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)

I relate very much more to Europe
Scotland and I believe Ireland both had getting sweets (also other items nuts, fruit and coins). Going round the neighborhood houses to collect them ( although we had to do a turn to get the reward)
I'm happy to relate this is a European based tradition.

[quote ParadiseLaundry]@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 [/quote]

No problem! I've been here for years and the Santa Claus/Father Christmas debate has become as much a tradition as Christmas itself

I do like a sniffy it's Father Christmas thread, it's just so dramatic

I do like a sniffy it's Father Christmas thread, it's just so dramatic

Also, the ones about "my child is in high school, do you think it's time I tell him/her that Santa/FC is not real."

Sorry for the diversion, back to Halloween.

I do resent the effort involved with helping my daughter celebrate something I have no interest in.
I’m not interested in Halloween because it wasn’t a massive feature of my childhood. I remember seeing trick or treating in American films and being aware that it was something separate to my experience.
I resent it in the way I resent taking her to a restaurant I don’t want to eat in or to a film I don’t want to see. It feels like a pointless imposition. Doesn’t mean I ban it though, just go through the motions because she likes it.

I always loved Halloween as a child, and for me it was all about the gothic stuff; haunted houses, ghosts, witches, rolling mist etc. There wasn't any house decorating but we did usually dress up in a mask and bin bag and knock on a few neighbours we knew. It was fun.

I'm not sure if it's an American import but dressing up as just about anything for Halloween seems to be more common now. Trick or treating in my area isn't that common, and those who do seem to go to friends and relatives only, as we will this year. Maybe it's just a sense that there is more pressure to go to the pumpkin picking, carve the pumpkin, decent costume, novelty food, house decorations etc.

I didn't resent doing anything for my 2 dds or for my dgc. Anyway I think that this year they should ban it as one of the country kids are banned from doing it by law but the other half can. So to be fair the spineless Government should say no trick or treat only in yr own homes. It's all a money spinner nothing else. Shallow just like a lot of things are now.

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

As a Scot who guised every year during the 70s, I cannot think of how they managed to change such a pleasant activity into something with slightly malicious undertones. We didn't get sweets just for turning up at someone's door, we had to work for them!

I remember we were often taken into sitting rooms and asked to perform our song/poem in front of the whole family or elderly relatives. Entire families would come and crowd around the door to listen to you and clap when you were finished. It was something adults rewarded children for and was a great confidence boost and something we prepared for.

No tricks, no mess, no threats.

I think the popular idea of what it means to celebrate Halloween is American. That Hollywood version of Halloween where the whole neighbourhood decorates their front lawns, and all the families get dressed up and go trick or treating house to house.thw few times that I have gone trick or treating it has been in the dark and freezing cold, and we’ve wandered the streets looking for the few pumpkins on doorsteps and seen the occasional spooky skeleton or cobweb, and it’s been a bit unexciting tbh.

Also it's Scots/Irish in origin

It isn't. It derives from All Souls Eve. Which was part of the Christian calender across Europe, or where Europens went, and that includes England as well

I think the objection to an American style halloween in Europe is all plastic tat, trick or treat, and the over commercialism of it.

Halloween in the 1970s in England (north) was
A turnip/swede carved into a lantern, with a candle inside, with a lid and string to carry it with
Making a witch hat out of rolled up cardboard painted black and wearing rags.
We would knock on neighbours doors and make scary "woo woo" noises.
I don't remember anything about "trick or treat" and there was no plastic tat in the shops or pumpkins. Everything was home made.

Agree with PP's that Bonfire Night was a bigger event.
Dressing the guy and carting it around in an old pram for money. Huge local bonfires and fireworks, and even fairgrounds, or a back garden bonfire with neighbours. Toffee apples, potatoes baked in the bottom of the bonfire in foil (crispy on the outside and very soft inside, with butter, gorgeous), parkin, treacle toffee etc

I have no idea why people hate it op just because it's supposed to be American.

