Trick-or-Treat for the Soul

From my family album

From my family album

On All Hallows Eve, the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, it is thought that the spirits of the dead can return to earth, that the threshold between the living and the dead is thin and can be crossed by spirits. Otherworldly creatures like goblins, faeries, banshees are also free to cross between the veil of this world and the other. Because all manner of spirits are roaming on All Hallows Eve, it became prudent to don a mask or costume, to dress up like a spirit of the dead in hopes of escaping their notice, offering protection by camouflage so to speak.

Many Halloween traditions are rooted in the belief that the souls of the departed are able to return during the last night of the Celtic Year. In addition to dressing up and lighting a bonfire to repel evil spirits, it was also customary to leave food out for the benevolent spirits  of your departed ancestors who might visit in the night. Some folks also left food outside of their home, perhaps by a faerie hawthorn bush, to appease the faeries and other mischievous creatures.   

The Halloween rite of trick-or-treat has its humble beginnings in the traditions called Souling. Children would go door to door, often dressed up as the departed dead, singing songs & asking for cakes (called soul-cakes) or other food or money, in return for saying a prayer for the souls of the dead.  Below is rendition by Sting of a folk song which depicts this tradition....