Trick or treating through the years

Another Halloween has come and gone, and once again, neighborhoods were invaded with trick-or-treaters of all ages, wearing costumes and grabbing bucketfuls of candy.
Trick-or-treating has taken place in this country for close to 100 years now. It really gained popularity in the 1940s, but has changed immensely in the last 40 years. In the early days, most of the costumes were scary, such as vampires, and the devil, but nowadays, many kids dress up as cartoon characters, and other well known people, with fewer scary costumes. In addition, the use of masks has diminished quite a bit in the last few years, in favor of makeup; also more and more adults are now dressing up.
Another big change has been the trend for churches and other organizations to hold special events either on or just prior to Halloween as an alternative to trick-or-treating. Kids and adults still dress up, but many of these organizations, especially churches do not allow scary costumes. These events are usually free and open to the public. Kids get candy by playing games. In the 90s, some cities got into the act by starting Trunk-or–treat. Cars line up along a street or in a parking lot and hand out candy from the trunks of their cars, which are usually decorated.

To view more, please log in or subscribe to the digital edition.