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Trick-or-treating, also known as Guising, is an activity for children on Halloween in which they proceed from house to house, asking for treats such as candy with the question, "Trick or treat?" Trick-or-treating is done in costume and is one of the main traditions of Halloween. It has become socially required if one lives in a neighborhood with children to purchase candy in preparation for trick-or-treaters.
The activity is popular in the United States, Ireland and Canada, and due to culture importation in recent years has started to occur in Australia (although it has been observed in the country for many years) and many parts of Europe, most significantly in the United Kingdom.
History
The practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holidays goes back to the Middle Ages. Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of "souling," when poor folk would go door to door, receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day. It originated in the British Isles, and is still popular in Ireland, and in some parts of England and Scotland. Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593), when Speed accuses his master of "puling whining, like a beggar at Hallowmas."Act 2, Scene 1.
Yet there is no evidence that souling was ever practiced in America, and trick-or-treating may have developed independently. The earliest reference to ritual begging on Halloween in English-speaking America occurs in 1915, with another isolated reference in Chicago in 1920.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. It does not seem to have become a widespread practice until the 1930s, with the earliest known use in print of the term "trick or treat" appearing in 1934,"Halloween Pranks Keep Police on Hop," Oregon Journal (Portland, Oregon), November 1, 1934:
and the first use in a national publication occurring in 1939.Doris Hudson Moss, "A Victim of the Window-Soaping Brigade?" The American Home, November 1939, p. 48. Interestingly, all pre-1940 uses of the term "trick-or-treat" are from the western United States, and the earliest uses in 1934-1937 are all from Pacific Coast states. 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, and by Halloween episodes of the network radio programs The Baby Snooks Show in 1946 and The Jack Benny Show in 1948.The Baby Snooks Show, November 1, 1946. The Jack Benny Show, October 31, 1948. Both shows originated from NBC Radio City in Hollywood. The custom had become firmly established in popular culture by 1952, when Walt Disney portrayed it in the cartoon Trick or Treat, and UNICEF first conducted a national campaign for children to raise funds for the charity while trick-or-treating."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.
In Scotland and the North of England, it is called guising because of the disguise or costume worn by the children. However there is a significant difference from the way the practice has developed in the States. In Scotland, the children are only supposed to receive treats if they perform tricks for the households they go to. These tricks normally take the form of a simple joke, song or funny poem which the child has memorized before setting out. 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. However, guising is falling out of favour somewhat, being replaced in some parts of the country with the American form of trick-or-treating. In modern Ireland there is no "trick" involved (neither the Scottish party trick nor the American jocular threat), just "treats" — in the form of apples or nuts given out to the children. However, in 19th and early 20th century Ireland it was often much more exuberant — for example, slates were placed over the chimney-pots of houses filling the rooms with smoke and field gates were lifted off their hinges and hung from high tree branches.
The ancient Celtic peoples believed that from sundown to sunup of the holiday of Samhain (later All Hallows Eve and Halloween) the mortal world and the spiritual world were closer and more easy to travel between than at any other time of the year. This was the time that people who had died could most easily visit the mortal world. The dead walk around on that night. Fairies also are out in great numbers. The Fianna went into their winter quarters at this time.
Samhain was not a scary holiday until the priests trying to Christianize the pagans decided that "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" and slowly convinced the majority of people that returning spirits were bad, and that they should not be welcomed, but scared away instead. This attitude allowed the people to retain their favorite holiday traditions (putting out food for the returning spirits, parading around with candleholders made of hollowed-out gourds, building bonfires and other activities depending on the region) while staying on the good side of the church.
References
Further reading
- Ben Truwe, The Halloween Catalog Collection. Portland, Oregon: Talky Tina Press, 2003. ISBN 0970344856. Contains a particularly well-documented history of trick-or-treating in America.
See also
"Trick-or-treating"