If you don't treat, do you get tricked?

Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat.

I remember chanting this many times as a child, excitedly putting on my Halloween costume and getting ready to go out and get the hoarde of candy my brothers and I would bring in. Since we lived way out in the country, there weren't much in terms of neighbors so we often came to one of the more established (and safer as far as my parents were concerned) neignborhoods in town to knock on doors and let strangers fill our little plastic pumpkins with all that chocolately goodness. Have you ever wondered why the other 364 days of the year, we teach our kids NOT to take candy from strangers, but it's perfectly OK on Halloween?

There is actually a historical basis for this. Centuries ago, at the stroke of midnight when October 31 became November 1, people put out food and yummy sweet goodies at their front doors. The reason for this was twofold. First, this was the time of year when everyone was beginning to wonder if they had enough food to last them through the winter season. Crops have been harvested, any food that could be canned, pickled or put in the cold cellar have been stored. But poor people who weren't in the best condition would travel around looking for handouts to help them pack on the few extra pounds to pad them up for the winter.

Secondly, this particular time period, from 10/31 to 11/2 was a time for remembering those who have passed on. If there was a time of year when the veils between the living world and the dead were at their thinnest, this was it. Restless souls could travel back into this world and harass the living. There was a real fear that the dead might burn the food storage, leading to more dead bodies by the end of winter. To head off any such "tricks" by the dead, you put out a little food on the front stoop for them. Hopefully, if it placated them, the spooks would head off to the next house looking for a treat or they would give a trick nobody wanted.

As time passed and the inate fear of the walking dead on Halloween began to fade, it became popular for children to dress up in spooky costumes and knock on peoples' doors, asking for a candy treat. At first, the costumes were supposed to be as scary as possible to make people think you were one of the spirits who had crossed back over for the night. Now it's not necessarily how scary but how cute the costume is. Some people (think older kids whose parents need to give them a good smack on the butt for acting like this) would go so far as to "trick" anybody who didn't give them a good enough treat. Those tricks might include vandalism and giving the family a big scare. Regardless of the tricks, Halloween became much more about the treats. I can imagine that most kids were like me and my brothers- you know exactly who had the best candy so you wanted to hit up that house first!

Recently, with the big push for healthier lifestyles, many folks hand out stuff like toothbrushes, fruit or other things that aren't necessarily treats. No wonder trick are on the rise! Not me! I'm going to be sitting out there on the front porch, giving out the yummiest stuff I can find- the cuter your costume, the more candy you get- and hope that the spooks don't decide to trick me.