AIBU to be completely pissed off with Halloween?

[inabizzlefam]

Since when did we (the UK) start "celebrating Halloween?
Isn't it some weird american tradition?
I get Bonfire Night, fireworks, Penny for the Guy, etc, but all this Halloween shit everywhere (TV, supermarkets,etc) is seriously pissing me off. As if we don't have enough on with christmas decorations in the shops........in October, FFS.
To cap it all I now find myself being nagged senseless by my DCs to take them Trick or Treating, which I loathe. The joy in traipsing round the neighbourhood in the dark, freezing cold, bored shitless, knocking on peoples doors, "begging" sweets off them is ludicrous......I could buy a huge tub of sweets for my own DCs and get to sit in my nice warm house, not pissing off my neigbours....everyone's a winner. Neighbours get left in peace and DCs get to stuff themselves full of crap.
Apparantly, I am being a killjoy and "not entering into the spirit of the celebration".
What celebration? It's a bloody american celebration. What next, Thanksgiving? (TBH I have no idea what thats all about either....2 christmas dinners?

I cant stand it in its current form wherever it comes from. I like the idea of marking the start of the dark days with food and friends though.

We've never celebrated Halloween parents didn't allow it, we lived in a nice area growing up but on Halloween we've had eggs thrown car windows by older youths and our tyres let down once. I don't think Id let any children ask our neighbours for money or sweets but Id maybe consider a Halloween party at home. X hate seeing older teens doing it I know plenty of older frail people who find the whole thing scary

I can't stand it either. We tell our kids to be wary of strangers, then encourage them to knock on doors and ask for sweets Makes no sense to me.

Also don't see the point of decorating my house to make it look ugly! Decorations are supposed to be pretty and improve how things look.

Love Halloween. I am 43 and went out each year with friends as a child in 70s and 80s where I lived in NE. We all had a bought witch's hat and a carved turnip lantern with a string handle and candle inside. We had a little rhyme - "the sky is blue the grass is green can we have a penny for Halloween". Although we wanted sweets not money. It was thrilling as a child to be out after dark and even better to divvy up the sweets at home and eat them. Our neighbours were lovely and it helped foster a sense of community as a child you wouldn't otherwise see many of the grown ups living nearby.
I love children coming to our house and am pleased we live somewhere where many people join in.

Wow, OP. I was able to get a full card on anti-American-Halloween-ignorance bingo without going further than your first post.

Yanbu, OP.

Has anyone complained yet this year about a supermarket Halloween display being too scary for their DC??

We get that most years...

It's bad enough that christmas has been turned into a 3 month long fest, but Halloween is catching up.

Oh, and guess what? This doesn't happen with Christmas in the US because we have Halloween and then Thanksgiving.

Oh, and guess what else? Do you know who hosted the first Thanksgiving? English people.

aderyn 'decorations are supposed to be pretty'

Er, says who exactly? Is this the law?

I've always had a dislike for Halloween but in the past 10 15 years it's become an Asda special commercialised bollocking tat event.

I just don't lie the thought of kids knocking on random doors even with a parent. I know some people stick to neighbours they know but I know patents who tale their kids to street after street knocking on any random door. No consideration for elderly people who find it daunting and scary.

I had to laugh at the mum posting on our local Facebook page asking who else was taking their kids out trick or treating this weekend because she can't do Monday night cos it clashes with the kids swimming lessons. Not sure people would have sweets in before Monday. This is just another sign of how it's changed. Why not send kids around for sweets any day in October???

My poor elderly neighbour is terrified of Halloween. She asked if I would go and sit with her until it quietens down as she gets scared on her own. Last year she watched an adult with some under 10s squirt that spray able stringy foamy stuff all over her front gate just because she didn't answer the door.
I've had similar too. I get enough sweets in for the little kids on my street and then don't answer the door. Last year I put a note up saying happy halloween. Sorry but too many ghosts and ghouls are about tonight and I'm all out of sweets. Please don't knock. I had my door bell held down so it just rang and rang. I had a rock/pebble and a snail put through my letter box too. Small children with an adult called "Mum" by the giggling little kids on my doorstep.
WTF is wrong with people?

