The History of Trick-or-Treating

Halloween is just around the corner and anyone that has kids or lives in a neighborhood with kids knows that Trick-or-Treating is a very popular Halloween activity. The history of it might surprise you though, it wasn't designed to get candy like it is today. A lot of the tradition has to do with religious beliefs about spirits, and honoring deceased relatives.

Many years ago, one of the reasons for wearing masks was to avoid negative affects of natural disasters. People wore masks because they beld that the demons were the ones who caused misfortunes such as droughs, diseases, and natural disasters. The belief was that if you wore a scary mask you would scare the demons away from you and you would not suffer those adverse affects.

In Europe things started to change just over 40 years ago. Before then children would still dress up as ghosts and goblins. Yet the only purpose for this was to scare the neighbors. The children would not receive candy or treats. The custom began to change though about 40 years ago in the European countries and treats were handed out to these children.

So, how did Trick-or-Treating come to the United States? It was brought by Irish immigrants in the 1840's. It was originally inspired by "souling" which was popular in the 19th century in Ireland and other European countries. November 2nd was "All Souls Day" and Christian adults and children alike would walk among villages. They would ask for soul cakes. These cakes were small breads made with currant inside. The adults and children would promise to say prayers for dead relatives of anyone that gave them a soul cake. The reason the prayers were important is in the religion it was believed sometimes souls would spend time in the afterlife in between heaven and the netherword. The prayers would help them enter into heaven.