Knock knock!

Halloween is just around the corner, and everyone is planning their amazing costumes and outfits. Parties are at every street corner in a college town like Natchitoches. For many, you might be planning how to answer the door should a trick-or-treater come along the sidewalk.

That’s right! Trick-or-treating is a holiday event many of us have abandoned, or may have even stopped early enough to not even remember the last year you went out in the neighborhood with your siblings and friends to ask strangers for treats.

Does anyone remember when they were too old to trick or treat? Maybe when you were a preteen or teenager. But should there be a set age when someone is too old or should there even be such a notion as being too old to partake in this event? When does one become the stranger giving out candy to other strangers’ children?

When did trick-or-treating first become a thing? According to the History Channel website, in an article titled ancient origins of trick-or-treating, they state that trick-or-treating “had been firmly established in American popular culture by 1951, when trick-or-treating was depicted in the Peanuts comic strip,” but that’s only relative to our history.

The article continues to go on, identifying the origins of Halloween. “The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, believed that the dead returned to earth on Samhain. On the sacred night, people gathered to light bonfires, offer sacrifices, and pay homage to the dead.”

Sometimes the villagers would wear disguises to scare away phantom visitors. Of course, at every celebration, food was involved. Throughout time, people began to mimic ghosts and demons, “performing antics in exchange for food and drink.”

This was called “mumming,” coined during the Middle Ages. This strongly resembles the act of trick-or-treating today. Dressing in disguises and acting like the character of your disguise and other such things to receive candy and treats.

Despite all the history and reasoning behind trick-or-treating, Halloween has never been for the children alone. Halloween is not only about the occasion of “mumming,” or trick-or-treating as we call it. Halloween is about celebrating and conquering what usually scares us, strangers, the dark, cavities and ghosts whether it be at the door of another or at the party down the street.

You are never too old to celebrate Halloween, nor to partake in trick-or-treating. This may be from either outside the door frame or in, asking for candy or giving it. Let’s all celebrate the spooky scary holidays together! Share some candy, and of course, brush your teeth extra well.