Editing Trick-or-treating (section)

===Medieval Christian era===
====Souling====
[[File:Souling on Halloween.png|thumb|200px|"A soul-cake, a soul-cake, have mercy on all Christian souls for a soul-cake." — a popular English souling rhyme<ref name="Hall1847">{{cite book|last=Hall|first=Anna Maria|title=Sharpe's London Magazine|year=1847|page=12|quote=Aubrey relates that, in his time, in Shropshire, &c., there was set upon the board a high heap of soul-cakes, lying one upon another like the picture of the shewbread in the old Bibles. They were about the bigness of twopenny cakes, and every visitant on the feast of All Souls took one. He adds, "There is an old rhyme or saying, 'A soul-cake, a soul-cake, have mercy on all Christian souls for a soul-cake.'"}}</ref>]]

Starting as far back as the 15th century, among Christians, there had been a custom of sharing [[soul cake|soul-cakes]] at [[Allhallowtide]] (October 31 through November 2).<ref name="Jackson1995">{{cite book|last=Jackson|first=Jeanne L.|title=Red Letter Days: The Christian Year in Story for Primary Assembly|date=1995|publisher=[[Nelson Thornes]]|isbn=9780748719341|page=158|quote=Later, it became the custom for poorer Christians to offer prayers for the dead, in return for money or food (soul cakes) from their wealthier neighbours. People would go 'souling' – rather like carol singing – requesting alms or soul cakes: 'A soul, a soul, a soul cake, Please to give us a soul cake, One for Peter, two for Paul, have mercy on us Christians all.'}}</ref><ref name=hutton374-375>Hutton, pp. 374–375</ref> People would visit houses and take soul-cakes, either as representatives of the dead, or in return for praying for their souls.<ref>Cleene, Marcel. ''Compendium of Symbolic and Ritual Plants in Europe''. Man & Culture, 2002. p. 108. Quote: "Soul cakes were small cakes baked as food for the deceased or offered for the salvation of their souls. They were therefore offered at funerals and feasts of the dead, laid on graves, or given to the poor as representatives of the dead. The baking of these soul cakes is a universal practice".</ref> Later, people went "from parish to parish at Halloween, begging soul-cakes by singing under the windows some such verse as this: 'Soul, souls, for a soul-cake; Pray you good mistress, a soul-cake!'"<ref name=Dodge1883>{{cite book|title=St. Nicholas Magazine|editor=Mary Mapes Dodge|editor-link=Mary Mapes Dodge|year=1883|publisher=Scribner & Company|page=93|quote=Soul-cakes," which the rich gave to the poor at the Halloween season, in return for which the recipients prayed for the souls of the givers and their friends. And this custom became so favored in popular esteem that, for a long time, it was a regular observance in the country towns of England for small companies to go from parish to parish at Halloween, begging soul-cakes by singing under the windows some such verse as this: "Soul, souls, for a soul-cake; Pray you good mistress, a soul-cake!"|title-link=St. Nicholas Magazine}}</ref> They typically asked for "mercy on all Christian souls for a soul-cake".<ref name="Santino1994">{{cite book|last=Santino|first=Jack|title=Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZLAqApMPMoEC&pg=PA84|access-date=28 October 2015|year=1994|publisher=University of Tennessee Press|isbn=9780870498138|page=84|quote=The begging ritual, taken up by nonindigents and by children, involved the recitation of a souling rhyme, which typically requested "mercy on all Christian souls for a soul cake."}}</ref> It was known as 'Souling' and was recorded in parts of Britain, Flanders, southern Germany, and Austria.<ref name=miles>Miles, Clement A. (1912). ''Christmas in Ritual and Tradition''. [http://www.sacred-texts.com/time/crt/crt11.htm Chapter 7: All Hallow Tide to Martinmas].</ref> [[Shakespeare]] mentions the practice in his comedy ''[[The Two Gentlemen of Verona]]'' (1593), when Speed accuses his master of "puling [whimpering or whining] like a beggar at Hallowmas".<ref>''The Two Gentlemen of Verona''. Act 2, Scene 1.</ref> In western England, mostly in the counties bordering Wales, souling was common.<ref name=hutton374-375/> According to one 19th century English writer "parties of children, dressed up in fantastic costume […] went round to the farm houses and cottages, singing a song, and begging for cakes (spoken of as "soal-cakes"), apples, money, or anything that the goodwives would give them".<ref>Publications, Volume 16 (English Dialect Society), Harvard University Press, p. 507</ref> In England, souling remained an important part of Allhallowtide observances until the 19th century, in both Protestant and Catholic areas.<ref name="Hood2014">{{cite book|last=Hood|first=Karen Jean Matsko|title=Halloween Delights|date=1 January 2014|publisher=Whispering Pine Press International|language=en |isbn=9781594341816|page=33|quote=The tradition continued in some areas of northern England as late as the 1930s, with children going from door to door "souling" for cakes or money by singing a song.}}</ref><ref name="Mosteller">{{cite book|last=Mosteller|first=Angie |title=Christian Origins of Halloween |date=2 July 2014|publisher=Rose Publishing |language=en |isbn=978-1596365353|quote=In Protestant regions souling remained an important occasion for soliciting food and money from rich neighbors in preparation for the coming cold and dark months.}}</ref>