These things like Xmas and Easter come at perfect points in the seasons.

For me it's a way to mark the change of seasons and its just really good fun... No slasher crap here just gentle cats, witches etc.

Xmas marks the darkest time of year and it's perfect for something to concentrate on and lift spirits....

Same for Easter.. Marks the back of winter and new beginnings.

No tricks, no mess, no threats

In the part of the USA I'm in there is none of the above. If a house has a lit pumpkin or similar then small dc dressed up knock on the door and say "trick or treat" often there is a word or two about their costume and they say thank you.

Young people who live in flats come down to the street and sit in deck chairs often sipping warm drinks, with decorated dogs, and hand out sweets. There are dressed up houses and lots of chatter between different kids.
It is bloody freezing and different to the guising I grew up with but a lovely community experience all the same.

For the most part, trick or treating in the US has no menacing or threatening aspect. The part we eliminated from guising is children having to perform. We just went straight to the treat part.

Anyone who doesn't want to participate just turns their lights off.

I am Irish.

When I was a nipper we dressed up and went from house to house saying "Help the Halloween Party" no songs no rubbish, just got lots of monkey nuts and apples and a few sweets.

Then home and the apples were suspended on a string by Dad over a bowl of water and so on. Great fun. Mam made a Barm Brack cake with lots of bits in, like a ring and so on, and if you got the ring you were first to get married.

Simpler times.

It isn't. It derives from All Souls Eve. Which was part of the Christian calender across Europe, or where Europens went, and that includes England as well

The Celtic observation of Samhain pre-dates Christian observation of All Souls Eve. Halloween contains elements of both, but its Celtic origins are significant.

Doesn't matter, we all enjoy some imported festivals. It is a Celtic tradition associated with All Souls Day when the dead are remembered and some are supposed to rise again, OMG!

So Halloween is the day before the rising of the dead. So enjoy the day before they souls come back to haunt you! lol.

But maybe not so much fun attached for the kids this year.

It isn't. It derives from All Souls Eve

?? It's All Hallow's Eve (which assimilated to Hallowe'en). All Hallow's Day, or as it is better know, All Saints Day is 1 Nov. People believed the saints protective power was at its strongest on All Hallow's Day, waning through the year and at its weakest on the Eve, hence easier on 31 Oct for evil to break through.

All Souls Day is 2 November - a separate remembrance

Probably more information than anyone wants on the subject, but here goes. The pagan observances pre-date the Christian ones, which by the way, is one of the reasons that some Christians find Halloween problematical.

www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween

Probably more information than anyone wants on the subject, but here goes. The pagan observances pre-date the Christian ones, which by the way, is one of the reasons that some Christians find Halloween problematical.

While at the same time bigging up Yule Christmas

Probably better not mention Eostre too , as it's a shit point.

I think it depends where you live in the UK
I was born in the 60s and lived in london. Halloween was something you only saw on American tv shows, We did penny for th guy and fireworks night.
We were taught about All Hallows Eve (halloween) in assembly

bruffin, me too. I was born in the 1950’s in London, and Hallowe’en wasn’t celebrated at all. We always made a guy out of old clothes and stuffed him with newspaper, then towed him round the local shops on a home made go cart, begging pennies for fireworks. He was burned on the bonfire at our street firework party for Guy Fawkes Night.
I think Hallowe’en was purely northern and Celtic, but even my Geordie parents didn’t observe it after moving south.

Babdoc
My DM was Welsh and they didn't celebrate Halloween either

I just hope those kids celebrating Halloween and trick or treat or guiding Soares a thought for all those in Tier 3 who cannot do so. Which I'm afraid I'm very angry about. It should have been cancelled altogether. There's enough unfairness across the UK as it is without adding to it!

Nearly over lol, and will be forgotten on Sunday next, in the face of ahem possible CHRISTMAS restrictions.

Never got bonfire night at all. But hey it's tradition, but wonder if many know what that is all about! Guy Fawkes will let you know.