Trick or treat! Halloween traditions have adapted through tough times along with us
Halloween customs have changed over the years. My friend Barb and I compared notes recently on very different celebrations from our childhood memories on the East and West coasts.
From Connecticut, she recalled almost a week of rowdy celebration. There was Chalk Night where evil spirits disguised as gangs of kids would write on gates and fences, and the coats of passersby, as well as Soap Night — soap on windows, of course. Most scary of all, the night before Halloween was the dread Gate Night. We didn’t have that in Washington. No gates, except Bill, of course, but that’s a different story.
An article in Time Magazine explained that Gate Night was, in legend, the night when the gates of Hell opened to allow demons to wander around on earth. It doesn’t say if Chris Wallace was the moderator of this event.
Of course, once the souls were out and wandering about, they needed to be appeased with demonic activities and sweet treats. That’s where Halloween comes in. Trick-or-treating has been popular in the United States since the late 19th century. In 1902, the Anaconda (Montana) Journal warned about Laundry Night. Housewives were told to get their laundry off the clothesline before dark lest terrible children should coat their clean clothes with mud.
Barb remembered Doorbell Night, when children rang doorbells and ran. Enterprising goblins stuck pins into the doorbell mechanism to keep them ringing and ringing. And ringing. This never caught on in Spokane, mostly because we didn’t have doorbells, at least not on the North Side. We considered ourselves lucky to have doors.
Trick-or-treaters were met with mixed feelings. A concerned reader characterized the practice this way in the Spokane Daily Chronicle on Nov. 6, 1935: “In plain fact, it is straight New York or Chicago ‘graft’ or ‘racket’ in miniature.” Don’t look at me. My costume that year consisted of diapers.
World War II brought severe sugar rationing in 1942 and that was the end of trick-or-treating for five years. When sugar rationing ended in June 1947, we were ready to give the old tradition another try.
Trick-or-treaters were not driven from house to house. In the first place, most people didn’t own a car. In fact, most parents weren’t involved at all. Kids were left to themselves outdoors, as people concentrated on repairing their lives after the war.
In addition, parents were trying desperately to deal with a plague no one understood. It wasn’t unusual as we walked around the neighborhood to see a black wreath on a front door, representing the loss of a loved one. Just that year, the CDC had begun a five-year study on what role flies might have in the spread and transmission of poliomyelitis. Polio was the mystery plague of our childhood. Children died or were paralyzed. There were no answers.
In those days, trick-or-treaters were often invited inside and told by a skeptical father “Well let’s see the trick first and then I’ll decide if you deserve a treat,” and the goblin would dutifully perform a soft shoe shuffle or sing a song to earn a handmade popcorn ball or a cookie. Sometimes boys (it was always boys) unconvinced of the value of their treat would soap the windows anyway. But that went against Kid Etiquette. You couldn’t have both. If you took their popcorn balls, you had to leave the windows alone.
Our first attempt at trick or treat in 1947 was pretty much a disaster. Since nobody had treats on hand, householders seemed pleased to be finally getting rid of the items that had been in the cupboard for years. I scored a half empty jar of Horlick’s Malted Milk Centers. These look like malted milk balls with the chocolate washed – or sucked – off. You can still buy them on Amazon. I wouldn’t though.
By 1951, trick or treat was featured in many publications including a Donald Duck cartoon and the newly iconic Peanuts comic strip. The new tradition was here to stay.
Now, it looks like it’s time for change again. The old trick-or-treat celebration won’t be possible. We have to find a new way. There are lots of thoughts on how to celebrate. MarketWatch.com offers ideas for lower risk Halloween activities, including a “candy chute” for no-hands transferring of goodies. The article cautions. “If screaming will likely occur during any of these activities, then greater distancing is advised.”
We can’t stop the changes, but we’ve been here before. We can do this together. We always have. I wouldn’t worry about Gate Night though. I think the demons are already here.
Dorothy Wilhelm is an author, columnist, humorist and speaker and proficient in Zoom. She’s still sheltering in place and making good choices. Reach her at Dorothy@itsnevertoolate.com or 800-548-9264.
Where to find Dorothy in October
Sheltering in place, with mask, is getting old, but last month’s Zoom Houseparty went so well that she’s scheduling a free Halloween Zoom Party at 2 p.m. Oct. 21. If you have a good family-appropriate Halloween story to tell, you might win a free Amazon Gift Card. Contact her at Dorothy@itsnevertoolate.com or 800-548-9264 with questions and for reservations.
Join Dorothy anytime for her podcast, “Swimming Upstream,” which you can find at Swimmingupstreamradioshow.com or SOBRadioNetwork.com/.
This story was originally published October 4, 2020 at 5:45 AM.