What Halloween Was Like In 20th Century America

Like most things in America, Halloween is a patchwork quilt of cultures and traditions. As National Geographic notes, the holiday had already undergone several transformations before reaching the New World. It began as Samhain, a Celtic New Year's celebration that took place over 2,000 years ago on November 1. 

The Celts believed that the boundary separating the realms of the living and dead was thinnest the night before Samhain — October 31 — and came up with a variety of traditions to avoid confrontations with spirits walking the Earth, including offering food and disguising themselves. According to a 1983 study published in Western Folklore, starting in the 7th century, Christian leaders rebranded the holiday to All Hallows' Day to stifle its pagan roots, but the traditional celebrations on its eve — deemed All Hallows' Eve or Hallowe'en — continued.

Halloween reached America by way of European immigrants — primarily Irish and Scottish individuals — in the 19th century. They brought their superstitions and traditions to the New World along with them, and, over the years, these merged with existing American agricultural practices to create the melting pot that is American Halloween. As with the original Celtic holiday, October 31 coincided with the completion of the harvest and the beginning of winter, so fall symbols like corn stalks, apples, scarecrows, and pumpkins also became associated with the celebration. The holiday quickly took on a life of its own, and to this day, no one does Halloween quite like America. Here is what Halloween was like in 20th-century America.

In the early 1900s, Halloween was mostly about fancy, themed parties for adults. According to David J. Skal in his book "Death Makes a Holiday," magazines of the time offered suggestions on how to throw the perfect Halloween party, including possible themes and decoration designs. And in 1912, the Dennison Manufacturing Company began offering paper décor like witch and black cat cut-outs and printed napkins to make the festivities easier. Per TCPalm, ambiance was created through dim lighting, glowing jack-o'-lanterns, and autumnal touches like fall leaves and corn husks.

Throwing the perfect party was an art form, and committing to a theme was essential. Common party themes included "Black Cat" and "Haunted House." Others were more focused and elaborate, such as the Egyptian-themed parties held around King Tut's discovery in the 1920s, which featured pyramid jack-o'-lanterns, gingerbread mummies, and puzzles to decipher (per "Death Makes a Holiday"). 

As Lisa Morton notes in her book "Trick or Treat," separate parties for children were held in the afternoon, keeping the night free for adult revelry. Unfortunately, Prohibition put a damper on the fun, and adult parties evaporated in the absence of liquor.

Trick-or-treating — the American practice of dressing up in costumes and begging neighbors for delicacies — became widespread in 20th-century America (per National Geographic). But it was hardly a new concept. According to History, it likely has its roots in the practices of "souling" — in which people offered to pray for another's dead relatives in exchange for soul cakes — and "guising," in which costumed youths offered to sing or perform a trick in exchange for nuts, fruits, or coins. 

Both Ireland and Scotland partook in these traditions, and immigrants from these countries introduced them to America. As Lisa Morton notes in her book "Trick or Treat," the Germanic-inspired Christmastime tradition of belsnickling — in which groups of costumed people journeyed door-to-door and begged for treats in exchange for tricks — was already in practice in the eastern United States and probably also inspired American trick-or-treating.

American communities first adopted organized trick-or-treating in the 1930s, likely as an attempt to curb destructive pranking (per History). According to Morton, World War II sugar rationing briefly limited the practice, as candy — the treat of choice — was less available. But in the 1950s, trick-or-treating exploded. Candy manufacturers got on board, costumes were mass-produced rather than sewn at home, and a post-war boom of suburban development created endless neighborhoods full of doorbells for kids to ring. The ritual was still going strong in America when the 20th century ended, although the trick component was lost — it had become all about costumes ... and candy.

Picking out the perfect pumpkin to carve for Halloween was not a decision to be made lightly. In fact, many Americans made a day out of the selection ritual. According to Cindy Ott in her book "Pumpkin," traveling to the country to pick a future jack-o'-lantern right off the vine first became popular after World War II and really took off in the 1970s and 1980s. 

