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Original poster

Why are people bothered about Halloween being American?

152 replies

OgwdihwO · 29/10/2020 10:21

I often hear both on here and irl that Halloween, trick or treating in particular is so American therefore we don’t participate.

Why is it an issue that it’s American?

There are many traditions that are not British! Do these people only celebrate British traditions? Or are they hypocritically getting drunk on Burns Night or celebrating Easter/Christmas (Jesus wasn’t British after all)

OP posts:
EdithWeston · 29/10/2020 10:45

I think it's a pity that Guy Fawkes night is getting overshadowed by the increased emphasis on Hallowe'en.

Which is not an American phenomenon, though I think imported US tv has fostered a reintroduction to the regions of the UK where our tradition had withered/never been so strong in the first place.

DGRossetti · 29/10/2020 10:45

Was it "Blue Peter" that started the whole UK trick or treating thing in the 70s ? Pretty certain it was unknown when I was at primary school.

Don't mind making Halloween a big thing, but really detest T&Ting. really detest it. (When I'm PM, I'll ban it ...)

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 29/10/2020 10:46

Calling something 'American' is a snobbish insult used by those who believe themselves superior.

Actual American festivals... Thanksgiving and 4th July.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Events & celebrations
TrollTheRespawnJeremy · 29/10/2020 10:46

Halloween is not American. It's based on the celtic festival Samhain.

Google is a thing y'know? I'm honestly amazed at how little people know or research for themselves even with the world at their fingertips.

HelloToMyKitty · 29/10/2020 10:48

Halloween is not American. It's based on the celtic festival Samhain

We know 🙄

The point is that it is now so different that it’s really it’s own thing.

DirtyBlonde · 29/10/2020 10:48

I was a bit taken aback at the negative attitude to Hallowe'en from my DS's village C of E primary

Yeah, there are some a bit like that. But most churches aren't bothered, and some host Hallowee'en parties for their younger congregants. It's pretty rare for a primary school to ignore it let alone invite someone in to speak against it.

Blueberries0112 · 29/10/2020 10:51

I think what people hate is how big corporations make money off of holidays

MillieEpple · 29/10/2020 10:54

Putting aside the 'its not origibally american arguament' - there is a lot of anti american sentiment in the uk. I think more so in older generations. Obviously lots of love for the states too. I guess its the common language but they have become a dominant world superpower. Then over time our own cultural heritage gets a bit lost behind the american versions or just superceded. Its like we are a colony of a former colony - maybe people feel a bit threatened.

Rockbird · 29/10/2020 10:57

The DCs' Catholic primary school doesn't acknowledge Halloween at all. DD1 remembers a teacher shouting at the class because a kid mentioned it. But then she had another teacher who drew a sneaky little pumpkin on the corner of the whiteboard. That was pure rebellion!

As for the American (which it really isn't) thing, it's pure snobbery. Plain and simple.

AuntieStella · 29/10/2020 10:57

Could you define what you mean by older generations in this context?

Especially with reference to the attitudes to the US in the post war period - probably stretching thought until at least the end of the 1950s. A decade which saw immensely positive relations with and attitudes towards the USA.

MrsWooster · 29/10/2020 11:00

The issue isn’t Halloween-that’s beyond ancient. I think people object to the commercialisation around trick-or-treat, which IS a US import-traditionally UK would have some version of mischief night, descended from the fact that it’s the eve of All Hallows’ day, so last chance for all the baddies to cavort before all the holies have their day!

MillieEpple · 29/10/2020 11:06

AuntieStella - well i'm 40 and i find a lot of my parents friends say things like 'its a bit american' as an insult about a film or play or political relations to the rest of the word. I dont find my friends say that. There was also a lot of 'bit late to the war' banter.
Im not suggesting there wasnt also a lot of love and admiration for lots of things usa too.
Thinking if my generation there was more a feeling that politically we just do what the us tells us. That film with Hugh Grant playing our prime minister standing up to the US literally got clapped in cinemas!
I dont know about youngsters as i am old and boring now.

Triskelline · 29/10/2020 11:08

@DirtyBlonde

I was a bit taken aback at the negative attitude to Hallowe'en from my DS's village C of E primary

Yeah, there are some a bit like that. But most churches aren't bothered, and some host Hallowee'en parties for their younger congregants. It's pretty rare for a primary school to ignore it let alone invite someone in to speak against it.

