Smell My Feet

In this second installment of the history of Halloween and its significance in the United States we will delve into the origins of “trick-or-treating.”

As we have already established, the modern holiday of Halloween, or All Hallows Eve, has its roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain. During the Irish potato famine of the 1840s thousands of Irish immigrants came to America, bringing with them many of their traditions including Halloween. From the roots of a New Year pagan festival with Christian trappings, the Americans added their own flavor.

Soul Cake

It is believed that the idea of trick-or-treating is derived from the 9^th century European custom of souling. A group of people (usually children) would wander from house to house on November 2^nd (All Souls Day) begging for “soul cakes.” The more cakes the beggars received, the more prayers they would say on behalf of the family’s departed souls stuck in Limbo. Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593), when Speed accuses his master of "puling [whimpering, whining], like a beggar at Hallowmas." 

The earliest reference to this “souling” in North America occurs in 1911. A newspaper in Ontario reports on small children going door-to-door visiting shops and neighbors alike and receiving nuts and sweets in exchange for rhymes and songs. 

Between the turn of the century and the 1920 there were many postcards printed depicting children on Halloween but none of them trick-or-treating. There is an isolated reference to trick-or-treating in Chicago in 1920 but the first “official” use of the phrase in a national publication didn’t happen until 1939.

While, at that time, pranks would often be committed on Halloween night (the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates) there is no historical record supporting the theory that trick-or-treating was invented to bribe the children into submission. To the contrary, any forms of media including print and radio depicted children having to explain trick-or-treating to adults who often saw the practice as a form of extortion, with reactions ranging from rage to bemused indulgence. 

It wasn’t until the mid 1950s and the full recovery from the rationing of WWII that we begin to see the modern guise of trick-or-treating.

Works Cited

HalloweenHistory.org. History of Halloween. 21 10 2011 <http://www.halloweenhistory.org/>.