To consider trick or treating as wrong?

[sunshinemeg]

In my opinion trick or treating is simply demanding rewards from menaces. It is certainly wrong to take a pagan festival and americanise it in such a way.
Am I being unreasonable to be so very against it? I do not open the door to anyone on Halloween, and I certainly will not be letting my daughter go trick or treating when she is old enough.

A source that is not wikipedia:

www.history.com/topics/history-of-trick-or-treating

That does not say anything about the origin of trick or treat as a term except it is deeply based on Irish and Scotttish tradition. I know my grandmother who died 30 years ago aged 80 spoke of the tricks on Halloween as children. These traditions were there before Wikipedia attributes them to America and it was the Irish and Scottish immigrants who participated in them because they brought them from home.

Sorry just to get the phraseology correct as it seems to be upsetting you Ireland was part of the Union of Great Britain and Ireland a union which continues today in some parts of the country where there are still a great many British citizens. Not an insult as you seem to think, although the majority of us would have preferred for it not to be the case but still a fact. Semantics aside as the essence if my point is still the same trick or treating has had it roots and home in parts if Britain for 100s of year.

Personally I don't like it. Was never allowed to and don't let the children do it. Myself and DH are Christians and that has been enough reason. But to be honest we swing on this issue. Before the kids were old enough to know we were handing out sweets and 'supporting' it all be used to ask questions for sweets (about the different Halloween traditions), then realised we might have been presenting a hypocritical front on the issue (I don't think we were), so avoided it all together (we didn't overplay any of this to the kids so they are barely aware of our changes of heart). We are back at thinking that there is nothing in it to bother us at all. One article I was reading suggested that as Christians dressing up is still an act of defiance against the devil not God. In fact. On Sunday the kids were carving pumpkins in Sunday school! So this yr we have candy ready but no pumpkin out (I am so lame at carving them). I am kind of hoping that because the passage to our house is dark that they won't bother.

I think there's a North/south divide. My DH and his family hate Halloween and are scared of it (southwest England); I grew up in Glasgow where we did our party pieces for the neighbours and got sweets, apples and treacle toffee. I really miss Scottish Halloween. I've always really enjoyed it but have to steel myself for this reaction every single year.

(And it's All Hallows Eve, for the poster above, that's actually kind of Christian...in a pagan mashup kind of way)

Yes, Halloween was so much fun in Glasgow when I was kid (many, many years ago). Loved it, think many folk have no idea how big a deal it was and soooo exciting. Was one of the biggest nights of the year.

It was always one of the biggest nights growing up in Dublin too. It would have been unheard of for someone to be forbidden by their parents to participate in trick or treating.

Yip, like not celebrating Christmas or getting Easter eggs.

neunundneunzigluftballons I am American of Scottish descent, and I remember my grandmother telling me that at one time the phrase in the US was actually "trick and treating", which referred to traditional guising, doing a trick for a treat. Then somewhere along the way the "trick" part changed meaning.

YANBU. It's horrible, whether or not you have an objection to Halloween generally.

It's all very well saying "don't participate of you don't want to" but really, it's become impossible to take children anywhere this week without it being a Halloween event, being surrounded by seriously tasteless and inappropriate displays, and Trick or Treaters knocking on your door every five minutes.

Having said that, I've put a notice up saying "no thanks", and nobody's knocked so far. perhaps my front path is full of egg but we'll know in the morning!