Farmers capitalized on the pumpkin craze, offering hot cider, live music, hay rides, and other bonuses to turn the day into a proper event. Pumpkin patches quickly developed into an important source of income for rural America. In some ways, pumpkin patches escalated Halloween to a major American holiday. 

According to a 1983 study published in Western Folklore, the annual odyssey from more urban areas to the country was a symbolic way to get back to the roots of the holiday and connect to nature and the harvest. The process of journeying to a farm, selecting the perfect gourd, and bringing it home to decorate it is similar to the Christmas tree tradition, in which a piece of the natural world is brought into the home and ceremoniously altered.

Halloween attractions provided another great reason to get out of the house in October. As author Lisa Morton told Smithsonian Magazine, America's first haunted houses were constructed during the Great Depression as a way to distract kids from destructive pranking. Often, several houses would be involved, allowing for a tour of various spooky basement or attic scenes. The effects, of course, were simple and homemade. According to a 1937 party pamphlet directed at parents (via Lisa Morton's book "Trick or Treat"), an effective haunt could be devised using painted cardboard cats, with wet sponges and hanging hairnets for tactile stimulation, and staged actors moaning and wailing in the dark.

When Disneyland's Haunted Mansion opened in 1969, it pulled the concept out of basements and turned it into an institution. Unlike improvised home scenes, the Haunted Mansion's spooky effects were disturbingly realistic — and thrilling. Following its success, other theme parks quickly created their own haunted attractions, and, by the end of the century, smaller local haunted houses had become a Halloween mainstay. 

For children too young to handle an intense scare, the corn maze provided wholesome autumn fun. According to National Geographic, the first American corn mazes opened in the mid-1990s, giving children and adults alike the chance to take a trip to the country and run through seemingly endless cornfields on a brisk fall night.

For the first half of the 20th century, Halloween decorating was a relatively simple affair. As Lisa Morton notes in her book "Trick or Treat," basic paper cut-outs, banners, window decals, pumpkins, and hay bales served as holiday décor. On occasion, tombstones, scarecrows, and hanging sheet ghosts were displayed to create spooky scenes. Most decorations were created at home using whatever was available. But as Halloween gained popularity in America, so did its decorations.

By the 1980s, the holiday was a full-blown commercial affair. Costumes and candy were already churned out in the fall, and it wasn't long before Halloween-specific decorations also became available at local supermarkets and drug stores. Adults started decorating their yards for the enjoyment of trick-or-treaters, and some even created elaborate walk-through displays that rivaled professional attractions. 

In 1983, the first Spirit Halloween store opened, forever changing the decoration game. Though seasonal, Spirit was a store purely devoted to Halloween and its wares — a sure sign that the holiday was reaching Christmas-level popularity — and profits. Per CNN Money, Halloween decoration sales reached a whopping $2.5 billion in 1999.

Accepting candy from strangers wasn't without its hazards. According to Lisa Morton in her book "Trick or Treat," in 1964, a New York woman handed out steel wool, dog treats, and ant poison to trick-or-treaters she deemed too old. Urban legends about poisoned Halloween candy soon began to circulate — and the media fueled the fire. In the early 1970s, The New York Times implied that a child's trick-or-treat haul could include laxative chocolate bars, lye-laced bubblegum, and, most famously, apples with razor blades hidden inside.

According to CNN, the scare intensified in 1970, when a five-year-old boy died after exposure to heroin on Halloween night. The initial reports claimed the drug had been in his Halloween candy, spurring the social panic, though it was later revealed that he had found it elsewhere. Then, in 1974, another young boy died on Halloween after eating a cyanide-laced Pixie Stix — but it was his father, not a random stranger, who had poisoned his candy. 

Still, rumors of a candyman killer made the rounds, trick-or-treating was banned in a few communities, and some hospitals even offered to X-ray candy. By 1982, candy sales had plummeted and 40 cities had banned Halloween (per CNN). But, according to a 1985 study published in Social Problems, no evidence of poisoned Halloween candy was ever found.