women wore masks, not for magic or for character identification, but for concealment. From court ballet developed opera, which has seldom lost sight of the original spectacular features, including costume.
The word mascot, which denotes something or someone that brings good luck, now enjoys a positive meaning that is a distinct improvement over its prior meanings. Mascot came into English as a borrowing of the French word mascotte, meaning mascot or charm, which is the diminutive of the provincial word, masco, which is a slang term for witch. The English word was coined in 1881 shortly after the French word, itself coined in 1867, was popularized by the opera La Mascotte, performed in December 1880.
There have been various animals used as symbols or mascots. In the military there is the Air Force Academy falcon, the Naval Academy goat, and the Army Academy bulldog. A tiger is the symbol of one brand of cereal, as are other animals, and even leprechauns. One can see at trade shows corporate mascots. Some nations have mascots, in particular the United States eagle.
Most school mascots are costumed performers. However, some colleges have living animals, such as the bull, buffalo, or eagle, instead of or in addition to the performer.