Trick-or-treating

Trick-or-treating or "Guising", is a customary practice for children on Halloween in many countries. Children in costumes travel from house to house in order to ask for treats such as candy (or, in some cultures, money) with the question "Trick or treat?". The "trick" is a (usually idle) threat to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given.

In North America, trick or treat has been a customary Halloween tradition since at least the late 1950s. Homeowners wishing to participate in it usually decorate their private entrance with plastic spiderwebs, paper skeletons and jack-o-lanterns. Some rather reluctant homeowners would simply leave the candy in pots on the porch, others might be more participative and would even ask an effort from the children in order to provide them with candy. In the more recent years, however, the practice has spread to almost any house within a neighborhood being visited by children, including senior residences and condominiums.

The tradition of going from door to door receiving food already existed in Great Britain and Ireland in the form of souling, where children and poor people would sing and say prayers for the dead in return for cakes.[1] Guising — children disguised in costumes going from door to door for food and coins — also predates trick or treat, and is recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895, where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money.[2] While going from door to door in disguise has remained popular among Scots and Irish, the North American custom of saying "trick or treat" has recently become common. The activity is prevalent in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Puerto Rico, and northwestern and central Mexico. In the latter, this practice is called calaverita (Spanish for "little skull"), and instead of "trick or treat", the children ask ¿me da mi calaverita? ("can you give me my little skull?"); where a calaverita is a small skull made of sugar or chocolate.

Contents

History

Origin

The practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holidays dates back to the Middle Ages and includes Christmas wassailing. Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of souling, when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1), receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (November 2). It originated in Ireland and Britain,[1] although similar practices for the souls of the dead were found as far south as Italy.[3] Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593), when Speed accuses his master of "puling [whimpering or whining] like a beggar at Hallowmas."[4] The custom of wearing costumes and masks at Halloween goes back to Celtic traditions of attempting to copy the evil spirits or placate them, in Scotland for instance where the dead were impersonated by young men with masked, veiled or blackened faces, dressed in white.[5][6]

Guising at Halloween in Scotland is recorded in 1895, where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money.[2] The practice of Guising at Halloween in North America is first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported children going "guising" around the neighborhood.[7]

American historian and author Ruth Edna Kelley of Massachusetts wrote the first book length history of the holiday in the US; The Book of Hallowe'en (1919), and references souling in the chapter "Hallowe'en in America";

The taste in Hallowe'en festivities now is to study old traditions, and hold a Scotch party, using Burn's poem Hallowe'en as a guide; or to go a-souling as the English used. In short, no custom that was once honored at Hallowe'en is out of fashion now.[8]

Kelley lived in Lynn, Massachusetts, a town with 4,500 Irish immigrants, 1,900 English immigrants, and 700 Scottish immigrants in 1920.[9] In her book, Kelley touches on customs that arrived from across the Atlantic; "Americans have fostered them, and are making this an occasion something like what it must have been in its best days overseas. All Hallowe'en customs in the United States are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries".[10]

While the first reference to "guising" in North America occurs in 1911, another reference to ritual begging on Halloween appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920.[11]

The earliest known use in print of the term "trick or treat" appears in 1927, from Blackie, Alberta:

Hallowe’en provided an opportunity for real strenuous fun. No real damage was done except to the temper of some who had to hunt for wagon wheels, gates, wagons, barrels, etc., much of which decorated the front street. The youthful tormentors were at back door and front demanding edible plunder by the word “trick or treat” to which the inmates gladly responded and sent the robbers away rejoicing.[12]

The thousands of Halloween postcards produced between the turn of the 20th century and the 1920s commonly show children but do not depict trick-or-treating.[13] The editor of a collection of over 3,000 vintage Halloween postcards writes, "There are cards which mention the custom [of trick-or-treating] or show children in costumes at the doors, but as far as we can tell they were printed later than the 1920s and more than likely even the 1930s. Tricksters of various sorts are shown on the early postcards, but not the means of appeasing them".[14] Trick-or-treating does not seem to have become a widespread practice until the 1930s, with the first U.S. appearances of the term in 1934,[15] and the first use in a national publication occurring in 1939.[16]

