Are you a
Trickster or a Treater?
‘Fess up … do you fling
open your door and greet Halloween visitors with feigned amazement at their creative costumes? OR, are you the Halloween Grinch, porch
light off, with only the television light flickering in the shadows?
TRICK-OR-TREAT!: traditional greeting
used by a Trick-or-Treater; orig. used with the meaning ‘give me a treat or I
will play a trick on you!’
Uttered
by millions of children masquerading as anything other than a child, Trick-or-Treat! aims to trick a few
pieces of sweetness from you. Not particularly weird … but, why do we say it at
all? Trick-or-Treat!Smell my Feet! And follow me …
Recalling
the Gaelic and British heritage of Halloween, “guising” and
“souling.” are the archaic names for the shenanigans of All Hallow’s Eve. In modern
use around the late 1800s, these traditions were recorded as early as the Middle Ages.
Of course, guising is
fairly self-explanatory – it’s a short trip to “disguising” – for gifts of food
or money. But souling adds another element to it. Reportedly a Christian
custom, soulers received food (usually “soul cake”) on Hallowmas as tokens for their
prayers for the dead.
Speaking
of dead, do you conjure the spirit of Shakespeare at Halloween? His 1593 comedy, The Two Gentlemen of Verona alludes to souling in Act 2. Speed chastises his master
for "puling [groveling] like a beggar at Hallowmas."
Not
until the 1920s did trick-or-treating
traditions noticeably increase in the U.S. The custom was slow to become
widespread because tricksters of the era tended to take their fun too
seriously, which escalated in the stress of the Depression Era. With the 1940s
and World War II’s sugar rationing, trick-or-treating
all but disappeared.
The advent of
television sugarcoated the 1950s and helped revive a more benign trick-or-treating ritual. Halloween
traditions enjoyed a popular surge which helped establish the first Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF
in 1950; still a popular charity event.
By 1952, Disney’s
Donald Duck and his nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, cantered
Sadly,
due to the basest traits of human nature, Trick-or-Treating
has again fallen out of favor, mostly with parents concerned over their
children’s safety. Since the 1990s some communities and churches have sponsored
“Trunk-or-Treat” events that utilize parking lots and the parents’ parked cars.
Halloween tailgating opens trunks to reveal treasure troves of sweets, often
including games and wicked Halloween decorations, and youngsters rush from
car-to-car, rather than door-to-door.
Are
you channeling a bit of famous Irish writer, Bram Stoker as Dracula, for
Halloween? How he might have said Trick or Treat: Cleas nó cóir (class noh koh-ir).
No
matter where you’re from or what your faith, the fun and frolic of Halloween
lurks in every store aisle. Brave the night and scare the spirits away; then
munch on their chocolate skeletons. Trick-or-treat! Boo!
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