October 8, 2012 • 32 mins
Before children went door-to-door, Celts kept out evil spirits during the festival of Samhain. Halloween evolved over time, but trick-or-treating didn't emerge until the 20th century. Join Sarah and guest host Cristen as they trace Halloween's history.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, welcome to the podcast. I'm
Sarah Dowdy and I am joined today by Kristen Conquer.
Hello is there a Dowdy? So? Kristen hosts stefph Mom
(00:20):
Never Told You. Um. She's also a writer for helftuff
works dot com and well de Bline has been out
on maternity leave. I've had the pleasure of editing Kristen,
which has been fun. You've been writing all kinds of
political things and some stranger topics the past few weeks.
I liked matchmaking, which interesting. That was a fun one
for the podcast as well. For stuff Mom Never told
(00:44):
you It's it's your kind of theme, right, Yeah, But
today we're not going strictly stuff Mom Never told you territory.
We're going to embrace the season. It is, after all, October,
and we love to cover spooky seasonal episode's during the
month of October. So what better topic to kick it
all off with than trick or treating? Yeah, it's fun. Well,
(01:07):
because it seems like with Halloween it's pretty common knowledge.
It goes back to ancient Celtic tradition. But then there's
this giant gap. We start, you know, with the Celtic tradition,
and then all of a sudden we are buying billions
of pounds of candy and expensive costumes and costumes for pets.
(01:28):
How did we get there? How did we get from
the old bonfire days to what we think of as
Halloween today? And I mean, I, for one, love Halloween,
so I I'm interested in this progression and some of
the olden days rituals, but also how it how it
got to where it is today. Yeah, because it's also
a funny example of how the Church tried to change
(01:52):
a pagan holiday into something holy co opted actually, yeah,
and they were completely thwarted. And now the Church still Halloween, well,
some folks do. And that's that's going to be something
we'll we'll talk about a little more. What sort of
demonic history does Halloween actually? But I mean, I guess
(02:12):
we should start by talking about the Celts and the
Celtic clans that celebrated a holiday called Salon and it
was essentially a harvest festival um on the on the
outside of things, you know, end of the new year
for for the Celtic clans into the harvest season time
to bring in your herds from pasture time to renew leases.
(02:37):
And also because the fabric between the this world and
the world beyond was especially thin, it was the time
for souls to come back home. Yes, it was believed
that this was a special time when uh, the living
and the dead could interact, and Salon specifically was a
(02:59):
festival of the dying Sun god. It was kind of
like the Celtic New Year's celebration. It was essentially um.
And it's thought too that since there was all this
harvesting going on and there was also um slaughtering of animals,
that people would wear the animal hides from cattle and livestock,
(03:20):
and perhaps these were primitive costumes well, and we can
get into the purpose behind these costumes a little more too.
But it was also sort of just a spooky time
of year. I mean, you can imagine with all the
souls coming back, but it was a good time to
do fortune tellings, you know, to arrange things like the
date of a marriage or when somebody might die. When
(03:42):
with that happened, um, you just had a clearer picture,
supposedly of what the world held. But when we talk
about souls coming back, what interests me is that that's
not necessarily a bad thing. Some of these would be
beloved family members, friends um not spooky's gary souls, but
some would be evil spirits. And so to to put
(04:05):
some distance between yourself and all of the evil things
that might be coming back for salin, people would light
these giant bonfires to to either help guide the good
spirits or scare off the bad one. There was a
tradition in Scotland actually where farmers would like torches of
braided straw and march around their property to supposedly ward
(04:29):
off the evil which is in demon well. And and
going back to you talking about all of the animals
that were being flattered around this time, if you did
have to go out on salon, it was a good
idea to disguise yourself in some kind of costume, like
an animal hide, so that the evil spirits wouldn't recognize you.
And sometimes too, the evil spirits might inhabit the body
(04:53):
of a wild animal. So some families would leave food
out to feed these uh I guess poss early treats,
we might say. So when the Romans arrived in Britain
in the first century, they they were sort of the
first we were just talking about Christians co opting these
(05:13):
ancient holidays. They were sort of the first to do that.
They moved in on Salon with their own festivals that
were timed around this time of year anyway. They had
a harvest festival around this time, they had a Festival
of the Dead. Um, just sort of get everybody on
the same page, celebrating the same festivals, whether they were
traditional or new. But by the seventh century, the same
(05:37):
thing was happening with the Christian holidays. And Pope Boniface
the Fourth originally set up All Saints Day for March,
but about a century later moved it to November one
because it was clear that people are going to be celebrating,
uh this kind of thing anyway at that time of year. Yeah,
and uh six o one a d. Pope Gregory the
(05:59):
First actually issued an edict to missionaries basically saying that, um,
in order to convert native people, simply repurpose their festivals
and their holidays for Christianity. And that's what happened with
All Saints Day, and I mean before All Saints Day,
(06:19):
the day before that, which was still All Hellow's Eve,
which we know is Halloween. Uh, it did take on
a more negative connotation, or at least the spirits that
were out, because that doesn't mesh too well with with Christianity,
these nice spirits coming back and visiting. It became more
about demons and scary things that were coming out that
(06:40):
night and to buy them off. Going back to what
you were just talking about, leaving out things for these
animal spirits. To buy them off, people would leave food
and drink outside. Eventually, some folks wised up to this
that all their neighbors were leaving out tasty treats on
all Hallow's Eve and started dressing up those scary things
(07:04):
themselves to indulge in all this bounty. Yeah, they would
go a souling, which reminds me of you know the
Christmas Carol going wasstling there, I go Westling. It was
the same thing, these color people getting food and drink
all throughout winter. Um. And they would go from house
to house um begging for these things called soul cakes. There,
(07:27):
little kicks that they would make, sometimes with currents I
guess imprinted in the shape of crosses on them. Uh.
