Last year my wife and I were visiting the small eastern California town of Lone Pine on October 31—Halloween. There were a few scattered decorations around the town—pumpkins, some skeletons, and artificial spider webs — but we really didn’t make much of it.
We had dinner in a local restaurant and noted the owners were preparing bowls full of candy just inside the entry door. Slowly trick-or-treaters came in and were greeted with smiles and given candies. The kids were all dressed in costumes and were quite cute.
When we exited the restaurant it was dusk and we noted that the streets were filled with dozens of children in colorful costumes. It seems that the custom in this town was for children to walk from one shop to another, where they were given their treats.
The tradition of “trick or treating” dates to Scotland and Ireland several centuries ago. It made its debut in North America just over a hundred years ago. The idea is that if you are giving the homeowner a choice—I’ll perform a trick (act of vandalism) unless you give me a treat. Since everyone is expecting “trick or treaters,” candy is handed out and kids go away happy. Even if they were disappointed, I doubt many of them would do a “trick.”
This was quite different than the custom in the Canadian prairie town where I grew up. Back then we went from home-to-home as small groups of kids, calling out “trick-or-treat” at each door. Generally we were given candy or gum, or a piece of fruit. After a few hours of doing this, we returned home with a bag full of bounty and had a supply of candy that lasted many weeks. When my kids were young, I took them around from house acting as a chaperone and keeping an eye on their safety. There were never any problems and they also had a lot of fun doing it.
In Lone Pine children confined their candy collecting to Main Street It was a safe environment and provided us with the opportunity to snap the following photos of the colorful costumes. I’m sure there are different customs in other cities and regions. It was fun to observe them:
