You're never too old to Trick-or-Treat!

With crisp autumn leaves in hues of marigold, burnt orange and crimson, it’s hard not to get into the Halloween spirit. Smiling pumpkins brighten your days and the sight of cobwebs frighten your nights. Unfortunately, as teenagers, many of us are unable to experience the true joy of Halloween. When I was younger, Halloween was one of the most anticipated holidays. I mean, how could I not like Halloween? I got to dress up as anything from a zombie princess to the opposite gender and walk around my neighborhood asking for free candy. However, all this changed once I became a teenager and was deemed by society “too old” to go trick-or-treating on Halloween. Perhaps the best way to understand why society limits trick-or-treating to its youngest members is to go back to the holiday's roots. According to the Library of Congress, the actual ritual of trick-or-treating began in 150 CE in the ancient Celtic clans of Britain. The Celts celebrated the end of fall harvest and the beginning of the new year with the pagan festival Samhain, which fell on Nov. 1. On the night before the celebration, the dead were thought to travel through the clans for an annual visit. To frighten away these spirits, the Celts dressed in disguises when venturing into the eerie outdoors.In the eighth century, the Catholic Church began celebrating All Saints Day on Nov. 1 as a replacement for Samhain. The preceding night became known as All Hallow’s Eve, which was later shortened to Halloween.The dead spirits of the two holidays assumed negative connotations, hence the goblins, witches, ghosts and ghouls of today. To appease those evil spirits, people would leave food and drink outside of their homes to protect themselves from spiritual retaliation. Soon, sneaky celebrants took advantage of the tasty offerings by dressing up as the dead and trekking from door to door to ask for goodies in exchange for protection from wicked spirits. This practice was known as mumming, which then became trick-or-treating.It wasn’t until 1940 that trick-or-treating became widely popular in the United States. However, in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, trick-or-treating came to a halt as reports of razor blades in candy apples, treats laced with laxatives and other horrific stories swept the nation. Despite this drawback, the Halloween tradition is alive and well today.One reason why trick-or-treating is geared towards young children is that the treats that are given out usually consist of candy and other sweets that children are associated with. Perhaps if what was given out was geared towards adults, then adults would trick-or-treat.Adults handing out candy also do not want to see rambunctious teenagers joking around on Halloween. They want to see adorable little toddlers and children in tiny costumes politely shouting "trick-or-treat!" at their doors.Junior Isabel Nicholls is a victim of the invisible age limit set for trick-or-treaters.“People look at you and then they don’t want to give you candy because you’re too old,” Nicholls said. “It’s just not cool anymore; if everyone trick-or-treated, then I would trick-or-treat.”Trick-or-treating is one of the most important and memorable activities of Halloween. The memories you make from those nights out with your best friends scavenging for candy in silly costumes will never be forgotten. So why shouldn’t we be allowed to make more?Junior Ayinde Shofu’s favorite Halloween memory is when he and his older brother trick-or-treated together.“We were going up the lawn to the door of a house,” Shofu said. “There were these dummies dressed as clowns on the ground. As we were walking, one of them grabbed my brother’s ankle, because they were actual people and he got super scared. It was awesome.”For me, its not really about the candy I receive, it's about the sense of accomplishment at the end of the night. If I bought my own bags of my favorite candy to eat on Halloween, it would not compare to the candy I earned by trick-or-treating. I would always sort out my candy after trick-or-treating. Even if I only got a small amount of my favorite type of candy, I would be more pleased with myself than if I had an endless amount of it that I had merely bought at the store.Halloween can be quite the hunt. We all know that one house on the corner of that street where the generous old couple hands out king-sized candy bars. Everyone rushes to the houses that hand out the best or largest candy. But, there are also those few houses we know to avoid because these adults hand out boxes of raisins, old bags of pretzels or even year-old caramels that are inedible.The whole fun of trick-or-treating is that you never know exactly what you are going to get. And when you do get your candy, you only have a specific amount of each type that you will either savor for weeks or eat in a matter of days.I don’t think I will ever stop trick-or-treating, and would encourage others not to as well.emebane@thesamohi.com