And supposedly the souling tradition also came out of something
called mumming, which I believe you've talked about on the
podcast before, Sarah, Yeah, about a year ago to Bolina
and I did an episode on Guy Fox Day and
mumming is still a tradition in Britain and uh we
(07:52):
we hadn't really heard much about it, and we asked
listeners like, does anybody out there still do mumming? We
heard back from so many people who it's apparently a
strong tradition still in their community. But yeah, essentially it's
kind of Halloween ask and um, I can see how
this tradition, I don't know how how we celebrate Halloween
(08:12):
today emerge from something like mumming back then. Yeah, because
supposedly they were still dressing up as now the fairies,
witches and demons kind of taking on that darker side
of how yeah, that we now associate with it, and
so you must placate them with some kind of sweet
treat like a soul cake. There is a pretty strong
(08:33):
connection though, to this idea of the dead returning or
at least honoring the dead in some way though, and
in England, poor people would organize what they called soul prides,
which I think is a pretty awesome name. Too, where
instead of just going out in begging or thinking of
later trick or treating, where it's essentially a deal, I
(08:54):
won't play a prank on you if you give me
a treat. This was give me alms in exchange or
prayers for your dead. And kids sort of took that
over eventually, and they'd call themselves solars and and again
the soul cakes come into play there. You'd give these
kids little cakes and they'd pray for your your family members. Um.
(09:15):
We both found a recipe for these cakes too, by
the way, online I think NPR had one, and they
sound pretty good. Yeah, they're really simple, almost like they
reminded me of snickerdoodles. Snickerdoodles with some staffron and some
nutmeg thrown in currens of course, yeah, a little bit
of cinnamon. What else? Yeah, sugar. They're pretty eggy, I think. Um,
(09:41):
but I mean I'm curious to try them, although I
won't be giving them out to my tricker treaders because
we will discuss more on that later. Why packaged candy
is really the only way to go these days? Well,
and also you know, soul cakes too. This NPR cook
warns gets stale within a day or two. It's kind
of like Halloween candy just should eat just as quickly
(10:02):
as possible. Um. But it's it's funny you bring up
the how the adult beggars were then kind of taken
over by the young parades of the solars, and that
kind of trickled down from uh, from the adults to
the kids. It's the same kind of thing that's going
to happen a little bit later once it crosses over
(10:22):
to the US. But one um, as a parallel to
the soul parades, I read about how in Ireland especially
and in some parts of England, there was also a
tradition of a guy dressing up as a white horse
that was called lair Bonnu. That apparently was the Celtic
(10:44):
symbol of fertility. Um, and it was also referred to
as the haddening horse. I think that was in England
that would lead these sound processions. So if you're looking
for a Halloween, come white horse, because go as lair
bonn and no one will get what it is. But
good points. That does sound like a pretty good idea
(11:04):
for history lovers out there with pretty of bold costume aspirations.
But um, by the eighteen hundreds. I mean, we're we've
got to talk a little bit more about immigrants, British
Irish immigrants starting to take these traditions to America, even
though not all colonies allowed this type of very pagan
(11:26):
influence celebration to to go down. But by the eighteen
hundreds it really just seemed like such a mishmatch. This
is where I lost track of all these different traditions
because all these different things are happening by this point,
Harvest festivals, things that sound kind of like Halloween, things
that sound kind of like trigger treating, um mumming. Even
(11:48):
something called Mischief Night, which sounded really wild. It had
been imported from Yorkshire, and according to Karen Allen in
BBC History Magazine, it would have taken place on November four,
so the night before Bonfire Night. Um. But kids could
essentially do whatever they wanted on Mischief Night and not
(12:08):
be punished in any way for it. And that might
just be something fairly harmless, like tying a door knob
to the door knob across the street and then knocking
on both doors. But it might be like putting coal
powder on the threshold of doors and then setting it
on fire to smoke out the people inside things that
start to sound a little more sinister, I guess. So
(12:31):
apparently what was supposed to start out as like a
celebratory feast period to honor saints turned into rampid borganism,
coal dust on the doorstep, and um, I mean I
think you were you were going to talk a little
bit more about what was going on. As far as
the timing for these celebrations too. It isn't all October
(12:55):
thirty one. It's not even all mischief Night November four.
It happens throughout the autumnal period essentially. Yeah, there's something
about late October and November that seems to make us
want to go a little bit wild, because what I
didn't realize was that these traditions would also span into
(13:16):
the Thanksgiving season. In the late eighteenth century, um Thanksgiving
was treated as more of a carnival than a sit down,
calm fiece that you might have with your family. And
I read about this group called the Fantastics that were
essentially a group of revolutionary war veterans that would parade
(13:39):
in rags of continental soldiers and cause all sorts of mischief.
And again, like the trick or treating. They would go
from door to door masquerading for treats, and uh, apparently
they kind of got so much out of hand that
people that those fantastics is just hanging up their continental garb.
(14:00):
That does sound pretty wild. I don't know, it's It's
one thing if it's the kids tying your door and off,
maybe another if it is a bunch of old Revolutionary
War veterans causing trouble on the streets. But that does
give a really good example of how different we are
talking about from harvest festival honoring the dead side of
things too, grown men causing trouble. Yeah, and I gotta say,
(14:25):
if the Fantastic showed up at my house, I would
give them soul, would give me candy, really anything. You'd
probably try to buy one of their costumes too, for
your own future Halloween celebration. Trade them my Thanksgiving turkey.
I think that's idea number two. White Horse Revolutionary Army uniform.
Let's get back to talking about modern Halloween. Um So,
(14:50):
by the mid twentieth century, the mischief making side of
things had started to seem a little unsavory to people.
U The folks were starting to cause too much trouble
to to seem respectable and respectable. Adults had been having
sort of Halloween parties throughout the nineteen twenties and thirties anyway,
(15:13):
with things UM seasonal sort of things like apples, pumpkins,
UM candy, homemade candy like fudge, popcorn balls. But by
the nineteen forties it really seemed like people were looking
for a way to channel their kids away from this
night where they could just go cause a bunch of
trouble out on the streets and doing something that was
(15:34):
a little more controlled, like dressing up and asking for candy. Yeah,
and the trick or treating as we know it today.
UM is thought to have started in wealthier areas on
the East Coast, maybe as early as nineteen twenty. There
was actually this great excerpt from the October nineteen twenty
(15:56):
Ladies Home Journal talking about UM. Can I read it
to you? That's a direct quote is so necessary for this.
