What is the history of Halloween and the candy you may ask? Well, Halloween candy has many things behind it and I will be uncovering it.
Did you know that 2,000 years ago the ancient Celtic, known as Sowin? Celebrated on November 1st on the night before Salon people believed that the dead returned as ghosts, they would leave food and wine for the people on their doorsteps to keep their spirits at bay and wear masks when they left the home. So they can be mistaken for fellow ghosts. The Christian Church turned south into All Saints Day or All Hallows in the 8th century. The night before became All Hallows Eve but later changed Hallow to Halloween.
Kids across the USA, think that Halloween is never fun without candy, which isn’t always the case. When the custom of trick or treating started in the 1930s and the early 1940s, children were not getting candy as trick or treaters they were getting toys, coins, homemade cookies, and nuts. In the 1950s, candy manufacturers had just begun to get in on the act and promote their products for Halloween. Over time trick-or-treating started to become more popular as candy was increasingly popular as an affordable/ convenient offering.
It wasn’t until the 1970s, though, that wrapped, factory-made candy was viewed as the only acceptable thing to pass out to the children in that particular neighborhood. But today, when it comes to Halloween candy a certain number of the most popular brands are classics. For example, the first Hershey Chocolate bar was produced in 1900 and Hershey Kisses debuted in 1907. The company founder of Hershey, Milton Hershey was a pioneer in the candy industry and turned what previously had been a luxury item for the well-to-do into something affordable for average Americans who couldn’t afford the luxurious things. But later he built an entire town in Hershey, Pennsylvania, around his chocolate factory.
Another crowd-pleasing candy would be a Kit Kat bar, which was sold in England in 1935 as Rowntree’s Chocolate Crisp which is now called a Kit Kat and is named officially after an 18th-century Whig from a literary club titled after a man named Christopher Catling and or Kit Cat.
And of course, no Halloween would be complete without candy corn, which was invented in the 1880s by George Renninger of the Wunderle Candy Company of Philadelphia. Other companies went on to produce their versions of the tricolor treat, none longer than the Goelitz Confectionery Company now the Jelly Belly Candy Co., which has been doing so since 1898.
