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?

I'm afraid I don't see witches and vampires as good clean fun, I see them as pretty dark and scary

Ummm, you know they don’t exist right? Or at least not on the way they are portrayed at Halloween.

I hate it too. My children are 3 & 6 and very inquisitive so the so-called 'fun' horror costumes have led to some unpleasant concepts to discuss, particularly the manacled skeleton in a dungeon from Tesco this week - 'did that man die because he starved to death or because those rats started eating him?'. We were then faced with a checkout person dressed as a skeleton and waving a severed arm which scared the life out of my 3yr old. When I asked him to take the mask off he rolled his eyes at other people in the queue which made me furious.

Apart from this, I find it tacky, commercialised and vulgar. Trick or treating is essentially begging even when done appropriately and when I was growing up it was used as an excuse to terrorise people in their own homes.

Our local church holds a light party with crafts, bonfire and fireworks so we'll be going to that instead tomorrow.

We've always done Halloween where I am. Buy it has become massive over the last few years, we decorate our home and that wasn't done when I was a child. It was a one night thing with a day off school, now they run half term at this time of year and it's a month countdown until the end of October. But s'OK cos I like it.
I'm sorry for people who hate it, swings n roundabouts and all that.
I don't like scary Halloween decorations though. I saw a creepy lifesize swing with 3 very scary ghostly childen attached, complete with eerie music and it left me shook.

Witches don't have to be scary or dark! A witch can be good like a fairy can be! You can present it as a good witch or a bad witch just like you have "good" and "bad" people. Do you also dislike the wizard of oz with its bad witch?

Children are fascinated by magic, lore, death and gruesomeness. Exploring that in a fun way helps to build resilience. Most adults enjoy it too. I can't help but think if you don't find these ancient spiritual festivals a little bit thrilling then you must have rather a dull mind.

I think it's a pretty good reminder of our mortality and millennia old obsession with spooky otherwordly things.
And it's fun for kids too (and for parents as they get a bit of a malicious satisfaction seeing their smartassy kid screaming at the sight of a vampire or a monster with an axe).

My favourite time of year in all honesty. Samhain as it originally was, was when pagans thought that the spirit world was closer to the real world and they remembered their dead loved ones. I like that.

Also I’m naturally drawn to anything dark and supernaturally so I feel I connect with Halloween more than any other celebration. All Hallows’ Eve. A chance to reflect on dead loved ones.

OP we discuss monsters and stories about scary things (pretty much every fairytale is pretty gruesome) because it’s an easy way to talk about good and evil. We learn lessons from fiction which help us deal with real life.

Halloween is a very, very old festival. It has roots deep in our cultural past.

Meanwhile, once a year just as it starts to get dark and cold we light lamps and dress in colourful costumes and celebrate with our neighbours and our community. It doesn’t really seem like such a bad way to welcome the winter does it?

It doesn’t really seem like such a bad way to welcome the winter does it?

I get that about November 5th, which seems much more uplifting. But anyway, I appreciate all the responses - I do get it a bit more now but I still don't like it!

Our daily lives are really stressful. I spend each and everu day worrying about 100 things.
Given the opportunity to have a bit of a giggle with silly costumes and sweeties- where I'm not nagging at DD, or DH I will take.

It's great fun and children enjoy it. Good enough reasons for me. Love the horror side of it too. Thanl goodness my DD9 isn't a precious snowflake.

If I ask DD (6 yo) what witches were, she says, “doctors”. Because they were. That’s witches dealt with! Vampires are fictional.

Lights, crafts, meeting the neighbours, dressing up, small manageable scares to teach children how to think critically and manage their emotions... what’s not to like?

Well the parent who chose to send their child in to primary school dressed as Pennywise complete with bloody axe was a treat. But most people aren’t idiots.

Marks autumn/winter for us.. Pumpkin hunting in the local garden centre,.. we love it. It's an excuse to celebrate and dress up and invite friends over. My kids love trick/treating.. lovely neighbourhood, mostly young families and we all get stuck in. Just lovely

Tradition.

People have been guising in its current form in Scotland since the 19th century.

DC have been preparing their poems for a fortnight. Costumes found at charity shops. Apples bought ready for dooking. Neep bought but not yet carved. Local sausages bought ready for dinner.

Only change from my childhood is the sweets at the door - would've been apples/satsumas/nuts in the 1970s.

Why not take part?

So celebrating burning of actual real people is uplifting but having some fun with made up witches and vampires is scary and dark?

I meant nasty wounds not sounds. My two are six and seven. We recently attended a family Halloween event, it was partly aimed at very young children and included bodies hanging from trees, decapitated heads , bodies in coffins, just all sorts.
I wouldn't be keen on them watching it on telly especially my little boy who's quite sensitive and suggestible.
I understand that it's the done thing now to go all out for Halloween and as I said before I won't stop them taking part but it doesn't sit well with me.

Flippety it’s all about perspective.

You do realise what you are doing on Bonfire night? You are watching a Catholic man being burned in effigy as he had been for 400 years.

Certainly has was about to commit an act of terrorism but 400 years if celebrating his very nasty execution is probably excessive.

And the word bonfire comes from bone fires (the practice of burning bones)

Not quite so uplifting now? (Sorry)

I do get it a bit more now but I still don't like it!

No-one says you do though, its not compulsory. I love putting up the decorations and fairy lights and my kids have always loved dressing up.

OP not sure how you can find the 5th November uplifting!

As previous posters have said it's an ancient festival. In Scotland it's always been a big thing.

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

What on earth is uplifting about trying to blow up and burn people?

Yes, I'm not so sure you can claim to enjoy Guy Fawkes Night (actual fact) whilst getting all fainty about Halloween (total fiction).

If I was in charge Halloween and Nov 5th could be binned - both stupid.

Can't you read one of the (MANY!) other threads discussing the exact same thing?

November 5th isn't an ancient festival

If you're Christian, then Halloween is simply the day before All Saints Day. Nothing spookier than your standard saint's day - just for all of them. It's a bit like Christmas and talking snowmen, santa's grottos etc. Just focus on the bits that work for you - it really doesn't need to be sinister unless you make it so.

I love Halloween personally :)