It's a woman talking about I guess some some very
early trigger treater. She says, a group of hilarious youngsters
in costume, including to Charlie Chaplin's more costume Markids. To
Charlie Chaplin's a topsy. I don't even know what that
(16:18):
one is. A gingerbread man and an Indian noisily approached
the front door of a large house, ring the bell
and when the owner herself comes the door, greets her
in chorus with nuts, nuts, we want nuts. I wish
that still happened. Maybe maybe this year, Kristen, I'm going
to go door to door A dress is a fantastic
(16:40):
begging for nuts or Charlie Chaplin. I like that one. So, yeah,
that's a that's a peek at twenties era trigger treating.
But it really was sort of sporadic during that period.
It wasn't until after World War Two that it became
just a normal thing for kids to do. You take
your kids trigger treating and um, if we're going to
(17:03):
talk about trigger treating, though, we've got to talk about
the development to how we think of it today, with
fun sized candy, a lot of pre bought, pre made costumes,
no white horses out there, no Charlie Chaplains, things you
can buy at the store. Um. According to Samira Kawash
in the Atlantic, though, it wasn't really about candy right away,
(17:26):
going going to trigger treat I mean, as your quote
suggests nuts. Nuts, we want nuts. You might get fruit,
you might get changed, you might get cookies and toys,
and weirdly, candy manufacturers had seized on the idea of
tie ins with holidays as early as nineteen hundred or so,
for Christmas and for Easter, but not for Halloween. She
(17:48):
writes about how Washington's birthday was a bigger deal at
the time. You could buy marzipan cherries and coco logs
to to celebrate the first President's birthday, but Halloween wasn't
wasn't an opportunity for candy manufacturers yet. But by the fifties,
candy became what was expected for trick or treating. It
(18:10):
was cheap, it was easy to buy a lot of it,
and candy manufacturers embraced that by making tiny candy that
came in giant backs. And it's also in nineteen fifty
where one tricker treating tradition that I feel like is
maybe fallen off a little bit. But this is the
goodwill side of trigger treating. Um A group of Pennsylvania
(18:34):
kids from a Sunday school decided that instead of collecting
these candies doore to door, they would collect change to
give to World War Two orphans and they collected seventeen dollars,
which I'm sure it was a lot of money in
nineteen fifty and donated it to UNI Stuff. And UNI
(18:56):
stuff had only been around at that point for maybe
four or five years, and they thought it was such
a great idea. They started making UM trigger treating UH
an opportunity for all the kids to collect money. So
do you ever see Uni sef tricker treaders? I see
the boxes in in stores, but I don't think I've
(19:16):
ever entertained any myself. You know. I wonder how much
of a tradition that still is, or whether it was
bigger of a decade or so ago or a few
decades ago. Well, they still tout it um on their website,
and I they had a campaign it might have been
last year where for the first time you could make
(19:36):
your own unit stuff boxes. But yeah, I have yet
to see units of trigger treaders. Well, and if we're
if we're thinking of the money side of things too,
I was amazed at numbers relating to the costume industry
because I've always had homemade costumes, but the the amount
(19:57):
that people spend on costumes today, it really does drive
home the point that Halloween is a huge industry today,
between the candy and the costumes. According to a Newsweek
article just from last year, so these are pretty recent. Um,
people in the United States spend six point eight six
(20:17):
billion dollars on Halloween, and one point two billion of
that is for adult costumes versus one billion for children's
costumes and three million for pet costumes. I mean, I've
got to stay I can get completely on board with
the pet costumes. I'm not I'm not down on that side.
But adults are spending more on their costumes than kids are,
(20:41):
a good bit more actually, And I wonder if that's
broken down for households, if you're outfitting, if that number
of one billion is outfitting your three children or something
versus just yourself. But I don't know. It's it's pretty
wild figure to consider. And I under what those folks
um back in Celtic days would be thinking with their
(21:05):
animal skins. They might not be as impressed, because I
have to say that homemade costumes are almost always better
than the store bought ones. But it is such a
huge ripple effect. We have the giant, almost like big
box Halloween stores that will pop up, the pop up
for the store, and exactly they pop up in closed
(21:26):
down bookstores or other abandoned retail properties and and then disappear.
And uh, just the list too that I got from
this Newsweek article of the most popular costumes really says
something about how much people are spending because they do
seem very very easy to make at home, which is
(21:48):
number one. Then comes pirate vampire, zombie batman. That might
be a little hard to do yourself unless you had
some real costume skills, Cat vixen, ghost nurse, and then
number ten scary math and I don't I didn't hear
(22:10):
lar Ben the Celtic symbol of fertility. Oh I'm sorry,
that was number eleven or or a fantastics costume. Um.
The thing is, though, we're pretty fortunate that we still
that tricker treating really still exists today, because in the
seventies especially, there was a huge panic that trigger treating
(22:33):
was a direct danger for kids, and not just in
the way today where there's more concern about kids, uh,
you know, being safe out on their own, escorted walking cars,
all of that sort of stuff, But in the seventies
there were This was when all of those um rumors
popped up about razors in the apples and yeah, and
(22:57):
it was also uh, there were the tile A murders
that were going on, I believe in the late seventies,
and for some reason it was like that panic spread
to Halloween because it happened in early October. And in
nineteen seventy two, actually the town of Burbank, Illinois outlawed
trick or treating and considered it illegal solicitation if you
(23:21):
went from town to town, and there were all these
other different uh, cities and towns as well. Hardwick, Massachusetts
also in the late seventies bandit after kids said they
found razor blades in their candy. But then once they
go back and they look into whether or not these
kids stories are true. Unfortunately, well not unfortunately fortunately for
trick or treaters everywhere, the stories have not been true.
