Halloween didn’t start as the candy-fueled celebration we know today. In the mid-1800s, Irish families brought Halloween and its associated traditions with them to America.

One such tradition was soul cakes. Poor children would go door to door, begging for cakes in exchange for prayers for the deceased. This tradition evolved into trick-or-treating.

In the 1800s, Americans observed the British Halloween tradition of Snap Apple Night, which had blindfolded people eating apples suspended from strings.

Nuts were a fixture of Victorian American Halloween. One tradition involved naming nuts after romantic interests and throwing them in a fire. If they popped, it wasn’t meant to be.

Candy corn dates back to the 1880s, and the recipe has remained largely unchanged. The candy has been a stalwart Halloween confection in America for nearly 150 years.