Trunk-or-treats were first granted the New York Times trend-piece treatment in , and they seem to have grown in popularity across the country since then. While last year her family did door-to-door trick-or-treating, Wingard says she prefers the trunk-or-treat, because she lives on a busy road in a neighborhood with no sidewalks.
Safety concerns are one reason families opt for a contained trick-or-treat experience—and car accidents are a real danger. One recent study found a 43 percent increased risk of pedestrian fatalities on Halloween.
Read: How Halloween makes kids more monstrous. As more information about the coronavirus pandemic develops, some of the information in this story may have changed since it was last updated. You can view the CDC's full Halloween safety guidelines here. While the CDC offers many different alternatives to traditional trick-or-treating, if you're still thinking about organizing a trick-or-treat outing, independent health experts say these considerations should be front of mind.
The most significant risk may hinge on who you're actually trick-or-treating with , because close contact is defined as those "who are within six feet of you for more than 10 to 15 minutes," Dr. Kesh explains. House parties or any event involving welcoming your neighbors into your home aren't safe by any means, Dr. But you can limit the COVID risks associated with trick-or-treating outside your home by making sure your trick-or-treat group stays small.
Kesh explains, adding that some families may choose to trick-or-treat alone simply because they have at-risk family members at home. And of course, wear a mask.
Since Halloween already involves plenty of masks, it should be easy to incorporate a face covering into your child's costume , Dr.
Nearly all parents should also be wearing a face mask, too, but if a costume involves a mask that doesn't sufficiently cover the face, consider skipping it altogether in favor of a regular cloth mask. You're not a holiday grinch if you decide to skip handing out candy this year. Hyde says COVID risk is lower if the face-to-face interaction is kept short, but you can also wash your hands frequently to ensure you're not accidentally bringing germs back into your house.
It goes without saying that you should also keep all strangers outside of your home, and on your front porch or in your front yard instead. Executive Lifestyle. Kristine Solomon. Trick-or-treating has a long and winding history, beginning as a tradition during a Celtic holiday in medieval Europe.
The modern version of the Halloween tradition began to take shape after it was brought to the US in the 19th century. Read on for the history of trick-or-treating and other Halloween traditions. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The first trick-or-treaters were poor children in medieval Europe, who would go door-to-door begging for food and money during the Celtic holiday Samhain — celebrated on October In exchange, they would offer to pray for the souls of their neighbors' recently departed loved ones.
Single young women would perform tricks of their own on All Hallow's Eve, in hopes that they would discover the identities of their future husbands — and ideally be married by the following year.
Candy didn't get introduced to the trick-or-treating rotation until about the s, but neighbors did hand out a different kind of sweet to 19th-century beggars — a round pastry called a 'soul cake. The 19th century also introduced the offering of nuts and fruits to trick-or-treaters — especially apples. Halloween costumes have their origins in a medieval tradition called 'guising,' or disguising oneself as a ghost to blend in with the nefarious spirits who emerged during Samhain.
By the late 19th century, immigrants flooding America from Europe — especially from Ireland during the Irish Potato Famine — brought their All Hallow's Eve traditions with them, and modern-day Halloween started to take shape. Much to the dismay of communities throughout the US, mischief truly took over Halloween by the 20th century.
And it devolved into full-blown vandalism and crime around the time of the Great Depression. Amid the mayhem, parents and community leaders demanded a call to action. They insisted the more superstitious and scary aspects of the holiday be replaced with more wholesome traditions in order to curb the crime.
One theory holds that modern-day trick-or-treating emerged as a way to bring order to the chaos and keep citizens safe on October As the sugar rations of the Great Depression were lifted, candy companies started cashing in on the new Halloween tradition. The vandalism issue also ushered in the concept of haunted houses. As Halloween parties became more ubiquitous, Halloween treats also evolved into festive baked desserts that were more elaborate than their soul-cake predecessors.
The Great Depression exacerbated the problem, with Halloween mischief often devolving into vandalism, physical assaults and sporadic acts of violence. One theory suggests that excessive pranks on Halloween led to the widespread adoption of an organized, community-based trick-or-treating tradition in the s.
This trend was abruptly curtailed, however, with the outbreak of World War II , when sugar rationing meant there were few treats to hand out. At the height of the postwar baby boom , trick-or-treating reclaimed its place among other Halloween customs. No longer constrained by sugar rationing, candy companies capitalized on the lucrative ritual, launching national advertising campaigns specifically aimed at Halloween.
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