How Halloween Shapes The Way It Is Celebrated Today

How The History Of Halloween Shapes The Way It Is Celebrated Today

Every year Halloween is celebrated on October 31. One might say that Halloween is the scariest holiday of the year. It’s the one time of year that people actually enjoy getting scared. In America, this popular holiday is filled with spooky traditions, and customs. Scary shows and movies start to play on tv and in theaters; Halloween boutiques and stores, Haunted houses, corn mazes, and other scary attractions open in anticipation of the annual costume party that is Halloween. Families carve pumpkins and children dress up in costumes in preparation for the ever-important trick-or-treating. For business owners, it’s a multi-million dollar opportunity, but where and

In the middle ages, “...children and sometimes poor adults would dress up in the aforementioned costumes and go around door to door during [Halloween] begging for food or money in exchange for songs and prayers, often said on behalf of the dead. This was called “souling” and the children were called ‘soulers’” (Hiskey 2012). Guising came to America much later and became known as trick-or-treating. “Trick or treating instead of guising on Halloween popped up in North America in the 1920s and 1930s, first in the western half of the continent. The term and the practice slowly spread, with a brief respite during WWII. After the WWII sugar rations were lifted, Halloween’s popularity saw a huge spike and within five years trick or treating was a near ubiquitous practice throughout North America. Once guising morphed into trick or treating, children no longer performed for treats, but instead vandalized and extorted for their confectioneries” (Hiskey 2012). Now trick-or-treating, along with pumpkin carving, is one of America’s most popular Halloween

One night when the Devil came to collect Jack’s soul, Jack tricked him into giving him one more year to live. When his year was up, the Devil came to collect Jack’s soul, and once again, Jack tricked the Devil; but this time the Devil was tricked into leaving Jack alone forever. When Jack died heaven turned him away because of his cruel ways and having no place to go, he went to the Devil who, honoring his promise, turned Jack away. Before Jack left, the Devil threw him a live coal which he placed in a turnip. Since then Jack has roamed the earth with his lantern looking for a place to live (Renaud & Powell