What is it with Halloween and pumpkins anyway? And what's "trick or treat?

Question

I'm from Australia and we don't do that here. Can someone explain it all to a dumb Antipodean? TIA

Answer 1

Historically, in Europe, people used to carve turnips into faces and set a lit candle inside to drive away/scare away evil spirits. When they migrated, they discovered pumpkins in the new world. These carve much more easily and are more abundantly grown than a turnip is, so they transitioned to the pumpkin.

Trick or treat is also an historical event, where adults used to travel from house to house getting "treats" of food, in celebration of a good harvest. If you did not provide food, the people could play sometimes fairly nasty tricks on you - breaking fences, letting livestock loose, climbing on your roof, etc.
The practice fell away for a time in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, re-emerging in American culture as a children's event, when children go door to door asking for a treat or they will play a trick - egging, soaping windows, smashing your pumpkin, etc. Very few children play the tricks, and very few adults refuse the treats.

Answer 2

The jackolatern started out as carved turnips based on folklore. See links

In America, the carved pumpkin was associated with the harvest season in general, long before it became an emblem of Halloween.

I would dare say that Halloween made some of the happiest days of my life as a child.

Answer 3

"trick or treat" means i'm all dressed up please gimme some candy. pumpkins are an edible decoration that usually goes to waste because it rots from sitting out too long. this holiday, like others, has a rich and interesting history. but, like other holidays, it's so commercial that if you aren't doing it for your own enjoyment, it's not really worth the trouble.

friends and family from all around want you to spend the limited time for festivities with them, and either you just do it for your kids and hurt everyone else's feelings, or you compromise and do part of it with some ppl, part with others, and most of them get their feelings hurt anyway. except the kids, they have fun no matter what unless you're really stuck honoring "family traditions" to no end.

aside from this quite negative commentary on "american" holidays, halloween itself is a celebration of life. it is intended to be a time of honoring the dead, scaring away the evil, and marking the beginning of fall. it is a christian holiday which embraces pagan rituals as part of the attempt of the early christian church to absorb all pagan celebrations and turn all people into christians. but because unlike other holidays halloween tends to highlight its pagan origins, many groups seek to de-emphasize it by hosting "harvest festivals" which overlap the holiday. the pumpkins from these festivals, carved into jack-o-lanterns, mock the purpose of the groups who started them. carved pumpkins are as much a part of the halloween holiday as anything else.

Answer 4

mayb they use pumkins because they grow alot in type of seasons or appear more, n the tick or treat is siple, u either give a treat or u get a trick also know as vandalism :) in young people :)

Answer 5

thank consumer at a loss for words, might Allah bathe His Mercy and forgiveness on consumer at a loss for words and something of the Ummah. ameen say ameen and jazakAllahukhairan and BarakAllah to this consumer in ur publish.

Answer 6

something man made up