To savvy the rhyme and reason of why children don preposterous costumes and fuck down doors demanding confect once a class , we must rewind the clock a twosome of millennium and natter the ancient Celtic kinship group of Britain . The Celts lionize the end of dusk harvest and the origin of their newfangled twelvemonth with the pagan festivalSamhain(pronounced " sow - en " ) , which fell on Nov. 1 . On the dark before the celebration start , the dead were thought to locomote back home for an one-year visit . To scare away any accompanying evil intent , the Celts lit attack around the countryside , and some dress in camouflage when venturing into the eery outdoors to forfend being recognized by uncongenial spook . Traces of these primitive ritual stay as the centuries fall apart on , and even as the Catholic Church essay to abolish the pagan interest .
In the eighth century , the church began commemorating the feast of All Saints on Nov. 1 , possibly as a replacement for Samhain . The preceding day became experience as All Hallow ’s Eve , which was further reduce to Halloween .
Mumming and Soul Cakes
As the secular Samain and sacred All Hallow ’s intertwined , the deadened spirit that characterized the vacation assumed more negative connotation ( hence the modern Halloween ikon of witches , ghosts and ghouls ) . To lenify those evil spirit , citizenry go out food and drink alfresco to protect their base from religious retaliation . step by step , savvy celebrants adopt advantage of the tasty offerings by dressing up as the dead and trek from threshold to door to call for for provisions in exchange for protection from distasteful spirits . According to the American Folklife Center , the practice session , which became known as mumming , served as a case law for trick - or - treating .
In England , the poor would organize soulfulness parades to beg for alms on All Hallow ’s Eve in exchange for prayers to deliver drained souls from purgatory to heaven . As the years wore on , children occupy over the custom , calling themselves " soulers . " Bands of them would criticise on doors and blab songs in return for cherubic , currant - topped cabbage called someone - bar . The trick - or - regale custom spoil the Atlantic with the inflow of immigrant from England and Ireland that moved to the United States in the mid-19th 100 .
Trick-or-Treating Today
Trick - or - treating was n’t wide popular in the United States until around 1940 , writes Nicholas Roger , writer of " Halloween : From Pagan Ritual to Party Night . " Before then , the prankish holiday had spiral into an adolescent free - for - all , tick by rampant vandalism and excessive foolery . As communities sought to ply substitute Halloween activities for the local youth at the bend of the century , trick - or - handle as we have sex it today caught on . Retailers also discover the drift and began offering readymade costumes , and candy manufacturers sequester on the golden opportunity .
sensory report of razor in confect apples , treats lace with laxative and other horror stories dealt a blow to fox - or - treating in the seventies and early 1980s . Nevertheless , the custom is still alive and well today – just ask the National Confectioners Association . The pumpkin - imbue holiday select the bar for the gamey candy sales , with Americans shelling out more than $ 2.2 billion on sweets in 2008 . But in spite of Halloween ’s commercial appealingness , those ancient Celtic rites echo on as hordes of costumed children trick - or - cover every year in the crisp October air .
