To ask why people celebrate Halloween

[Flippetydip]

This is absolutely not a goady post but I just don't get Halloween at all. It seems like a celebration of everything that is horrible. Why do people do it?

Because life is often horrible.

It's a small, harmless preparation for the idea of death and horror that my children sadly are going to have to deal with at some stage in their (hopefully adult) lives.

And being a bit scared, in a fun way, has been scientifically proven to help people bond.

And it's a rare community event round here.

You think November 5th is more uplifting? Do you have any idea what they did to Guy Fawkes?!

I love the traditional pagan side of Halloween and what it stands for, I hate modern day Halloween a refuse to get involved

My children knock on our neighbours' doors not strangers. The neighbours we see every single day. Where are folk going guising that means you are knocking on a stranger's door?

It is a celebration of the imagination more than anything these days

Samhain

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain

Celtic post-harvest festival. Prechristian

I live on a village and we get children from all around the village knocking (most accompanied by adults). They all abide by the pumpkin code though ie only go to houses with lit pumpkins displayed

Yet you ignore all the people on the threads who did in the 70's... we barely had a TV, certainly didn't go to the cinema to see anything but shitty episode stuff on Saturday morning shows!

I grew up in the 1970s/80s and lived in the south east and then the north west - right on the English side of the Scottish border - and there was no trick or treating or guising in either place. Some people dressed up and did apple bobbing and carved a lantern but that was it. I never had anyone knock on my door and beg for sweets until the 1990s.

I get that about November 5th, which seems much more uplifting.

You find burning the effigy of a man who was tortured before being hung drawn and quartered then having his body parts sent to be displayed in various cities 'uplifting'?

You find burning the effigy of a man who was tortured before being hung drawn and quartered then having his body parts sent to be displayed in various cities 'uplifting'?

Yes, yes, yes - been there, done that about 50 times throughout the thread. I have flayed myself many times for saying it and realised the error of my ways. Does anyone ever RTFT these days?

So now it's over for another year and I have bonfire night that I now won't enjoy either. Bloody winter.

Flippetydip

Sorry I was RTFT until I got to that post.

Have you considered Diwali? It's traditionally a Hindu festival but also celebrated by Sikhs but for totally different reasons.

It celebrates light overcoming darkness. Where I am it involves lots of fireworks and various lights.

Basically all the bonfire fun without the torture. Unfortunately you have missed it this year.

Have you considered Diwali?

No, I hadn't but I'd kind of be doing it on my own here, we live in the "provinces" where there is not a huge cultural spread unfortunately. Still, perhaps I will bring my own slant to November 5th and take it over as we Christians have managed to take over every other Pagan festival!

November 5th is a 'christian' festival anyway. Celebrating the foiling of a Catholic plot, isn't it?

I used to dress up at Halloween in the 1960s and go guising .

My grandmother was born in 1890, she used to dress up as a witch or a ghost as a child and visit neighbour's homes for sweets, nuts or fruit.
I remember her telling me about it.
So certainly not a new thing.

We had around 50 kids at the door last night, great fun, all very good natured.

Flippetydip

OK for Diwali 2018 you are cordially invited to the party. If you want to dip a toe n the water beforehand Vaisakhi quite fun too.

sash - Why thank you very much.

Can we stop with calling the 31st October a tradition.

I never went trick or treating. No one I knew ever did. My kids have never been trick or treating.
It is just an American celebration that has been imported which retailers have jumped on to squeeze more money from people's pockets

Oliversmumsarmy No, it's not American, as loads of Scottish and Irish posters have pointed out. Did you read the thread?

Oliversmumsarmy I feel you will get a roasting for that, given that many, many people on this thread have explained how it's not an export from the US, it's an intensely British thing which has however, now (IME) been rather dwarfed by the commercial aspect. Which is, I've now come to realise, the bit I hate.

Oliversmumsarmy
Can we stop with calling the 31st October a tradition.

No.

I have just pointed out that I did this in the 1960s in the UK, my grandmother celebrated Halloween and was born in 1890.

Trick or treating only developed in the USA the 1920s from Irish and Scottish immigrants who took their customs over there.

The tradition was going on here well before that in the UK.

Have you just ignored everything PP’s have said Oliversmumsarmy?

I am nearly 60 and have lived all over the UK and have never had a trick or treater in the area let alone at my door.

The only people I know who celebrated it was Americans. I know enough Scottish and Irish people and they are all mystified at Halloween too.
They too from previous conversations have never celebrated it at all.

So all we Irish posters who remember doing Halloween as children have false memories? Or we're making it up?

Pumpkins weren't a thing, it was turnips. But dressing up as a witch or a vampire or a ghost definitely was.

oliversmummy-

Not my experience.

I am Scottish- lived in Scotland all my life in many locations and Halloween has always been a big thing.
I know no Americans.

Not sure who all these "mystified" Scots are.

All the Scottish people on this thread seem to agree that Halloween is a Celtic cultural tradition and something they have observed for decades.

We must all be wrong.

Have you just ignored everything PP’s have said Oliversmumsarmy

I can only go from my experiences. The only time I have ever come across Halloween has been on adverts or in Tesco

Let's be honest before September had any of your children or yourself ever heard of Samhain.