To not understand the fuss about Hallowe'en

[user1475609541]

Can't wait for Tuesday to be over, so not going to be sucked into this rubbish

Its the end of the summer harvest and morphed into a thin veil between worlds where spirit world and human world touch. The bad spirits needed keeping away with scary things hence the rise in scary costumes pumpkins jackolanterns and things. Thats how we always celebrate it.

FFS don't join in if you don't want. Nobody is forcing you!

People banging on your door for sweets kind of is forcing you to acknowledge though.

It’s a very, very old tradition and I like both the continuity of marking the coming of darker nights and the community aspect.

Our area goes for it in a very big way. Hundreds of little groups of excited children going from door to door guising and doing their party piece (you have to work for your sweeties on Scotland!)

It’s the one night of the year I speak to all the neighbours.

DH and I took a coin in who is staying in to give out the sweeties and who is taking the D.C. round the doors.

It’s a wonderful, joyful evening. We usually have friends for hot chocolate afterwards or dinner before if it’s a weekend.

If it’s not for you, that’s completely fine, but I for one will be a little bit sad when mine are too old to dress up.

Amazed by the ignorance here. Don't know what Halloween means? Google it!

Ffs.

I hate Halloween. I don't really get the rules and as a single mum don't know how to reciprocate.
Eh?
I don't understand this!
There is a magical feel in the air this time of year and I love it. It's a night to dress up and be someone (or something bwahaha) else. I remember as a kid spending hours carving a swede and the smell of the burning candle inside it, as I carried my lantern around in the dark hoping to see a witch!
It's also not new, as Sapphire says, and trick of treating is no more begging than carol singing is!

We don’t get an extra bank holiday for Halloween in Northern Ireland, I wish!

It’s pretty harmless fun surely. 👻

Also trick or treat is not begging. No one is begging or pleading for sweets. They go to dressed up doors and do trick or treat. The person inside either gives out treats or they choose not to answer the door. No begging.

I personally don't like it, I hate trick or treating, and I don't join in. But if others want to then it's up to them.

I didn't see it creeping up tbh. As a child in the NE of England it wasn't a thing, and when my kids were small it wasn't a thing either.
Now live in the SE and it's in all the shops and supermarkets, yet I still don't know anyone in my road for whom it's a thing. We are quite rural though. I did have a group of approx 10 year old kids knock on my door a couple of years ago shouting 'trick or treat!!' They weren't local, I'd have recognised them. I asked them if their parents knew what they were doing. To which they replied 'Fuck off' Charming.
Also encountered a child of about 8/9 having a meltdown outside Asda. She didn't want to go in with her Mum. All the stuff scared her.
Live and let live though. As long as they don't knock on my door.

It's a really big thing here in Ireland.

I've never liked it but always let my DC go trick or treating as all the local children do & I wouldn't have wanted them to be left out. They loved dressing up & coming home with hoards of goodies.

Now my DC are grown up I don't bother with it any more. We don't have pumpkins, we keep the lights off & nobody comes to the house.

Don't be sucked in then... :S

You don't have to understand though do you? I don't like Marmite I don't have to understand why others DO like it, or even care why they do. I like it. They dont. I don't like it. They do. Covers many things in life. Mind you I don't want to understand people who pounce, Grinch like, to crap all over any occasion they deem others may dare to gain enjoyment from. Must be real fun over at Meldrew heights where you reside .

I don't like it at all.
It's the night when everyone I know has to shut all the curtains, turn off the downstairs lights & go & hide upstairs in their own home being quiet because if you dare have a light on before about 10pm a load of strange children (some of the boys old enough to be trying to grow a moustache) most of whom aren't even in fancy dress will aggressively beg at the door, at least half the time complain if you don't offer them a cash alternative because they don't want sweets and kick your bin over or similar if you don't give them anything.
They may also do that if they think you are in & not answering.
If anyone else turned up at your door on any other night with their hand out expecting stuff just because they are standing in front of you, it would be called begging.
Halloween is the night people send their children out begging & think it's okay.
It's a celebration of nothing but greed & anti social behaviour supported by middle class parents where I live.

We’re currently in a first floor flat, but looking to move to a house, so fingers crossed that next year we’ll have people knocking on our door. I can’t wait to be able to join in with giving out sweets.

I've never known carol singing not being for charity? We used to also hand out little Christmas books too. If people have known it as being for money to keep then I completely agree - it's begging. My parents disliked it for that reason but if you didn't open your door your house and car got covered in flour and water.

I actively dislike it but not so much because of the trick or treating. I think it uses evil in a very relaxed way (I get that the witches etc are supposed to ward off evil spirits but I don't get why that's fun, or, as said above, at all joyful), and that forgets that evil is real. When you deal with people facing death and dying every day it's not spooky or creepy.

Living alone it feels quite threatening. I've got some chocolate just in case, and I will open the door if it's not too late. Easier than cleaning eggs and flour off it.

I don’t like Halloween but wouldn’t it be boring and sad If there weren’t things in life for people to look forward to. The majority of People tend to use the method if there’s no decorations people aren’t participating. I just don’t open the door. But then I never open the door. I’m one of those people.

Don't take part in it.. How does ither people have fun anoy You?

Halloween is my second favourite holiday.. hits fun to dress up and it's another excuse to throw a part imo to attend one plus children tend to love it.

It leaves me cold tbh. Go through the motions for DS. Vaguely remember apple bobbing as a kid but otherwise the only notable thing I recall was a mass at school and a month of praying for the dead in purgatory (I'm Protestant so that was pretty pointless). Also remember being v confused by the trick or treat scene in ET. So defo not part of my traditional childhood. So it all seems a bit over commercialised to me. Luckily DH loves it so my input is limited to badly carving a pumpkin.

It's getting bigger every year, look at the full blown adverts about it by Supermarkets now, they're on a par with Christmas ads.
That said, we don't decorate but DD did a pumpkin yesterday (it cost £2). We're also having a themed pudding tomorrow night.
I don't love it, but don't hate it.
It'll soon be over.

I've always loved it. I now live in a (supposedly, obviously) very haunted village and all the kids go trick or treating. Not so much a fan of the parents who drive their kids out here, then leave them to trash the church and graveyard. We have to have about 10 people from NHW patrol the church as the police dont think it's worth getting involved.

I'm not massively in to it, but the DCs are getting to an age of enjoying it.

It bothers me less as a consumerised festival than the massive build up and social expectations of Christmas and is much easier to disengage from.

I'll admit that it's easier living in a pleasant neighbourhood where the children are supervised and don't bother undecorated homes than where it's used as an excuse for antisocial behaviour.

Meh. It's a bit of fun for the kids.

Obviously there are those parts of the world where Halloween/Samhain have been celebrated for generations and it sounds like a lot of fun.

Then there are other parts where up until recently it was barely recognised, until supermarkets recognised a potential market and started pushing costumes, pumpkins etc. and people started going 'trick-or-treating', or rather a version of it that they saw on US tv shows and films.
I think it's the latter that people get annoyed about, especially when gangs of teenagers go round committing small acts of vandalism, knocking on doors late into the evening demanding treats and money.
So, OP, depending on where you are, YANBU or YABU.

I like it, but can also understand people who don't. For me it's a nice interaction, but I do think people should only knock on decorated houses.

I like the teenagers with elaborate costumes/make up as well - less impressed by the ones who just have a mask! Still, they can have a fun size milky way if it makes them happy.