I was watching Meet Me in St. Louis with my family (the 1945, I think, film with Judy Garland sent in St. Louis just before the World's Fair), and there's a scene where the children celebrate Halloween. But instead of trick-or-treating, the kids go door to door, throwing flour in their neighbors' faces and starting fires.
Is this consistent with Halloween traditions of the time, or is it meant to just be a kind of esoteric tradition, more unique to the neighborhood.
There's actually a really cool book on the history of Halloween (written in 1919) in the internet archive. Ruth Edna Kelley's The book of Hallowe'en has chapters on England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and France...but also America. The chapter starts on page 149, and has a section on traditional celebrations--I'll give you an excerpt here:
"It is a night of ghostly and merry revelry. Mischievous spirits choose it for carrying off gates and other objects, and hiding them or putting them out of reach.
Dear me, Polly, I wonder what them boys will be up to to-night. I do hope they'll not put the gate up on the shed as they did last year.
Wright:Tom's Hallowe'en Joke,
Bags filled with flour sprinkle the passers-by. Door-bells are rung and mysterious raps sounded on doors, things thrown into halls, and knobs stolen. Such sports mean no more at Hallowe'en than the tricks played the night before the Fourth of July have to do with the Declaration of Independence. We see manifested on all such occasions the spirit of '* Free-night " of which George von Hart- wig speaks so enthusiastically in St. John's Fire (page 141).
Hallowe'en parties are the real survival of the ancient merrymakings. They are pre- pared for in secret. Guests are not to divulge the fact that they are invited. Often they come masked, as ghosts or witches. The decorations make plain the two ele- ments of the festival. For the centerpiece of the table there may be a hollowed pumpkin, filled with apples and nuts and other fruits of harvest, or a pumpkin-chariot drawn by field- mice. So it is clear that this is a harvest- party, like Pomona's feast. In the coach rides a witch, representing the other element, of magic and prophecy. Jack-o'-lanterns, with which the room is lighted, are hollowed pumpkins with candles inside. The candle- light shines through holes cut like features. So the lantern becomes a bogy, and is held up at a window to frighten those inside. Corn- stalks from the garden stand in clumps about the room. A frieze of witches on broom- sticks, with cats, bats, and owls surmounts the fireplace, perhaps. A full moon shines over all, and a caldron on a tripod holds fortunes tied in nut-shells. The prevailing colors are yellow and black : a deep yellow is the color of most ripe grain and fruit ; black stands for black magic and demoniac influence. Ghosts and skulls and cross-bones, symbols of death, startle the beholder. Since Hallowe'en is a time for lovers to learn their fate, hearts and other sentimental tokens are used to good effect, as the Scotch lads of Burns's time wore love-knots. "
If you want to see something else kind of historically interesting, here's the 1940's version of what Halloween around 1900 would look like in an old Judy Garland musical called Meet Me in St. Louis. I can't find the clip, but there's a couple of stills here and here.
