Halloween Folklores#3: Traditions of Costumes/trick or trea

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by *clusterbomb (01), Oct 23, 2013.

  1. ?On the Eve of Halloween, we all dress up and knock on people's doors for Candy (or did 10-20years ago at least)..........but ever took a look in the mirror and wonder where the bloody idea for it all came from??


    Why do we wear costumes and trick-or-treat on Halloween?

    [​IMG]

    The Halloween tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money

    The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time?❄. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognised by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter?

    [​IMG]

    Another likely antecedent was the British custom, dating from the 1600s, of youths wearing masks and carrying effigies (including jack-o'lanterns carved from turnips) while begging for pennies on Bonfire Night (also known as Guy Fawkes Night), the November 5 commemoration of the so-called Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament in 1605. (While not an official holiday, Bonfire Night is still celebrated in England.)

    [​IMG]

    Interestingly enough, however, by the mid-1800s when Irish immigrants brought their version of Halloween to North America, the customs of mumming and souling were all but forgotten in Ireland (though a variant of mumming known as "guising" survived in Scotland); Americans, for the most part, had no idea who Guy Fawkes was, let alone why anyone should go begging for "pennies for the Guy;" and, despite Halloween becoming permanently ensconced as an American holiday by the turn of the 20th century, there's no mention in published sources of "trick-or-treating" or anything resembling it before the 1930s.

    [​IMG]

    There is mention — many mentions, in fact — of unrestrained pranksterismand vandalism on Halloween night dating from the late 1800s on, thus one current theory holds that trick-or-treating was an early-20th-century contrivance meant to provide an orderly alternative to juvenile mischief (essentially bribing the would-be tricksters with treats).

    [​IMG]

    Following Anglo-Irish tradition, Halloween parties featuring fortune-telling games (such as bobbing for apples, as I have covered) and other supernatural trappings were common practice by the turn of the century, and these morphed into costume parties with children dressing as witches, ghosts, and goblins. Perhaps the simplest explanation for the invention of the trick-or-treat ritual is that someone had the inspiration to take the costume party door-to-door.

    [​IMG]

    Whatever the precise details of its origin (which we may never know), by the 1940s trick-or-treating had become a Halloween fixture throughout the United States and many other parts of the world, and remains so to this day???.
     
  2. she made me learn something
     
  3. I love your threads Chloe 
     
  4. Chloe, the people demand more of these awesome threads!!!!!!!
     
  5. So informative 
     
  6. I asked my older siblings about halloween for them when they were younger (good ten year gap between us) because there are plenty photos of me as a kid in costumes (makeshift black bags and homemade witches hats lol) but none of them. They were all 70's kids.

    They said they played games at home but they never went door to door or dressed up. Perhaps both these traditions died out for a while only to be renewed later.

    Great thread again Chloe.
     
  7. Like Nilla says, very informative
     
  8. Good job 
     
  9. Very nice Chloe. ?Loved it.
     
  10. That was really interesting.
     
  11. Don't go to her house she will eat you
     
  12. If you're referring to me, I'm sorry to disappoint but I think I may pass. You'd taste pretty gross I'd imagine
     
  13. 'Like' ?