Trick or treat! Halloween is here and with it the promise of Capricorn.
Dressing children up in disguises and encouraging them to go door to door in search of strangers with candy would at first glance seem like a very questionable pastime. In practice in the United States for the better part of a century, trick or treating has its roots in the Old World and the ancient Celts.
During Samhain, the pagan precursor to Halloween, it was believed that the dead returned to earth and celebrants donned animal skin get-ups to ward off the baddies and left out plates of food to appease malevolent ghosts.
Since we as a people are a cutthroat and capitalizing bunch, this practice evolved or devolved into folks playing dress-up in exchange for food and booze, a pastime known as mumming.