Increased popularity

Almost all pre-1940 uses of the term "trick-or-treat" are from the western United States and Canada.[17] Trick-or-treating spread from the western United States eastward, stalled by sugar rationing that began in April 1942 during World War II and did not end until June 1947.[18]

Early national attention to trick-or-treating was given in October 1947 issues of the children's magazines Jack and Jill and Children's Activities,[19] and by Halloween episodes of the network radio programs The Baby Snooks Show in 1946 and The Jack Benny Show and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet in 1948.[20] Trick-or-treating was depicted in the Peanuts comic strip in 1951.[21] The custom had become firmly established in popular culture by 1952, when Walt Disney portrayed it in the cartoon Trick or Treat, and Ozzie and Harriet were besieged by trick-or-treaters on an episode of their television show.[22] In 1953 UNICEF first conducted a national campaign for children to raise funds for the charity while trick-or-treating.[23]

Although some popular histories of Halloween have characterized trick-or-treating as an adult invention to rechannel Halloween activities away from vandalism, there is very little records supporting it. Des Moines, Iowa is the only area known to have record of trick-or-treating being used to deter crime.[24] Elsewhere, adults, as reported in newspapers from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, typically saw it as a form of extortion, with reactions ranging from bemused indulgence to anger.[25] Likewise, as portrayed on radio shows, children would have to explain what trick-or-treating was to puzzled adults, and not the other way around. Sometimes even the children protested: for Halloween 1948, members of the Madison Square Boys Club in New York City carried a parade banner that read "American Boys Don't Beg."[26] The National Confectioners Association reported in 2005 that 80 percent of adults in the United States planned to give out confectionery to trick-or-treaters,[27] and that 93 percent of children, teenagers, and young adults planned to go trick-or-treating or participating in other Halloween activities.[28] In 2008, Halloween candy, costumes and other related products accounted for $5.77 billion in revenue. In recent years however, the practice of trick-or-treating door to door has declined due to increasing safety measures. As a result, shopping malls and downtown stores hold annual store-to-store trick-or-treating as an alternative to traditional trick-or-treating.[29][30][30]

Phrase introduction to the UK and Ireland

Before the 1980s, the North American phrase "trick-or-treat" was little known in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland and when introduced was often regarded as an unusual and even unwelcome import. Guising is devoid of any jocular threat.[31] Since the 80s usage of the phrase has become more widespread, but is still often viewed as an exotic and unwelcome commercialised import, with the BBC referring to it as "the Japanese knotweed of festivals" and "making demands with menaces".[32] Very often, the phrase "trick - or - treat" is simply said and the revellers are given sweets, with the choice of a trick or a treat having been largely discarded. In Ireland before the phrase "trick or treat" became common, children would say "Help the Halloween Party".

Local variants

Guising

In Scotland and Ireland, "guising" — children going from house to house in disguise — is traditional, and a gift in the form of food, coins or "apples or nuts for the Halloween party" (in more recent times chocolate) is given out to the children dressed up in various costumes.[33][34] The tradition is called "guising" because of the disguises or costumes worn by the children.[35] In the West Mid Scots dialect, guising is known as "galoshans".[36] Among the earliest record of Guising at Halloween in Scotland is in 1895, where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money.[2] Guising also involved going to wealthy homes, and in the 1920s, boys went guising at Halloween up to the affluent Thorntonhall, South Lanarkshire.[37] An account of guising in the 1950s in Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, records a child receiving 12 shillings and sixpence having knocked on doors throughout the neighborhood and performed.[31] There is a significant difference from the way the practice has developed in North America with the jocular threat. In Scotland and Ireland, the children are only supposed to receive treats if they perform for the households they go to. This normally takes the form of singing a song or reciting a joke or a funny poem which the child has memorized before setting out.[31] Occasionally a more talented child may do card tricks, play the mouth organ, or something even more impressive, but most children will earn plenty of treats even with something very simple. Often they won't even need to perform.[33] While going from door to door in disguise has remained popular among Scots and Irish at Halloween, saying "trick-or-treat" has become common.

