|
|
 |
Costumes and Trick and Treat at Halloween - An AMERICAN tradtion. |
Where did costuming at Halloween come from? There is a lot of confusion on this point. But in spite of what you may have read in an encyclopedia or seen on the History Channel, I can find absolutely NO historical evidence of costumed begging among the Druids or as part of the Samhain festival.
We do have records of costumed processions in a much later time (Christian times), but these costumed processions were NOT limited to the Halloween holiday. They appear much more frequently at Christmas. The earliest actual historic practice seems to have been poor folk in masks and costumes going from house to house. They would put on a simple play or musical performance in return for food and drink. This practice is called mumming or guising and has no discernable connection to the Celts.
You may be surprised to learn that your parents or grandparents know nothing about costuming on Halloween.
So where did costuming come from? That's a big question mark. Folklorist Tad Tuleja says that costume parties are frequently mentioned in the early decades of the 1900s (but nothing about going door-to-door in costume). The costume parties themselves seem to be an attempt to involve children in disciplined "fun" as opposed to destructive "fun."
The actual phrase "trick or treat" is not Druidic! The oldest citation in print dates only to 1939! The phrase is not recorded by the Merriam-Webster Company until 1941. And the term is actually American, not European.
It's not only the phrase that is American, the practice is too! In America in the late 1800s and early 1900s, there was a custom of playing pranks on Halloween. This custom appears to have come from immigrants from Ireland and Scotland which had a practice called Mischief Night. Favorite pranks included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates. The pleasant fiction was that such rambunctiousness was the work of "fairies," "elves," "witches" and "goblins". That's the "trick" part of Halloween. Where did the "treat" part of Halloween come from? Jill Pederson Meyer writes:
"By the turn of the century, Halloween had become an ever more destructive way to “let off steam” for crowded and poor urban dwellers. As Stuart Schneider writes in 'Halloween in America' (1995), vandalism that had been limited to tipping outhouses; removing gates, soaping windows and switching shop signs, by the 1920’s had become nasty -- with real destruction of property and cruelty to animals and people. Perhaps not coincidentally, the disguised nighttime terrorism and murders by the Ku Klux Klan reached their apex during this decade. Schneider writes that neighborhood committees and local city clubs such as the Boy Scouts then mobilized to organize safe and fun alternatives to vandalism. School posters of the time call for a “Sane Halloween.” Good children were encouraged to go door to door and receive treats from homes and shop owners, thereby keeping troublemakers away. By the 1930’s, these “beggar’s nights” were enormously popular and being practiced nationwide, with the “trick or treat” greeting widespread from the late 1930s."
The Halloween begging activity known as trick-or-treat comes from America in the 1930s, not the British Isles.
The custom was intended to control and displace disruptive pranks. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Alias | Date | Reply |
| Xylanthia |
10/17/2005 6:42:00 AM |
Cool post...thanks for sharing this info... |
| Stile-not-Style |
10/17/2005 6:46:00 AM |
Thanks for reading Xylan. |
| Xylanthia |
10/17/2005 6:48:00 AM |
NP Dark Knight!! You are posting some very interesting tidbits!! |
| Rhaevyon |
10/17/2005 5:27:00 PM |
well, thats something I didn't know, thanks for sharing! |
| LedZeppelin Forever |
10/17/2005 7:47:00 PM |
It never used to be celebrated over here in Australia either, I've noticed over the past few years though, that its being given a lot of publicity and that the stores are selling dress up gear...this is an interesting post DK, thank you.....cheers |
| Stile-not-Style |
10/18/2005 2:31:00 AM |
thanks Zema |
|
|
|
|
|
