Knock for a Treat

JULIANNA VALDIVIA

STAFF WRITER

As Halloween rolls around, trick-or-treating is one of the first activities that come to people’s minds. However, candy was not always a part of Halloween. Even though Halloween has been around since the 1800s, the idea of kids going house-to-house for treats did not start until the late 1930s. At first, kids would only get homemade treats, fruits or coins. However, in the 1950s, candy manufacturers saw an opportunity to boost up their sales, marketing their products as an appropriate treat for Halloween. During the 1970s, parents began to become wary of the homemade treats their kids were getting. They feared that homemade treats might be poisoned or tampered with. Safety is now a serious issue for the children. In response, candy manufacturers began to make affordable bite-size candies for this night.     

Trick-or-treating is a popular tradition today. According to Fortune Magazine, Americans spend an estimated 2 billion dollars worth in candy alone in the month of October every year. Kids go house-to-house all night trying to get as much candy as possible. Though candy took a long time to catch on, it is now an essential part of Halloween.