I Can’t Sleep - Trick-or-Treating | Calm Halloween Bedtime Reading

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

Relax with this calm bedtime reading about the history and traditions of trick-or-treating, perfect for easing insomnia and sleepless nights. Discover how this festive custom evolved from ancient rituals to the joyful candy-filled evenings we know today. Benjamin’s gentle narration offers a peaceful way to unwind, combining education and relaxation without whispers or hypnosis—just a soft, steady voice to quiet your mind. Learn, relax, and drift into restful sleep as you explore the origins of Halloween’s most beloved tradition. Press play, get cozy, and let your worries melt away. Happy sleeping! Read with permission from Trick-or-treating, Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trick-or-treating), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox Media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch. I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause.

With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast where I help you drift off one fact at a time. I'm your host Benjamin Boster. And today's episode is about trick-or-treating. Trick-or-treating is a traditional Halloween custom for children and adults. in some countries.

During the evening of Halloween on October 31st, people in costumes travel from house to house, asking for treats with the phrase, trick-a-treat. The treat is some form of confectionery, usually candy or sweets, although in some cultures, money is given instead.

The trick refers to a threat, usually idle, to perform mischief on reds, residents or their property if no treat is given. Some people signal that they are willing to hand out treats by putting up Halloween decorations outside their doors. Houses may also leave their porch lights on as a universal indicator that they have candy. Some simply leave treats available on their porches for the children to take freely on the honor system. The history of trick-or-treating traces back to Scotland and Ireland, where the tradition of guising

going house to house at Halloween and putting on a small performance to be rewarded with food or treats goes back at least as far as the 16th century, as does the tradition of people wearing costumes at Halloween. There are many accounts from the 19th century Scotland and Ireland of people going house to house in costume at Halloween reciting verses in exchange for food

and sometimes warning of misfortune if they were not welcomed. In North America, the earliest known occurrence of geising is from 1898, when children were recorded as having done this in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The interjection, trick-or-treat, was then first recorded in the Canadian province of Ontario in 1917. While going house-to-house and costume has long been popular among the Scots and Irish, It is only in the 2000s that saying trick-or-treat has become common in Scotland and Ireland. Prior to this, children in Ireland would commonly say, Help the Halloween party at the doors of homeowners.

The activity is prevalent in the anglospheric countries of the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, and Canada. It also has extended into Mexico. In northwestern and central Mexico, the practice of the practice of the United States of Canada, the practice This is called Calaverita, Spanish diminutive for calavera, skull in English. And instead of trick-or-treat, the children ask, May da me calaverita? Can you give me my little skull? Where a calaverita is a small skull made of sugar or chocolate.

Traditions similar to the modern custom of trick-or-treating extend all the way back to classical antiquity, although it is extremely unlikely that any of them are directly related to the modern custom. The ancient Greek writer Athenius of Nocritus records in his book the Dibnosephets that in ancient times the Greek island of Rhodes had a custom in which children would go from door to door dressed as swallows singing a song, which demanded the owners of the house to give them food and threaten to cause mischief. if the owners of the house refused. The tradition was claimed to have been started

by the Rhodian lawgiver, Cleobulus. Starting as far back as the 15th century among Christians, there had been accustomed of sharing soul cakes at all halotide, October 31st through November 2nd. People would visit houses and take soul cakes, either as representatives of the dead or in return for praying for their souls. Later, people went from parish to parish at Halloween, begging soul cakes by singing under the windows,

some such verses as this. Soul, souls for a soul cake. Pray you, good mistress, a soul cake. They typically asked for mercy on all Christian souls for a soul cake. It was known as souling, and was recorded in parts of Britain, Flanders, Southern Jersey. Germany and Austria. Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy, the two gentlemen of Verona, 1593. When Speed accuses his master of pulling, whimpering or whining like a beggar at Hallamass, in Western England, mostly in the counties bordering Wales, sulling was common.

According to one 19th century English writer, parties of children dressed up in fantastic costume, went round to the farmhouses and cottages singing a song, and begging for cakes, apples, money, or anything that the good wives would give them. In England, Soling remained an important part of all Hallotide observances until the 19th century in both Protestant and Catholic areas. The practice of giving and eating soul cakes continues in some countries today, such as Portugal, or it is known as Palm Bordeoush and occurs on All Hallows Day and All Souls Day, as well as the Philippines, where it is known as Pangangalua, and occurs on All Hallows Eve. In other countries, Soling is seen as the origin of the practice of trick-or-treating.

