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the children are only supposed to receive treats if they perform tricks-treat? Andy G 17:37 4 Jul 2003 (UTC)
This article's introduction is poorly written. Sounds more like a sixth grader wrote it. It could use a rewrite. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.73.75.192 (talk) 13:44, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
The trick FOR treat practice derives from trick OR treat, appearing in isolated accounts in the U.S. just a couple of years after the invention of the phrase in the early 1930s. The "trick" of the phrase originally meant "prank," but as Halloween pranking was forgotten, some homeowners (to interact with their young visitors) began demanding a "trick"--meaning a "stunt." I recall those demands in the late 1950s in Southern California and being confused by them: "Trick or treat" to me was meaningless; it was just something I'd been told to say to get candy.--Bentruwe 19:09, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
It's called guising. The article's a bit misleading by mentioning "trick" here; I'll see what I can do about that. Mendor 13:30, 31 Oct 2003 (UTC)
"It originated in Great Britain and Ireland and is still popular in many parts of Scotland, England, and Ireland"
-As a Scottish lass, we had some Southern Irish neighbours move beside us in Inverness. The Irish children had a different take on Guising, which was to sing a mildly unflattering song ie 'Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something nice to eat!" This seems to be more like the American take on Halloween, whereas in Scotland, you can only expect to get your treat if you have a) performed to a good enough standard and b) made polite small talk with your neighbours. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nextinthequeue (talk • contribs) 15:08, 1 November 2010 (UTC)
It can't be British, surely. The British would never beg the neighbours for anything - its only the state they sponge off! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.72.26.234 (talk) 17:41, 1 November 2009 (UTC)
I grew up in Scotland in the 1930's and I don't remember Halloween being celebrated, and by the way Christmas wasn't celebrated here either. You know, we Scots invented everything from the wheel to the moon landing. But Halloween getting more popular due to American popular culture.83.70.163.125 18:09, 8 November 2005 (UTC)--Nextinthequeue (talk) 15:18, 1 November 2010 (UTC)
It's not really of Irish or British origin. It originally came out of "souling", a European tradation, where the young poor would dress up, knock on the doors of the better off, and offer prayers for the souls departed, and then might be treated to a little gift of food or money. This very practice is documented in Dublin journals in the 17th centuary. Taramoon 22:17, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
Trick-or-treating is called "ritual begging" by ethnographers; it's been invented and reinvented many times, in many cultures, including ancient Greece. There was no trick-or-treating in the U.S. until the 1930s; "proto"trick-or-treating began in the 1910s. Proto-trick-or-treating lacks one or more of the elements: costumes, going door to door, asking for a treat, a ritualized (if unwitting) threat of damage. Under the pressures of the Depression, ritualized begging was independently invented in many places in the U.S.; in the initial years, children said different things in different places: "Handout!" "Nuts! We want nuts!" "Anything for Halloween?" The phrase "trick or treat" (possibly invented by an anonymous Portland Oregonian news writer in 1934) caught on, sweeping across the country over the next twenty years. When the practice was finally turned into an industry it was ripe for export to other countries.--Bentruwe 19:21, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
Halloween is certainly NOT an American invention, nor is the begging tradition associated with it. If I cared enough, I'd clean up the wild inaccuracies of this article. Has anyone else detected the sublte anti-Irish bias of this article both in relation to the origins of Halloween and trick or treating? It is well settled that Halloween evolved from the celtic festival Samhain and was purposely co-opted by the Church and subsumed into the All Saints celebrations. Being from Ireland (Co. Ciarrai), I can assure we had trick or treating in the 60s and 70s and my grandparents attest to it being part of the Irish Halloween tradition well before that. We followed the trick for treat model where we would perform a song, poem or joke for the treat. — 12.37.61.2 16:33, 30 October 2006 (UTC
AIUI the "treat" part of the trick or treat was part of the old European custom. The Americans added the "trick" part all by themselves. Because it's been seen on American TV shows it is now being imported back into the UK but the older teenager's idea of a "trick" can be very puzzling or even threatening to older people who don't watch American TV shows. The "trick or treat" can be seen as a form of "demanding money with menaces" -- SteveCrook 13:53, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
I'm from St. Louis and grew up in the 1960's. We were not expected to simply tell a joke - we were expected to do a trick. I can remember turning somersaults, singing songs, dancing, doing imitations - whatever. But not everyone required it (most did not) and usually it caught us unprepared. It wasn't like we planned a.) our costume and b.) our act. Through the years, though, telling a joke became easier, mainly as kids lost imagination and the desire to showoff; "tricks" - as we knew them - simply degenerated into Laffy Taffy wrappers. Mrbentley (talk) 15:33, 21 May 2010 (UTC)
This surely refers to Swedes/Rutabagas and should be made clear as hollowing out a turnip would be a bit of a fruitless task.Muleattack (talk) 17:49, 30 October 2011 (UTC)
Ha...the definition of a swede v turnip depends on who you are speaking to: to me, it is a swede - but I'm from South Wales. To me wife, a native of the most northern tip of the UK near John O'Groats, it is a turnip :-)
DaioftheTriffids (talk) 23:27, 29 October 2020 (UTC)
People tend to make the main rule about trick-or-treating say that you have to look and talk like how a child does rather than be in a young age group. (Those people say that Halloween is for “little kids” which means whomever looks and talks that way.) Cbsteffen (talk) 21:23, 25 August 2023 (UTC)
I've never edited an article before and don't want to make a change in case I make a mistake. But I found an earlier reference to trick or treating then 1911. A Vancouver Daily World newspaper from 1898. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/halloween 24.207.100.169 (talk) 03:15, 2 November 2023 (UTC)