lil' bits of this-n-that: When Do You Think Trick Or Treat Began In America

I have always assumed that when people came to America they would bring all traditions of their homeland with them. But I'm finding out that just isn't true. Trick or Treating didn't begin in America until the 1930s. It is similar to the Samhain festival, during which sacrifices and bribes were used to keep demons away. Remember the festival of Samhain was celebrated by the Celtic Druids over two thousand years ago on the evening of October 31. It marked for them the beginning of winter and was referred to as the day of the dead and joyful harvest.

On the eve of All Saints' Day in England, traditionally the poor went door to door singing and begging for "soul cakes" or money.

     Spanish children placed cakes and nuts on graves as bribes to keep away evil spirits.
     Belgian children stood beside shrines in front of their homes begging for money to buy cakes. Each cake eaten would prevent the suffering of one dead soul.
     Until the twentieth century, in Ireland, a masked Drud god named Muck Olla would beg from farm to farm, damaging the barns and homes of those who gave him nothing.
     On Halloween in France, children beg for flowers to take to cemeteries on All Saints' Day.

     Skeletons and ghosts are popular symbols for Halloween and it's easy to see how they refer back to the original Samhain festival as the day of the dead.

     Where did Jack-o'-Lanterns come into the picture? I get pumpkins, harvest and all that. But what about putting a lighted candle in them? Well, I did some digging around and discovered some more interesting facts about Halloween.
     Around the turn of the century in England, there were many reports of bobbing (apples?) lights appearing over bogs and marshes. These reports gave rise to stories of lantern men, Hob O' Lanterns and Jack O'Lanterns, creatures that prowl the swamps at night. These pale eerie lights were probably formed by swamp gas and bobbed along like a lantern in some one's hand. The lights were feared because many who tried to follow them perished in the swamps.
     "Stingy" is an Irish story of a man named Jack that tricked the devil twice before dying. The devil didn't want him, so he sent Jack back, with a glowing coal. Jack placed the coal inside a turnip and has roamed the earth with it ever since.
     Scottish children used to put candles inside turnips. They carried them to scare away witches and were called "boogies". The Irish children also used turnips or potatoes and England large beets were used. Later, the Scotch and Irish came to use pumpkins instead.

     The symbolic colors of black and orange were used during the harvest and death festivals of ancient Samhain. Orange and deep yellow were for ripe fruits, vegetables and grain.  They represented life, strength, endurance, and the flames of the fires used to ward off evil spirits. Black symbolized death, of course. Death is where the spirits of the dead and evil gathered.
     Used to predict the future were apples, nut, and cabbages, symbols of the harvest.
     Masks were used to frighten demons who bring disaster. Later, the horned god of the witches wore the mask of an animal, while witches smeared their faces with soot and paint and put on masks.