Trick or treat eh? A relatively uncommon phrase on 364 days of each year. However on October 31 these three word have a way of filling the stomachs of small children with sweets. People don't think twice about these words anymore or what they mean. What has changed in Halloween sinse its origin?
Trick-or-treating originally started as "souling". Poor people would go around to the rich houses and would be given soul pastries or other sweets to pray for dead relatives of the rich. Soon children started to take over this tradition, and instead of prayers they would give some kind of small performance to earn their treat. This tradition continued but has been greatly altered in common society.
In the nineteenth-century Halloween became affiliated with pranking and the phrase trick-or-treat was coined. This saying is now very one sided. If you go out on Halloween night, ring someone's doorbell you won't be denied a treat. To this extent, the phrase has lost some meaning. Children of today, who unthinkingly chime these words house after house, would be confused if they didn't receive candy. They may go complain to their parents, but I doubt that they would actually think to play a trick on someone. In a opposite sense teenagers will play "tricks" on houses for the fun of it. They know that if they want candy they can go home and eat the leftovers.
These three words are now at the center of a commercial holiday. Everyone is familiar with the phrase, but if you were to go around in June, July, or even early October and do the same thing, you would get a lot of weird looks. They are now only associated with the holiday and it is sad how a fun mischievous tradition has been changed. As Wednesday comes around I challenge you to deny candy this halloween, it might save you some money, and your house will be the scariest on the block. Maybe you will get stuck cleaning toilet paper out of your trees, but I would bet against it.
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