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Asking for treats door-to-door is probably derived from the English practice of celebrating Guy Fawkes Day on November 5. Between the 16th and 18th centuries in England, Catholics had no legal rights. Sometimes Catholics resisted the oppression. One extreme example of resistance was the failed "Gunpowder Plot" that backfired, so to speak, on November 5, 1605. As a commemoration of this event, which became a national holiday, English Protestant revelers would wear masks and go from one Catholic home to the next in the middle of the night, demanding beer and cakes for celebration. The revelers frequently carried lanterns made of turnips, carved to mimic the heads of the beheaded conspirators. Over time more customs were added, including pranks by children the night before. To this day, children wearing masks beg for pennies and treats door-to-door on Guy Fawkes Day and people celebrate the king’s preservation with fireworks, bonfires, and burning effigies of the treasonous conspirators.

English Protestants carried the celebration of Guy Fawkes Day to the American colonies. These settlers included Anglicans, who also kept the feast of All Saints, and Puritans. Anglicans commonly called the celebration "Powder Plot Day," while Puritans with more anti-Catholic tendencies preferred "Pope Day."

So many details, so little exposition when a Catholic tells it:

In 1605, 13 young men planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament in what is now called "the Gunpowder Plot". The Gunpowder Plot came about after Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603. English Catholics, who had been persecuted under her rule, were bitterly disappointed when her successor, James I, who had a Catholic mother, failed to be more tolerant of their religion. Their leader Robert Catesby decided to blow up the Houses of Parliament, hoping to kill the King, the Prince of Wales, and the MPs who were making life difficult for Catholics.
Among 13 young men was Guy Fawkes, Britain's most notorious traitor and Roman Catholic convert. He was arrested in Parliament's cellar with 36 barrels of gunpowder. Fawkes was tried, convicted, and executed for treason.
Even now, four hundred years later, the reigning monarch only enters the Parliament once a year for the State Opening of Parliament. And before the opening, according to custom, the Yeomen of the Guard searches the cellars of the Palace of Westminster.

Have a little unhealthy obsession going with that little Jacobean antecedent of the Reichstag fire, Alex?

Somewhat strange, I'd say. Are you really that big into defending establishment Anglicanism, the "Divine Right of Kings," the prerogatives of an Anglican King married to a French Catholic Queen, and the vigorous persecution of your own Puritan forebearers? (Who sailed on the Mayflower in 1620, and why?)

And, remember also the 30th of January, 1649. That was when ardent Puritan Oliver Cromwell succeeded at regicide where Guy Fawkes had failed miserably. Do you celebrate the Stuart Restoration, too?

The name of this website, last I checked, was still Freerepublic, not Cavaliermonarchistsunited. We're Americans, who threw off the yoke of English monarchy 236 years ago. There's a reason why George Washington didn't care to carry on the 5th of November celebration in this country.