Maria_H

We didn't celebrate Halloween when I was a child but I do remember being kept in on 4th November, which was known as Mischief Night. My father used to take the wooden gates off from our front garden, or it was likely they would end up on a local bonfire the next day!

I deplore the recent commercialisation of Halloween where children are encouraged to wander round dark streets, knocking on strangers doors. The younger ones are dragged round by a parent, expecting sweets, the older ones, with the aid of a cheap mask, demanding money with menaces. I've taken to turning my front lights off, pretending to be out and hoping I won't get an egg thrown at the house!

Tallulah

2tired2night & rockhopper: I'm stung to the core and shall reprimand myself really quite severely!

kamahinaohoku

m_kingdom2 - a question: do you consider Christmas festivities to be "purile nonsense" as well? I mean, sitting around the dinner table wearing tissue paper hats pulled from crackers doesn't exactly seem like adult entertainment...
To each his own...

kamahinaohoku

m_kingdom2 - not that I could ever in any stretch of the imagination imagine you doing such a thing as wearing a stupid paper hat...but every culture has their own bizarre festivities... some of which are indeed purile, but may also be fun.

cmt

You need to relax and listen carefully and gaze out the window in the photo for about 4 minutes, with your sound turned on, until you can perceive the arrival of the gentle British ghost: http://www.tekzoned.com/whatswrong/

m_kingdom2

"m_kingdom2 - a question: do you consider Christmas festivities to be "purile nonsense" as well? I mean, sitting around the dinner table wearing tissue paper hats pulled from crackers doesn't exactly seem like adult entertainment..."

Do I seem the sort to sit around a table with a paper hat on? I really don't think so. As for crackers, any excuse for a little bit of nonsense from Asprey is welcomed as far as I'm concerned. Also, Christmas has religious foundations (which seem to go amiss these days I suppose), Halloween's activites are just invention, and ridiculous invention at that. I haven't the patience. Halloween is about as welcome as those naff t-shirts with jokes on or novelty socks....awful!

kswl

I guess you wouldn't approve of my special Halloween socks with pumpkins and witches! I actually got something in England last year to wear on Halloween: a rather nicely made ladies' t shirt, black, with a luminescent skull and crossbones. I got it at the Cutty Sark gift shop, it will be perfect. I just wish we would get trick or treaters.

Pegontheroad

All this negative stuff about Halloween seems to me pretty silly. Perhaps there was a time when children would do some kind of mischief if not given candy, but I've never heard of anything like that actually happening. As a child, I remember hearing something about the threat to soap people's windows, but I never knew that to take place either.

Though I'm very, very far from my trick or treating days, I do remember that it was a very exciting time for a child--going out after dark with my brown bag and asking the neighbors for candy. I still enjoy seeing all the little ones dressed up like princesses or like Dracula.

alya

As a 'little one' in Yorkshire my parents would never let us out on Mischief Night and never answered the door.

We moved to the US in 2001 and when we were able to explain to my Mother that Halloweeen is all about handing out candy, she embraced the tradition and instead of hiding in with the lights off (she's now a widow and lives on her own) she buys lots of candy and hands it out generously to the 'Trick or Treaters'.

Some the older teenagers look down at the candy and back at her in suprise - she just says "That's what they do in America". They thank her and leave - she has never had any trouble but she's found that in the last few years she's had to buy more candy

BTW, she doesn't get small children knocking on her door - only teenagers who would be deemded 'too old' in the US.

mousireid

I do remember my father carving HUGE turnips and placing a candle of flashlight (torch) inside - it smelled SO BAD. We always dressed up in whatever my Mother threw together and visited all the people on our street (all retired and we were the only kids) but we had to either tell a joke, sing a song or nursery rhyme and were given oranges, apples, 'monkey nuts' (peanuts in the shell) and sometimes baked goods or candied apples. 'Dooking' for apples was also common. We never experienced any vandalism or 'mischief'???? Don't have a clue about that until I was in the US but luckily haven't had to experience it.
Then we celebrated All Saints Day at Church and following that bonfires and fireworks for Guy Fawkes on November 5.
Here the Italians are invited to the American Halloween parties and really seem to enjoy it (they have their Day of the Dead also where deceaseed relatives place candy/gifts into shoes and visiting graves etc. so the children tend to feel their dead relatives are 'watching over them.')
Much like the tooth fairy and Santa Claus its all for fun and imagination. My son does know about Santa Claus but he also belted out Happy Burthday Dear Jesus on Christmas morning. He's 3. A good enough understanding for now.
Enjoy your own 'holidays' whether its religious or not - isn't it wonderful we actually get a choice in our countries? I can respect others choices and viewpoints too!

kswl

Thanks for that post, Mousereid. It's nice to hear how others have celebrated holidays in other countries. And I am impressed that your child knows even that about the real meaning of Christmas at such a young age. Most kids <i>only</i> know Santa Claus. I agree with you about enjoying one's own holidays, and worry that our current mania for &quot;diversity&quot; has actually made us less diverse as people lose their individuality in worrying that we all don't do the same things at the same times as everyone else.

kamahinaohoku

m_kingdom2 - You said &quot;Also, Christmas has religious foundations (which seem to go amiss these days I suppose), Halloween's activites are just invention, and ridiculous invention at that.&quot;

On the contrary, Halloween has religious foundations. Samhain (a pagan festival celebrating the Celtic New Year) was the night when the spirit world was deemed closest to our own. People dressed in disguise to confuse the spirits, whom the living were afraid would recognize them and continue to stay around and haunt them.

And the Christmas holiday is actually based on Yule, another pagan festival. A celebration of the coming of the sun at the Winter Solstice. When the Christians adopted the holiday, the coming of the sun to relight the world was changed to the son...ie, Christ.)

luckykat

I say go pagan!

Take the train up to Avebury and wander amonst the standing stones throughout the village. Much better than stonehenge! you can go up to the stones and touch them etc etc! Dress up and scare all the cows

SiobhanP

I was told it was a pagain Irish and I guess Celtic holiday and they incorporated it into Catholicism like many Pagan holiday in order to convert the masses. So historically it would have a religious conotations for the people of the time like the solstices etc.

AllyPally

I do get kiddies ringing the doorbell of my apartment in London. I do wish it had caught on here as I miss the costumes, especially when worn by small 2 year olds who don't know why they're there. What they do know is that they need to hold out their bags/sacs for the sweets!

kamahinaohoku

It is my understanding that when the early Pagan religions were dominant, the early Christians celebrated their holidays at the same time so as not to draw attention to themselves, and then eventually altered those holidays to suit their beliefs. Thus Yule became Christmas, and the spring celebration of the Germanic Goddess Ostara became Easter. Incidentally, Ostara's symbol was the rabbit and she carried eggs as a symbol of fertility. (And you always wondered why the Easter bunny brought eggs???)