Tricked, not treated

On ditching cheap candy and reconnecting with the true spirit of Halloween

Did you know that what is now Halloween ‘trick or treating’ was once called ‘souling’? I only learnt this recently. Children used to go from door to door, asking for food or money in exchange for songs or prayers on behalf of the dead.

Halloween’s origins are said to come from the Celtic festival Samhain, or ‘summer’s end’. It marked the culmination of harvest and the beginning of the winter season, a liminal time when the veil between the dead and the living would be particularly thin. During Samhain, it was customary to leave a place and food at the table for deceased loved ones – a practice echoed in other festivals and traditions around the world. Samhain’s celebration was subsequently incorporated into the Catholic Church’s celebration of All Saints’ Eve, with souling practised from the Middle Ages onward.

Why am I so fascinated by all this? Because so many of us have forgotten – or never knew –  what this festival was originally about: remembering the dead, being together, sharing food and making space for the unseen but not forgotten. Today, instead of offering a song or a prayer, children promise not to play a prank on you so long as you give them sweets.

That, of course, is something of a devil’s bargain, for most sweets dished out these days are not good food at all. As a doctor and parent, I must admit I am uncomfortable with this tradition of plying children with gifts that, even in small amounts, are toxic to their little bodies.

I think we all know by now that refined sugars are bad for us, accelerating ageing and putting us at greater risk of diabetes, obesity, heart issues and inflammation. Sugar is also highly addictive – if you’ve ever tried to give up sugar, you’ll know what I mean. It’s easy to fall into that familiar belief that sugar can’t be that bad, otherwise, it would be severely restricted or banned. But the sugar lobby is as powerful as Big Pharma, and with equally as much influence on the agencies charged with regulating it.

It’s not just sugar that’s a concern. Today’s most popular sweets are full of strange chemicals that simply should not be going into people’s bodies. I did a little research on this. According to Candystore.com, in the US where Halloween trick-or-treating is most celebrated, the favourite candy to give out on Halloween is a Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup. I looked it up, and it turns out that the recipe has changed somewhat since it was first launched. Where it used to feature nine ingredients, it now has fourteen, some of which are so far from being food Whole Foods apparently refuses to stock it. You can read about this here.

I love the original spirit of Halloween as a community celebration in which we remember those we have loved and lost. I also love the spirit of exchange that once marked this night. What I can’t get on board with is giving children who come to my door sweets that I know do them harm.

What to do? I would suggest that we once again forge a Better Way. How that looks is up to each of us. Perhaps it is baking cookies with real ingredients to hand out to trick-or-treaters. Or even just buying better quality chocolate that contains actual chocolate (unlike Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups, which substitute cocoa butter for the less delicious-sounding Polyglycerol Polyricinoleate).

Or maybe go all out: reconnect with the original tradition of Samhain, light a fire in the garden, invite your friends and family and dance around it like the ancients. Imagine it: music and dancing under the stars with the people we love, the spirits of our ancestors dancing with us.