Costume Finder Fancy Dress Blog

Trick or treating is a tradition for children on Halloween. they proceed from house to house in fancy dress asking for treats such as confectionary. When the owner of the house opens the door they are posed with the question ‘Trick or Treat?’. The trick is an idle threat to perform a prank upon the home owners property if no treat is given.

The origin of trick or treating dates back to the middle ages. The tradition of going form door to door for food (treats) already existed in the form of souling. Souling is where children and poor people would sing and say prayers for the dead in return for food on November 1st (Hallowmas). This was manly concentrated in Britain and Ireland although similar practices of praying for the dead spread as far south as Italy. There was also guising which is similar  because of the disguises or costumes worn by the children.  Although traditions of seasonal guising stretches back to the Middle Ages, they became an exclusively Halloween practice only in the twentieth century. although this was slightly different to trick or treating as the children only received a treat if they performed. They often sang, danced, recited poems/ rhymes, played card tricks or instruments.  However, guising is not so common today being replaced with the more American tradition of trick or treating. 

The tradition of wearing costumes and masks at Halloween dates back to Celtic traditions. In those days they were attempting to resemble or placate the evil spirits. However, there is no evidence of souling in North America where trick or treating is most popular. It is believed that is developed independently of any Irish or British antecedents as the first recorded reference to trick or treating in English speaking North America is 1911 and the British and Irish immigration peaked in America between the 1770’s and 1880.

Before the 1980s, the North American phrase "trick-or-treat" was not common or well known  in the UK and when introduced was often regarded as an unusual and even an unwelcome import, because "trick or treat" isn’t a tradition, with Halloween an authentically ancient festival, about the links between life and death, the struggle between light and dark.

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