You're listening to Comedy Central. Hello, my dearies, Halloween is right around the corner, which reminds me I need to get a costume now. According to my local CBS, Halloween is a two month festival beginning September one, which celebrates the worst candy of all time. But actually, Halloween is an ancient holiday with a rich and spooky history, and by spooky I mean interesting. It all started in ancient Ireland, where they celebrated the earliest version of Halloween, the Festival
of Salwin. That's right, the Irish gave us not one, but two holidays where people get wasted and have sex behind a dunkin donuts. Hey, Ireland, thank you. They believe that on the night of October thirty one, the veil between the world and the afterlife was lifted, and that spirits returned for one night, like a divorced dad on your birthday. So to win favor with the spirits, they
lit bond buyers and offered gifts to them. But most importantly, they disguised themselves in costumes so the dead wouldn't recognize them. Because trust me, no one wants to get stuck in a conversation with the ghosts. They're always like, avenge me, avenge me. It's like, okay, weirdo, I just met you. Costumes during Sawin consisted of animal heads and skins you. But in their defense, it was ancient times. Those were
the only costumes Party City had back then. For thousands of years, someone was celebrated in Ireland by the Celtics, sorry Celtics, until Ireland got a very special delivery on its doorstep, Catholicism, and the Catholics gave the festival a holy makeover, naming November one all Saints Day a k a. All Hallows, making the night before Hallow's Eve. Eventually this evolved into Halloween. Like many other scary things, you have the Catholic Church to think. After this transition, the earliest
version of trigger treating began. Medieval beggars would pray for people's dead relatives in exchange for food. And that's pretty depressing outsourcing your praying to the less fortunate. I mean, how lazy are you? Oh my postmates with a single bottle of water is here, bring it in. But there was fun trigger treating too. Kids dressed up in costumes and offered to sing or recite a poem and exchanged for food or money or wine. And I know what
you're thinking, kids drinking wine, but don't worry. It's Irish wine, so it's basically just rancid grape juice. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Halloween started getting popular around the world, especially in America, after a Halloween poem by Robert Burns became popular. And I know it might seem weird that something became mainstream due to poetry, but if you think about it, it's the same way we all learned about scissors.
At the turn of the century, the influx of Irish immigrants made Halloween even bigger in the US, and it actually started to get a little rowdy. Kids used the day as an excuse for vandalism and general assholary, a tradition that continues to this day. I will kick your ass at soccer practice, Timmy. It was so bad some politicians wanted to cancel Halloween altogether. Luckily, the solution was
already built in trigger treating. Everyone figured out that if they gave kids treats in exchange for not acting like little dickheads, they'd be chill. Trigger treating exploded by the nineteen fifties with the mass production of candy, Although back then candy was weird. They had all these suggestive names like zag nuts and sugar daddies. If you like candy, kids, you'll love Uncle Jimmy's pull smokers whole. By the nineteen seventies,
Halloween wasn't just for kids anymore. Adults started to get into it too through parties. They work costumes, some sexy and some really sexy. Oh yeah, Dick Nicks high, where are you at? These days? Halloween has taken on a new meaning, celebrating the maccab and having a safe space to explore our identities with our friends and family. I'm just working with you. It's about making as much money as possible. It's the most expensive holiday after Christmas, and
we don't even get a PlayStation out of it. Just some highly regrettable photos and a mouthful of cavities. Lost another one. So now you know how Halloween got to be so spectacular. I hope everyone out there has a safe and fun time this year. Enjoy it because the next holiday is Thanksgiving, when you have to spend the whole day with your entire family. Ha ha ha ha. Watch the Daily Show. We nights and eleven tenth Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus.
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