trick or treating begain in america in the early 19th century.
when did trick or treating begin in america?
early 19th century
in britain and ireland, the tradition of going house to house collecting food at halloween goes back at least as far as the 16th century, as had the tradition of people wearing costumes at halloween. in 19th century britain and ireland there are many accounts of people going house to house in costume at halloween, reciting verses in exchange for food, and sometimes warning of misfortune if they were not welcomed. the scottish halloween custom of "guising" – children disguised in costume going from house to house for food or money; – is first recorded in north america in 1911 in ontario, canada. in north america, trick-or-treating has been a halloween tradition since the 1920s. while going house to house in costume has remained popular among scots and irish, the custom of saying "trick or treat" has only recently become common. the activity is prevalent in the united states, canada, the united kingdom, the republic of ireland, puerto rico, and northwestern and central mexico. in the last, this practice is called "calaverita" (spanish for "sugar skull"), and instead of "trick or treat", the children ask, ""¿me da mi calaverita?"" ("can you give me my sugar skull?"), where a "calaverita" is a small skull made of sugar or chocolate.
trick-or-treating
although some popular histories of halloween have characterized trick-or-treating as an adult invention to re-channel halloween activities away from mischief night vandalism, there are very few records supporting this. des moines, iowa is the only area known to have a record of trick-or-treating being used to deter crime. elsewhere, adults, as reported in newspapers from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, typically saw it as a form of extortion, with reactions ranging from bemused indulgence to anger. likewise, as portrayed on radio shows, children would have to explain what trick-or-treating was to puzzled adults, and not the other way around. sometimes even the children protested: for halloween 1948, members of the madison square boys club in new york city carried a parade banner that read "american boys don't beg." the national confectioners association reported in 2005 that 80 percent of adults in the united states planned to give out confectionery to trick-or-treaters, and that 93 percent of children, teenagers, and young adults planned to go trick-or-treating or participating in other halloween activities.
trick-or-treating