In the United States, some churches during All-Hallotide have invited people to come receive sweets from them, and have offered to pray for the souls of their friends, relatives, or even pets as they do so. Since the Middle Ages, a tradition of mumming on a certain holiday has existed in parts of Britain and Ireland. It involved going door to door and costume, performing short scenes or parts of plays in exchange for food or drink. The custom of trick-or-treating on Halloween may come from the belief that supernatural beings, for the souls of the dead. Rome the earth at this time and needed to be appeased.

It may otherwise have originated in a Celtic festival, Sowan, held on October 31st through November 1st, to mark the beginning of winter in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, and Kalangayev in Wales,

Cornwall, and Brittany. The festival is believed to have pre-Christian roots. In the 9th century, the Catholic Church made the 1st of November All Saints Day. Among Celtic-speaking peoples, it was seen as a liminal time when the spirits of fairies, the Ishi,

and the souls of the dead came into our world and were appeased with offerings of food and drink. Similar beliefs and customs were found in other parts of Europe. It is suggested that trick-or-treating evolved from a tradition whereby people and persons, impersonating the spirits or the souls of the dead, and received offerings on their behalf. S.V. Pettel suggests they personify the old spirits of the winter,

who demanded reward in exchange for good fortune. Impersonating these spirits or souls was also believed to protect oneself from them. In Scotland and Ireland, guising, children going from door to door in disguise, is secular, and a gift in the form of food, coins, or apples or nuts for the Halloween party, and in more recent times, chocolate, is given out to the children. The tradition is called guising because of the disguises or costumes worn by the children. In the West Mid-Scott's dialect, Geising is known as Galotians.

In Scotland, used what house to house and white with masked painted or blackened faces, reciting rhymes and often threatening to do mischief if they were not welcomed. Geising has been recorded in Scotland since the 16th century, often at New Year. The Kirk session records of Elgin named men and women who danced at New Year 1623. Six men, described as geysers or Gwisoros, performed a sword dance, wearing masks and visors, covering their faces in the churchyard and in the courtyard of a house. They were each fined 40 shillings. A record of guising at Halloween in Scotland in 1895

describes masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped-out turnips. Visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit, and money. In Ireland, children in costumes would commonly say, help the Halloween party at the doors of homeowners. Halloween masks are referred to as false faces in Ireland and Scotland. A writer using Scots language recorded guises in Air Scotland in 1890. I had mind it was Halloween. The wee Collins boys read it already,

running about with their false faces and their bits of turnip lanterns in their hand. Geising also involved going to wealthy, Kelsey Homes, and in the 1920s, boys went guiseeing at Halloween up to the affluent Thornton Hall, South Lanarkshire. An account of guisein in the 1950s in Ardrossin, North Ayrshire, records a child receiving 12 shillings and sixpence, having knocked on doors throughout the neighborhood and performed. Growing up in Derry, Northern Ireland in the 1960s, a guardian journalist Michael Bradley

recalls children asking, Any nuts or apples? In Scotland and Ireland, the children are only supposed to receive treats if they perform a party trick for the households they go to. This normally takes the form of singing a song or reciting a joke or a funny poem,

which the child has memorized before setting out. While going from door to door in disguise has remained popular among Scots and Irish at Halloween, The North American saying trick-or-treat has become common in the 2000s. Author Nicholas Rogers cites an early example of guising in North America in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario, Canada reported children going guising around the neighborhood. The article itself details the practice as such. Between 6 and 7 o'clock, the children began to appear in the streets, disguised with all

kinds of masks and costumes. The usual program of visiting the corner grocery stores, hotels, and private residences was carried out. The youngsters' efforts as elocutionists and vocalists being rewarded with money, apples, nuts, etc. American historian and author Rousse Edna Kelly of Massachusetts wrote the first book's length history of the holiday in the United States, the book of Halloween 1919, and references Soling in the chapter Halloween in America. The taste in Halloween festivities now is to study old traditions and hold a scotch party, using Burns' poem Halloween as a guide, or to go a souling as the English used. In short, no custom that was once honored at Halloween is out of fashion now.

Kelly lived in Lynn, Massachusetts, a town with 4,500 Irish immigrants, 1,900 English immigrants, and 700 Scottish immigrants in 1920. In her book, Kelly touches on customs that arrive from across the Atlantic. Americans have fostered them, and are making this an occasion something like what it must have been in its best days overseas. All Halloween customs in the United States are borrowed direct. or adapted from those of other countries. While the first reference to guising in North America occurs in 1911,

another reference to ritual begging on Halloween appears, Place Unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920. The interjection, trick-or-treat, a request for sweets or candy, originally, and sometimes still was the implication that anyone who has asked and who does not provide sweets, or other treats, will be subjected to a prank or practical joke.

