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

But there is no point in complaining about how disconnected and lacking in community we are if you don't participate in community events like this. This is what community is about. Don't like it, that's fine, but don't then complain.

What absolute rubbish @LeCroissant

According to you my DMIL shouldn't complain about people throwing eggs at her car and house windows because she wouldn't open the door.

If that's your idea of 'community events you can keep it.

As a child in the NE of England it wasn't a thing

Bullshit.

Every Halloween I was dressed in a witches hat, a bin liner for a witches dress and a fucking dangerous hollowed out turnip on string to carry around with me. Along with hundereds of other kids in makeshift firehazard outfits.

So your particular joyless part of the NE may not have celebrated Halloween but your statement is false.

I don’t like it because I like my holidays/events to celebrate something, or to mean something what does Halloween actually celebrate? What does it actually stand for?
For two whole countries (Ireland and Scotland) it is a very important part of their ancient history, tradition and culture. Just because you don't come from that culture and therefore don't celebrate it shouldn't mean that you feel the need to belittle it

The turnip had a candle in it, the turnip itself wasn't dangerous on it's own terms - carving the thing though was a different matter - I'm so glad we had a pumpkin takeover.

I like it because it's another distraction from our otherwise stressful yet boring day to day lives.

When I was little and lived in a village it was low key and fun and my mum checked with the neighbours first if it was ok for us to knock on their door and she even offered to give them a few sweets to give us too. We made our own costumes, which was a lot of fun and did proper old-fashioned games with other children in the village and it did feel safe and community minded.

I live on the outskirts of London now and it doesn't feel like that at all. There are huge groups of teenagers roaming about, snatching sweets from people and egging houses that don't give them treats. When the DCs were little they wanted to open the door and give out sweets and one year a teenager pushed into the house and grabbed the whole bowl of sweets and ran off with it. I chased after him/her couldn't tell, but they ran faster than me & smashed my lovely bowl on the pavement.

We didn't know enough people in walking distance that the DCs could knock on the door of and I wouldn't let them knock on the door of complete strangers, as that seemed to go against everything I'd ever taught them about safety.

So, it didn't really work for us. Plus I don't really get the significance of the event, it just feels like mixed up woowoo nonsense, neither pagan nor Christian and mostly just commercial, so we stopped doing it.

I have the same memories as you upperlimit ( also North)
Swedes took HOURS to carve
I can appreciate if you live in a rough area it can be a totally different experience to the leafy burbs.
I hate the plastic crap as well. It is adding to landfill and it doesn't even look good.

Still love Halloween.

Mumsnet has this same discussion every year.

someone always complains about it being a new thing and completely without meaning and then ignores any poster that posts some facts about the holidays ancient heritage. Someone invariably gets their knickers in a twist about it being evil (I think this is a Christian thing, not sure)
Someone always complains about urchins begging round their door. I’m never sure why any of these people think complaining on here is going to make a blind bit of difference.

Anyway, Halloween is great and its history is fairly fascinating en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain

Almost as fascinating as the pagan roots of Christmas en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus#Germanic_paganism.2C_Wodan.2C_and_Christianization

In Ireland the mid term break always coincides with Halloween so there is plenty of time for decorating and carving pumpkins. There are lots of related activities on Samhain and Macnas festivals and parades. In Dublin the Bram Stoker festival has everything from lectures in Trinity College to Al Porter to street fun fairs. There are special haunted walking tours and local authorities organise some great events.

I am sure it is a different experience if you live in an area where there is a lot of antisocial behaviour but we have always had very positive experiences. Most of my neighbours are elderly but when we first moved in to our house a few dropped round to ask if the children would trick or treat them even though they don't decorate. They really enjoy seeing the children in costumes and each child has to do a party piece. We always allow 30 minutes to visit the older neighbours before doing normal trick or treating.

I suggested going to Orlando once for midterm, and my children who had never been to Florida at that stage, refused because they didn't want to miss the fun at home.

