A curious look at the roots of Halloween
Published: 07 Nov. 2024, 19:55
The author is a professor of archaeology at the University of Toronto.
I went “trick or treating” with my 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter on Halloween evening. Children go from house to house to get candies or chocolates and sing “trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat.”
When my parents studied abroad, they took me — three or four years old at the time — trick or treating to teach me foreign customs and make me bolder. I was resentful that they made me ring the doorbell at a stranger’s house and sing the song all by myself, but it is a memory that helps me get over stage fright even today.
Halloween is an interesting mixed-culture festival created by combining Christian and pagan traditions, just like Mexico’s Day of the Dead. Halloween is based on Samhain, a Celtic harvest festival that dates back to the 5th century BC, and The Day of the Dead originated from the practice of ancestor worship by the Aztecs before the Spanish conquest.
It is not a coincidence that the time of the year after the harvest and the start of the winter is symbolically celebrated with death in various traditions. “Trick or treat” is believed to have originated from Christian tradition from 15th century Europe, but there had also been a tradition in ancient Greece where children dressed up as swallows, sang songs and asked for food, with a playful threat.
The phrase, “trick or treat,” started to be used in Canada in the early 20th century, and children in rural areas used to steal fruits and grains on Halloween. The ritual of violation may be a mechanism to provide a unique learning opportunity to the future members of the society. It fosters an adventurous spirit that shakes the existing rules.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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