(23:44):
It's all it's an urban legend. Well, that's that's good
to hear. Yes, I'm comforting, But I mean that does
tie into to the trend to in the in the
late sixties and the seventies away from homemade items. I
was saying earlier in the show, I kind of want
to make soul cakes, but Obviously, I could never give
them to trigger treaters because they probably would be grossed out,
(24:05):
for one, or would not want to take them because
it would be weird yellow looking cookies. Even if they
did get them, their parents would throw them away because
I think it's pretty generally accepted now. Only wrapped candy
is okay um, And I mean, I guess that's from
some of these urban legends that did come about in
the seventies and eighties. I just wish that we could
(24:28):
bring back instead of all of the you know, Halloween
such a fearful kind of holiday, especially for parents having
to deal with trigger treating, doing all of these costumes everything.
I wish it we could bring back more of the
divining games that used to be associated with Swen and Halloween,
(24:49):
because a lot of times, for the adults, it wasn't
so much about uh, you know, the treats, but more
figuring out who your husband was going to be. Yeah,
do youve have the e ample of that from the mirror? Oh,
when you walk down a mirror backwards. But it sounds
really dangerous. We should say that before we tell this story.
(25:09):
We're not responsible if you fall down the stairs doing this,
but the Library of Congress site described um this divining
ritual where you would hold a mirror on Halloween, you
would walk backwards down the stairs to the basement, and
the face that appears in the mirror would be your
(25:29):
future lover if you didn't break your neck. Also, who's
down there in the basement waiting? Uh. There was an
article published in the New York Times from talking about
all of the different, uh, the myrriad Halloween traditions that
had stuck around, and my favorite was a Scottish one
(25:50):
called pulling the kale Stalks, in which UM, you and
your beloved would be blindfolded and you would walk out
into a field presumably of kale, and you would each
pull up a kale stalk and then uh, the dirt
attached to the roots would uh would tell how much
(26:12):
wealth you would have. Obviously the more dirt, the bigger
the clump, the better the taste was supposed to foretell
the temper of your future husband. And then I liked this. Uh.
You could tell the size of your partner based on
the size of the stalk, So if it was shortened
squat then for a well or tall and slender. Um.
(26:37):
So pulling up the kale stalks I think should definitely
be brought back. Okay, so next Halloween party then pulling
up the kale stalks, maybe escorted walking down the stairs backwards,
you know, for safety, have somebody guiding you with that mirror.
Um the horse costume, Charlie Chaplin, soul cake. I like
(27:00):
the sound of popcorn balls too. I like popcorn balls.
One tradition though, that we can we can leave in
ancient times is when they would they would take little
almost like soul cake, kind of little pastries and carve
their initials into them and throw them. I think this
was in Whales. They would throw them in a bonfire,
and the next day, if your cake was gone, maybe
(27:23):
you would die before the next hour. It was so ominous.
Leave that tradition in the past. And then one more
that I just have to mention. I love jack o lanterns.
I love traditional pumpkin jack lanterns. I like pumpkins in general.
They're fun. But the original jack lantern was a hollowed
out turn up, which it kind of sounds like it
(27:46):
goes with the kale a little bit. I don't know, um,
it seems like it might be difficult to hollow out
a root vegetable like a turn up, but I guess
they could give it a go. Yeah. And the only
reason that we do pumpkins now was because when the
immigrants came over, pumpkins were more plentiful New World food,
yeah than turnips. Alright, so hopefully everybody has some good
(28:10):
ideas now for a Halloween party from the past and
trick or treating on Thanksgiving and November four or your
miss chiff night. Um, don't come putting cold powder on
people's doors, so I think that won't win you any friends. Um.
So do you have anything else on on the history
(28:32):
of trick or treating? Kristen, I don't think so. I'm
I'm just excited to have all of these new facts
about Halloween and trigger treating. I think this is going
to be the kind of information that impresses people's friends,
especially at Halloween party. Yeah, it's it's a useful, useful history.
All right. You want to do some listener mail now,
(28:55):
I mean, since we're talking about stamp dot com and
what a better segue to listener mail? Yeah, exactly. Well,
and I did take some real mail, and I did
that partly just because, like you're not getting my history emails,
so at least with postcards you can kind of see
the fun too. Um. All of these came from listener Becca,
who took a vacation this summer with her family to
(29:16):
South Dakota. And I'm not going to read all of them,
but there are some really cool pictures. I put up
the Pony Express one on my desk, but I think
my favorite he probably like the Charles Ingle's family Kristen
of the Little House in the Prairie Fatal House fame.
Yes see a very good an impressive beard there, um,
but large beard on the prairie, but be useful for
(29:39):
those cold winters. Um. My favorite postcard, though from Becca,
has got to be the Corn Palace, which celebrates uh
it or it's celebrated its hundredth anniversary, and that's what
the picture of. It's this building, a firm structure underneath,
but one that they decorate and corn related paraphernalia every
(30:03):
year with a different theme. So I don't know, one
day I might have to go check that out. So
thank you so much, Becca for all of these beautiful postcards.
I hope you guys had a good trip. And when
Blena comes back, we're going to be talking about a
few more of the awesome postcard series we got from
from you guys summer travels this year. Um, so thank
you so much again for joining me to discuss this well,
(30:26):
thank you for having me and suggesting this topic to
people have wanted something on the history of Halloween for
a long time, but I think the industry of trip
or treating is maybe even more indicative of this holiday
and how it has transformed over the the century. Now
I have to try to make some soul cakes at
some poin I think so, and and hollow out our
(30:48):
turn ups and have a big mess of kale and
turn up greens perhaps lunch Helthy Halloween on the podcast.
All right, so let us know if you decide to
do any of these cool old school Halloween traditions. And
of course, if you have that white horse as your costume,
(31:08):
you remember what's his name again, Kristen lair Ben. Okay,
if you if you decide to dress with that for Halloween,
you've got to post pictures. We are at History Podcast
at Discovery dot com. It's our email. We're also at
missed in History on Twitter, and we are on Facebook
and again check out Kristen's podcast If Mom Never Told You?
(31:29):
And um, we have loads of Halloween articles, but I
think you wrote one specifically on trick or treating, didn't you. Yes,
it's called why do we trigger Treat? All right, So
there you go. It is a TALC article, but you
can probably still find that by searching on on the
homepage for trick or treating. Do that by searching for
trick or Treat on our homepage at www dot how
(31:52):
stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands
of other topics, is a how stuff Works dot com.
