Since Halloween is coming up, does anyone know how or when it became tradition to dress up and give out candy?

Answer 1

First people always confuse All Saint's Day with Samhain celebration.

Samhain was a Celtic/Druid festival to celebrate the end of Summer and the begining of Fall. There would be great party and when it got dark festival goers would wear mask. It was believed this on this day the "boundry" between this world and the world of the dead, was open or the thinniest. The wearing of mask was to disguise yourself from evil spirits so that you might not be attacked by them. Sometimes a family might put a sweet treat outside the front door to appease the spirits in hope of being left alone. <-- that's where the wearing costumes/masks and asking for candy comes from.

All Saint's Day/Eve is a holiday to celebrate the lives and ministries of the Saints/Christians who have passed on before. Its was started in the 4th century by the Catholic church. Having an All Saint's Eve the day before was to counter act the pagan festival of Samhain. All Saint's Eve and Samhain were thus on the same day.

Here's an other little tid bit; Jack-o-lanterns come from Irish Catholic tradition. The story goes that a miserly old man, cant remember his name, died. As penence for his past deeds or maybe disbelief he was forced to come back as a ghost to walk around at night to warn the living. He carried around with him a hollowed out turnip lantern. So then families would carve turnip or pumpkins with the old mans message of repentence.

Answer 2

I don't think anyone can say this is when current Halloween practices began to take hold. I do know that before it was called All Hollows Eve. This was the time when people celebrated their ancestors. This was the time people could communicate with their dead as the dead walked the earth during this time. People would wear scary masks to ward off the evil spirits that also wear said to roam the earth during this time. This was the same idea as using gargoyles to scare the evil away from churches. Since then those that celebrated shortened the festival to just candy and masks. And of course the holiday has lost its original purpose.

Answer 3

The main event of modern US-style Halloween is trick-or-treating, in which children dress up in costume disguises and go door-to-door in their neighborhood, ringing each doorbell and yelling "trick or treat!" Although this resembles the older tradition of guising in Ireland and Scotland, ritual begging on Halloween does not appear in English-speaking America until the 20th century, and may have developed independently. The occupants of the house (who might themselves dress in a scary costume) will then hand out small candies, miniature chocolate bars, and sometimes even soda pop. Some American homes will use sound effects and fog machines to help set a spooky mood. Other house decoration themes (that are less scary) are used to entertain younger visitors. Children can often accumulate many treats on Halloween night, filling up entire pillow cases or shopping bags.

Answer 4

Halloween (IPA pronunciation: [hælə'win], [hælo'win]) is an observance celebrated on the night of October 31, most notably by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting candy. It is celebrated in much of the Western world, though most common in the United States, Puerto Rico, Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada, and with increasing popularity in Australia and New Zealand. Halloween originated in Ireland as the pagan Celtic harvest festival, Samhain. Irish, Scots and other immigrants brought older versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th century. Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in the late 20th century.

The term Halloween, and its older spelling Hallowe'en, is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the evening before "All Hallows Day"[1] (also known as "All Saints' Day"). In Ireland, the name was All Hallows Eve (often shortened to Hallow Eve), and though seldomly used today, it is still a well accepted label. Halloween was also sometimes called All Saints' Eve. The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European pagan traditions, until it was appropriated by Christian missionaries and given a Christian interpretation. In Mexico November 1st and 2nd are celebrated as the "Día de Los Muertos" (Day of the Dead). Halloween is also called Pooky Night in some parts of Ireland, presumably named after the púca, a mischievous spirit. In Australia it is sometimes referred to as "mischief night", by locals.

Halloween is sometimes associated with the occult. Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the liminal times of the year when the spiritual world can make contact with the physical world and when magic is most potent (e.g. Catalan mythology about witches).

Contents [hide]
1 Halloween in various countries
1.1 Ireland
1.2 United Kingdom
1.3 United States
1.4 Australia
2 Symbols
3 Trick-or-treating and guising
4 Games and other activities
5 Foods
6 Cultural history
6.1 Christian festival
6.2 Origin: Celtic observation of Samhain
6.2.1 Samhain mistaken as New Year
6.3 Norse Elven Blót
7 Halloween traditions
7.1 Punkie Night
7.2 Mischief Night
8 Religious viewpoints
9 Further reading
10 See also
11 References
12 External links

Answer 5

There are many different rumors about how it got started.. Halloween was started about 2,000 years ago by the Celts. According to The Holiday Handbook (40), the word Halloween came from "All Hallows Eve," but the "v" eventually got dropped, so the word became Halloween.

Answer 6

There is no exact location, but the darker side, such as the Jackolantern came from the Druids, that kidnaped women for sacrifices, and left Jackolanterns to protect the household.

http://www.jeremiahfilms.com is the best source of information if you want an indepth look into halloween's history.

Answer 7

The true reason behind celebrating Halloween is to celebrate the changing of seasons. Pagan Priests and witches began the the festival to celebrate a time when the veil between our world and that of the dead was thinnest and it was easier to communicate with the other side

Answer 8

I know it all started up in America. The Irish were most certainly serious about it before it came to the Americans.

Answer 9

on my website i wrote an article last year around halloween about it, it begins on the first page http://trapprs.org/newsletter/OctNews/index.htm

Answer 10

Yeah, check out this link to wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haloween