Also, in the US, we don't make scaring older neighbors a part of the celebration. It seems that some people in the UK use Halloween as an excuse for anti-social behavior.

I think next year I'm going to suggest a 'Halloween Hatred' topic for the gazillions of moaning threads.

Even if the tradition didn't go waaaaaay back in the UK (which it does), what's wrong with celebrating something that's not traditionally British?

Diwali celebrations are not traditionally British either, yet I don't imagine there will be all this hatred of it on MN over the next couple of days.

Worra will you pm me when you start the haters thread next year? Although now I have bought a witch costume I'm going to get it out every year!!

Yabu.

I don't celebrate it, mainly because I grew up in the southern hemisphere where Halloween is nowhere near as big so I wasn't brought up on it. But I let other people have their fun, it's doing me no harm. I do get pissed off though when people knock on my door even though I make it clear I don't want trick or treaters.

Just say no to your DCs, I've said no to DS1, I'm sure he's disappointed but he'll get over it.

That said, I hate much halloween tat is produced then just dumped in the landfill.

Wow, OP. I was able to get a full card on anti-American-Halloween-ignorance bingo without going further than your first post.

^^ This about sums it up. I can almost see your nose tipped in the air at the thought of something "American" (erugh!) from here OP. Where is a snooty emoticon when you need one....

If you're going to complain at least get your facts right. Google could have told you that you were wrong on so many points OP. YABU entirely for that. Now you can come up with another reason not to like Halloween.

No-one has actually managed to say that Halloween (All Hallows Eve) is the night before All Saints Day on the 1st November. This is a Christian day but Halloween may originate from the pagan "Samhain" as others have said, although some people do not believe this and say it was Christian from the start. We used to call 31st October 'Halloween' but my Mum who is 92 calls it "All Hallows Night".

As I am in my 60s, where I lived as a child, we only sang "For All the Saints" at school on 1st November but I do remember Halloween being celebrated on a very small scale in the 70s, by a handful of people. Pumpkins are definitely a US import and they really go to town on Pumpkin Patch trips. Very many shops are decorated for Halloween and it is a fun event in the US and poor behaviour is not part of it. My Mum always said that Halloween was made commercial by shops who have no national celebration between Easter and Christmas. It boosted card buying as has Father's Day in June. Utterly unheard of until about 25 years ago.

Personally I like being unique in the world and having Guido Fawkes! (Even if he was Spanish). What better than to make a guy (we used old clothes and stuffed them with hay) and have a good bonfire that you had built for months? "Remember, remember the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot." Who needs pumpkins?

Since when did we (the UK) start "celebrating Halloween?

I'm 21 and for as long as I can remember we've celebrated Halloween in the UK?

ThatStewie

Careful with the finger pointing. Halloween has always been celebrated in parts of northern England too.

That aside, calling it Samhain in this day and age is a bit like insisting on "artisanal sausage rolls".

Let's make sure that every bit of fun which in not native to England stays out of the country shall we? We (the uk) have voted against those foreigners anyway so what is Halloween still doing in our country?

I'm Scottish and have always celebrated it, I am mid 30s and we would decorate the house and go guising and then duck for apples and carve neep lanterns (swedes), to this day the smell of neep reminds me of Halloween!

My Gran is 92 and when you ask her she says she went guising and did a lantern as a child!

I've just hosted a Halloween party for my children. It was great fun, the kids had some half term fun. My 65 yo dad helped decorate and told me all about his turnip lanterns as a kid, which surprised me because we did feck all celebrating (any occasion) as a child.

I really went to town, and tbh I feel more comfortable with Halloween than Christmas, which just seems to be about greed. I'm not that comfortable with the Father Christmas lie either, I feel like I'm setting the kids up for huge upset when they discover the truth.

That said, I'm not a fan of trick or treating. I will bolt the gate, and turn the lights off. And no way are my kids traipsing about begging for sweets.

Not long until bonfire night, can't wait for that!

Let's make sure that every bit of fun which in not native to England stays out of the country shall we? We (the uk) have voted against those foreigners anyway so what is Halloween still doing in our country?

Stop being so ridiculous!

YANBU. It is an American tradition we can do without. We should commemorate Guy Fawkes Night if we wish- personally I do not but if others do then that's fine.