Seems to have arisen in central Canada, before spreading into the northern and western United States in the 1930s, and across the rest of the United States through the 1940s and early 1950s. Initially, it was often found in varying forms, such as tricks or treats, which was used in the earliest known case, the 1917 report in the Sioux Daily Star in Sioux-Marie, Ontario. Almost everywhere you went last night, particularly in the early part of the evening, you had made gangs of youngsters out to celebrate.

Some of them would have adopted various forms of camouflage, such as masks, or would appear in long trousers and big hats or with long skirts. But others again didn't. Tricks or treats, you could hear the ganges, gangs call out, and if the householder passed out the coin for the treats, his establishment would be immune from attack until another gang came along that knew not of or had no part in the agreement. As shown by the word sleuth, Barry Popek, who also found the first use from 1917, variant forms continued with trick or a treat, found in Chatsworth, Ontario in 1921,

Treat Up or Tricks And Treat or Tricks Found in Edmonton, Alberta in 1920 And Treat or Trick In Penhole, Alberta in 1924 The now canonical form of trick or treat Was first seen in 1917 in Chatsworth Only one day after the Sioux-Saint-Marie use

But Tricks or Trids was still in use In the 1966 television special It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown The thousands of Halloween postcards produced between the start of the 20th century in the 1920s commonly show children but do not depict trick-or-treating. The editor of a collection of over 3,000 vintage Halloween postcards writes, there are cards which mention the custom of trick-or-treating or show children in costumes at the doors.

But as far as we can tell, they were printed later than the 1920s, and more than likely even the 1930s. Tricksters of various swords are shown on the early postcards, but not the means of appeasing them. Trick-or-treating does not seem to have become a widespread practice until the 1930s, with the first appearance of the term in the United States in 1988, and the first known use in a national publication occurring in 1939. Behavior similar to trick-or-treating was more commonly assisted,

with Thanksgiving from 1870, shortly after that holiday's formalization until the 1930s. In New York City, a Thanksgiving ritual known as Ragamuffin Day involved children dressing up as beggars and asking for treats, which later evolved into dressing up in more diverse costumes. Increasing hostility toward the practice in the 1930s eventually led to the begging aspects being dropped, and by the 1950s the tradition as a whole had ceased. Almost all pre-1940 uses of the term trick-or-treat are from the United States and Canada. Trick-or-treating spread throughout the United States, stalled only by World War II sugar rationing that began in April 1942

and lasted until June 1947. Early national attention to trick-or-treating was given, given in October 1947 issues of the children's magazines Jack and Jill and children's activities, and by Halloween episodes of the network radio programs, the Baby Snooks Show in 1946, and the Jack Benny Show, and the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet in 1948. Trick or treating was depicted in the Peanuts Comics trip in 1951.

The custom had become firmly established, in popular culture by 1952, when Walt Disney portrayed it in the cartoon, Trick-or-Treat. And Ozzy and Harriet were besieged by trick-or-treaters on an episode of their television show. In 1953, UNICEF first conducted a national campaign for children to raise funds for the charity while trick-or-treating. Although some popular histories of Halloween, have characterized trick-or-treating as an adult invention to re-channel Halloween activities away from mischief night vandalism. There are very few records supporting this. Des Moines, Iowa is the only area known to have a record of trick-or-treating being used to deter crime.

Elsewhere, adults, as reported in newspapers from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, typically saw it as a form of extortion. with reactions ranging from bemused indulgence to anger. Likewise, as portrayed on radio shows, children would have to explain what trick-or-treating was to puzzled adults, and not the other way around. Sometimes, even the children protested. For Halloween 1948,

members of the Madison Square Boys Club and New York City carried a parade banner that read, American Boys Don't Beg. The National Confectioners Association reported in 2005 that 80% of adults in the United States planned to give out confectionery to trick-or-treaters, and that 93% of children, teenagers, and young adults planned to go trick-or-treating or participating in other Halloween activities.

Despite the concept of trick-or-treating originating in Britain and Ireland in the form of Soling and Guising, the use of the term trick-or-treat of the doors of homeowners was not uncommon until the 1980s, with its popularization and part through the release of the film E.T. Guising requires those going door-to-door to perform a song or poem without any jocular thread, and according to one BBC journalist in the 1980s, trick-or-treat was still often viewed as an exotic

and not particularly welcome import, with the BBC referring to it as the Japanese not weed of festivals, and making demands with menaces. In Ireland, before the phrase trick-or-treat became common in the 2000s, children would say, help the Halloween party. Very often, the phrase trick-or-treat is simply said, and the revelers are given sweets, with the choice of a trick or a treat having been discovered.

