Gangsters, Pranksters, and the Invention of Trick-Or-Treating, 1930–1960 S Samira Kawash
Gangsters, Pranksters, and the Invention of Trick-or-Treating, 1930–1960 s Samira Kawash For most children in North America, Halloween is one of the most exciting holi- days of the year. But some critics insist that its emphasis on ready-made costumes, store-bought candy, and trick-or-treating seduces children into cultural passivity and socializes them to mindless consumption. These critics argue that trick-or- treating was an inherited tradition, invented, initiated, or imposed by adults to control undesirable Halloween mischief. This article turns to newspaper accounts from the 1930s through the1950s to suggest that these beliefs and conclusions about trick-or-treating are false and that, in fact, children originated trick-or- treating and shaped it to their own ends. In her view of trick-or-treating as part of the development of children’s culture in twentieth-century America, the author presents the role of children in initiating their own forms of play and contesting and negotiating such play with adults, all of which suggests a more complex understand- ing of Halloween and trick-or-treating in the contemporary context. Key words : beginning rituals; children as consumers; gangsters; Halloween; Halloween rituals; Halloween sadism; pranking; trick-or-treating When I was a kid in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Halloween was a very big deal. Picking a costume could take weeks. Then, there were special decorations on the streets, haunted houses, church parties, a costume parade at school, and most important of all, trick-or-treating. The neighborhood kids would all go together, with a parent when we were little, and with a high school neighbor when we got bigger.
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