Trick or Treat: Soul Cakes, Candy Corn, and Sugar Skulls Galore!

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Arts, Science, History, Food

4.7 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2021

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you live in the U.S., chances are, your first hint of fall isn’t a russet-colored leaf landing on the sidewalk—it’s the orange-wrappered candies taking over the aisles of your local grocery and convenience stores. Forget decorative gourds: it’s officially Halloween candy season! But how did a 2,000-year-old Celtic festival marking the sun's death and the beginning of winter morph into a family-friendly sugar-fest? With the help of Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman, historians and hosts of the Vox Media Podcast Network show Now & Then, we explore the surprisingly recent introduction of trick-or-treating, and the all-American invention of Halloween as the ultimate candy-permissive, religion-free Frankenholiday. Plus, why do so many cultures around the world celebrate deathy things at this time of year—and why do so many of them involve sugar? All this, plus a rigorous candy corn tasting bravely undertaken by your indefatigable hosts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	So quick fire round before we dive into the history, favorite Halloween candy.
0:07.7	Oh, this is no brainer, Babe Ruth's.
0:10.0	I convinced my children when they were little that all the other candy was for them, but
0:15.2	the Babe Ruth's went in the bag for the mom.
0:17.8	Well, the best thing about Halloween candy to me, it's not necessarily that I have one
0:22.7	favorite one.
0:23.7	I don't.
0:24.7	I mean chocolate.
0:25.7	It's got to be chocolate.
0:26.7	The thing is that they come in these little mini sizes and my true confession here is
0:32.0	Halloween comes around and I go and buy like massive bags of mini candy, which I then
0:38.1	use for months thereafter because they're the perfect size.
0:41.9	So Halloween is now important to me in a different way, which is massive amounts of chocolate
0:46.3	in little non-gilt inducing sizes.
0:50.6	Speaking as someone who didn't grow up with Halloween or trick-or-treating and has only
0:54.7	learned about it as an adult,
0:56.6	I do feel as though this is the main purpose of the holiday.
1:00.6	The entire premise is you get to consume a truckload of sugar and feel like you're somehow
1:05.6	doing the right thing.
1:06.6	That's totally true.
1:07.9	I mean, in my 20s, it was all about the costume parties, which I loved and I did also love
1:12.9	dressing up as a kid.
	...

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