# Halloween from Thanksgiving? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 26, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halloween-from-thanksgiving/518998 "2009-11-26T03:45:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halloween-from-thanksgiving/518998/1 "2009-11-26T03:45:25Z")
Factual Q: My wife is reading “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” (set in the early 1900s) in which it describes kids in costume collecting free, broken candies from stores and returning to eat the Thanksgiving feast. (a) Is this factual, and (b) might this have been the precursor to Halloween? (Maybe today’s Halloween stems from the beauty of advertising?) - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![\_cc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/e19b73/32.png) [@\_cc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_cc)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halloween-from-thanksgiving/518998/2 "2009-11-26T06:00:50Z")
According to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trick-or-treating): > [@](#): > > The tradition of going from door to door receiving food already existed in Britain and Ireland, in the form of souling, where children and poor people would sing and say prayers for the dead in return for cakes.[3] Guising — children disguised in costumes going from door to door for food and coins — also predates Trick or treat, and was traditional at Halloween in late 19th century Scotland and Ireland.[4] > > [3] Roger, Nichola (2002). Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night october 31 6:00 to 8:00 no earlyer or no later or we’ll come get u. Oxford University Press. pp. 28–30. > [4] Rogers, Nicholas. (2002) “Festive Rights:Halloween in the British Isles”. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. p.48. Oxford University Press.