By Joshua Smith
Halloween has changed quite a bit over the years. What began with old religious observances, folk customs, harvest traditions, and community celebrations eventually became a night of costumes, candy, carved pumpkins, haunted houses, and neighborhood trick-or-treating.
This week, we are listening to specific podcast episodes that explore where some of our favorite Halloween traditions came from — and how they became part of the holiday we know today.
1. “Halloween: The Strange and Storied History of an American Holiday” — Our American Stories
Historians Lesley Bannatyne and Lisa Morton trace Halloween from All Hallows’ Eve and Celtic traditions through immigration and the development of the distinctly American holiday we celebrate today.
2. “A Brief History of Trick-or-Treating” — Stuff You Missed in History Class
This episode follows trick-or-treating from older European customs through the neighborhood tradition that really took hold in America during the 20th century.
3. “The Sleepy History of Jack O’Lanterns” — Get Sleepy
Where did the idea of carving a face into a vegetable come from? This relaxed history episode follows jack-o’-lanterns from Irish folklore to the pumpkins glowing on American porches.
4. “The History of Halloween Candy” — Stuff You Missed in History Class
Candy was not always the standard Halloween giveaway. This episode explains how sweets took over trick-or-treat bags and includes the history of familiar treats such as candy corn.
5. “Short Stuff: Candy Corn” — Stuff You Should Know
Love it or leave it, candy corn has become one of Halloween’s most recognizable foods. This short episode looks at its history, how it is made, and why people remain so divided over it.
6. “How Haunted Houses Became a Halloween Tradition” — Our American Stories
Modern haunted attractions grew partly out of efforts to give young people something to do besides pulling Halloween pranks. This episode follows the evolution from neighborhood events to professional haunted houses.
7. “Haunted Happenings: Salem’s Halloween Takeover” — The Thing About the Salem Witch Trials
A New England pick about how Salem, Massachusetts, transformed a weekend Halloween celebration begun in 1982 into a month-long October tradition filled with costumes, parades, performers, and visitors.
8. “31 Days of Halloween | Day 18: The Salem Witch Trials — From Tragedy to Halloween Capital” — Haunted American History
This episode looks at the real history of the Salem witch trials and how, centuries later, Salem became closely associated with Halloween. It is a good reminder that the history and the modern celebration are two very different things.
9. “Scary Stories for Halloween 2022” — Folklife Today
From the Library of Congress, this episode features traditional scary stories along with some Halloween history and folklore, including the story of Jack O’Lantern.
10. “The Origins of Halloween, Part I” — Hypnogoria
This deep dive explores All Hallows, Samhain, trick-or-treating, jack-o’-lanterns, folk charms, and some of the older traditions that eventually blended into modern Halloween.
Halloween is one of those holidays that seems familiar until you start asking why we do any of it. Why carve pumpkins? Why knock on strangers’ doors asking for candy? Why dress up? Why do we deliberately try to scare ourselves?
As these episodes show, the answers stretch across centuries, cultures, immigration, religion, folklore, commerce, and plenty of good old-fashioned community fun.
New to podcasts? Open Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, Amazon Music, or another podcast app on your phone. Type the episode or podcast name into the search bar and press play. If you find a show you enjoy, tap “follow” or “subscribe” so future episodes are easy to find.
Don’t forget: The St. Johnsbury Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Outdoor Edge, hosted by Gary Moore, is available wherever you get podcasts and on the WYKR app. Along with hunting, fishing, conservation, wildlife, and local outdoor history, the show often finds some pretty interesting stories tucked into the woods and back roads of northern Vermont and New Hampshire.