"Trick or treat!" – which roughly means: "Trick or treat!"
Nowadays, it is almost impossible to imagine Halloween without costumed children, carved pumpkin lanterns, and huge amounts of candy. On October 31st, in the United States, Canada, and an increasing number of European countries, witches, ghosts, vampires, skeletons, and all sorts of strange creatures roam the streets, ring doorbells, and ask for candy.
But why do we have to give them candy?
What happens if we don't?
Why do they dress up as ghosts?
And how did a glowing pumpkin get into the middle of the whole story?
The history of Halloween reaches back much further than the world of modern American films. The holiday we know today evolved from a blend of traditions hundreds, or in some elements even thousands, of years old. Celtic holidays, Christian customs, Irish folk tales, fortune-telling, pranks, and, of course, lots of candy shaped it into what we know today.
Before Halloween, there was Samhain
The origins of Halloween are most often linked to the ancient Celtic holiday of Samhain.
Samhain marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the darker, winter part of the year. According to the associated traditions, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead was considered particularly thin during this time.
Beliefs held that spirits could return to the world of the living, so they lit fires, performed various rituals, and in some traditions, left food for the supernatural visitors.
It is important, however, that today's Halloween is not simply an "unchanged Celtic holiday." Many different traditions have mixed and transformed over the centuries.
Yet, this is where one of the most important ideas of Halloween originates:
on this night, anything can happen.
Perhaps even a ghost might knock on your door.
Why do we dress up on Halloween?
One of the best-known traditions of Halloween is, of course, the costume.
In old European traditions, we encounter various masks, disguises, and costumes. There were several explanations and traditions associated with dressing up as supernatural beings.
One suggests that people might have donned scary guises so they would not be recognized by wandering spirits.
In other customs, the opposite was true: the person wearing the costume was embodying a supernatural being themselves.
Among medieval and later European traditions, the practices of mumming and guising also appeared: people would go from house to house in costume, receiving food or other gifts in exchange for a performance, song, poem, or joke.
Sound familiar?
Actually, we are only a few steps away from today's "trick or treat."
Soul cake – when those going from house to house didn't get chocolate
In medieval England and other European territories, a custom known as souling became widespread.
Poorer people, and later children, would go from house to house, where they could receive so-called soul cakes. In exchange, they promised to pray for the deceased relatives of the family living at the house.
In other words, centuries before mini chocolate bars and bags of gummy candies, the idea already existed:
knock on a door → receive some food → perform something in return.
Many researchers see these very customs as one of the predecessors to modern trick-or-treating.
Guising: you had to perform to get candy
In Scotland and Ireland, the tradition of guising emerged.
Children and young people would dress up in costumes and go from house to house. But unlike kids today, it wasn't enough to just say, "Trick or treat!".
For the reward, they often:
-
sang,
-
recited a poem,
-
told a joke,
- performed a trick,
-
or entertained the hosts with some small performance.
In return, they could receive fruit, nuts, coins, or other small treats.
You could say it was a strange mix of a Halloween talent show and candy distribution.
But what exactly does "trick or treat" mean?
The literal meaning of the expression is:
trick = prank, mischief
treat = reward, delicacy
The playful threat behind it is roughly:
"Give me a treat, or I will play a trick on you!"
Early traces of the expression lead to Canada. The variation "tricks or treats" appeared in an Ontario newspaper in 1917, and in the 1920s, different forms of the sentence we know today popped up in several Canadian papers.
The custom then spread throughout North America, and by the middle of the 20th century, it became one of the most important elements of Halloween.
Back in the day, they really took the "trick" part seriously
Today, the "trick" is usually just a playful threat.
In the past, however, pranks were very much a part of Halloween.
Young people would move gates, hide items, smear windows, ring bells and run away, or leave other unpleasant surprises behind.
In the United States, in the first half of the 20th century, the Halloween night pranks sometimes turned into more serious vandalism in certain places.
One theory is that this was partly why the more organized, child- and family-oriented trick-or-treating was encouraged: if young people are collecting candy and participating in organized programs, they have less time to disrupt the neighborhood.
When did candy become the true star of Halloween?
Surprisingly, not that long ago.
