HALLOWEEN & HISTORICAL RESEARCH
When you work at a museum, one part of your job, as you might expect, is doing historical research.
Halloween seems like a topic that might not need a lot of research: it’s been around for a long time; how much could really change? But we always work to ensure we are providing as accurate information as possible. When we plan a new exhibit or tour, we conduct new research, particularly if we have a new focus in mind.
When conducting research, we look at a number of primary and secondary sources. This includes books and articles published by other scholars and museums as well as newspaper articles and photographs. In a larger research project, it could mean looking at original documents in various archives, like census records, diaries, or other visual materials. Besides our own historical collections, we regularly look in places like The Calgary Herald archives, University of Calgary Special Collections, Galt Museum and Archives, City of Calgary Archives, Provincial Archives, and Library and Archives Canada to name a few.
While doing research for this coming spooky season, it quickly became clear that Alberta has an important place in Halloween history! The first published use of the phrase “trick-or-treat” was in southern Alberta! It appeared in The Blackie Times on November 3, 1927 in an article detailing the Halloween festivities a few nights before. The phrase also appeared in newspapers in Lethbridge, Calgary, and High River that year.
The Blackie Times, November 3, 1927.
Historian Nick Rogers, who wrote Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, spoke about this discovery in 2016. Before this, he thought the first known use appeared in The American Magazine in 1947.
Many other sources now cite 1927 as the first usage. What a claim to fame for Alberta!
Or so we thought.
As we continued our research, we found an earlier newspaper mention- “tricks-or-treats” had been used in the Sault Daily Star, from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, in 1917! Barry Popik, an etymologist, shared this information in 2022, but it seems that it has not permeated very far. Barry has been tracking the origins of the phrase for decades, including the 1927 usage, and a mention in the Edmonton Bulletin in 1922.
We’ve also discovered the phrase in print in Red Deer from 1925.
The Sault Star, November 1, 1917.
Hallowe’en in Red Deer, with the first known mention of the phrase “trick or treat” in southern Alberta. The Red Deer News, November 4, 1925.
While we can no longer say that “trick-or-treat” was first in use in southern Alberta, it’s always exciting to discover new information and be able to share it more widely.
This is the importance of continuing to do historical research, even when you think all the information must have been discovered! New sources become available as different records are found, or scanned, and shared with a wider audience, or a researcher looks at existing records with a new lens or investigative question.
Not everything is always available on the internet!
The use of trick or treat seems to first appear in print in 1917 in Ontario, and then pops up in Alberta in 1922, 1925, and 1927. Do you know of any other mentions? Share them with us!
Hulland Family, 1925. Esplanade Archives, 1018.0132