Happy Halloween
the female presenter on the lottery show has just wished me a happy halloween!
Ghosts, goulies, witches, walking dead etc. Tricking or treating( i.e. Demanding with menaces ) and she wishes me a happy Halloween. Has the world gone mad?
Comments
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A nasty American idea this trick or treat thing .even there they have people who boobytrap sweets and fruit with all sorts of nasties ie glass for the revellers! Much prefer the Scottish tradition of guiders, where kids dreadful in fancy dress (homemade)
and do a song or joke for which you got fruit. there was no threat!0 -
A nasty American idea this trick or treat thing .even there they have people who boobytrap sweets and fruit with all sorts of nasties ie glass for the revellers! Much prefer the Scottish tradition of guiders, where kids dreadful in fancy dress (homemade)
and do a song or joke for which you got fruit. there was no threat!Do you have any evidence of booby trapped sweets, sounds grotesque
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She could have wished you a 'Happy Samhain' instead.
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What a load of nonsense!!
Just another way for the shops to get money for selling rubbish. Many are full of tat.
One of the supermarkets was even using it as an excuse to advertise selling cheap alcohol. No problem with that (
) but what's it got to do
with Halloween?0 -
The world has gone completely mad!
I went out saturday eve to collect Pizza,
Group of children with adults trick or treating, walking past a house that has got Christmas decorations up and flashing and the sky was light up from the fireworks going off!!!
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My nieces have lived in both new Hampshire and Minnesota where their father had to inspect the goodies so much that they eventually went to organised parties through school!, They had found tampered goodies!
I meant documented evidence, ie police reports, news items
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Just another stupid "celebration" to get the gullible to part with their cash,bit like Christmas,Bah humbug.
As a Christian country I can't believe we tolerate it on this scale,but 'ang on we're British aren't we??
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As a foreigner, I had never heard of Halloween before I came here.
When DD was young it was becoming popular.....maybe 1990....but at that age only agreed between neighbours that kids could visit. DD was never really into it and never really liked dressing up.
OH has always regarded it almost as begging, and does not approve at all.
These days, like others we shut the outer doors, turn off the lights and lie low!! Terrible that we have to "hide" in our own home!
In the past, for no reason at all, we have had eggs thrown at our windows......really difficult to clean off......when did kids become sooooo obnoxious?
Talking to my sister in Norway recently, Halloween has reached them too now, even though it is totally alien to Norwegian culture.
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A couple of years ago I kept a water pistol handy at Halloween. When I opened the door and little rascals shouted "Trick or treat?" I replied "Trick!!" and gave them a jolly good squirting.
Apparently that's not how it's meant to be according to my sons.
I was anxious about giving away sweets or choc bars in case one of them was diabetic, vegan, allergic to nuts......raisins.......milk powder........sucrose...... wheat......
Cuh!
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I may be wrong (I often am) but isn't Hallowen a Pagan festival, I remember one very religous man that I worked with who wouldn't have anything to do with it on those grounds.
Grandkids love it though
Yes it is 'All Hallows Evening', shortened to Halloween, when the spirits of the unhappy dead are supposed to walk the land and originally a lantern made from a turnip (we didn't have pumpkins then, apparently), was left burning outside cottages to ward off the evil spirits. When the original Settlers went to America they started to use pumpkins.
(explanation from yesterday's Radio 4 'The Food Programme')
Another explanation:
The origins of the festival
Hallowe’en seems to have grown around the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain, marking the end of the light half of the year and the beginning of the dark half.Samhain was in part a sort of harvest festival, when the last crops were gathered in for the winter, and livestock killed and stored. But the pagan Celts also believed it was a time when the walls between our world and the next became thin and porous, allowing spirits to pass through.
The practice of wearing spooky costumes may have its roots in that belief: dressing up as a ghost to scare off other ghosts seems to have been the idea.
I must admit to quite enjoying it. When we were children we had 'Mischief Night' where we used to play tricks on our neighbours and friends. Here in our little cul de sac we usually only get visiting children that we know, though last year (when we put out a special Halloween doorbell which had a ghoulish face and an evil laugh as the ringtone) we got loads of extra visitors.
We've even dressed up ourselves, so that when we answered the door we scared the kids more than they were supposed to scare us.
Each to their own, but we treat it as a bit of fun - and if you take part in it, it makes it more fun.
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Strange ----Parents spend all year teaching children to be wary of strangers especially those who give kids money or sweets -------. Then at halloween they send them out on the streets, in the dark to encourage strangers to give their kids money and sweets.
Strange.