During early trick-or-treating, children might receive:
-
cakes,
- fruit,
- nuts,
- popcorn balls,
- coins,
- small toys,
- or homemade treats.
From the 1950s, candy manufacturers became increasingly active in Halloween, and packaged candies and chocolates gradually took over the starring role.
By the 1970s, pre-packaged, sealed candy became the standard choice for trick-or-treating in the United States.
And with that, the Halloween we know from movies was born:
🎃 pumpkin lantern on the doorstep
👻 costumed children on the streets
🍫 mini chocolates
🍬 individually wrapped candies
🛍️ huge bags of candy
The legend of Stingy Jack – why we carve pumpkin lanterns
When it's Halloween, it's jack-o’-lantern time.
But it wasn't originally made from a pumpkin!
According to one of the best-known Irish legends, there once lived a man called Stingy Jack.
There are several versions of the story, but in all of them, Jack outsmarts the devil in some way.
When Jack dies, legend says he cannot get into heaven, and the devil won't let him into hell.
Thus, Jack is forced to wander the world forever.
The devil gives him only a burning coal to light his way in the dark. Jack places this into a hollowed-out turnip.
This is where the name "Jack of the Lantern," and then jack-o’-lantern, may have originated.
That is why, in Ireland and Scotland, they originally carved turnips and other vegetables, often cutting scary faces into them.
When Irish immigrants arrived in America, they found a much more suitable raw material there:
the pumpkin.
It was larger, easier to hollow out, and made for a much more spectacular lantern.
And from that point on, the pumpkin lantern became inseparable from Halloween.
Why is Halloween black and orange?
The two classic Halloween colors are no accident either.
According to the traditional explanation:
🖤 black symbolizes darkness, mortality, and the approach of winter,
🧡 orange evokes autumn, harvest, fire, and crops.
Together, the two perfectly summarize the atmosphere of Halloween: it is simultaneously about the abundance of autumn and the approaching dark winter.
Apple bobbing – Halloween used to be a bit of a Tinder, too
Bobbing for apples in water today seems like a funny Halloween party game.
In the past, however, certain games associated with Halloween had quite a different meaning: they tried to predict the future of one's love life.
In some traditions, for example, apple peels were thrown over the shoulder. They would look at what letter shape they landed in, believing it could be the first letter of their future spouse's name.
In other games, nuts were named after potential suitors, then thrown into the fire, and they tried to determine the future of the romance based on how they burned or popped.
There was also a belief that a young woman, looking into a mirror in a dark room with a candle in her hand, could catch a glimpse of her future husband's face.
Romantic?
Perhaps.
Slightly creepy?
Definitely.
And why are there witches everywhere?
The figure of the witch has been linked for centuries to European stories about magic, fortune-telling, and supernatural powers.
Since Halloween already included:
-
ghosts,
- fortune-telling,
- the night,
- the supernatural world,
- stories about the dead,
it is no surprise that over time, the witch also became one of the best-known characters of the holiday.
And today, it is unimaginable to have Halloween without black-hatted witches, brooms, cauldrons, and potions.
Black cat – luck or bad luck?
The perception of the black cat varies quite a bit from culture to culture.
In certain parts of Europe, they were eventually linked to witches and magic, which is why they entered the visual world of Halloween.
In other cultures, however, the black cat is just the opposite: a symbol of good luck.
In other words, if a black cat crosses your path on Halloween, it might not bring bad luck.
It might just be heading home. 🐈⬛
Halloween used to be more about fortune-telling than chocolate
One of the important themes of Halloween parties held in America at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century was not necessarily the scaring.
But rather:
Who will I marry?
Apple peels, mirrors, nuts, chestnuts, and many other everyday items played a role in various love divination rituals.
According to contemporary reports preserved in the Smithsonian collections, these games were particularly popular among young women.
Halloween could therefore simultaneously be:
👻 a spirit-summoning evening,
💘 love divination,
🎭 costume party,
😈 a night for pranks,
🍎 autumn celebration.
It only became the gigantic candy holiday we know today much later.
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So when the doorbell rings on October 31st, and a mini vampire, witch, or ghost shouts:
"TRICK OR TREAT!"
...you can be prepared with a batch of truly awesome Halloween candy. 😈🍬