Re donate to charity.... Enjoy your holidays, trips to the pool, whatever. Great. It is not the same as spending money on plastic devil horns or such like. Just think of all the good we could do.

As a child in the NE of England it wasn't a thing

Bullshit

That's a bit rude. It's not bullshit and it's not false.

You may have grown up in a different part of the NE, perhaps not in what they called a slum area as I did. Or maybe a couple of decades later. Whichever of those things apply, I maintain that Halloween was certainly not 'celebrated' in my locality, in my childhood.

I don't mind it and have a pumkin outside and sweets. I do think its too much though and I feel the same about Christmas. I like things low key.

I was a bit abrasive, I suppose but I don't think it's wise to speak as an authority on a whole region and then use that sweeping generalisation to suggest that Halloween is a recently manufactured import.

As I say, particular parts of the NE may not have celebrated it. But a good portion of the NE did and long before it was a marketeer's goldmine.

randomer you could say the same about people spending money on any kind of crap - you could say don't spend your time messing around on MN, spend it writing letters for Amnesty International. Think of all the good you could do.

Or you could just let people do what makes them happy (within reason obviously!)

I don't like it but the kids feckin love it so I get in the spirit for their sakes

I'm shocked how many people don't understand all Hallows eve.
It's not a night for 'begging' for sweets - that's just what corporate companies want you to believe so you spend your money in there shops.

It's an old tradition celebrating the dead, protecting yourself and home from evil & remembering that October 31st in the day when the veil between our world and the spirit world is thinnest.

So much ignorance. Hate it all you want but at least understand what you are hating!

As I say, particular parts of the NE may not have celebrated it. But a good portion of the NE did and long before it was a marketeer's goldmine

Out of curiosity I consulted google and find that by the time black bin liners had been introduced in the uk, I was past early childhood and dressing up - so obvs talking from a much earlier decade.
Also, I was talking about the orange and plastic tat creeping up on me, not actual Halloween, and dressing up like a witch and pumpkins etc. It used to be called mischievous night as I remember, and my older brothers used to go out tying all the streets doorknobs together.

Just to clear that up - I'm no authority on the NE obvs. Just my own experience.

I absolutely love it. We decorate the house, make pumpkin pies and soup, bake spiced cookies and make "spooky faces" with poached pears and raisins, bananas, carrots etc for lunch.
Over the week I will watch some scary movies with DP and some Halloween specials of shows with DC (Paw Patrol, Scooby Doo etc)
For me it's a celebration without inlaws, massive piles of presents, expenditure and lots of cooking stress.
There are so many Halloween activities over the week that the actual trick or treating seems a minor part.

Apologies for spelling mistakes- new phone and I haven't got the hang yet!

I mention black bin liners because they are (now) traditionally used, as you've pointed out, as a witches cape.

Yep, it's crap. So's Christmas and Easter and Valetine's Day and Mother's Day and Father's Day. Did I forget anything?

I read/collect girls' school stories from the first half of the 20th century, and Halloween crops up there more than you might think. As Chalet School fans will know, Halloween is a good excuse for a party with apple bobbing and hilarious yet thrilling mishaps when stout mistresses are required to jump over lighted candles.

I'm caught between loathing the commercialisation of it, and loving any excuse to brighten up our dull and routine lives. I tend to think that the very human need for light, warmth, sweet food and fun as the days get shorter and colder are the 'real' meaning of the time of year, with Pagan, then Christian, then secular meanings and rituals being grafted on as they evolved.

So's Christmas and Easter and Valetine's Day and Mother's Day and Father's Day. Did I forget anything?

St Piran's Day

Toothfairy Clanedstino!

I'm almost 40 but the tradition of Halloween-ing was established enough that my Gran would talk about doing it when she was a girl, still in the NE and she was our resident turnip carver.

Lots of places in the NE, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and Newcastle saw a large amount of Irish migration in the 19th century so perhaps, and I'm only guessing, that is why there are pockets in the NE were Halloween is more established
.