M m m mmmmm
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, welcome to the podcast. I'm
Sarah Dowdy and I am joined today by Kristen Conquer.
Hello is there a Dowdy? So? Kristen hosts stefph Mom
(00:20):
Never Told You. Um. She's also a writer for helftuff
works dot com and well de Bline has been out
on maternity leave. I've had the pleasure of editing Kristen,
which has been fun. You've been writing all kinds of
political things and some stranger topics the past few weeks.
I liked matchmaking, which interesting. That was a fun one
for the podcast as well. For stuff Mom Never told
(00:44):
you It's it's your kind of theme, right, Yeah, But
today we're not going strictly stuff Mom Never told you territory.
We're going to embrace the season. It is, after all, October,
and we love to cover spooky seasonal episode's during the
month of October. So what better topic to kick it
all off with than trick or treating? Yeah, it's fun. Well,
(01:07):
because it seems like with Halloween it's pretty common knowledge.
It goes back to ancient Celtic tradition. But then there's
this giant gap. We start, you know, with the Celtic tradition,
and then all of a sudden we are buying billions
of pounds of candy and expensive costumes and costumes for pets.
(01:28):
How did we get there? How did we get from
the old bonfire days to what we think of as
Halloween today? And I mean, I, for one, love Halloween,
so I I'm interested in this progression and some of
the olden days rituals, but also how it how it
got to where it is today. Yeah, because it's also
a funny example of how the Church tried to change
(01:52):
a pagan holiday into something holy co opted actually, yeah,
and they were completely thwarted. And now the Church still Halloween, well,
some folks do. And that's that's going to be something
we'll we'll talk about a little more. What sort of
demonic history does Halloween actually? But I mean, I guess
(02:12):
we should start by talking about the Celts and the
Celtic clans that celebrated a holiday called Salon and it
was essentially a harvest festival um on the on the
outside of things, you know, end of the new year
for for the Celtic clans into the harvest season time
to bring in your herds from pasture time to renew leases.
(02:37):
And also because the fabric between the this world and
the world beyond was especially thin, it was the time
for souls to come back home. Yes, it was believed
that this was a special time when uh, the living
and the dead could interact, and Salon specifically was a
(02:59):
festival of the dying Sun god. It was kind of
like the Celtic New Year's celebration. It was essentially um.
And it's thought too that since there was all this
harvesting going on and there was also um slaughtering of animals,
that people would wear the animal hides from cattle and livestock,
(03:20):
and perhaps these were primitive costumes well, and we can
get into the purpose behind these costumes a little more too.
But it was also sort of just a spooky time
of year. I mean, you can imagine with all the
souls coming back, but it was a good time to
do fortune tellings, you know, to arrange things like the
date of a marriage or when somebody might die. When
(03:42):
with that happened, um, you just had a clearer picture,
supposedly of what the world held. But when we talk
about souls coming back, what interests me is that that's
not necessarily a bad thing. Some of these would be
beloved family members, friends um not spooky's gary souls, but
some would be evil spirits. And so to to put
(04:05):
some distance between yourself and all of the evil things
that might be coming back for salin, people would light
these giant bonfires to to either help guide the good
spirits or scare off the bad one. There was a
tradition in Scotland actually where farmers would like torches of
braided straw and march around their property to supposedly ward
(04:29):
off the evil which is in demon well. And and
going back to you talking about all of the animals
that were being flattered around this time, if you did
have to go out on salon, it was a good
idea to disguise yourself in some kind of costume, like
an animal hide, so that the evil spirits wouldn't recognize you.
And sometimes too, the evil spirits might inhabit the body
(04:53):
of a wild animal. So some families would leave food
out to feed these uh I guess poss early treats,
we might say. So when the Romans arrived in Britain
in the first century, they they were sort of the
first we were just talking about Christians co opting these
(05:13):
ancient holidays. They were sort of the first to do that.
They moved in on Salon with their own festivals that
were timed around this time of year anyway. They had
a harvest festival around this time, they had a Festival
of the Dead. Um, just sort of get everybody on
the same page, celebrating the same festivals, whether they were
traditional or new. But by the seventh century, the same
(05:37):
thing was happening with the Christian holidays. And Pope Boniface
the Fourth originally set up All Saints Day for March,
but about a century later moved it to November one
because it was clear that people are going to be celebrating,
uh this kind of thing anyway at that time of year. Yeah,
and uh six o one a d. Pope Gregory the
(05:59):
First actually issued an edict to missionaries basically saying that, um,
in order to convert native people, simply repurpose their festivals
and their holidays for Christianity. And that's what happened with
All Saints Day, and I mean before All Saints Day,
(06:19):
the day before that, which was still All Hellow's Eve,
which we know is Halloween. Uh, it did take on
a more negative connotation, or at least the spirits that
were out, because that doesn't mesh too well with with Christianity,
these nice spirits coming back and visiting. It became more
about demons and scary things that were coming out that
(06:40):
night and to buy them off. Going back to what
you were just talking about, leaving out things for these
animal spirits. To buy them off, people would leave food
and drink outside. Eventually, some folks wised up to this
that all their neighbors were leaving out tasty treats on
all Hallow's Eve and started dressing up those scary things
(07:04):
themselves to indulge in all this bounty. Yeah, they would
go a souling, which reminds me of you know the
Christmas Carol going wasstling there, I go Westling. It was
the same thing, these color people getting food and drink
all throughout winter. Um. And they would go from house
to house um begging for these things called soul cakes. There,
(07:27):
little kicks that they would make, sometimes with currents I
guess imprinted in the shape of crosses on them. Uh.
