Trick-or-treating
A Halloween custom in which children in costumes visit homes asking for treats, traditionally saying “trick or treat.”
Souling: A medieval Christian practice in which people visited homes around All Souls’ Day, offering prayers for the dead in exchange for food. It is one proposed historical predecessor to Halloween door-to-door requests for food.
Costume: Clothing worn to represent a character, identity, or disguise. Costumes turn ordinary neighborhood visits into a distinct Halloween ritual.
Halloween safety: Practices intended to reduce risks during Halloween activities, including costume visibility and safe food handling. Visibility, supervision, and route planning shape how the custom is carried out.
Halloween industry: The commercial activity surrounding Halloween costumes, decorations, candy, and events. Demand for costumes and treats makes trick-or-treating a major driver of seasonal spending.
Guising: A Scottish and Irish Halloween custom in which people disguised themselves and performed for food or gifts. Its costume-wearing and household visits closely resemble early forms of trick-or-treating.
Candy: A sweet food made chiefly from sugar or other sweeteners, often flavored or colored. Individually wrapped candy became the customary treat handed to visiting children.
Teal Pumpkin Project: An initiative promoting non-food treats for Halloween participants with food allergies or other dietary restrictions. It offers a way for households to signal that they have alternatives to candy.
Neighborhood: A local area in which people live near one another and may share public spaces and institutions. The custom turns nearby homes into participants in a temporary community ritual.
Mumming: A traditional form of masked performance in which performers visit homes or public spaces, often during winter festivals. Its door-to-door performances help explain the custom’s older exchange of entertainment for gifts.
Door-to-door canvassing: A method of contacting people individually by visiting homes or businesses in person. The route uses this form of household-to-household solicitation.