History of Trick or Treat

The practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holidays goes back to the Middle Ages, and includes Christmas wassailing. Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of "souling," when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1) receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Dav(November 2). It originated in Ireland and Britain, although similar practices for the souls of the dead were found as far south as Italy. Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1953), when Speed accuses his master of "pulin [whimpering, whining], like a beggar at Halowmas."
Yet there is no evidence that souling was ever practiced in America, and trick-or-treating may have developed in America independent of any Irish or Britich antecedent. There is little primary documentation of masking or costuming on Halloween--in Ireland, the UK, or America--before 1900. The earliest known reference to ritual beggin on Halloween in English speaking North America occurs in 1911, when a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario, near the border of upstate New York, reported that it was normal for the smaller children to go street guising on Halloween between 6 and 7 p.m., visiting shops and neighbors to be rewarded with nuts and candies for their rhymes and songs. Another isolated reference appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920. The thousands of Halloween postcards produced between the turn of the 20th century and the 1920s commonly show children but do not depict trick-or-treating. Ruth Edna Kelley, in her 1919 history of the holiday, The Book of Hallowe'en, makes no mention of such a custom in the chapter "Hallowe'en in America." It does not seem to have become a widestpread practice until the 1930's, with the earliest known uses in print of the term "trick-or-treat" appearing in 1934, and the first use in national publication occurring in 1939. Thus, although a quarter million Scots-Irish immigrated to America between 1717 and 1770, the Irish Potato Famine brought almost a million immigrants in 1845-1849, and British and Irish immigration to America peaked in the 1880s, ritualized begging on Halloween was virtually unknown in America until generations later.
Trick-or-Treating spread from the wester United States Eastward, stalled by sugar rationing that began in April 1942 during World War II and did not end until June 1947 - Source: Unknown.

A Friend gave me the history of trick-or-treating and I thought I would share it on the blog. Arrow Gift Shop has a couple of great costumes for Halloween. Around this time we have a lot of candy-grabbers asking for our Cowboy and Indian dressup gear. We have just about everything you would need to dress your little guy or gal up in western geer. We even have some stuff for you older guys and gals. Give us a call 715-479-4903 to find a costume that is best for you situation.