And supposedly the souling tradition also came out of something
called mumming, which I believe you've talked about on the
podcast before, Sarah, Yeah, about a year ago to Bolina
and I did an episode on Guy Fox Day and
mumming is still a tradition in Britain and uh we
(07:52):
we hadn't really heard much about it, and we asked
listeners like, does anybody out there still do mumming? We
heard back from so many people who it's apparently a
strong tradition still in their community. But yeah, essentially it's
kind of Halloween ask and um, I can see how
this tradition, I don't know how how we celebrate Halloween
(08:12):
today emerge from something like mumming back then. Yeah, because
supposedly they were still dressing up as now the fairies,
witches and demons kind of taking on that darker side
of how yeah, that we now associate with it, and
so you must placate them with some kind of sweet
treat like a soul cake. There is a pretty strong
(08:33):
connection though, to this idea of the dead returning or
at least honoring the dead in some way though, and
in England, poor people would organize what they called soul prides,
which I think is a pretty awesome name. Too, where
instead of just going out in begging or thinking of
later trick or treating, where it's essentially a deal, I
(08:54):
won't play a prank on you if you give me
a treat. This was give me alms in exchange or
prayers for your dead. And kids sort of took that
over eventually, and they'd call themselves solars and and again
the soul cakes come into play there. You'd give these
kids little cakes and they'd pray for your your family members. Um.
(09:15):
We both found a recipe for these cakes too, by
the way, online I think NPR had one, and they
sound pretty good. Yeah, they're really simple, almost like they
reminded me of snickerdoodles. Snickerdoodles with some staffron and some
nutmeg thrown in currens of course, yeah, a little bit
of cinnamon. What else? Yeah, sugar. They're pretty eggy, I think. Um,
(09:41):
but I mean I'm curious to try them, although I
won't be giving them out to my tricker treaders because
we will discuss more on that later. Why packaged candy
is really the only way to go these days? Well,
and also you know, soul cakes too. This NPR cook
warns gets stale within a day or two. It's kind
of like Halloween candy just should eat just as quickly
(10:02):
as possible. Um. But it's it's funny you bring up
the how the adult beggars were then kind of taken
over by the young parades of the solars, and that
kind of trickled down from uh, from the adults to
the kids. It's the same kind of thing that's going
to happen a little bit later once it crosses over
(10:22):
to the US. But one um, as a parallel to
the soul parades, I read about how in Ireland especially
and in some parts of England, there was also a
tradition of a guy dressing up as a white horse
that was called lair Bonnu. That apparently was the Celtic
(10:44):
symbol of fertility. Um, and it was also referred to
as the haddening horse. I think that was in England
that would lead these sound processions. So if you're looking
for a Halloween, come white horse, because go as lair
bonn and no one will get what it is. But
good points. That does sound like a pretty good idea
(11:04):
for history lovers out there with pretty of bold costume aspirations.
But um, by the eighteen hundreds. I mean, we're we've
got to talk a little bit more about immigrants, British
Irish immigrants starting to take these traditions to America, even
though not all colonies allowed this type of very pagan
(11:26):
influence celebration to to go down. But by the eighteen
hundreds it really just seemed like such a mishmatch. This
is where I lost track of all these different traditions
because all these different things are happening by this point,
Harvest festivals, things that sound kind of like Halloween, things
that sound kind of like trigger treating, um mumming. Even
(11:48):
something called Mischief Night, which sounded really wild. It had
been imported from Yorkshire, and according to Karen Allen in
BBC History Magazine, it would have taken place on November four,
so the night before Bonfire Night. Um. But kids could
essentially do whatever they wanted on Mischief Night and not
(12:08):
be punished in any way for it. And that might
just be something fairly harmless, like tying a door knob
to the door knob across the street and then knocking
on both doors. But it might be like putting coal
powder on the threshold of doors and then setting it
on fire to smoke out the people inside things that
start to sound a little more sinister, I guess. So
(12:31):
apparently what was supposed to start out as like a
celebratory feast period to honor saints turned into rampid borganism,
coal dust on the doorstep, and um, I mean I
think you were you were going to talk a little
bit more about what was going on. As far as
the timing for these celebrations too. It isn't all October
(12:55):
thirty one. It's not even all mischief Night November four.
It happens throughout the autumnal period essentially. Yeah, there's something
about late October and November that seems to make us
want to go a little bit wild, because what I
didn't realize was that these traditions would also span into
(13:16):
the Thanksgiving season. In the late eighteenth century, um Thanksgiving
was treated as more of a carnival than a sit down,
calm fiece that you might have with your family. And
I read about this group called the Fantastics that were
essentially a group of revolutionary war veterans that would parade
(13:39):
in rags of continental soldiers and cause all sorts of mischief.
And again, like the trick or treating. They would go
from door to door masquerading for treats, and uh, apparently
they kind of got so much out of hand that
people that those fantastics is just hanging up their continental garb.
(14:00):
That does sound pretty wild. I don't know, it's It's
one thing if it's the kids tying your door and off,
maybe another if it is a bunch of old Revolutionary
War veterans causing trouble on the streets. But that does
give a really good example of how different we are
talking about from harvest festival honoring the dead side of
things too, grown men causing trouble. Yeah, and I gotta say,
(14:25):
if the Fantastic showed up at my house, I would
give them soul, would give me candy, really anything. You'd
probably try to buy one of their costumes too, for
your own future Halloween celebration. Trade them my Thanksgiving turkey.
I think that's idea number two. White Horse Revolutionary Army uniform.
Let's get back to talking about modern Halloween. Um So,
(14:50):
by the mid twentieth century, the mischief making side of
things had started to seem a little unsavory to people.
U The folks were starting to cause too much trouble
to to seem respectable and respectable. Adults had been having
sort of Halloween parties throughout the nineteen twenties and thirties anyway,
(15:13):
with things UM seasonal sort of things like apples, pumpkins,
UM candy, homemade candy like fudge, popcorn balls. But by
the nineteen forties it really seemed like people were looking
for a way to channel their kids away from this
night where they could just go cause a bunch of
trouble out on the streets and doing something that was
(15:34):
a little more controlled, like dressing up and asking for candy. Yeah,
and the trick or treating as we know it today.
UM is thought to have started in wealthier areas on
the East Coast, maybe as early as nineteen twenty. There
was actually this great excerpt from the October nineteen twenty
(15:56):
Ladies Home Journal talking about UM. Can I read it
to you? That's a direct quote is so necessary for this.