The practice of giving and eating soul cakes continues in some countries today, such as Portugal (where it is known as [[Pão-por-Deus]] and occurs on All Hallows' Day and All Souls' Day), as well as the Philippines (where it is known as Pangangaluwa and occurs on All Hallows' Eve).<ref name="Fieldhouse2017">{{cite book|author= Paul Fieldhouse|title=Food, Feasts, and Faith: An Encyclopedia of Food Culture in World Religions|date=17 April 2017|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|page=256}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author= Por Joaquim de Santa Rosa de Viterbó|title=Elucidario Das Palavras, Termos E Frases, que Em Portugal Antigamente Se Usaram|date=1865|publisher=A. J. Fernandes Lopes|page=[https://archive.org/details/elucidariodaspa00vitegoog/page/n642 265]|url=https://archive.org/details/elucidariodaspa00vitegoog|quote= dia dos fieis defuntos.}}</ref> In other countries, souling is seen as the origin of the practice of trick-or-treating.<ref name="Kullstroem2009">{{cite book|last=Kullstroem|first=Chris|title=Making a Monstrous Halloween: Themed Parties, Activities and Events|url=https://archive.org/details/makingmonstroush00kull|url-access=limited|date=27 May 2009|publisher=McFarland|language=en |isbn=9780786444380|page=[https://archive.org/details/makingmonstroush00kull/page/n93 85]|quote=The Halloween tradition of trick-or-treating started as a European Christian custom called souling.}}</ref> In the United States, some churches, during Allhallowtide, have invited people to come receive sweets from them and have offered to "pray for the souls of their friends, relatives or even pets" as they do so.<ref>{{cite web |title=Is Halloween a Christian event? |last=Nevares |first=Diana |date=29 October 2014 |url=http://standrews-pcusa.org/is-halloween-a-christian-event/ |publisher=St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141029172021/http://standrews-pcusa.org/is-halloween-a-christian-event/ |archive-date=29 October 2014 |url-status=dead |quote=This Allhallowtide at St. Andrew’s, we are experimenting with a reverse of the "souling" tradition.  As children in the Gregory Gardens neighborhood come to St. Andrew’s collect candy, we are offering to pray for the souls of their friends, relatives or even pets.  On Sunday, when we celebrate All Saint’s Day we will include these prayers and remembrances along with the names of the saints who have passed away in the last year.}}</ref>

====Mumming====
Since the [[Middle Ages]], a tradition of [[mumming]] on a certain holiday has existed in parts of Britain and Ireland. It involved going door-to-door in costume, performing short scenes or parts of plays in exchange for food or drink. The custom of trick-or-treating on Halloween may come from the belief that supernatural beings, or the souls of the dead, roamed the earth at this time and needed to be appeased.