Are your costumes ready??? It won’t be long before it’s time to don your scary/sweet attire and wander the streets in search of candy and goodies.

Trick-or-Treat this year will be on Saturday, the 30 ^th , in Allen.

Always a fun time, Trick-or-Treating is a customary celebration for children on Halloween. Children go in costume from house to house asking for treats with the question, “Trick or Treat?” The word “trick” implies a “threat” to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given. The practice is closely related to souling.

In England, from the medieval period, up until the 1930s, people practiced the Christian custom of souling on Halloween, which involved groups of soulers going from parish to parish, begging the rich for soul cakes, in exchange for praying for the souls of the givers and their friends. In Scotland and Ireland, “guising” – children disguised in costume going from door to door for food or coins – is a traditional Halloween custom, and is recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895 where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit, and money. The practice of guising at Halloween in North America is first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported children going “guising” around the neighborhood.