Halloween evolved from pranks to parties in the past century. In the early 1900s, young men made a night of toppling outhouses and garbage cans, piling cornstalks on porches, and letting animals like pigs or ponies loose. Kids carved notches in the ends of empty thread spools and rolled them on windows, making a frightful sound before the kids banged on the door, yelling “Tricks or treats, money or eats!”

City fathers soon decided to discourage pranks by starting Halloween activities. In 1921, Anoka, Minnesota, held the first recorded citywide Halloween celebration in the nation. It’s the Halloween capital of the U.S. to this day.

Halloween offers two temptations: the chance to become someone else for a night and to eat treats (more later). Children who fear monsters and ghosts find that dressing up and acting like a monster such as Dr. Frankenstein’s cuts through the mystery, making it less frightening. And grownups delight in dressing up as someone else, stepping outside themselves one evening a year.

Halloween is so popular that it causes an economic uptick every October. Costume rental stores-2,500 of them nationwide-advertise garb to transform us into characters like Batman and Princess Leia. Children become angels, devils or cartoon characters, while teens become vampires, pirates or princesses. 

Party stores make it easy to decorate rooms by offering do-it-yourself cobwebs and glow-in-the-dark skeletons. Haunted houses open for business with wispy smoke curling from their chimneys and ghoulish laughter sounding from their doorways. Pumpkin patches nationwide produce millions of pounds of the golden globes, large and small, to become candlelit faces, merry or scary.

This year, why not throw your own Boo Bash? The folks at Hormel Foods have created imaginative treats for it. In the center of the serving table, set out a witch’s cauldron of Hormel Chili surrounded by warm Them Bones. Then add a bat-shaped Hormel Meat and Cheese Party Tray. Simply cut the tray in half, cut out a head and arrange.

The final touch to the eats display is a Count Dracula pizza, his mop of hair and snag-toothed mouth fashioned from pepperoni. Set out an array of beverages: hot cider, soda pop and flavored waters. Dessert? Frozen balls of orange sherbet topped with chocolate sauce.

Them Bones

Makes 8 servings

2  cans (15 ounces) HORMEL Chili With Beans

1  can (8 ounces) refrigerated breadsticks

Create a witch’s cauldron in which to serve chili-a small black bucket or a bowl inside a paper cauldron. Heat the chili. Open the breadsticks; cut each strip of dough in two lengthwise. Shape dough into 16 bones of various sizes. Bake at 350? F for 5 to 8 minutes, until crisp.

Serve bones around chili so they’re ready to dip into it.