The First Trick-or-Treaters
Trick-or-treating has been around for quite awhile in America. By now, however, it's mostly about the treats.
People would go from house to house, asking for "soul cakes," little baked items that people inside the houses would give in exchange for having a prayer said for their soul. Also, people would leave food and drink outside their houses, in hopes that the spirits roaming the earth would take the offering and leave the house alone. It was said that both the people asking for the "soul cakes" and the spirits who didn't find any food or drink outside a house would play a trick, or practical joke, on the people who lived in that house. Some people still play practical jokes today. Most people, however, prefer to give treats to the kids who say, "Trick or Treat!" |
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Like
other Halloween customs, trick-or-treating comes from
Ireland and Great Britain and has to do with the souls of
the dead coming back to earth.
Social Studies for Kids
copyright 2002–2024
David White