ARA) - When the ghosts and goblins come knocking on your door on October 31st, give them a treat that will make them “glow” with excitement. This Halloween, for the first time ever, fun-size packages of some of your favorite candy bars -- SNICKERS, M&M’S Milk Chocolate and Peanut Candies, 3MUSKETEERS, MILKYWAY and TWIX -- will glow in the dark.

“Halloween is all about having fun,” says David Bloch of Masterfoods USA, the company that manufactures and markets the popular candies. “Dressing up is fun, trick-or-treating with your friends and neighbors is fun, counting out your candy after trick-or-treating is fun. With glow-in-the-dark wraps, we have made the candy even more fun this year. After all, everyone knows the best part about Halloween is the candy collected while trick-or-treating.”

The American tradition of “trick-or-treating” can be traced back to a festival celebrated in 9th century France to honor the dead. Poor citizens would beg for food and families would sometimes give them “soul cakes” in return for a promise to pray for the family’s dead relatives. Hundreds of years later when the Europeans came to America, they brought the custom with them, and over time it evolved.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration, and it remains a tradition kids across the country look forward to every year.

Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween costumes, decorations and candy, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday. “Halloween is the perfect holiday. It’s a universal Mardi Gras for kids and adults alike,” says Bloch. “A time when you can become someone or something you’ve always dreamed of being while literally partying in the streets.” Or partying at a friend’s house. Halloween is, after all, one of the busiest times of year for parties.

If you want to throw a "Spooktacular" Halloween Party this year, a good place to start is by picking a theme. “Thanks to the popularity of the “Shrek 2” movie, I think we’ll be seeing a lot of parties tied to the characters in that film, such as Shrek, Donkey, Princess Fiona and Puss In Boots,” says Bloch. Just in time for Halloween, stores across the country are well stocked with party invitations, costumes, and decorations tied to the Shrek theme, as well as your standard ghosts, goblins, witches and warlocks. And what better treat to offer your guests than the same glow in the dark candy bars you’ll be handing out to all the trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood. “They’re fitting for any party theme you chose,” says Bloch.

You can find glow-in-the dark fun size packages of M&M’S Milk Chocolate and Peanut Candies, SNICKERS, 3MUSKETEERS, MILKYWAY, and TWIX in stores across the country from September 2004 through Halloween.

-Courtesy of ARA Content

Back to the Features Page