But the first use of the term “trick-or-treating” came nearly 100 years ago in Canada.
Halloween, in one form or another, may have been around for thousands of years, but we’ve only been saying “trick or treat” for about 100 years. According to Nick Rogers, historian and Halloween expert, the earliest reference to the now-familiar term can be found in a newspaper clipping from The Blackie Times published in Blackie, Alberta, on November 3, 1927.
“It’s a very interesting excerpt in two ways,” Rogers told the Calgary Eyeopener, according to the CBC. “It not only talks about trick-or-treating, but it talks a little bit about the kind of ritual vandalism that accompanied the holiday, particularly in the interwar years.”