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So far tonight (7pm) we've had 3 groups of children around - all aged 10 and under (I think under the considerable make up and masks!) and accompanied by several parents. I send OH out with a bag of goodies but I did hear lots of squeals and giggles and
more to the point, good manners with many 'thank yous'. Heartnening.0 -
WHEY HEY! JS, Tell us all about it in more detail, it certainly sounds more exciting!
When I was a child, my mother used to put a bucket of water under the letter box in the porch on mischief night. Lit fireworks were quite often "posted through"
Thankfully, much tamer tonight, just kids (with parents), all well behaved, so far!
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I may be wrong (I often am) but isn't Hallowen a Pagan festival, I remember one very religous man that I worked with who wouldn't have anything to do with it on those grounds.
Grandkids love it though
Yes it is 'All Hallows Evening', shortened to Halloween, when the spirits of the unhappy dead are supposed to walk the land and originally a lantern made from a turnip (we didn't have pumpkins then, apparently), was left burning outside cottages to ward
off the evil spirits. When the original Settlers went to America they started to use pumpkins.(explanation from yesterday's Radio 4 'The Food Programme')
Another explanation:
The origins of the festival
Hallowe’en seems to have grown around the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain, marking the end of the light half of the year and the beginning of the dark half.Samhain was in part a sort of harvest festival, when the last crops were gathered in for the winter, and livestock killed and stored. But the pagan Celts also believed it was a time when the walls between our world and the next became thin and porous,
allowing spirits to pass through.The practice of wearing spooky costumes may have its roots in that belief: dressing up as a ghost to scare off other ghosts seems to have been the idea.
I must admit to quite enjoying it. When we were children we had 'Mischief Night' where we used to play tricks on our neighbours and friends. Here in our little cul de sac we usually only get visiting children that we know, though last year (when we put
out a special Halloween doorbell which had a ghoulish face and an evil laugh as the ringtone) we got loads of extra visitors.We've even dressed up ourselves, so that when we answered the door we scared the kids more than they were supposed to scare us.
Each to their own, but we treat it as a bit of fun - and if you take part in it, it makes it more fun.
We used sugarbeet to make our lanterns as kids. Walked around the village and churchyard. Scared ourselves witless. No trick or treat. Wasn't happy about Halloween then and still uneasy now. All Souls tomorrow much nicer to remember those I've loved and
lost. That said walking back from town today i some beautifully decorated houses0 -
WHEY HEY! JS, Tell us all about it in more detail, it certainly sounds more exciting!
Exciting but not in a good way. Lots of fires, lots of damage, far too many arrests. Mizzy night (30th) is notorious I'm afraid
Where I live now it's the 31st and trick or treating by little ones. It's much nicer
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This afternoon I had a mum, from in the Clise, asking if it would be OK for her two young girls and a friend to trick or treat us. Realising that we probably had not made any arrangements for treats she even supplied those!!! She said it was the first time
they had done it and were very excited. Whilst we don't like Halloween we were happy to oblige and they had lovely costumes and were excited. So that all went well but then we went into lockdown, lights off etc. Perfectly happy to help if pre arranged but
not on an ad hoc basis. Had some bad experiences in the past.David
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I was brought up in a village called Stannington, near Sheffield - sadly, not a village any more. We had a tradition which has now disappeared, called Cakin' Night - or Cakin Neet as it was pronounced, locally. This took place on November 1st - All Souls Day - and was similar to Halloween in that as children we went from house to house, dressed up in ghoulish costumes - but at each door, we chanted:
"Cake, cake, copper, copper, cake cake, copper copper, if you haven't got a penny a hapenny will do, if you haven't got a happeny then God Bless You."
We were then given either cake or a penny and off we went merrily on our way. None of this 'trick or treat' nonsense.
This custom, which has now sadly disappeared probably has its roots in the Gaelic festival of Samhain as Valda explained, and was limited to just two or three villages in the vicinity of Stannington but there is also evidence of Gaelic customs being prevalent in other parts of North East Derbyshire.
There is an interesting article at https://traditionalcustomsandceremonies.wordpress.com/tag/stannington/
I had read somewhere, that the custom was also linked to the outbreak of the Great Plague at Eyam which isn't that far away from Stannington, but since I can't find any reference to it now, that was probably more to do with folklore than fact.
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We're away from home this year so haven't had any knocks on the door.
But it's all been good natured enough in the past, usually just very young children in a variety ofvgarbs, accompanied by parents or older siblings (many of whom I taught some years ago!)
Last year we had a lovely group of youngsters from the houses in our close. One little girl, obviously appointed the spokesperson, came out with the "trick or treat" line to which I replied "ooh, lovely, I'll have a treat please".
"Oh!" she said and held out her bag of sweets for me to pick one, bless her!
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grump
