Soon, kids all around the US will be descending upon the streets of their respective neighborhoods in search of the best candy that they can find. With costumes ranging from ghosts, goblins and zombies, all the way to Disney and horror movie creatures, its easy to forget where this strange tradition first started. Where does trick or treating come from?

The tradition to dress in costumes and mimicking monsters and evil creatures began as the Celtic tradition of Samhain to defend against evil spirits. The Celts believed that as the year came to and end, the living and the dead would overlap, and demons and evil sprits would roam the earth again.

During Samhain, which took place on Oct. 31 every year, villagers would leave out edible offerings and banquets to placate unwelcome spirits in the village.

Centuries later, people began to dress as the ghosts, demons, and other creatures we all know, performing in various antics in exchange for food and drink. This became known as mumming, a medieval precedent to trick or treating.

As Christianity began to spread across Europe into Celtic lands, Christian and Celtic traditions blended. The church then designated November 2 as "All Souls' Day", a time for honoring the dead.

Throughout England, celebrations similar to those of Samhain, complete with bonfires, masquerades and childish shenanigans, poorer people would visit the homes of the wealthy and receive "soul cakes" in exchange for prayer for the souls of the homeowners dead relatives.

This annual tradition was eventually taken up by children who would go from door to door asking for even more extravagant gifts such as food, money and even ale.

The American version of trick or treating didn't come until the early 20th century when communities of Irish and Scottish people revived some of the old traditions of the Celts and mumming.

By the 1920's, these shenanigans would turn into rowdy pranks, sometimes costing over $100,000 in damages each year in cities.

This tradition soon ceased after the Great Depression when sugar rationing would make candy a luxury.

After the war, trick-or-treating would come back with a bang, quickly becoming a stand tradition among children across the US. Candy companies boomed by capitalizing on the ritual, launching commercial advertising campaigns specifically aimed at the strange holiday.

To this day, Americans spend over 8 billion dollars during the Halloween season, with costumes taking up about 36% of the revenue according to Investopedia.

Whatever the true origin, Halloween and trick-or-treating are a tradition likely to stay and likely to entertain children and adults alike for hundreds of years.