Trick-or-treating typically begins at dusk on October 31st. Some municipalities choose other dates. Homeowners wishing to participate sometimes decorate their homes with artificial spiderwebs, plastic skeletons, and jack-o-lanterns. Conversely, those who do not wish to participate may turn off outside lights for the evening or lock relevant gates and fences to keep people from coming onto their property. In most areas where trick-or-treating is practiced, it is considered an activity for children. Some jurisdictions in the United States forbid the activity for anyone over the age of 12.

Dressing up is common at all ages. Adults will often dress up to accompany their children, and young adults may dress up to go out and ask for gifts for a charity. Children of both the St. Louis, Missouri and Des Moines, Iowa, area, are expected to perform a joke, usually a simple Halloween-themed pun or riddle, before receiving any candy. This trick earns the treat. In addition, trick-or-treating in the Des Moines area is arranged on a different night preceding Halloween, known as Beggar's Night, with the expectation it will reduce mischief and keep children safer from adult parties

and drunk driving that may occur on Halloween proper. In some parts of Canada, children sometimes say Halloween apples instead of trick-or-treat. This probably originated when the toffee apple was a popular type of candy. Some organizations around the United States and Canada sponsor a trunk or treat on Halloween night, or an occasion a day immediately preceding Halloween,

or a few days from it on a weekend. depending on what is convenient. Trunk or treating is done from part car to part car in a local parking lot, often at a school or church. The activity makes use of the open trunks of the cars, which display candy and often games and decorations. Some parents regard trunk or treating as a safer alternative to trick-or-treating, while other parents see it as an easier alternative to walk in the neighborhood with their children. This annual event began in the mid-1990s as a fall festival for an alternative to trick-or-treating, but became trunk-or-treat two decades later.

This change was primarily due to discomfort with some of Halloween's themes. Some churches and church leaders have attempted to connect with the cultural phenomenon of Halloween, viewing it as an opportunity for cultural engagement with the gospel. But some have called for more city or community group-sponsored trunker treats, so they can be more inclusive. By 2006, these had become increasingly popular. In Portugal, children go from house to house on All Saints Day and All Souls Day, carrying pumpkin-carved lanterns called Cocoa.

asking everyone they see for Pao Pardéus singing rhymes where they remind people why they are begging, saying, It is for me and for you, and to give to the deceased who are dead and buried. Or, it is to share with your deceased. In the Azores, the bread given to the children, takes the shape of the top of a skull.

The tradition of Pao Pardéusch was already recorded in the 15th century, century. In Galicia, particularly in the island of Ailia de Arausa, a similar tradition exists where children ask for alms, usually bread, sweets, fruits, chestnuts, money, or small toys, with the phrase, Unya Esmolina, Polos de Fontinios Kevana la. A little charity for the little deceased who are there. In Sweden, children dress up as witches and monsters. when they go trick-or-treating on Mondi Thursday, the Thursday before Easter, while Danish and Faroese children dress up in various attires,

and go trick-or-treating on Fustalown, or the next day, Shrove Monday. In Norway, the practice is quite common among children, who come dressed up to people's doors asking for mainly candy, the Easter witch tradition is done on Palm Sunday in Finland. In parts of Flanders, some parts of the Netherlands, and most areas of Germany, Switzerland and Austria, children go to houses with homemade beet lanterns or with paper lanterns, which can hold a candle or electronic light, singing songs about St. Martin on St. Martin's Day, the 11th of November, and return for treats.

Over the last decade, Halloween trick-or-treating has experienced a notable source. surge in popularity, particularly among children and teenagers in Germany. Austria and the Netherlands have also witnessed a similar trend. The equivalent of trick or treat in the German language is Zeus's Orozawas, which translates to asking for Swedes or threatening something less pleasant, with the direct translation being sweet or sour. In northern Germany and southern Denmark, children dress up in costumes, and go trick-or-treating on New Year's Eve, in a tradition called Rumopod.

Rumopod has experienced a massive decrease in popularity over recent decades, although some towns and communities are trying to revive it. UNICEF started a program in 1950 called Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, in which trick-or-treaters asked people to give money for the organization, usually instead of collecting candy. participating trick-or-treaters say when they knock at doors trick-or-treat for unisph this program started as an alternative to candy the organization has long produced disposable collection boxes that stayed on the back what the money can be used for in developing countries in canada students from the local high schools colleges and universities dressed up to collect food donations for the local food banks as a form of the local high schools colleges and universities dressed up to collect food donations for the local food banks as a form of of trick-or-treating. This is sometimes called trick-or-eed.