Why are people bothered about Halloween being American?

[OgwdihwO]

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)

'We are the Guisers on Halloween night,
We don't mean to scare you or give you a fright
We are the Guisers with our beady eye-ses
And old our school ties-es'

Kids chant, recorded in Northumberland, 1950s.
Iona and Peter Opie, 'The Lore and Language of School children', 1959.

It probably depends where you live and what your local population is what festivals are celebrated.
Where I live the schools will mark main festivals such as Eid and Diwali, in the old days ( in the office) Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Chinese staff would bring food at festival times in to share with the whole office and they would join in with Christmas etc
As we have a high proportion of Muslim staff in our office we would plan for Ramadam and Eid in the same way we planned for Christmas to ensure staff could have the time off with their familes and they reciprocate at Christmas so those who celebrate it had priority for leave.
There are plenty of local celebrations for every faith open to everyone to join in as they wish

It’s just a thing people say when they’re miserable fuckers anyway

In the early 60s we called it mischief night but on the same principle as trick or treating.

We took a homemade guy with us and knocked on doors, 'penny for the guy' and if they didn't give us a penny, then came the 'mischief'. Some kids threw flour, worse ones did eggs but we weren't allowed to do anything like this and were only allowed to knock on the doors of people we knew anyway. If we had egged them or anything, it would have got back to parents and there would have been real trouble (I don't know what, because we never did).
We did very basic dressing up. An old sheet with eyes cut in or a witches hat, nothing elaborate.

People around me had decorated their mailboxes and put Halloween wreaths up starting in late September. There is one house on my street with massive 9ft Halloween inflatables all over their front lawn. Another house turns their front yard into a graveyard with smoke machines and sound effects and a one-way lighted path you can take to view it. And this is in the middle of the Bible Belt!

Same here (including being in the Bible Belt). Our neighborhood decorates more elaborately for Halloween than Christmas. And children start planning their costumes in early September. One of our neighbors has a three-house display, with his elaborate self-made decorations over three front yards (with neighbors' permission, I assume).

Trick or treating is American, but it is based on guising. Americans didn't just think it up one day.

@JaneJeffer

Halloween is most definitely American.

Did the native Americans celebrate Halloween then?

Given the systematic attempts to eradicate them and their culture, that's a very pertinent point ....

When people say it's too American they mean the commercial side of it. My DH says it all the time, although he does join in with our parties and trick or treating, I think it's just not something he grew up with in a Catholic family in the 70's. Apart from all the plastic disposable junk, I don't think it is a negative thing that it has been commercialised. Dressing a house for autumn is totally something that was big in America and is only recently becoming more mainstream here. As long as people aren't buying plastic decorations and then binning them each year instead of reusing I think it is nice. It's nice to celebrate seasonal celebrations throughout the year and have things to look forward to, displays to make, parties to go to, fun games for children. I don't know why people are such kill joys about anything people enjoy that they didn't get to enjoy when they were younger. Eg Christmas Eve boxes, Easter baskets.

When I was a child, we had swedes cut into lanterns with a string to carry them around. We had bobbing for apples and made toffee apples at home. Then we went out with our lanterns and if you were lucky a friendly neighbour would give you a few pennies.
This was in the 50's, and I'm in Wales

JaneJeffer
Halloween is most definitely American.

Did the native Americans celebrate Halloween then? hmm
Given the systematic attempts to eradicate them and their culture, that's a very pertinent point ....

It’s a shit point and has nothing to do with this thread 🙄

We still have Carmel Apple too
@Blueberries0112
Although much to this Scots disappointment apples in the USA are soft caramel and not crunchy, al least where I live.

Turkey isn’t traditionally English for Christmas, as turkeys are from the Americas.

Good point. But since most Americans don't have turkey for Christmas dinner, British people are not actually adopting an American tradition.

• Halloween is most definitely American.

Did the native Americans celebrate Halloween then? hmm*

It's a good point. This is a tradition that was imported from somewhere else. In the case of Halloween the Celtic nations.

It was adapted by the USA but not created there. If the English weren't so insular and convinced that English and British culture were the same thing they might have noticed Halloween a few centuries earlier.

It was adapted by the USA but not created there. If the English weren't so insular and convinced that English and British culture were the same thing they might have noticed Halloween a few centuries earlier

Virtually everyone is aware it’s a Celtic holiday. But the American version is so, so different, it’s not really the same holiday anymore.

That was the point I was making.

For me the Americanisms I dislike are because I don't like the idea of one culture becoming the dominant culture to the detriment of others. I especially don't like highly commercialised/capitalist versions that even within the US are a "corruption" of the earlier versions. So yes, I don't necessarily want to see the world become a monoculture regardless of which nationality the monoculture is dispersed from. America just happens to be dominant
"seeder" because of its political power and not simply because Halloween (or Thanksgiving etc) is American

@halloweenagain

We still have Carmel Apple too *@Blueberries0112* Although much to this Scots disappointment apples in the USA are soft caramel and not crunchy, al least where I live.

I had both version but the softer one is more common. Probably not the same recipe in other countries though... because of commercialism

I was always taught this, and I am pretty sure a child made this up : trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat, if you don't, I don't care, I'll pull down your underwear.

Actually that sound really bad but it was funny then

It'll soon be time for the annual 'it's Father Christmas in the UK, Santa Claus is American' bunfight discussion

It'll soon be time for the annual 'it's Father Christmas in the UK, Santa Claus is American' bunfight discussion

Let's split the difference and call him Santa Christmas

Halloween is from Ireland 🙂

..... and just getting this in nice and early before the inevitable Christmas threads start up....

Santa Claus is not American either. It's used in Scotland, Ireland and the NE of England where I'm from. Everyone when I was growing up called him Santa Claus, not Father Christmas, teachers, grandparents, everyone.

Watching Nightmare before Christmas with DS1 and he just said 'look there's Father Christmas!' He got corrected.... Santa Claus.... bloody Ben and Holly

Sorry for hijacking this tread for that rant, it just comes up EVERY year here!

Its ‘santa’ in Scotland!

It's Santy in Ireland

@Antirrhinum apologies for the crow post, it took me longer to write that than I thought and you had already posted... but great minds and all that

Child of the 70s here we always celebrated Halloween- parties and carving pumpkins but never did trick or treating. surely most people know it's an old British thing? I think the asking for sweets and dressing up as film characters that is the grabby American thing. Beyond Halloween I think anti Americans is about fakery and consumerism. I don't find American culture appealing and that's not because I am a little englander I relate very much more to Europe and am strongly anti Brexit.

Let's split the difference and call him Santa Christmas 😂