Why candy on halloween

It wasn't until the s that candy came to be seen as the only legitimate treat. And while the candy industry reaped the benefits, the immediate impetus was not brilliant marketing so much as rising fears that unwrapped or homemade Halloween treats posed risks of tampering and poisoning.

Commercial wrapped candy was the only safe choice. All of which raises the question: What was the candy industry up to during all those years before we had the license and opportunity to indulge in enormous quantities of Halloween candy?

It turns out that in , candy promoters did come up with an idea to launch the fall candy season and boost sales and consumption, but it wasn't Halloween. It was a new holiday invention, uniquely American in its entrepreneurial spirit: Candy Day. Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest.

The Atlantic Crossword. Sign In Subscribe. Halloween candy enters the picture. Candy corn is perhaps one of the oldest Halloween candies still eaten today, dating back to the s. In , the Goelitz Candy Co. Candy corn was designed to look like chicken feed , since at the time candy corn first emerged, about half of Americans worked on farms.

Everyone's favorite -- or least favorite -- Halloween snack was designed to look like chicken feed. Halloween candy became quite popular around the turn of the 20th century.

Hershey's Milk Chocolate bar was first produced in , with Hershey's Kisses following seven years later. Chocolate was previously considered a luxury item rarely consumed by the average American, but Hershey's chocolate factory in Pennsylvania allowed the chocolate to be mass produced for significantly cheaper prices. Although candy companies produced candy such as the Milky Way bar and Snickers bar in the s and early s, candy was not yet the definitive Halloween treat it is today.

Sugar became more affordable around this time, which made candy cheaper to produce, but trick-or-treating often involved the distribution of cookies, fruit, nuts and even toys and money. A brief history of poisoned Halloween candy panic. Organized trick-or-treating grew in the s partially in response to dangerous pranks on Halloween during the Great Depression, but this was suddenly halted when World War II broke out.

Sugar rationing meant that only a few had access to candy, so people needed to get creative with Halloween food traditions. Please good missus, a soul cake! An apple, a pear, a plum, or a cherry, Any good thing to make us all merry. One for Peter, two for Paul, three for Him who made us all. Also, here's a video of singer and yoga enthusiast Sting performing the song.

Singing these dumb songs no offense, Sting morphed into "guising," which was basically just kids going around in costumes, telling jokes, singing little ditties, and busking for money. As these customs spread to the States via waves of immigrants, it all came to a halt when the Great Depression, followed by World War II, pretty much took the fun out of everything. But as the baby boomers hit trick-or-treating age, the phenomenon resurfaced.

And since literally no one wants soul cakes again, sorry Sting , mass-produced candy in sensible "fun" sizes took their place. Or don't, if you hate being listed on neighborhood watch databases. Your call. Keep scrolling, there's more! Use left and right arrow keys to navigate between menu items. Use right arrow key to move into submenus. Use escape to exit the menu.

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