AIBU to think that the whole HALLOWEEN thing is Americanised Shite.

[ModreB]

I never did trick or treat. And neither did DH. I am not old - mid 40's.

AIBU to think that its a money making excuse by the Supermarkets to extract more money from us?

Here an acceptable celebration of the season given its free and doesn't make pets fret.

Was chatting to hairdresser today. Our bus company will be stopping a lot of services in our area on Halloween around 4 pm - she will be forced to walk home after a long day in the dark, possibly in the rain.

People who rely on public transport to get to work, visit relatives in hospital etc are being inconvenienced.

I have no problem with ancient Celtic festivals, Asda selling pumpkins or any of that stuff, but I hate the vandalism, threats and intimidation that is sadly a real feature of the event in some parts of the city.

My 94 year old great aunt finds it unpleasant - it's hard for her to get to the door, and she gets frightened.

I used to think Halloween in its modern TOT incarnation was a bit naff.

Then my elderly neighbours all knocked on the door asking when the dcs were coming to do TOT - they had all bought sweets specially for them

Now they are bigger the dcs prefer to go up on the estate where it's a massive event (there's a guy who barbecues hotdogs every year) but we still knock at the neighbours on the way back and the dcs do magic tricks to earn their treats.

I guess it's partly down to you how you approach these things. Now I find it all rather sweet and I think all us grownups will feel a bit sad when the children are too old for it.

Not "Americanised shite."

It's Americanized shit. And it's fucking awesome.

Why would they stop buses running on halloween?

It's just a normal day.

There needs to be a Halloween equivalent of bah-humbug. Anyone?

"I'm a Muggle and proud of it!"

Or how about "It's Hallowe'en, not Halloween!"

As for Guy Fawkes - I'm not fond of fireworks, and I always say that Guy Fawkes was one of the only people to enter Parliament with honest intentions. It's a shame he didn't finish the job and reform Parliament (read bunch of professional liars) once and for all!

Usual - they stop buses in quite a few parts of the city becaus they cannot guarantee the safety of the drivers and/or passengers. In previous years - buses have been pelted with missiles, eggs, drivers intimidated etc.

Sadly, it is not a normal day.

Blimey, none of that goes on around here.

Yeh don'tlaugh where is our halloween smiley? HQ?

Where I live trick or treaters only knock if the house has decorations up. I think that's an ideal compromise - people who want to join in can, and those people who don't want to aren't bothered or annoyed.
Halloween isn't my cup of tea, and my kids have grown out of it but I don't begrudge other people who enjoy it (as long as no one chucks eggs at my house).

I used to go guising in Aberdeenshire in the 70s. We had neep (turnip) lanterns.I can still remember the smell of a candle in a turnip.

It wasn't trick or treat, we got sweeties but you had to do something to earn them.

I did make my own boy take a neep lantern a few times but my grandfather who made mine turns out to have been a hero doing it, they're bloody difficult to carve.

I don't like the Americanisation of Halloween.

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what d you think all the witches hats on the smilies are?

Um...I love Halloween. Probably more than any other holiday. Our house is always decked out with monster dummies, styrofoam tombstones, cobwebs and Jack-O-lanterns, and a fog machine with spoooooky music.

I'm in Canada.

But I love the idea of having bonfires instead of going door to door. Or better yet, neighbourhoods having a big one after trick-or-treating. That'd be fun!

I don't care if YABU or not - I have lived in America for 7 years and Halloween here rocks. I am in the middle of making my kids costumes, they have a fancy dress disco at school on Thursday, then I have an awes

-ome adult costume party at the weekend in a completely decorated themed house (the host go all out; last year it was an undead wedding feast complete with three tiered wedding cake with bloody scratches on the side). On Halloween itself the whole neighborhood is out in force with adults outside their homes in costumes handing treats to all the children. Some houses even have cheese and biscuits or vodka jelly shots for the parents! Some people set their homes or gardens up as haunted houses or graveyards with dry ice fog and sound effects. One house has teenagers in the trees in costumes keeping super still until the trick or treaters are leaving, then they jump down and give them a fright. Of course they don't do it to little kids. It is a great holiday here and really brings the whole community together.

Compare it to my last year in England where I bought a tone of chocolate and waited excitedly for trick or treaters and not one single knock till 9pm, and then it was a bailiff for the previous tennant.

In the '70s my Dad would hollow out a swede to make a lantern.

How many of these do we have to have ?

A million thousand !

I mean, a million thousand of these threads, not a million thousand hollowed out swedes. Unless you want to that is.

Please will someone explain to me how children throwing eggs/flour etc is a commercialised? Do the shops sell them in "halloween terror hampers" now? DO you get free range organic boxes at waitrose?

The vast majority of children never throw shit, and the tiny percentage who do are dicks and will normally be beating up dogs or bashing in wing mirrors on any given Tuesday so it really doesn't matter what holiday it is.

Excellent post Colder !

I live in the US and I love Halloween beyond words (ofcourse being Wiccan for 20 odd years tends to do that) The decorations, celebrations and sheer fun are incredible.

So you, OP, may be sitting on your tush with your cats bum face on October 31st, but we shall be trick or treating and lighting our pumpkins...so there..

Hallowe'en is actually Samhain, one of four festivals of the pagan Celtic year. It was exported to the US by Irish and Scottish immigrants and got the usual American treatment of being bigged up into a massive bonanza of partying and dressing up and binging on candy an decorating your house like a horror film set and so on.

It's fun! The only reason Hallowe'en wasn't retained in England is because of the Puritans getting rid if it as evil satanic superstition and replacing it with anti-Catholic Guy Fawkes day instead.

Hallowe'en is one of my favourite occasions! Live in England now, so it is a bit boring in comparison.

It was one of the times in childhood when life really seemed magic (Irish childhood, btw). I remember it being as much about the turning of the seasons as anything: bobbing for apples, bonfires, wrapping up warm and going outside with sparklers, etc. Loved the whole storytelling tradition around it as well. It wasn't particularly commercialised, I don't think.

Plus, it was a religious festival, too: All saints' day and All Souls' Day, when we went to mass to pray for all our dead.

Actually, high five America! Trick or treating is wayyy more fun than going to mass!

(Never a party without a frikkin' mass)

Never did Guy Fawkes, though. DH says it was his favourite night of the year when he was young.

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