The history of halloween
Boo! A common jump scare, or a good old trick to get a treat. Firefighters, superheroes and fairies swarm the streets on a day that we all know as Halloween. A holiday celebrated on October 31st, Halloween is commonly known to us as a celebration for trick or treating and fun costumes. To scare off ghosts or sometimes even dress like them, we cherish Halloween for its spooky stories and endless loads of candy. However, dressing up in the same costume as your best friend or having a competition to see who’s candy weighs the most isn’t exactly how Halloween started.
I was able to uncover the truth behind trick or treating through the ghost stories told by both the History and World History Encyclopedia which I’m going to share with you today.
The tradition of asking your neighbor for a treat or tricking them originated back in the early 1800s. At this time, the United States was being flooded with immigrants and therefore different cultures. The Irish immigrants brought their own unique flair to the new nation, and with them came the tall tale of trick or treating.
In his article entitled The History of Halloween, James Mark notes that on cold October nights, children in Ireland would head out to go play pranks on their neighbors, only to be stopped if they received a gift. Young Americans quickly caught onto this fun Halloween shenanigan and adopted it as their own. Breaking away from their original spiritual ties to Halloween, children of all ages flooded the streets, ready to prank whoever they encountered. Eventually, the neighbors refused to grant gifts to the kids and the children’s October tricks came to a halt. With the rising cost of these acts in growing cities during the roaring ‘20s, the kids simply had no choice but to accept defeat.
These mischievous times abruptly became replaced with widespread town-orientated halloween parties, in hopes to stop the trouble. Transforming this old idea of simply harassing one’s neighbor for a gift, a newfound family-friendly spinoff of this game was born. As James Mark explains in The History of Halloween, it was a simple neighborhood trek, or rather a scavenger hunt, that would soon become known as the American favorite tradition, “trick of treat.”
Kids would walk hand-in-hand with their parents up and down the streets during Halloween week, throwing out the playful phrase “trick or treat” at the front doors of the town. With a mutual agreement by many towns across the nation, the kid was greeted at the door with a small, inexpensive yet delicious piece of candy. This became an instantaneous fan favorite across the nation. The History Encyclopedia references the candy companies’ excitement for trick or treating in the 1920s. Companies such as Hershey, Mars and Nestle developed Halloween-themed candies that year, and the modern idea of trick-or-treating stole the hearts of the nation’s children.
Today, this tradition continues but with a few modifications. Instead of going on for the week prior the night of October 31st, trick or treating is usually only allowed for on a specified day by one’s town. One thing that hasn’t changed though is a kid’s pure love and excitement to see what treat their neighbor has in store for them. Today, these small treats now range anywhere from toothbrushes to gummy hotdogs, as kids are eager to gain a new token for their treat bags.