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Halloween gifts in North and South America

© Elizabeth Nordhausen

Many North Americans spend billions of dollars on candy to give to trick or treaters for Halloween on October 31. According to the Candy USA website at http://www.candyusa.org/Stats/seasonal.s... , "Halloween is the top candy holiday. Americans will purchase an estimated 20 million pounds of candy corn for Halloween, and 93 percent of children will go trick-or-treating. " The Halloween traditions of giving candy to children in the U.S. and Canada originated from the customs of Ireland and England.

There are a few customs which can be pinpointed to which started the traditions in the U.S. The time between October 31 and November 1 is when the days start getting shorter and the nights longer in the Northern Hemisphere. This signifies the end of summer and the end of the harvest. The Celtic people of Ireland called this time Samhain or "summer's end. For more on Samhain, please see http://www.celticspirit.org/samhain.htm . The night before the Celtic New Year, October 31, was thought to be when the spirits of the dead came back to earth. Because they did not have preservatives for their food, food was still abundant at this time and poor people would go around asking for food and money before the winter started and the harvest would start to spoil. Big bonfires were also lit and children would go around asking for fire wood from houses.

After the Romans conquered the Celts, the Roman festival of Feralia at the end of October was incorporated with Samhain. People would typically leave food and drinks outside their houses for spirits. After the spread of Christianity October 31 became known as Hallows Eve, the night before All Saint's Day which honored all saints of the church. The Church later saw the need to honor the dead in general which became All Soul's Day on November 2. The three holidays, All Hallows Eve, All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day, are called Hallowmas. The church tried to discourage rituals of Samhain and Feralia which are pagan rituals , so they came up with an alternative of giving out soul cakes. Eventually, poor people and children would go to houses in their respective towns to pray for other people's dead relatives in exchange for a soul cake. Children would sing a song as they went door to door singing (taken from http://www.bartelby.com/81/15686.html ) A soul cake! A soul cake! Pray you, good mistress, a soul cake,

For a recipe for soul cakes, please see "A Week of Traditions" from the BBC site at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2q2/A641503 .

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