Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren bog obam here to grasp the rhyme and reason
Speaker 1: of why children dawn, ridiculous costumes and bang down doors
Speaker 1: demanding candy. Once a year, we must rewind the clock
Speaker 1: a couple of millennia and visit the ancient Celtic clans
Speaker 1: of Britain. The Celts celebrated the end of fall harvest
Speaker 1: and the beginning of their new year with the pagan
Speaker 1: festival Salween, which fell on November one. On the night
Speaker 1: before the celebration commenced, the dead were thought to travel
Speaker 1: back home for their annual visit. To frighten away any
Speaker 1: accompanying evil spirits, the Celts lit fires around the countryside,
Speaker 1: and some dressed in disguise when venturing into the eerie
Speaker 1: outdoors to avoid being recognized by familiar but less than
Speaker 1: friendly ghosts. Traces of these rituals persisted as these centuries
Speaker 1: wore on, and even as the Catholic Church sought to
Speaker 1: abolish these pagan pastimes. In the eighth century, the Church
Speaker 1: began commemorating the Feast of All Saints on November one,
Speaker 1: possibly as a replacement or saween The preceding day became
Speaker 1: known as All Hallows Eve, which was further shortened to Halloween.
Speaker 1: As the secular Saween and sacred all Hollows intertwined. The
Speaker 1: dead spirits that characterized the holiday assumed more negative connotations,
Speaker 1: hence the modern Halloween icons of scary witches, ghosts, and ghouls.
Speaker 1: To appease these evil spirits, people left food and drink
Speaker 1: outside to protect their homes from spiritual retaliation. Gradually, savvy
Speaker 1: celebrants took advantage of the tasty offerings by dressing up
Speaker 1: as the dead and trekking from door to door to
Speaker 1: ask for provisions in exchange for protection from wicked spirits.
Speaker 1: According to the American Folk Life Center, the practice, which
Speaker 1: became known as mumming, served as a precedent for trigger treating.
Speaker 1: In England, the poor would organize soul parades to beg
Speaker 1: for alms on All Hallows Eve and exchange for prayers
Speaker 1: to deliver dead souls from purgatory to heaven. As the
Speaker 1: years war on, children took over the tradition, calling themselves solars.
Speaker 1: Bands of children would knock on doors and sing songs
Speaker 1: in return for sweet current topped breads called soul cakes.
Speaker 1: The trigger treating custom crossed the Atlantic with the influx
Speaker 1: of immigrants from England and Ireland who moved to the
Speaker 1: United States in the mid eighteen hundreds, but trigger treating
Speaker 1: wasn't widely popular in the United States until around nineteen forty.
Speaker 1: Before then, the mischievous holiday had spiraled into an adolescent
Speaker 1: free for all, marked by rampant vandalism and excessive tom foolery.
Speaker 1: As communities sought to provide alternate Halloween activities for the
Speaker 1: local youth, trigger treating as we know it today, gradually
Speaker 1: caught on. Retailers also noticed the trend and began offering
Speaker 1: ready made costumes, and candy manufacturers seized on this golden opportunity.
Speaker 1: In the late nineteen seventies and early eighties, sensational reports
Speaker 1: of razors and candy apples, treats laced with laxatives, and
Speaker 1: other horror stories built a blow to trigger treating. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: the tradition is still alive and well today. Just ask
Speaker 1: the National Confectioners Association. This pumpkin hued holiday takes the
Speaker 1: cake for the highest candy sales of the year. Americans
Speaker 1: are expected to shell out about nine billion dollars for
Speaker 1: Halloween candy. But in spite of Halloween's commercial appeal, those
Speaker 1: ancient Celtic rights still echo on as hordes of costume
Speaker 1: children trigger treat every year in the October Twilight. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by Kristin Conger and produced by Tyler Clang.
Speaker 1: To hear more from Kristin, check out her podcast Unladylike
Speaker 1: They've Got a book out too, And of course, for
Speaker 1: more on this and lots of other treats, visit our
Speaker 1: home planet, how Stuff Works dot com