Trunk-or-Treat

Some organizations around the US sponsor a "Trunk-or-Treat" on Halloween night (or on occasion, a day immediately preceding Halloween), where trick-or-treating is done from parked car to parked car in a local parking lot, often at a church house. The trunk of one's car is opened, displaying candy and often decorations. Concerned parents see it as safer for their children, while other parents see it as an easier alternative to walking the neighborhood with their kids. Opponents frown upon the Trunk-or-Treat as violation of the tradition of walking door-to-door on Halloween, and as exclusion of children that do not belong to these groups and thus are not informed about them. Some have called for more city- or community group-sponsored Trunk-or-Treats, so they can be more inclusive.[38] Many neighborhoods see a large reduction in door-to-door trick-or-treating because of a competing Trunk-or-Treat. These have become increasingly popular over the years especially in conservative states like Utah, and are catching on around Midwest and Southern states. This practice is not a panacea for all perceived problems, however. In 2005 a child in Lehi, Utah was given a vial of cocaine at a Trunk-or-Treat.[39] Emanuel Lutheran in Inver Grove Heights MN welcomes over 600 children at their Trunk or Treat on the Friday before Halloween.

Other

In some parts of Canada, children sometimes say "Halloween apples" instead of "trick or treat." This probably originated when the toffee apple was a popular type of candy. Apple-giving in much of Canada, however, has been taboo since the 1960s when stories (almost certainly apocryphal) appeared of razors hidden inside Halloween apples; parents began to check over their children's "loot" for safety before allowing them to eat it. In Quebec, children also go door to door on Halloween. However, in French speaking neighbourhoods, instead of "Trick or treat?", they will simply say "Halloween", though in tradition it used to be La charité s'il-vous-plaît ("Charity, please").[40]

In some parts of Ohio, Iowa, Massachusetts and other states, the night designated for trick-or-treating is referred to as Beggars Night, and in some communities it is held on a night prior to Halloween itself.

In Sweden children dress up as witches and go trick-or-treating on Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter) while Danish children dress up in various attires and go trick-or-treating on Fastelavn (or the next day, Shrove Monday). The Easter witch tradition is done on Palm Sunday in Finland. In parts of Flanders and some parts of the Netherlands and most areas of Germany, Switzerland and Austria, children go to houses with home made beet lanterns or with paper lanterns (which can hold a candle or electronic light), singing songs about St. Martin on St. Martin's Day (the 11th of November), in return for treats. [41] In Northern Germany and Southern Denmark children dress up in costumes and go trick-or-treating on New Year's Eve in a tradition called "Rummelpott".[42]

