Halloween history, part 3 – trick or treating.
Trick or treating also came to the U. S. with the Irish settlers. There are several old customs behind the practice. One is that people dressed up in costumes as deceased spirits (mumming or guising) around the time of the pagan harvest holiday Samhain, when the barrier between the spiritual and physical world was thinnest, and went door to door collecting gifts to appease and honor the dead.
Another old year-round custom is to leave out treats for the fairies so that this group of other worldly beings will not pull tricks on humans.
Fairy folklore is interesting. They are usually associated with England, Scotland and Ireland, but they occasionally make their way over to the U.S. One sign is fairy rings, mushrooms growing in an arc or circle. Sometimes they show up as a circle of unusually tall or thick grass, because the fungus is growing underground. Here are pictures of two fairy rings getting started in Beverly.
It is considered bad luck to destroy a fairy ring, believed to form by fairies dancing. Folklore says that if a human steps into a fairy ring, he/she could be caught forever, dancing.