Trick or treat!
On the 31st of October, children in costumes walk from door to door, asking their neighbors for sticky, gooey, and sweet things. They ring the doorbell, shout the jolly “trick or treat!”, and see an assortment [1] of candy pouring into their cups or bags. While children and their parents circle their neighborhood seeking treats, many young adults also wear scary costumes without participating in the trick-or-treating. Instead, they decorate their homes with “spooky” ornaments such as skulls and spider-webs, watch horror films, visit “haunted house” attractions, and throw large Halloween parties. But how did this somewhat odd tradition begin, and how has it evolved through time?
The Origins of Halloween
It is often difficult to trace the origins of holidays such as Halloween, as customs and traditions vary among different communities. In addition, folk traditions weren’t always recorded by chroniclers [2], who tended to focus on more “important” matters of the state. Today, historians have a number of different theories regarding the origins of Halloween.
Some historians have drawn connections between Halloween and various traditions in pre-Christian Europe, particularly in Celtic pagan cultures. The Celtic holiday of Samhain, a “summer’s end” holiday bears some similarity to Halloween. Samhain was celebrated with feasts and bonfires and was thought of as a day when the barrier, between our world and the “Otherworld” beyond our world, was particularly thin. The souls of the dead could therefore return on Samhain, and food was left for the dead at the family dinner table.
Other historians, however, have argued that Halloween has a Christian origin. Halloween is celebrated one day before the Christian holiday of “All Saints Day” (also called “Hallowmas”). In some parts of medieval Europe, groups of people (often either the poor or children) would go from door to door collecting small cakes known as “soul cakes” in exchange for prayers, including prayers for the deceased. This might be the origin of the tradition of “trick-or-treating.”
Halloween Today
Regardless of the exact nature of its origins, many of the traditions and symbols that we associate with Halloween today took shape [3] in the United States in the early 20th century, and the global spread of Halloween can be traced to the influence of American pop culture around the world. In recent decades, Halloween has risen in popularity in a number of cultures wherein it wasn’t traditionally practiced, and so too has it often been adapted and modified in new cultural contexts.
In Korea, Halloween is mostly celebrated in English classes at schools, where teachers introduce students to Halloween traditions and hand out candies. For adults, amusement parks often host special events where employees dressed as zombies walk around at night. Itaewon, a culturally diverse district in Seoul, was particularly famous for its Halloween festivals. However, after the tragic incident in Itaewon in 2022, the enthusiasm for celebrating Halloween in Korea has diminished, as the country still remembers and mourns the lives lost.