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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Avoiding Halloween

93 replies

ArmyBarmyMummy · 19/10/2010 10:50

I am so glad Halloween is in half term and we're away this year.

I hate the masses of children bordering on youths who come knocking at the door with one shop bought mask between them. [hangry]

I hate the whole begging dressed up as 'trick or treating' to be honest [hblush]

I hate the whole commercial aspect, supermarkets cashing in on loads of confectionary, dressing up stuff etc

I hate the guilt trip. We're a Christian family (Army bit in nickname is The Salvation Army) but I've always taken the "It's just a bit of fun" rather than "celebrating evil" line. Which is right I'm not sure (views please) but I never want to deprive DC of some 'harmless' fun.

I do love smileys tho' and have no qualms about using the halloween ones [hsmile]

OP posts:

LetThereBeRock · 20/10/2010 10:38

I can't speak for the whole of Scotland,I'm from Glasgow,but I don't personally know anyone under 45 or so who calls,what you described, as guising,not that I tend to have conversations about this.

It was always a pumpkin when I was a child.I'm 26 now,and the majority of people That I knew then,with the exception of older people, referred to it as trick or treating,and still do.

I don't think a party piece before being given you treat is all that common,not in my area anyway,but I'm sure that guising is still alive in some areas.

EarthMotherImNot · 20/10/2010 10:53

I usually buy sweets etc to hand out when the children come knocking but this year I'm considering not to.

A... Dh has been out of work for almost a year and things are a tad tight.

B...We are currently caring for two small babies who will be constantly woken by the bell ringing.

I am considering removing the batteries from the doorbell and keeping the lights off

TryLikingClarity · 20/10/2010 13:59

I love Halloween because it's my birthday

I'm a bit of a contradiction because I'm a Christian, but part of me loves all the gothy outfits and spooky decorations.

Teenieleek I've heard of guising. I'm in Northern Ireland, so quite similar traditions to Scotland. Tbh though, I haven't heard much of it from I was a kid in late 80s-early 90s.

StrictlyOogieBoogiePumpkin · 20/10/2010 14:05

I actually really enjoy it. It's just a bit of fun [hsmile]. Last year DH and I carved the most amazing pumpkin and got loads of great comments so now we've moved we can recreate this year [hgrin]

KittyFoyle · 20/10/2010 22:44

I have friends near Oban and they go mad for guising. The whole village is into it, even the local fire brigade.

suzikettles · 20/10/2010 22:53

I live in Glasgow too and we call it guising

This will be our 3rd year taking Ds round. We go to a friend's who lives on a Halloween-friendly housing estate to go out with her ds (we live in a not-very-child-friendly tenement) and the vast majority of people have expected ds to sing a song or tell a joke before handing over the loot.

LetThereBeRock · 20/10/2010 22:56

I must have lived in the American part.
I'm just outside of Glasgow now.

I'm sure it is still know as guising in some parts. I've just never known anyone younger than 45 who calls it that.

I was never allowed to go,regardless of what it was called,though we did give sweets out.

piscesmoon · 20/10/2010 22:56

We aim to be away and if we can't we go out!
I loathe and detest it!

ilovesooty · 21/10/2010 00:28

I hate it as well. I was harassed two years ago and last year I went away because I found the thought of putting up with it again so unpleasant.

Charlieknows · 21/10/2010 16:00

I live in Glasgow, I'm from Lewis, I'm 31 and still call it guising.

Halloween is NOT an American tradition, it is bloody celtic and it really annoys me when people don't know our own culture. The Americans call it trick or treating, we SHOULD call it guising as that's its name.

It's NOT a celebration of evil spirits, it is a pagan festival to WARD OFF evil spirits and the reason we dress up is to scare them off. The reason it's on 31st Oct is that that night is supposed to be the night that the 'veil' between the land of the dead and the land of the living is at its thinnest.

The reason christians have a 'souls' night or candle light parties at their churches is because the original pagan celebrators used to go around the houses in their villages dressed up to scare away evil spirits and prey for the souls of sick or dying people and remember the recently deceased.

Bonfires are lit to scare away spirits and in America this became carving a pumpkin and in Scotland (and I'm guessing Ireland too?) we carve turnips.

Apologies for the rant, but it really pissed me off (obviously) when people give Americans credit for things we've done. I think one of their few original traditions (that I know about) is Thanksgiving.

KittyFoyle · 21/10/2010 21:02

Charlieknows - in agreement with everything you say. I love the phrase about the veil between the dead and the living being at its thinnest that night and it always gives me a delicious shiver.

My mother in law lived on Lewis for years. Her dad was a engineer who made the Rest and Be Thankful pass (the old one).

cory · 21/10/2010 21:16

We skulk in the kitchen. Tend to do it more as a kind of combo All Souls and Harvest Festival- eating veggie crisps and lots of different apple varieties and telling anecdotes about departed family members.

cakewench · 21/10/2010 21:40

I love Halloween. [hsmile]

I'm originally from the US, though, and I have many fond memories of it from childhood. I hope we can arrange to be in the US for at least one Halloween, so my son can experience a bit of it.

