It’s that time of year again, the leaves are fading from bright greens to beautiful deep oranges. The smell of pumpkin spice is in the air along with the cold sudden breezes that make you shiver every now and then..

Unless you live in here in California, where it’s always hot.

Halloween is a special time when Spirit Halloween rears its head to sell you all the expensive spooky lawn decor you desire, It’s the time of year full of scary costumes and free candy. However, Halloween wasn’t always just about free candy and spooky costumes as you might expect.

While some may assume Halloween is a devil-worshipping holiday, some of Halloween’s traditions were derived from Christian origins. Around the 11th century, the night before ‘All Souls Day’ or ‘All Hallows Day’ people would hold a ceremony to remember passed loved ones and hold a late-night prayer, this was referred to as ‘All Hallows Evening’, later on in Scotland was shortened to ‘All Hallows Eve’.

In time more customs were adapted in Western and Central European countries surrounding what was now known as the all Hallow Tide. Bells would be rung in remembrance of the dead, holy relics would be displayed, and churchgoers were also encouraged to dress up as their favorite saints.

Around this time a tradition called Souling had come into play, Children would go door to door asking for soul cakes. In return for these cakes, the children would offer their prayers to those stuck in purgatory.

These traditions changed and over time people began to celebrate in various ways due to Christianity gaining a large following and people having different interpretations of the Bible.

When America was colonized it brought a wave of new people and (say it with me now) Christianity, and of course, with that wave, it brought the All Hallows Tide. When the colonies became countries, people began to travel to see the new world. The most significant of these people in this case, however, would be the Irish (and technically the Scottish too), who brought some of their traditions with along them.

One of these traditions was turnip carving, which later on turned into pumpkin carving because it was just easier to carve a pumpkin than a turnip. Another tradition that was brought over was the act of dressing up in costumes and knocking on doors to ask for food or coins, this was called guising and was most likely related to souling.

Guising was reported in Ontario Canada in 1910 and then it spread all over being then reported in the US later on, and now back to good ol’ Scotland and Ireland. You see giving to the kids who were guising was a sign of good fortune, those who didn’t would expect misfortune or to put it abruptly, the rath of the children who had nothing better to do.

However, most of the time this didn’t matter because most kids took it upon themselves to cause problems anyway, October 30th was referred to as Mischief Night.  This became a bit of a problem and everyone came together to put an end to all the mischief by bribing the kids with candy.

And so began trick-or-treating and the modern Halloween as we know it.