Children of the St. Louis, Missouri area are expected to perform a joke, usually a simple Halloween-themed pun or riddle, before receiving any candy; this "trick" earns the "treat".[43] Children in Des Moines, Iowa also tell jokes or otherwise perform before receiving their treat. Des Moines trick-or-treating is also unusual in that it is actually done the night before Halloween, known locally as "Beggars' Night".[44]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Roger, Nichola (2002). Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. Oxford University Press. pp. 28–30. ISBN 0-19-514691-3. 
  2. ^ a b c Frank Leslie's popular monthly, Volume 40, November 1895, p. 540-543.
  3. ^ "Ask Anne", Washington Post, Nov. 21, 1948, p. S11.
  4. ^ The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act 2, Scene 1.
  5. ^ Campbell, Oliver Frances (1900, 1902, 2005) The Gaelic Otherworld. Edited by Ronald Black. Birlinn Ltd. ISBN 1-84158-207-7 pp.559-62
  6. ^ Arnold, Bettina (2001-10-31). "Halloween Customs in the Celtic World". University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/barnold/www/lectures/holloween.html. Retrieved 2007-10-16. 
  7. ^ Rogers, Nicholas. (2002) "Coming Over:Halloween in North America". Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. p.76. Oxford University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-19-514691-3
  8. ^ Ruth Edna Kelley, The Book of Hallowe'en, Boston: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Co., 1919, chapter 15, p.127. "Hallowe'en in America."
  9. ^ U.S. Census, January 1, 1920, State of Massachusetts, City of Lynn.
  10. ^ Kelley, Ruth Edna. http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/boh/boh17.htm Hallowe'en in America
  11. ^ Theo. E. Wright, "A Halloween Story," St. Nicholas, October 1915, p. 1144. Mae McGuire Telford, "What Shall We Do Halloween?" Ladies Home Journal, October 1920, p. 135.
  12. ^ "'Trick or Treat' Is Demand," Herald (Lethbridge, Alberta), November 4, 1927, p. 5, dateline Blackie, Alberta, Nov. 3.
  13. ^ For examples, see the websites Postcard & Greeting Card Museum: Halloween Gallery, Antique Hallowe'en Postcards, Vintage Halloween Postcards, and Morticia's Morgue Antique Halloween Postcards.
  14. ^ E-mail from Louise and Gary Carpentier, 29 May 2007, editors of Halloween Postcards Catalog (CD-ROM), G & L Postcards.
  15. ^ "Halloween Pranks Keep Police on Hop," Oregon Journal (Portland, Oregon), November 1, 1934:

    Other young goblins and ghosts, employing modern shakedown methods, successfully worked the "trick or treat" system in all parts of the city.

    "The Gangsters of Tomorrow", The Helena Independent (Helena, Montana), November 2, 1934, p. 4:

    Pretty Boy John Doe rang the door bells and his gang waited his signal. It was his plan to proceed cautiously at first and give a citizen every opportunity to comply with his demands before pulling any rough stuff. "Madam, we are here for the usual purpose, 'trick or treat.'" This is the old demand of the little people who go out to have some innocent fun. Many women have some apples, cookies or doughnuts for them, but they call rather early and the "treat" is given out gladly.