It's a woman talking about I guess some some very
early trigger treater. She says, a group of hilarious youngsters
in costume, including to Charlie Chaplin's more costume Markids. To
Charlie Chaplin's a topsy. I don't even know what that
(16:18):
one is. A gingerbread man and an Indian noisily approached
the front door of a large house, ring the bell
and when the owner herself comes the door, greets her
in chorus with nuts, nuts, we want nuts. I wish
that still happened. Maybe maybe this year, Kristen, I'm going
to go door to door A dress is a fantastic
(16:40):
begging for nuts or Charlie Chaplin. I like that one. So, yeah,
that's a that's a peek at twenties era trigger treating.
But it really was sort of sporadic during that period.
It wasn't until after World War Two that it became
just a normal thing for kids to do. You take
your kids trigger treating and um, if we're going to
(17:03):
talk about trigger treating, though, we've got to talk about
the development to how we think of it today, with
fun sized candy, a lot of pre bought, pre made costumes,
no white horses out there, no Charlie Chaplains, things you
can buy at the store. Um. According to Samira Kawash
in the Atlantic, though, it wasn't really about candy right away,
(17:26):
going going to trigger treat I mean, as your quote
suggests nuts. Nuts, we want nuts. You might get fruit,
you might get changed, you might get cookies and toys,
and weirdly, candy manufacturers had seized on the idea of
tie ins with holidays as early as nineteen hundred or so,
for Christmas and for Easter, but not for Halloween. She
(17:48):
writes about how Washington's birthday was a bigger deal at
the time. You could buy marzipan cherries and coco logs
to to celebrate the first President's birthday, but Halloween wasn't
wasn't an opportunity for candy manufacturers yet. But by the fifties,
candy became what was expected for trick or treating. It
(18:10):
was cheap, it was easy to buy a lot of it,
and candy manufacturers embraced that by making tiny candy that
came in giant backs. And it's also in nineteen fifty
where one tricker treating tradition that I feel like is
maybe fallen off a little bit. But this is the
goodwill side of trigger treating. Um A group of Pennsylvania
(18:34):
kids from a Sunday school decided that instead of collecting
these candies doore to door, they would collect change to
give to World War Two orphans and they collected seventeen dollars,
which I'm sure it was a lot of money in
nineteen fifty and donated it to UNI Stuff. And UNI
(18:56):
stuff had only been around at that point for maybe
four or five years, and they thought it was such
a great idea. They started making UM trigger treating UH
an opportunity for all the kids to collect money. So
do you ever see Uni sef tricker treaders? I see
the boxes in in stores, but I don't think I've
(19:16):
ever entertained any myself. You know. I wonder how much
of a tradition that still is, or whether it was
bigger of a decade or so ago or a few
decades ago. Well, they still tout it um on their website,
and I they had a campaign it might have been
last year where for the first time you could make
(19:36):
your own unit stuff boxes. But yeah, I have yet
to see units of trigger treaders. Well, and if we're
if we're thinking of the money side of things too,
I was amazed at numbers relating to the costume industry
because I've always had homemade costumes, but the the amount
(19:57):
that people spend on costumes today, it really does drive
home the point that Halloween is a huge industry today,
between the candy and the costumes. According to a Newsweek
article just from last year, so these are pretty recent. Um,
people in the United States spend six point eight six
(20:17):
billion dollars on Halloween, and one point two billion of
that is for adult costumes versus one billion for children's
costumes and three million for pet costumes. I mean, I've
got to stay I can get completely on board with
the pet costumes. I'm not I'm not down on that side.
But adults are spending more on their costumes than kids are,
(20:41):
a good bit more actually, And I wonder if that's
broken down for households, if you're outfitting, if that number
of one billion is outfitting your three children or something
versus just yourself. But I don't know. It's it's pretty
wild figure to consider. And I under what those folks
um back in Celtic days would be thinking with their
(21:05):
animal skins. They might not be as impressed, because I
have to say that homemade costumes are almost always better
than the store bought ones. But it is such a
huge ripple effect. We have the giant, almost like big
box Halloween stores that will pop up, the pop up
for the store, and exactly they pop up in closed
(21:26):
down bookstores or other abandoned retail properties and and then disappear.
And uh, just the list too that I got from
this Newsweek article of the most popular costumes really says
something about how much people are spending because they do
seem very very easy to make at home, which is
(21:48):
number one. Then comes pirate vampire, zombie batman. That might
be a little hard to do yourself unless you had
some real costume skills, Cat vixen, ghost nurse, and then
number ten scary math and I don't I didn't hear
(22:10):
lar Ben the Celtic symbol of fertility. Oh I'm sorry,
that was number eleven or or a fantastics costume. Um.
The thing is, though, we're pretty fortunate that we still
that tricker treating really still exists today, because in the
seventies especially, there was a huge panic that trigger treating
(22:33):
was a direct danger for kids, and not just in
the way today where there's more concern about kids, uh,
you know, being safe out on their own, escorted walking cars,
all of that sort of stuff, But in the seventies
there were This was when all of those um rumors
popped up about razors in the apples and yeah, and
(22:57):
it was also uh, there were the tile A murders
that were going on, I believe in the late seventies,
and for some reason it was like that panic spread
to Halloween because it happened in early October. And in
nineteen seventy two, actually the town of Burbank, Illinois outlawed
trick or treating and considered it illegal solicitation if you
(23:21):
went from town to town, and there were all these
other different uh, cities and towns as well. Hardwick, Massachusetts
also in the late seventies bandit after kids said they
found razor blades in their candy. But then once they
go back and they look into whether or not these
kids stories are true. Unfortunately, well not unfortunately fortunately for
trick or treaters everywhere, the stories have not been true.
