Halloween

[berrytart]

I struggle to see the point…..

yes it makes me grumpy…

Kids getting dressed up as murder victims ….just why….

enough sweets to set off a a diabetic pandemic ….

Although I like pumpkin soup ….

I don't like the "horror" side of Halloween that the UK seems to go for.
We really don't need fake knives and bloody chainsaws being sold to children thanks very much.
But the rest of it is fine by me.

Yep. YANBU. I think it's gone too far ( apparently now it's a "Halloween season" rather than just one evening) but much of MN probably won't agree with you/me.

I like Halloween but don’t like horror

I often wonder how the horror side of it became more of a thing in the UK in recent years.
Other countries that have Halloween don't seem to be so much into that.

Yeh I think that’s it, we’ve enough real horror in this country without faking it

Murder victims? Most seem to dress up as superheroes or TV or movie characters (had three as Ghostbusters last year which was great). Lots of Star Wars. And you don’t get diabetes from one or two nights of eating sweets 🙄.
I live within walking distance of three primary schools and Halloween is a big deal here - about 200 or so kids come to my door, probably more. It’s fun. They aren’t into the horror bit - that’s the grownups!

I dont like it but its only once a year.
Some little ones have some very convincing outfits.

Its the teens that take the fun out of it.

I love Halloween always have.

in our house this year we have a very girly cutsie cartoon character, a superhero and 90s movie character.

The horror aspect is like most things these days American. I’d put money on seeing at least 20 Michael Myers’s on Halloween and most of them will be adults.

I love it! The decorating the house, handing out sweets to the little kids in their costumes, the sweets in general (mega sweet tooth!), the nostalgic spooky movies like Hocus Pocus and Casper, late night horror movies, picking and carving pumpkins, and yes, the glorious pumpkin soups, stews, pies and everything else. It's just good fun, it's not that deep. Although tbf I'll happily take any opportunity to whack up some bunting, cook a themed dinner, and have a little party/gathering with friends and family.

It's a very old Celtic festival in these islands and always had had a scary dimension. Celts believed the boundary between the living and the spirit world blurred on October 31st, allowing ancestors to visit and mischievous or harmful spirits to cross over. So far from new.

But when did the having fake knives to pretend you are stabbing someone, pretend chainsaws, fake blood, Chucky masks, Scream masks etc become so normalised as a thing for Halloween?
That part I really don't like.

Yeah. It's hardly the same these days, is it? Gangs of menacing teenagers demanding "treats". Acres of plastic tat in the shops. There seems to be a huge gulf between today's 'celebrations' and it's spiritual roots.

Its like everything in this country, it goes ott and excessive landfill tat.

Each to their own. I have always preferred Halloween to Christmas - all the fun without any of the stress and weird family obligations... We had some smashing Halloween parties when the kids where younger with costume contests, pumpkins and trick or treating outings.

That's just the modern version of ghouls and ghosts.

I just really don't think it's appropriate for high st retailers to be selling pretend machetes or massive knives with fake blood on in places where real actual stabbings happen on the streets outside the shop.
Ghosts and skeletons I don't have issues with.
Dressing up pretending to be killing people is horrible.

I don’t think there is a massive emphasis on horror in the UK, not as much as people on here are suggesting. We have hundreds at our door every year and most of the characters are superheroes, princess, cartoon or storybook characters, objects, animals, tv or film character and some fairly tame ‘scary’ characters like spiders, witches, ghosts or skeletons. Lots of cute baby dinosaurs, devils, puppies and pumpkins too!
I must admit I do find it hard work all the making up bags, listening to jokes, opening and closing the door, smiling and complimenting outfits etc although I suppose I could just put all the lights out and not answer the door. But my daughter loves and because we live in the best street for trick or treating, her friends tend to congregate at ours. Then they all come back here and dump their sweets on the floor to sort through them and do swaps. This year it will be easier cos it’s not a work day. I suppose it’s fun, if a bit of a headache.

I'd be amazed if there is any evidence of a link between Halloween dress up and stabbings. The causes of these are much more about the structure of society.

You've never spent a Hallowe'en evening in America then, or maybe you consider 'ladybug', Anna and Elsa, or Mario and Luigi costumes to be 'horror'.

It's not necessarily a link between Halloween and violence specificity - just it's in very bad taste.
Selling a fake knife with fake blood on from a shop on the same street that actual stabbing have happened.
Horrible.

I struggle to see the point…..

Don't take part then.

In America, Halloween costumes have always just been fancy dress, much as you describe. People dress up as anything - in fact, I'd say trick or treaters are far, far less likely to be dressed as scary things in America.

In the UK, Halloween has always been about scary stuff. Witches, ghosts, vampires, devils and so on. It's meant to be about supernatural horror - that's what it traditionally is. It's the day before All Hallows/All Saints Day, when the evil spirits have their last chance to do their mischief before the saints take over on 1 November.

Either way - I think that, as always, people confuse "I do not like a thing" with "That thing is bad and harmful". It is absolutely fine if you hate supernatural stuff, scary stuff, horror and so on. That doesn't, however, mean there's anything wrong with it or that other people shouldn't be able to enjoy it.

Human beings have engaged with this sort of thing since the dawn of the time. Pretty much all cultures have traditions of enjoying horror and fear-based entertainment going back for millennia.

Well it certainly wasn't like that when I was a child in the 1960's. Nobody bothered much at all. My dad carved a Jack o'lantern out of a swede with a stanley knife one year and it was such a faff he never did it again. Bright orange giant pumpkins hadn't been invented. 😂 You might have seen a couple of teenagers running about at dusk with sheets over their heads and shouting "Wooooooo" but that was it.

We were all far more excited about Guy Fawkes night coming up on the 5th November, with bonfires, fireworks, sparklers, toffee apples, and penny for the Guy.