But how did these Celtic traditions evolve until children dressed up in costumes and went trick-or-treating to have fun and get candy, not to protect themselves from evil spirits? ?
According to fifth edition Holiday symbols and customs, in the sixteenth century In Britain, poor people have the habit of going out to beg for food. On All Souls’ Day, the children finally accepted the custom. then, It was popular at that time to give cakes with crosses on them to children. They are also called “soul cakes” in exchange for prayers being prayed in their name.
Lisa Morton, author Trick or Treating: The History of Halloween (In Spanish: Trick or Treat: A Halloween Story), one of the earliest references to a typical Halloween celebration dates back to a letter from Queen Victoria, in which she recounted how she spent the day around a campfire in Scotland in 1869.
The letter states: “After rounding the castle, the remaining torches were thrown into a pile in the southwest corner, thus forming a large bonfire. As other fuel was added, the bonfire quickly grew until it formed a huge a burning mass around which they danced passionately.”
Morton commented that middle-class Americans often aspired to imitate their British cousins, which could explain a short story published in 1870 that described Halloween as a British holiday in which children won candy through divination and games.
However, the author comments that it is possible trick or treat This is a newer tradition and surprisingly, may be inspired by Christmas.
A popular Christmas custom in the 18th and 19th centuries was called Belsnicklin In the eastern United States and Canada, this is similar to trick-or-treating: a group of people Costumed participants go door-to-door performing tricks in exchange for food and drinks.
Some “Berniklers” even deliberately scare children They would bring the children home before asking if they were good enough to win a treat. Other early accounts state that candy givers had to guess the identities of costumed revelers, offering treats to people they could not identify.
In the 19th century, “tricks” such as banging on windows and tying doors were often thought to be performed by supernatural forces. Some people offer candy to protect their houses from pranksters, who can wreak havoc by disassembling agricultural machinery and reassembling it on a roof. By the early 20th century, some homeowners were even fighting back, and legislators encouraged communities to control children through healthy recreation.
These pranks may have led to the use of the phrase “trick or treat.”. Etymologist Barry Popik traces the phrase’s first connection to Halloween to a 1927 Alberta newspaper article reporting on trick-or-treaters calling for trick-or-treating at home.
trick or treat Later became widely popular in the United States Second World War, when rationing ends and candy becomes available again. The rapid growth of suburban communities, where children are moving door-to-door more easily than ever before, has also fueled the tradition’s rise.
in these ten years 1950imagination and marketing Halloween festivals began to reflect this popularity, and The party becomes more consumerist. Costumes range from simple homemade outfits modeled after ghosts and pirates, to mass-produced costumes of beloved TV and movie characters.
As trick-or-treating grows in popularity, adults are finding it much easier to hand out individually wrapped candy than apples, nuts and homemade treats. Candy first appeared at American Halloween parties in the 19th century and has become the quintessential candy today.
By the mid-20th century, the old tricks had all but disappeared. The children only wanted sweets and the owner of the house with the lights on gave them to them. Those who wanted to avoid them simply turned off their lights.
But even though Halloween has become a healthy family activity, urban myths emerged in the 1960s, raising concerns about whether it was actually safe for children to accept candy from strangers.
Tracing the origins of urban myths like razor blades in apples or drugged candy is difficult, although in 1964 a New York housewife thought some children were too old to trick-or-treat , and made headlines by wrapping them in dog biscuits and poison. Ant bait and steel wool.
The incident led to educational programs advising children to throw away unwrapped candy and switch to candy wrapped in commercial wrappers, both of which helped candy makers win.
Since the rise of trick-or-treating after World War II he chocolate Become the most popular candy. In 2009, Halloween became the holiday with the highest chocolate sales in the United States, and the number continues to grow.
The day has become the second-largest commercial holiday in the United States, with Americans spending millions of dollars on Halloween candy.
Candy corn was first produced in the 1880s, and despite consistently ranking as America’s least favorite candy, it remains a classic. According to the American Confectioners Association, approximately 15 million kilograms of orange, yellow and white cones are produced each year, most of which are sold on Halloween.
Candy sales fell in 2020 as COVID-19 restrictions forced children off the streets. But now, three years later, they’re back on the streets trick-or-treating their neighbors (and maybe even playing some naughty pranks), just like the Celtics and Belsniks before them Like strangling someone.