All Hallows Eve, that annual cosplay parade, is nearly upon us. Long a boon to the confectionary industrial complex, this year's receipts may not be so promising. While this may not rise to the level of a calamity, it will be as any other loss examined through the lens of "why did it happen and who is to blame". In the case of some 40 million, give or take, this blame will be saddled upon HHS Secretary RFK Jr. By removing the eligibility of candies and junk food for SNAP purchases, the Halloween candy budget for holders of EBT cards has been greatly curtailed. Factor in lingering inflation and the prospect of these benefits being suspended in November, there may be at least a 15% decline in year over year sales. Perhaps more.
I'm fairly certain that most of our audience is already familiar with the history and evolution of Halloween, so we'll not spend any time on that. Instead, we'll focus on that tradition of trick or treat, a more recent addition to the day's observation. The trick or treat tradition, in the American experience, can trace it's origins to the 1920s. The early iterations of this would appear to be a culmination of several old world traditions brought from Scottish and Irish immigrants. These were the practice of souling and guising, the latter of which is the root of our modern Halloween costuming. The trick part of the equation, pranking, would seem to trace it's lineage from the medieval custom of mumming.
This first generation of the American interpretation was not a nationwide phenomenon as it is today. As the American tradition evolved, it seemed to borrow more from mumming, at one time marking the day more for it's mischief and vandalism than candies and costumes. During the Great Depression years of the 1930s these pranksters grew more widespread and malicious in their expression. There are some who posit the idea that the organization of community "beggar's nights" was a response to this trend, with a view toward curbing these more violent forms of pranking. It was just as this began to develop that the second World War intervened, placing the brakes on the path to becoming the custom we know today.
It was only in the post-war prosperity, and the nascent baby boom generation, that the modern American version of trick or treat took root. In the seventy or so years since this has become a stable fixture in American culture. There isn't a generation alive today that is not familiar with the annual ritual of beggar's night, with it's parade of costumes and bags of candy. It was sixty years ago now that the modern trick or treat experience became enshrined as an icon, with the animated feature It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. While Halloween celebrations have become an increasingly adult affair, trick or treat has remained a kid's game. That is, until now.
The trick or treat tradition has, for the most part, become about the treats. In many communities the beggar's night, in the interest of safety, has been relegated to trunk or treat events held in church or civic center parking lots. The mostly benign pranks of egging houses, soaping windows or TPing lawns are taken away with these more controlled settings. In the past these pranks were most often triggered when a household failed to deliver the goods when little goblins came calling. Now there are some adults who apparently mean to horn in on the child's game, albeit with a new angle.
Linguistically this is a fairly simple "either/or" proposition. "Would you like a trick, or are you going to give me a treat?" When one considers this proposition, it would seem a bit awkwardly stated. The choice that is presented at the doorstep is generally understood as this: "You either give me a treat, or I'm going to play a trick on you." Stated in this manner, it carries a bit of a thuggish tone. Perhaps the greeting was revised to sound more polite, more along the lines of the facetiously implied threat: "Sure is a nice place ya got here. Would be a shame if somethin' was to happen to it." One should think that this may actually be modeled after the Huns: "Bring us your tribute, or we will lay waste to your village!" I may be overthinking this. This inversion of the word order may be the result of nothing more than enabling the famous rhyme "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat."
Chuck Schumer has been playing at trick or treat for a month now. His mantra seems to be: "Gimme a trillion dollars, or I'm gonna shut this whole bitch down!" Not getting what he asked for, he has carried out the threat, but he won't leave the doorstep. If cast in the mode of the Great Pumpkin tale, Schumer would be Charlie Brown, the inept putz who can't even cut two eye holes in a sheet without fucking it up. This would, of course, cast the President as the Great Pumpkin. And why not? Because orange man baaaad. If this thing isn't resolved by Halloween, ironically, the vote would then roll over into November. Maybe the democrats will all show up next Wednesday, all donning their Guy Fawkes masks and lighting a sacrificial bonfire under the capitol rotunda.
OR.....maybe, Chuck Schumer isn't inept at all. Maybe it's all an act to cover the REAL plan...
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