We live in a quiet area here and we don't get any trick or treaters. I would feel a bit odd letting DS go out (when he's old enough) because so many people would be cross about it, judging by the responses here. [hsad] I shouldn't really expect otherwise, though, since it isn't a tradition here.

It's just so much fun to see children all dressed up and excited about it! Also you give a talking-to to the rude ones, they need to at least be polite when they trick or treat. And for those of you who are grudgingly taking part but sick of the uncostumed older children, you should keep a bowl of cheap crap sweets for them behind the door next to the good ones. Helps to avoid confrontation, if you're worried about that sort of thing.

OmniaParatus · 21/10/2010 22:01

I live near Glasgow too, and have always called it guising (but my parents were rather old-fashioned so that may be why!)

I will be taking my DC's round our street to decorated houses only, maybe with some of the kids that came to our door so we are in more of a group and minimise the knocking. I didn't take DS out last year as he was only 2, but got a telling off from a kindly neighbour who had been waiting for him! She gave him sweets the next time she saw us.

It is obviously a tradition with wide regional variations, my mum and I were shocked when we moved to Aberdeenshire to find kids only accepted money- we had never heard of this and thought it quite strange, they also didn't do any songs or rhymes so we found it a lot more like begging and a lot less fun.

I know what you mean about the turnip smell- delicious with many great memories, and I am now wondering about getting one even though they are so hard to carve!

AgentProvocateur · 21/10/2010 22:14

Yeah, I'm in Glasgow and it's definitely guising here too. We always had turnip lanterns, and we dooked for apples and had treacle scones hanging on a string across the kitchen that we had to bite with our hands behind our backs!

chipmonkey · 21/10/2010 23:19

Agree with Charlieknows

Don't think Bonfire Night would ever catch on here in Ireland as
1/ Celebrating the burning of a Catholic effigy probably wouldn't go down too well even if it was a Catholic who tried to destroy the houses of Parliament
2/ We have traditionally lit bonfires at Halloween anyway so wouldn't need to be lighting them again 5 days later.

And it is a Celtic festival which was imported by the Americans.

When we were children, we didn't say "Trick or Treat". In my village, we dressed up in home-made costumes, went from door to door, got nuts, the odd apple and maybe a few pence from someone who hadn't got any fruit and nuts in. It was sooooooo much healthier than the sweets they get today but unfortunately the kids turn up their noses at the healthy stuff now.

We did have fireworks but we didn't have the Pumpkins or all the decorations we have now. I have to admit, I do like all the decor, for me it's a celebration of Autumn and I love it when the tinies come around in their costumes. We get in bags of stuff from LIDL which means it's really not all that bad, expense-wise.

And I do enjoy a nice glass of wine once it's all over!

LetThereBeRock · 21/10/2010 23:26

I must have lived in the posh part of Glasgow,and not known it. We always had pumpkins.

Who'd have the patience to carve a turnip? It's difficult enough to slice the bloody things.

LetThereBeRock · 21/10/2010 23:29

This thread has just reminded me that I've yet to buy sweets for the trick or treaters.
Though I made the mistake of buying them weeks in advance last year,then having to buy more as I'd munched my way through half of them.

piscesmoon · 21/10/2010 23:42

I make my own. I wait for a DC to say 'I don't take unwrapped sweets off strangers' for me to say 'then you shouldn't knock on stranger's doors' They never do-in fact they get very pleased. (It is much better for them anyway and I write the ingredients on the bag.)I refuse to buy sweets. I tried fruit one year, but it didn't go down well!

LetThereBeRock · 22/10/2010 00:13

What sweets do you make?

greenbananas · 22/10/2010 00:21

I don't like Halloween! For all sorts of different reasons... Every year, I make sure I'm out of my house between about 5pm and 9.30pm, as I find it very difficult to explain to local youngsters that I know and like that I do not "do" Halloween.

When I worked in after-school / holiday clubs, I used to take time off (as holiday) because I didn't want to help promote Halloween to children.. my bosses thought I was mad.

piscesmoon · 22/10/2010 06:53

Treacle toffee or fudge.

loftylorrie · 22/10/2010 08:15

I can understand not liking Trick or Treating, but that doesn't have to mean you don't "do" Hallowe'en. You can just sit in with your family, light a candle and remember those who have passed, since that's the true spirit of Samhain, or All Hallows if you don't like the idea of celebrating a pagan holiday [hgrin] I know some Christian churches do services on the 31st, which I always thought would be nice if you were into that sort of thing.

I used to love trick or treating when I was younger. As the eldest of four siblings, I was always "in charge" as we trundled about the neighbourhood, which meant I rarely got anything but I didn't care. It was fun.
Probably helps that my mum is a pagan and has thrown huge, brilliant parties for Hallowe'en since I was at primary school!

southeastastra · 22/10/2010 08:20

hardly anyone knocks here now, so i suppose the miserable feckers people who object have won.

cidre · 22/10/2010 08:28

Hooray for Charlieknows! Totally agree, Trick or treating probably adaptation of guising in first place. Really resent folk saying is American habit, Halloween was always a celebration in our (Manse) house, dressing up, apple bobbing,scones on string(!) etc. Not so much the going out stuff, apart from agreed neighbours. No pumpkins that I remember....

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