    The Chicago Tribune also mentioned door-to-door begging in Aurora, Illinois on Halloween in 1934, although not by the term "trick-or-treating." "Front Views and Profiles" (column), Chicago Tribune, Nov. 3, 1934, p. 17.
  16. ^ Doris Hudson Moss, "A Victim of the Window-Soaping Brigade?" The American Home, November 1939, p. 48. Moss was a California-based writer.
  17. ^ The Historical Newspaper Collection at Ancestry.com indexes more than 16 million pages from over 1,000 different newspapers across the U.S, U.K. and Canada dating back to the 1700s.
  18. ^ "One Lump Please", Time, March 30, 1942. "Decontrolled", Time, June 23, 1947.
  19. ^ Published in Indianapolis, Indiana and Chicago, Illinois, respectively.
  20. ^ The Baby Snooks Show, November 1, 1946, and The Jack Benny Show, October 31, 1948, both originating from NBC Radio City in Hollywood; and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, October 31, 1948, originating from CBS Columbia Square in Hollywood.
  21. ^ http://comics.com/peanuts/1951-10-30/
  22. ^ "Halloween Party," The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, Oct. 31, 1952.
  23. ^ "A Barrel of Fun for Halloween Night," Parents Magazine, October 1953, p. 140. "They're Changing Halloween from a Pest to a Project," The Saturday Evening Post, October 12, 1957, p. 10.
  24. ^ ""Des Moines Register," Jokes set local Halloween apart , Oct. 2000.
  25. ^ Editorial, Spokane Daily Chronicle, November 6, 1935, p. 4:
    In plain fact it is straight New York or Chicago "graft" or "racket" in miniature. Certainly it wouldn't be a good idea for youngsters to go in extensively for this kind of petty "blackmail" on any other date than Halloween. Neither police nor public opinion would stand for that.
    "A. Mother", letter to the editor, The Fresno Bee, November 7, 1941, p. 20:
    As a mother of two children I wish to register indignation at the "trick or treat" racket imposed on residents on Hallowe'en night by the youngsters of this city.… This is pure and simple blackmail and it is a sad state of affairs when parents encourage their youngsters to participate in events of this kind.
    Mrs. B. G. McElwee, letter to the editor, Washington Post, Nov. 11, 1948, p. 12:
    The Commissioners and District of Columbia officials should enact a law to prohibit "beggars night" at Hallowe'en. It is making gangsters of children.… If the parents of these children were fined not less than $25 for putting their children out to beg, they would entertain their children at home.
    "M.E.G.", letter to column "Ask Anne", Washington Post, Nov. 21, 1948, p. S11:
    I have lived in some 20 other towns and cities and I never saw nor heard of the begging practice until about 1936.… The sooner it becomes obsolete here the better. I don't mind the tiny children who want to show off their costumes, but I resent the impudence of the older children.
    Lucy Powell Seay, letter to the editor, Washington Post, Oct. 29, 1949, p. 8:
    Another year has rolled around and the nightmare of having to put up with the "trick or treat" idea again fills me with dread.
  26. ^ Recalled a decade later by Martin Tolchin, "Halloween A Challenge To Parents," The New York Times, October 27, 1958, p. 35.
  27. ^ Trick-or-treaters can expect Mom or Dad’s favorites in their bags this year, National Confectioners Association, 2005.
  28. ^ Fun Facts: Halloween, National Confectioners Association, 2004.
  29. ^ http://helenair.com/news/article_fa7158e2-e3ed-11df-be5c-001cc4c002e0.html
  30. ^ a b "2010 Halloween Costume Ideas". What America Is Searching. August 21, 2010. http://www.whatamericaissearching.com/2010/08/21/2010-halloween-costume-ideas-children-men-women-sexy-and-funny-costumes-for-october-31/. Retrieved 2010-10-16. 
  31. ^ a b c Stuart Christie (2002) The cultural and political formation of a west of Scotland "baby-boomer", Volume 1 p.65-66. Retrieved 2010-11-11
  32. ^ Sean Coughlan, "The Japanese knotweed of festivals", BBC News Magazine, 31 October 2007.
  33. ^ a b Bannatyne, Lesley Pratt (1998) Forerunners to Halloween Pelican Publishing Company. ISBN 1-56554-346-7 p.44
  34. ^ Rogers, Nicholas. (2002) "Festive Rights:Halloween in the British Isles". Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. p.48. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-514691-3
  35. ^ Sarah Carpenter (December 2001). "Scottish Guising: Medieval And Modern Theatre Games". International Journal of Scottish Theatre vol. 2 no. 2. http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/ScotLit/ASLS/ijost/Volume2_no2/1_carpenter_s.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-06. 
  36. ^ Galoshans at Hallowe'en / News / Talk of the Towns. Greenock Telegraph. 27 Oct 2009. Retrieved 31 October 2011
  37. ^ John A. Walker (2002) Sergeant Jiggy p.14. Cosmos Original Productions, 2002
  38. ^ "'Trunk or treat' doesn't include all children", Standard Examiner, Oct. 11, 2010
  39. ^ "Child Receives Vial with Cocaine at Trunk or Treat", KSL-TV, Nov. 2, 2005
  40. ^ Halloween in Quebec provincequebec.com
  41. ^ St Martin's Day
  42. ^ Christian Roy Traditional festivals: a multicultural encyclopedia, Volume 2
  43. ^ Trick-or-Treat tradition spooks St. Louis residents Truman State University Index 25 Oct. 2007.
  44. ^ Jokes set local Halloween apart Des Moines Register Oct. 31 2008.

Further reading