Yes, the vicar was evangelical, and at the Biblical literalism end of things -- which I also hadn't expected in the C of E. I would be lying if I said my own religious education had been wildly doctrinally sophisticated, but in fairness, no one ever expected us to believe that Genesis was anything other than a form of origin myth.

That's interesting, @Rockbird -- as I said, in my childhood, the Catholic church, if it didn't exactly incorporate Hallowe'en, implicitly viewed it as a form of permissible mischief before the solemn feasts of All Saints and All Souls. I never encountered a priest, nun or other religious figure, at school or elsewhere, who expressed the remotest negativity.

SomethingOnce · 29/10/2020 11:12

It isn’t that it’s American (it isn’t, as many posters have pointed out), it’s that it has, following the US example, become yet another commercialised, plastic-y grab-fest.

Apileofballyhoo · 29/10/2020 11:13

My DM, in rural Ireland 1950s, did a type of trick or treating on St Bridget's Day. Halloween was a mask or witch's hat, brack, apples, nuts and fortune telling using plates with different materials and a blindfold when I was a child. Trick or treating came in mid 80s.

ChaToilLeam · 29/10/2020 11:14

It’s not American! We celebrated it in Scotland when I was a child, with guising, dooking for apples, etc. It has become Americanised, which is a different thing. But we had it first. Neep lanterns and all.

Triskelline · 29/10/2020 11:15

@SomethingOnce

It isn’t that it’s American (it isn’t, as many posters have pointed out), it’s that it has, following the US example, become yet another commercialised, plastic-y grab-fest.
But no one's obliged to participate in that element of things, surely. DS and I, in the absence of being able to even trick or treat around grandparents this year, are going to carve pumpkins and play Torchy Torchy after dark. And do a version of the ring/pea/bean/stick in the barm brack, only with a cake DS actually likes.
Harmarsuperstar · 29/10/2020 11:17

We had a sharpened spoon for digging out the swedes. It took HOURS. Kids today don't know they're born Halloween Grin

Mrsjayy · 29/10/2020 11:18

I went knocking on doors mid 70s we would get nuts and sweets and if we were lucky if a 10p was given, so its not "new" it just has a different name.

lotusbell · 29/10/2020 11:19

I'm not bothered about where it originates from, for me it's the blatant commercialism and the long drawn out celebrations including house parties and public events - massively overpriced days out at pumpkin farms and garden centres, the heaps of food, decorations and related tat you can buy for it, all on the shelves as soon as the kids go back to school. The local pubs throwing Halloween parties, it's just an excuse for a piss up!
I think the Americanism of it is the way it's now revered as one of the big main festivals - in America it always seems as if its celebrated like Thanksgiving and Christmas bit I might be wrong.

I never really went Trick or Treating as a kid growing up in the late 80s and early 90s and my son who is 13 has done it once - he was always too self conscious about dressing up Hmm

Mrsjayy · 29/10/2020 11:20

We had a sharpened spoon for digging out the swedes. It took HOURS. Kids today don't know they're born

No they do not !we had the biggest kitchen knife that my mum would go at the turnip it was slightly sinister Halloween Shock

SomethingOnce · 29/10/2020 11:22

I have an ancient (1980s) Topsy and Tim book in which turnips are carved.

Today’s Topsy and Tim (TV travesty) would undoubtedly be clad head to toe in supermarket polyester fire-hazard costumes, plastic buckets at the ready, demanding industrial quantities of Haribo from every house in the cul-de-sac.

Frequentcarpetflyer · 29/10/2020 11:22

I think it's the commercial elements people don't like and the fact that people have just copied something from a different culture (one that dominates media generally) while at the same time ignoring the origins of the festival.

Why have people stopped celebrating it the Irish/Scottish/British way and replaced those traditions with traditions from another country? I think that is what people are objecting to.

Mrsjayy · 29/10/2020 11:22

but lotusbell you don't have to take part in any of it let others get on with it and do your own thing,

Harmarsuperstar · 29/10/2020 11:23

@Mrsjayy

We had a sharpened spoon for digging out the swedes. It took HOURS. Kids today don't know they're born

No they do not !we had the biggest kitchen knife that my mum would go at the turnip it was slightly sinister Halloween Shock

We'd start off doing it and probably get about 1cm excavated, then complain to my mum, then my dad would finish it off when he got home from work. I might get a swede today and give it a go, for old time's sake 🤔