(23:44):
It's all it's an urban legend. Well, that's that's good
to hear. Yes, I'm comforting, But I mean that does
tie into to the trend to in the in the
late sixties and the seventies away from homemade items. I
was saying earlier in the show, I kind of want
to make soul cakes, but Obviously, I could never give
them to trigger treaters because they probably would be grossed out,
(24:05):
for one, or would not want to take them because
it would be weird yellow looking cookies. Even if they
did get them, their parents would throw them away because
I think it's pretty generally accepted now. Only wrapped candy
is okay um, And I mean, I guess that's from
some of these urban legends that did come about in
the seventies and eighties. I just wish that we could
(24:28):
bring back instead of all of the you know, Halloween
such a fearful kind of holiday, especially for parents having
to deal with trigger treating, doing all of these costumes everything.
I wish it we could bring back more of the
divining games that used to be associated with Swen and Halloween,
(24:49):
because a lot of times, for the adults, it wasn't
so much about uh, you know, the treats, but more
figuring out who your husband was going to be. Yeah,
do youve have the e ample of that from the mirror? Oh,
when you walk down a mirror backwards. But it sounds
really dangerous. We should say that before we tell this story.
(25:09):
We're not responsible if you fall down the stairs doing this,
but the Library of Congress site described um this divining
ritual where you would hold a mirror on Halloween, you
would walk backwards down the stairs to the basement, and
the face that appears in the mirror would be your
(25:29):
future lover if you didn't break your neck. Also, who's
down there in the basement waiting? Uh. There was an
article published in the New York Times from talking about
all of the different, uh, the myrriad Halloween traditions that
had stuck around, and my favorite was a Scottish one
(25:50):
called pulling the kale Stalks, in which UM, you and
your beloved would be blindfolded and you would walk out
into a field presumably of kale, and you would each
pull up a kale stalk and then uh, the dirt
attached to the roots would uh would tell how much
(26:12):
wealth you would have. Obviously the more dirt, the bigger
the clump, the better the taste was supposed to foretell
the temper of your future husband. And then I liked this. Uh.
You could tell the size of your partner based on
the size of the stalk, So if it was shortened
squat then for a well or tall and slender. Um.
(26:37):
So pulling up the kale stalks I think should definitely
be brought back. Okay, so next Halloween party then pulling
up the kale stalks, maybe escorted walking down the stairs backwards,
you know, for safety, have somebody guiding you with that mirror.
Um the horse costume, Charlie Chaplin, soul cake. I like
(27:00):
the sound of popcorn balls too. I like popcorn balls.
One tradition though, that we can we can leave in
ancient times is when they would they would take little
almost like soul cake, kind of little pastries and carve
their initials into them and throw them. I think this
was in Whales. They would throw them in a bonfire,
and the next day, if your cake was gone, maybe
(27:23):
you would die before the next hour. It was so ominous.
Leave that tradition in the past. And then one more
that I just have to mention. I love jack o lanterns.
I love traditional pumpkin jack lanterns. I like pumpkins in general.
They're fun. But the original jack lantern was a hollowed
out turn up, which it kind of sounds like it
(27:46):
goes with the kale a little bit. I don't know, um,
it seems like it might be difficult to hollow out
a root vegetable like a turn up, but I guess
they could give it a go. Yeah. And the only
reason that we do pumpkins now was because when the
immigrants came over, pumpkins were more plentiful New World food,
yeah than turnips. Alright, so hopefully everybody has some good
(28:10):
ideas now for a Halloween party from the past and
trick or treating on Thanksgiving and November four or your
miss chiff night. Um, don't come putting cold powder on
people's doors, so I think that won't win you any friends. Um.
So do you have anything else on on the history
(28:32):
of trick or treating? Kristen, I don't think so. I'm
I'm just excited to have all of these new facts
about Halloween and trigger treating. I think this is going
to be the kind of information that impresses people's friends,
especially at Halloween party. Yeah, it's it's a useful, useful history.
All right. You want to do some listener mail now,
(28:55):
I mean, since we're talking about stamp dot com and
what a better segue to listener mail? Yeah, exactly. Well,
and I did take some real mail, and I did
that partly just because, like you're not getting my history emails,
so at least with postcards you can kind of see
the fun too. Um. All of these came from listener Becca,
who took a vacation this summer with her family to
(29:16):
South Dakota. And I'm not going to read all of them,
but there are some really cool pictures. I put up
the Pony Express one on my desk, but I think
my favorite he probably like the Charles Ingle's family Kristen
of the Little House in the Prairie Fatal House fame.
Yes see a very good an impressive beard there, um,
but large beard on the prairie, but be useful for
(29:39):
those cold winters. Um. My favorite postcard, though from Becca,
has got to be the Corn Palace, which celebrates uh
it or it's celebrated its hundredth anniversary, and that's what
the picture of. It's this building, a firm structure underneath,
but one that they decorate and corn related paraphernalia every
(30:03):
year with a different theme. So I don't know, one
day I might have to go check that out. So
thank you so much, Becca for all of these beautiful postcards.
I hope you guys had a good trip. And when
Blena comes back, we're going to be talking about a
few more of the awesome postcard series we got from
from you guys summer travels this year. Um, so thank
you so much again for joining me to discuss this well,
(30:26):
thank you for having me and suggesting this topic to
people have wanted something on the history of Halloween for
a long time, but I think the industry of trip
or treating is maybe even more indicative of this holiday
and how it has transformed over the the century. Now
I have to try to make some soul cakes at
some poin I think so, and and hollow out our
(30:48):
turn ups and have a big mess of kale and
turn up greens perhaps lunch Helthy Halloween on the podcast.
All right, so let us know if you decide to
do any of these cool old school Halloween traditions. And
of course, if you have that white horse as your costume,
(31:08):
you remember what's his name again, Kristen lair Ben. Okay,
if you if you decide to dress with that for Halloween,
you've got to post pictures. We are at History Podcast
at Discovery dot com. It's our email. We're also at
missed in History on Twitter, and we are on Facebook
and again check out Kristen's podcast If Mom Never Told You?
(31:29):
And um, we have loads of Halloween articles, but I
think you wrote one specifically on trick or treating, didn't you. Yes,
it's called why do we trigger Treat? All right, So
there you go. It is a TALC article, but you
can probably still find that by searching on on the
homepage for trick or treating. Do that by searching for
trick or Treat on our homepage at www dot how
(31:52):
stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands
of other topics, is a how stuff Works dot com.
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