The History of Halloween from Creepy to Candy

Like many of our modern holidays, the roots of Halloween can be traced far back into history and have taken many twists and turns through the passing of time. Celebrated around the world on Oct. 31, the beginnings of this spooky tradition are believed to have originated 2,000 years ago with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. Pronounced "sow-ain," it was a day of the blurring of boundaries between our world and the spirit world, meaning the spirits of the dead could more easily pay us a visit. It was celebrated with massive bonfires, costumes for scaring off the dearly departed visitors and fortunetelling. The Halloween colors of black and orange can also be attributed to Samhain as black represented the death of summer and orange illustrated the autumn harvest. As time went on, the Romans conquered their way throughout Europe and spread the beliefs and teachings of Christianity, including the festival of All Saints (or Souls) Day on Nov. 1. It was also generally referred to as All Hallows (with hallow meaning holy) and the night preceding was All Hallows Eve, leading to Halloween. But what about some of the most widely incorporated traditions of Halloween? Let's take a look at how and when they got their start. Trick-or-treating is undoubtedly one of the most popular Halloween activities for families. It began back in medieval England with the activity of going door to door praying or singing in exchange for food. Back then, it was called "souling" on All Saints Day, and by the Victorian era, the food passed out was called a soul cake. As mentioned, the Celtic traditions included the donning of costumes to ward off evil spirits and in Scotland and Ireland, children visited homes as entertainment, called "guising" for the short of disguising, and would exchange their talents of singing or poetry recitation for small treats. Language researchers have traced the first usages of the term "trick-or-treat" to Canada in 1923 and the U.S. in 1928 when pranks and tricks were much more popular than treats. Although both Samhain and All Souls Day included good-natured mischief, many say that Irish and Scottish immigrants helped to incorporate the tradition of celebrating Mischief Night as part of Halloween. The distribution of candy didn't really pick up until after the sugar rationing of World War II. Individually wrapped pieces of candy didn't dominate Halloween exclusively until the 1970s when the fear of tampered-with treats and razors in apples ran rampant among parents. Isolated incidents of poisonings and attempts to harm children were rare but did occur, including a Texas man who gave several children and his own son (who died) cyanide-laced candy on Halloween in 1974. The striped emergence of love-it-or-hate-it candy corn began in the 1950s as a Halloween treat. Prior to that time, it was named "Chicken Feed" and sold as a seasonal candy during corn harvesting. What about the jack 'o' lantern, you may be wondering? The tradition of carving faces was brought to the U.S. by the Irish in the 19th century, although in Ireland it was practiced on turnips. Pumpkins were an easier crop to cultivate here, though, and the faces were meant to scare off a mythical spirit named Stingy Jack who trapped The Devil and let him go only on the promise that he'd never go to hell. When Jack died, he was also rejected from heaven, forcing him to remain a ghost for eternity. Satan then gifted Jack a carved turnip lit with a burning lump of coal to guide his eternal haunting of Earth. An appetite for horror and frights on Halloween dates to 19th-century London, when Marie Tussaud debuted a wax-sculpture exhibition of famous and decapitated French people. Her later permanent exhibit of gory sights was named the "Chamber of Horrors." In the 20th century, the Grand Guignol theater in Paris began to stage depictions of graphic dismemberment, and in 1915, an English fairground debuted one of the first "ghost houses," an early horror attraction. American haunted houses took off during the Great Depression as a way to distract and entertain mischievous-minded children on Halloween, and the haunted house later became a cultural phenomenon when Disneyland's Haunted Mansion opened in 1969. Whether you're a fan of tremble-inducing fear or prefer lighthearted fun, Halloween offers plenty of traditions to go around.