Fats, Vitamins and Minerals

It was evening of October 25 when some kids started knocking on our door calling out “Trick or Treat!” Hmmm… isn’t that a bit too early? Trevor, who has been anticipating this much earlier, has been preparing since first week of October for these kids by saving up coins to give away. And just like the Christmas carols, the same group of kids come back for more treats a few minutes later.

The other day, I was even more surprised when the kids came at 3 in the afternoon! Hmmm … so I told them to come back later. Our landlady who lives upstairs told them all to go away, there won’t be any trick or treats around here until October 31!

I told Trevor we might’ve spoiled the kids by giving them some money as treats (we didn’t like the idea of giving them candies, although sugar treats are apparently the norm in the US. However, I did hear some of our neighbors giving them treats too. So far, I haven’t heard of any tricks, but considering that in the UK police have warned parents that Halloween pranks by their kids will be punished, I can only say “thank goodness!”

Anyway, when the same bunch of kids kept coming back within a couple minutes, Trevor decided to give them a ‘trick.’ He opened the door and growled at them, scaring them all off screaming. It was fun and I’m sure the kids had fun too.

This evening they came back. I opened the door and saw them far from the doorway, obviously scared in case Trevor comes out at them. I told them, “oi kids, why aren’t you in costume?”

One of them replied, “we don’t have money to buy costumes, but later if we get enough money …” They were trying very hard to look like poor street kids (something they probably learned from watching Wowowee) but it didn’t work - they were very obviously kids from middle-income families. Anyway, I told them, “you don’t need money to get costumes! You can cut up paper and all sorts of things and make your own costumes.”

And for a while I thought about how strongly “Trick-or-Treating” and “Halloween” are commercially pushed and socially accepted activity - just like Christmas, Valentines Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Grandparent’s Day, etc.

Actually, the scariest trick or treat costume, besides being the cheapest one, is also of indigenous origin: the bayong (a bag made of woven palm leaves). One can cut eye holes in the bayong and wear it over one’s head. The bayong mask is reminiscent of the spies of the Filipino volunteer armies, such as the Makapili, organized during the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines.

Then I told them, “when you kids come back you better tell me where this trick-or-treat came from and what it means. And why didn’t your parents do trick-or-treating when they were young?” They made all sorts of guesses and one of them said trick-or-treat (as many other things) came from America.

As far as the Philippine experience is concerned, that is quite true, although originally, the tradition comes from the British Isles in the Middle Ages (also known as “souling”): “trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of “souling,” when poor folk would go door to door, receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (All Hallows Day).” See the Wikipedia entry.
“Souling” translates to “pangaluluwa” or “mangalulwa” in Filipino, which means to go around serenading homes, simulating souls temporarily released from heaven during the eve of All Sants’ Day.

However, most Christianized Filipinos would prefer to go to the dead rather than have the dead go to their homes. Thus All Saints’ Day (November 1) and All Souls’ Day (November 2) are days when families visit their dead, many often spending overnight or longer at cemetery. While cemetery security is being more tightly enforced now, previous practices included plenty of eating, drinking, music, gambling and other games

Evidently, trick-or-treating resembles the practice of going door-to-door singing Christmas carols in return for ‘treats’, which connects to wassailing (from the Anglo-Saxon toast wæs þu hæl, “be thou hale” — i.e., “be in good health”). In cider-producing areas of England, such as the West Country, wassailing also refers to drinking (and singing) the health of trees in the hopes that they might better thrive. (See the Wikipedia entry on wassailing).

Trick-or-treat, as an activity for children in which they go from house to house in costumes, asking for treats such as candy with the question, “Trick or treat?”, is a 20th century phenomenon. Apparently, the activity came to the Philippines from the US - and only very recently. I have not had any experience of Trick-or-treating when I was a child, and have not had kids trick-or-treating our homes until the late 90’s.

Ritualized begging on Halloween in the US seem to have become popular only in the 1930s, with the earliest known uses in print of the term “trick or treat” appearing in 1934 (Oregon Journal), and the first use in an American publication occurring in 1939 (The American Home). From western America, trick-or-treating spread eastward with lulls between 1942-1947 because of sugar rationing during the Second World War.

In the Philippines, Halloween parties, costumes and trick-or-treating seem to have been first adopted by children of upper class families, evidently as influences by their families’ friends and contacts from the US, including upper class families preference and access to US media and lifestyles.

In our old neighborhood in Sampaloc, Manila where I grew up, there was no such thing as trick-or-treating, but around the same time, lavish Halloween parties, costumes and other activities took place in exclusive residential compounds such as Corinthian Garden, Forbes Park, Ayala Alabang, Dasmarinas Village, Bel-Air, and the like. Only recently, did the practice get adopted by middle- and perhaps even lower-income families with the promotion of such practices in mainstream media and almost all the shopping establishments.

What I do remember as a child during All Souls Day, besides the customary visit to the cemetery, was sitting in the candlelit darkness with my brother and sister, listening to our father tell some of the scariest stories ever…

EMail This Post This entry was posted by Fats on Sunday, October 28th, 2007 at 9:28 pm and is filed under Fats, Vitamins & Minerals > What and Why. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.