FOOD NEWS
How Candy Companies Kickstarted Trick-Or-Treating On Halloween
By Crystal Antonace
Halloween dates back to the ancient Celtic celebration Samhain, where the act of “mumming” or performing skits and singing door to door resulted in awarded refreshments, and All Saints' Day, where “soul cakes” were baked and given to children who traveled across towns. However, modern-day trick-or-treating and the candy that’s involved in the tradition didn’t appear until much later.
During the Great Depression, fun-size or “junior” candy bars were created to appeal smaller and cheaper than normal-sized candies, marketing these packaged treats to homemakers eager to spread Halloween cheer. However, commercially packed candies only became the preferred choice in the 1970s after a few malicious Americans tampered with loose candies and parents began to tell their kids to only take commercially packed candy.
Halloween in the early 20th century was known as a day of pranks, and with the onset of the Great Depression, these once-harmless tricks led to serious destruction. While trick-or-treating and candy have been a duo for decades, the sweets were also once used as a tool to denounce juvenile artifice and promote innocent communion, and in the 1950s, the growing message from candy companies was, "If you buy the right candy, you won't get tricked."