Trick or Treat Origins
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Updated: September 21, 2010
Trick-or Treating Origins
The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have
originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom
called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from
village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread
with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers
they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the
time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death,
and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to
heaven.
