The majority of people (mainly children) are looking forward to Halloween, especially because they get to go trick-or-treating. But this tradition goes deeper than just begging for candy, so we’re going to look at where trick-or-treating originated from.
Halloween is believed to have developed from the Celtic festival ‘Samhain’. This took place over 2000 years ago, they believed that the dead would return to Earth on Samhain. So the theme of the dead and spookiness originated from here.
Halloween hugely rose in popularity throughout the 1800’s. By the 1920’s Halloween was becoming more of a tradition, with pranks becoming the main activity during this period. Trick or treating was believed to have begun in the 1930’s, although it was soon seized due to the outbreak of World War II. As this meant that food was rationed and therefore Halloween wasn’t the same as it was.
The phrase ‘trick-or-treat’ was believed to have originated in the the late 1920’s, it is a North American tradition. Due to the sheer popularity of this tradition, it gradually made its way over to the UK. It is believed to have started in the UK during the 1980’s, it has since risen hugely in popularity, with UK consumers spending roughly £330m per year on Halloween! Although this doesn’t really compete with the $7.9bn that the Americans tend to spend!
Trick or treating has come a long way since the 1800’s. It went from being a tradition focused more around pranks and paying homage to the dead, to now a holiday that tends to be more renowned for getting free candy and going to parties.
