Trick or treat? It's a choice children haven't always offered neighbors. Many people over the age of 80 will remember overturned outhouses, noisemaking, and minor vandalisms that vexed parents and aggravated local authorities on Halloween nights past. In fact, Halloween was only a holiday for pranks and private parties until around 1930 when, in some parts of the country, children began offering a way they could be appeased...by receiving a treat.
Today, in an America that spends over 2 billion dollars on Halloween candy and more than a quarter million dollars costuming pets, it's hard to imagine that the custom of trick or treating was late to develop and as foreign as a mummy's tomb when it first began. Initial accounts of children trick or treating in the U.S. come from the western states. The first reported incidence of trick or treat occurred in Canada around 1927 according to a fascinating research paper by Samira Kawash called "Gangsters, Pranksters, and the Invention of Trick or Treating 1930-1960. At 88, my mother remembers the first time she heard about the custom of trick or treating from Canadian friends. Excited to try it, she and her siblings knocked on doors in their neighborhood in northwestern United States but home owners were puzzled by the question. Mother and her sisters spent their night standing on doorsteps trying to explain. They came away with just a few apples. Neighbors, who had always braced for Halloween pranks, were slow to absorb the new idea of choice and unsure if it was a good idea or an emerging form of juvenile extortion.
Between the years of 1930 and mid 1950, while trick or treating evolved, the nation debated it's value. Halloween's history of mischief closely paralleled trick or treating development and, according to Kawash, written accounts sometimes used shakedown and gangster metaphors to describe the children's proposition. Bolstering that viewpoint, children in several localities put either/or demands on households and followed through with soaping windows or other mischief if homeowners failed to appease with a treat. Other communities had positive experiences and some put great effort into making Halloween and trick or treating a civic event by forming festivals and parades embracing Halloween celebration. Those communities modeled today's mainstream Halloween. Could they have foreseen that it would later become a 6.9 billion dollar retail giant?
Children and their communities enjoyed several decades of relatively peaceful neighborhood trick or treating. By 1960 it had become a well accepted custom. October 31st, which had once been a pranksterish day was tamed and evolved into a neighborly and socially enjoyable night of fun. Then news of disturbing, isolated incidences of poisoned or altered Halloween candy began chasing trick or treaters off the streets and into retail establishments, civic organizations, and schools. Razorblades in Apples! Remember reading that headline in the 60's and 70's? Whereas children at the beginning of the 20th century were the mischief makers taunting home owners on Halloween now they'd become the object of harm and mischief.
As trick or treating continued to "grow up" children began losing the thrill of tricks and mischief they'd once enjoyed. In response, treats and entertainment became a growing focus that later spawned fright experiences like local Haunted Houses and horror movies. Retailers introduced Halloween departments and free standing stores full of costumes, skeletons, cauldrons, and other decorations in the late 70's and 80's and a new Halloween fright and fantasy industry was born. By the 21st century, Halloween superstores sprang up across the country cashing their fangs, fake blood and costumes in for a multi billion dollar retail treat. "I think what happened is Halloween really grew up," Chuck Martinez, founder of one of the world's largest costume companies told Huffington Post in 2011.
Though mischief is no longer associated with trick or treating, Americans are still mixed about the custom. Today the debate doesn't swirl around juvenile deliquency but religious beliefs. A 2006 Gallup poll found that 1 in ten Americans have religious objection to the celebration because some elements of modern Halloween loosely refer back to early pagan rites in fall or early Christian celebrations. As a result, Halloween, embraced today by retail institutions, workplaces, and schools, may be evolving to incorporate religious sensitivity. A Lexis Nexis legal blog this year reminds workplaces planning Halloween celebrations that Title Vll protects religious beliefs and urges employers to be respectful and aware of objections to Halloween based on faith. In Pennsylvania this year school systems gave the boot to witches and ghosts and Halloween festivities but met with heavy public backlash. At issue is school safety, religious concerns, age inappropriate costumes, academic time, and the First Amendment! Halloween headaches that used to afflict homeowners are now haunting employers and administrators.
Trick or treat? It's the children's question but it's our choice how we react. Approximately 72% of adults will be handing out candy treats on Halloween. About half of us will decorate our yards. Will our schools embrace the playful social theme of Halloween or chase their ghosts away and ban it's celebrations? Will we act to preserve neighborliness and social trust by ensuring that our streets are safe for trick or treaters? Will the fright industry grab billion dollar profits from children like vampires drinking blood or will they give some of the profits back to communities to build programs for children's welfare? Will religious sensitivities force Halloween to drift further and further from its roots or reduce its presence in our workplaces and public institutions? How will trick or treating continue to evolve? What do you think? Have a safe and happy Halloween, readers.
