Christmas has the candy cane. Easter has marshmallow Peeps. Valentine's Day brings out the red candy-filled heart.
But when Halloween blows in with the crisp autumn wind, one holiday goody is simply not enough.
Trick-or-treaters clad in sheets, masks, hair dye, and fake blood frolic from house to house in a race to snatch as much candy as they can cram into their pillowcases.
But some offerings are less desirable than others. From candy corn and fun-size candy bars to candy apples, what are the most popular Halloween treats and what might as well be tricks?
In ancient Ireland on All Hallow's Eve, the night before All Saint's Day, peasants would wander from house to house seeking food for the next day's celebration. They would receive "soul cakes" with crosses in the middle, meant to fend off evil spirits and guide their way to heaven.
Personal tastes aside, children today are haunted by urban legends about finding razor blades in candy apples or eating poisoned cookies.
They are taught not to take unwrapped or opened foods from strangers.
Today, baked goods are a no-no.
Then the English added bobbing for apples to the festivities, but with a catch: Like today's bouquet toss at a wedding, whoever bit into an apple first would be married first the next year. It is a pastime still found at many Halloween parties today, minus the eternal wedlock part.
Mikey Moral, CSOM '05, loved bobbing for apples, but says, "I thought you were supposed to bite the apple though, not bring it up."
Finally, in the 1880s, German immigrant Gustav Goelitz had a flash of genius and invented candy corn. The stripes of white, orange, and yellow were revolutionary, and the shape was a huge hit at the time.
Other vegetable shapes were unsuccessful, and candy corn has hardly changed in over 100 years. Yet, it has become a staple of Halloween, which accounts for 75 percent of its annual sales.
"Despite what you might think, the majority of candy corn is consumed by adults who learned to love candy corn when they were kids," says Melody Townsel, spokesperson for Brach's Confections, Inc., in a press release.
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