Q. I see a lot of churches have "trunk-or-treat" events this time of year. What is "trunk-or-treat"? -- W.A.
A. Trunk-or-treating is a sort of Halloween tailgating in which people gather in a school or church parking lot to hand out treats from the backs of their vehicles.
A 2006 story in the New York Times about the growing popularity of trunk-or-treat quoted 6-year-old expert Keifer Convertino: "You go trick-or-treating when you go to people's houses to get candy. You go trunk-or-treating when you go to people's cars to get candy, and that's much better because you can go around the cars a million dozen times and you don't even get tired."
Many parents and churches embrace trunk-or-treating as a safer alternative to going door-to-door.
Q. Where did the tradition of going door to door for candy on Halloween originate? -- J.T.
A. The ancient Celts in Ireland believed that the souls of the dead walked freely on Oct. 31. But the souls weren't trick or treating.
The tradition of asking for treats dates back to the "All Souls' Day" parades in England, during which the poor would beg for food. Families would hand out pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives. Historians date this practice to the eighth and ninth centuries. Other cultures have similar rituals linking food to the dead, but the English tradition is probably the one with the most direct line to the modern custom of trick-or-treating in the United States, as English settlers brought the custom to the New World.
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