The ancient people of Ireland became frightened as winter approached. Pagan Celts believed souls returned during the season of death to communicate with the living. In 1958, CBC Radio host Tim Elliott explains that pagan revellers appeased "souls" by offering a treat to carousers costumed as their dead relatives. If Aunt Martha died this year, her soul is bound to walk the earth on Nov. 1, feast of Samhain that marks the end of summer.

To communicate with Aunt Martha, a villager dressed like a ghoul rapped on the door shouting "Trick or treat." Give her the harvest's best corn or she's bound to do something rotten. Most often mischievous villagers did not wait for a treat and shoved a lit firecracker through the door.

• British "Soulers" made the village rounds to beg for "soul cakes" on All Souls' Day, a Nov. 2 holiday in memory of faithful Christians who have died.
• The traditions of Samhain were replaced by those of All Saints' Day (also called All Hallows), a Nov. 1 Christian festival honouring souls in heaven. On that day in Britain, children played games and read fortunes from apples, cabbages and nuts.

• All Hallows' Eve was also known in England as Nutcrack Night, when kids placed nuts side by side in the fire's embers. If they split apart, a year of quarrels would follow. If they burned brightly, marriage was bound to be peaceful.

• In Mexico, Nov. 1 is Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead). Families bring flowers to the graves of their relatives. Oddly, it is a day of joy when they picnic by the graves with baked bread and candy in the shape of skulls, caskets and skeletons.
• Halloween became a consumer holiday with the emergence of capitalism. In the 1840s, North American merchants who thought holidays were bad for business encouraged retail consumption for Halloween.

Medium: Radio
Program: Options
Broadcast Date: Oct. 29, 1972
Host: Tim Elliott
Guest(s): Glenn Gould, Norma Harris
Duration: 3:25