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Trick-or-treat!

Many different cultures have had traditions about the dead. People in places like Ireland, China, Egypt and Mexico believed that souls needed food. They thought the food nourished them on their journey from cemeteries to heaven.

People had to put out good things for souls to eat. However, if the food rotted or spoiled, the soul got mad. The wicked soul might curse the family and make them starve during the winter.

In other places, people begged for food on a holiday that remembers the souls of dead saints.

People wore disguises with hoods that covered their faces. If they did not get food, they played a trick on the home’s owner. For this reason, the activity is known as “trick-or treating.”

Shortly after people first began trick-or-treating, parents started sending their children to beg on that day. Housewives gave the children food if they performed a song or a dance. When people moved to America from all over the world, they brought this tradition with them.

Inhabitants of villages started trick-or-treating in the early 1900s. In 1939 a children’s publication acquainted the whole country with the tradition. It became very popular.

Today, trick-or-treaters do not beg for food, and they are not scared of souls. They just enjoy the thrill of dressing up like creatures and getting candy.

Ghosts and skeletons are favorite costumes. But some children wear fancy disguises, like pirate costume. They carry flashlights instead of fires.

In some places, children still perform songs or riddles to get candy. But most of the time, they just say “ Trick-or-Treat!”