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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,

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Speaker 1: Lauren bog obam here to grasp the rhyme and reason

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Speaker 1: of why children dawn, ridiculous costumes and bang down doors

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Speaker 1: demanding candy. Once a year, we must rewind the clock

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Speaker 1: a couple of millennia and visit the ancient Celtic clans

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Speaker 1: of Britain. The Celts celebrated the end of fall harvest

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Speaker 1: and the beginning of their new year with the pagan

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Speaker 1: festival Salween, which fell on November one. On the night

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Speaker 1: before the celebration commenced, the dead were thought to travel

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Speaker 1: back home for their annual visit. To frighten away any

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Speaker 1: accompanying evil spirits, the Celts lit fires around the countryside,

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Speaker 1: and some dressed in disguise when venturing into the eerie

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Speaker 1: outdoors to avoid being recognized by familiar but less than

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Speaker 1: friendly ghosts. Traces of these rituals persisted as these centuries

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Speaker 1: wore on, and even as the Catholic Church sought to

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Speaker 1: abolish these pagan pastimes. In the eighth century, the Church

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Speaker 1: began commemorating the Feast of All Saints on November one,

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Speaker 1: possibly as a replacement or saween The preceding day became

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Speaker 1: known as All Hallows Eve, which was further shortened to Halloween.

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Speaker 1: As the secular Saween and sacred all Hollows intertwined. The

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Speaker 1: dead spirits that characterized the holiday assumed more negative connotations,

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Speaker 1: hence the modern Halloween icons of scary witches, ghosts, and ghouls.

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Speaker 1: To appease these evil spirits, people left food and drink

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Speaker 1: outside to protect their homes from spiritual retaliation. Gradually, savvy

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Speaker 1: celebrants took advantage of the tasty offerings by dressing up

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Speaker 1: as the dead and trekking from door to door to

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Speaker 1: ask for provisions in exchange for protection from wicked spirits.

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Speaker 1: According to the American Folk Life Center, the practice, which

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Speaker 1: became known as mumming, served as a precedent for trigger treating.

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Speaker 1: In England, the poor would organize soul parades to beg

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Speaker 1: for alms on All Hallows Eve and exchange for prayers

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Speaker 1: to deliver dead souls from purgatory to heaven. As the

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Speaker 1: years war on, children took over the tradition, calling themselves solars.

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Speaker 1: Bands of children would knock on doors and sing songs

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Speaker 1: in return for sweet current topped breads called soul cakes.

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Speaker 1: The trigger treating custom crossed the Atlantic with the influx

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Speaker 1: of immigrants from England and Ireland who moved to the

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Speaker 1: United States in the mid eighteen hundreds, but trigger treating

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Speaker 1: wasn't widely popular in the United States until around nineteen forty.

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Speaker 1: Before then, the mischievous holiday had spiraled into an adolescent

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Speaker 1: free for all, marked by rampant vandalism and excessive tom foolery.

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Speaker 1: As communities sought to provide alternate Halloween activities for the

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Speaker 1: local youth, trigger treating as we know it today, gradually

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Speaker 1: caught on. Retailers also noticed the trend and began offering

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Speaker 1: ready made costumes, and candy manufacturers seized on this golden opportunity.

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Speaker 1: In the late nineteen seventies and early eighties, sensational reports

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Speaker 1: of razors and candy apples, treats laced with laxatives, and

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Speaker 1: other horror stories built a blow to trigger treating. Nonetheless,

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Speaker 1: the tradition is still alive and well today. Just ask

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Speaker 1: the National Confectioners Association. This pumpkin hued holiday takes the

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Speaker 1: cake for the highest candy sales of the year. Americans

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Speaker 1: are expected to shell out about nine billion dollars for

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Speaker 1: Halloween candy. But in spite of Halloween's commercial appeal, those

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Speaker 1: ancient Celtic rights still echo on as hordes of costume

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Speaker 1: children trigger treat every year in the October Twilight. Today's

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Speaker 1: episode was written by Kristin Conger and produced by Tyler Clang.

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Speaker 1: To hear more from Kristin, check out her podcast Unladylike

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Speaker 1: They've Got a book out too, And of course, for

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Speaker 1: more on this and lots of other treats, visit our

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Speaker 1: home planet, how Stuff Works dot com