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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask what happened to "A Penny for the Guy"?

34 replies

MrsSchadenfreude · 30/10/2014 23:39

Apart from inflation, of course.

Has it been entirely replaced by the odious, American "Trick or Treat"?

OP posts:
Pyjamaramadrama · 30/10/2014 23:41

Wasn't penny for the guy bonfire night? Guy Fawkes.

Most people don't do bonfires these days do they? It's all firework displays.

curlyweasel · 30/10/2014 23:43

They still do it round here - they've been outside our sainsbury local since mid of t. The guy is rubbish. I refuse to give them anything because of it!

Original poster
MrsSchadenfreude · 30/10/2014 23:45

Yes, it was for Bonfire Night. but Hallowe'en and Guy Fawkes seem to have morphed into one celebration now. We used to make a guy, even though we didn't have a bonfire, and sit by the local shop, looking pathetic, in the hope that people would cough up. Grin

OP posts:
curlyweasel · 30/10/2014 23:49

Yes but I bet you at least put some effort into it!

Pyjamaramadrama · 30/10/2014 23:50

Ah yes sorry I see what you mean.

YesHalloween does seem to have overtaken, I don't remember ever going trick or treating, but I do remember kids making a Guy, and we always had bonfires, even the local organised displays would have a big bonfire.

I remember there used to be a fair in the local park with bonfire and fireworks. They'd build the bonfire a few days before and people would chuck their rubbish on it!

Summerisle1 · 30/10/2014 23:51

I suspect it has disappeared for several reasons.

When I was a kid I did Penny for the Guy in order to collect money to spend on fireworks for Bonfire Night. I was 8. Nowadays, you have to be 18 to buy fireworks.

Not many parents are comfortable with the idea of their children standing around, unsupervised and basically begging for money.

Bonfire Night just isn't as big as it was. Unless you live round here of course where it is immense but doesn't tend to involve back garden firework displays and the making of home-made guys.

Preciousbane · 31/10/2014 00:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BikeRunSki · 31/10/2014 00:27

Not many parents are comfortable with the idea of their children standing around, unsupervised and basically begging for money.

Now they just go door to door begging for sweets.

Darkesteyes · 31/10/2014 00:34

I remember going to a big bonfire and firework display the very early 80s to see Jon Pertwee dressed as Worzel Gummidge light the fire.

He appeared Everyone got excited including the adults and the cordon broke and everyone started running. It was either run or be trampled so i ran I must have been about 7 or 8 and i was the only one who actually got to see him light the bonfire. I ended up sitting in the back of a St John Ambulance as a lost kid until my parents and DB came to collect me. Was well worth it though. Smile

Darkesteyes · 31/10/2014 00:35

I meant the only one of our family who got to see him light the bonfire.

BOFster · 31/10/2014 00:36

You still see it near where I live, but far less often, I agree. Kids used to do it outside supermarkets/in areas of high footfall, but I suspect they get moved on nowadays, or have been usurped by the regular accordion player or Big Issue seller.

The tradition which remains ubiquitous, however, is Mischief Night (tonight), where there's no expectation of payment or treats, but egged and broken windows aplenty...Hmm

abigamarone · 31/10/2014 00:50

Now they just go door to door begging for sweets
We used to go door to door begging for a penny for the guy.

(I wouldn't dream of letting mine do that)

Cooki3Monst3r · 31/10/2014 00:51

I think the reason Guy Fawkes doesn't really feature on Bonfire Night anymore is because he was a religious terrorist, and bonfire night is a celebration of his torture and corporal punishment. Hmm

I have to say... this isn't something I discuss with my DCs!!

I think a generalistic celebration of the season with a Harvest Festival/Samhain/Halloween/Diwali feel to it is a bit more PC these days.

As for Trick or Treat... I believe in America it's done for young children, with their parents, going to houses also partaking in the Halloween festivities.

sandgrown · 31/10/2014 00:54

In Yorkshire mischief night is the night before bonfire night and stems from the gunpowder plot. Kids would raid other bonfires and put jam on door handles or remove gates. No payment or treats involved!

goldopals · 31/10/2014 05:47

I am Australian and over here you need a special license to buy fireworks. Do you need one over the pond?

em1000 · 31/10/2014 06:13

It became illegal if I remember my law correctly

Toadinthehole · 31/10/2014 06:26

I haven't seen anyone doing penny for the guy since the mid 80s.

Toadinthehole · 31/10/2014 06:28

I think the reason Guy Fawkes doesn't really feature on Bonfire Night anymore is because he was a religious terrorist, and bonfire night is a celebration of his torture and corporal punishment.

No, it's a celebration of the foiling of his darstardly plot. That's why Guy + Pope Paul VI get burnt every year. You won't find anyone dressing up as the torturer or executioner.

I reckon celebrating the foiling of acts of religious terrorism is not only good fun but very topical. Smile

BathshebaDarkstone · 31/10/2014 06:32

Well I haven't seen a bonfire for ages, so what would you do with him? GrinConfused

starsandunicorns · 31/10/2014 06:42

Dh counted 7 sets of penny for guy along the set of shops we live above the lenght of which 150 meters max they are there all day till about 7 pm dh hates this week and next week as he works nights and cant sleep as they are really loud and if you ask them nicely to move around the corner they tell you to fuck off
Roll on nov 5th

bigbluestars · 31/10/2014 06:49

Never seen or heard penny for the guy here in Scotland- I thought that was to do with Guy Fawkes night anyway- not Halloween? Two different things surely?

Trick or Treating- or "guising" as we do in SCotland ( short for "disguising" to hide from evil spirits ( similar to trick or treating but without menaces) has been done in the UK for a very long time.
My grandmother was born in 1892 and I remember her telling me how she would go round the doors with a lantern dressed as a witch at Halloween getting sweets or an apple from neighbours. Guising was taken to the USA in the late 1800s by Scottish and Irish migrants and came back tartred up with menaces as trick or treating.

waithorse · 31/10/2014 07:33

Gold, you don't need a licence in the UK, unfortunately.

I think it's a shame you don't see penny for the Guy anymore. Too much Halloween instead for me.

Catsize · 31/10/2014 07:44

I never really understood what the Guy was going to do with the penny. Confused

bigbluestars · 31/10/2014 07:48

To buy fireworks presumably.

Panzee · 31/10/2014 07:50

They still do it round here.

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