Do Americans not understand the meaning of Halloween?

[Yaley]

Preparing to be flamed by American Mumsneters! Browsing the lower brow media today looking at photos of celebrities in the US taking their children trick or treating. Nobody looks spooky. There are no witches, ghosts, vampires or skeletons. It's a come as you wish fancy dress party. And they seem to go trick or treating in the middle of the afternoon! I've just seen a picture of Giselle Bunchen and her husband dressed as avocado on toast.

I don't get it.

Or maybe they don't?

AIBU?

I remember "guising" in Scotland over 40 years ago and it was not necessary to dress up as something spooky. Witches were common but you could dress up as anything. Even when my dc were small although "scary" costumes were the most usual, kids dressed up as anything - I remember the twins next door being "118118" while my friend's dc was a dice and another pair tweedle dum & tweedle dee! I think it was when it got more commercialised and the supermarkets started doing costumes that the horror element came in.

@MyDcAreMarvel children are generally allowed to wear their Halloween customs to school, however CLOWNS are no longer allowed! They used to be a "nice" costume, like mermaid or firefighter, but now they are a scary one! That switch has just been in the last 1-2 years.

Most schools don't allow face masks, anything that looks like a weapon, or anything that looks bloody. Exact rules vary of course.

And some children plan their Halloween custom within the school rules because it's easier that way. They want their friends to all see it.

"Day of the Dead merges with Halloween in the Southwest, and it has actual meaning."

This is fascinating @CoyoteCafe. Can you explain more?

I think I'd rather have the American version. I may be wrong, but theirs seems not to have the nasty undertones ours has.

America instead has women wearing "sexy" anything. I don't think that's any better than monsters and spirits.

When I was a kid loads of costumes weren’t spooky.

I was Madonna, a domino(!), a fish, my brother was the hulk, loads of different things.

I think it’s more boring now. Witch costumes from Tesco don’t quite have the same effect.

Well, it does have a meaning. Surely it's the eve of All Hallows Day aka All Saints Day. I realise that's like reminding people that the origin of Christmas is the birth of Jesus (hush my mouth) but that is the meaning of the name, however you choose to mark it.

This is part of my front yard last night. I didn't get a pic of the other part, but it's headstones, fog, etc.

We saw plenty of scary costumes last night. Wasn't there a thread on here yesterday complaining that staff at a hotel were dressed too scary?

corn on the cob things

We call it Indian corn. They sell it at grocery stores here in the US, along with the decorative gourds and stuff every fall.

Cool garden, good effort.

Americans "understand" Halloween but there are no rules on costumes!

I think we're already going the same way in the UK tbh.

When I was little (early 90's) all costumes I can remember were scary...girls were often witches (complete with black bag outfit!). And you'd have vampires/bats, ghosts/zombies/mummy's.

Now I see a range...lots of scary ones still but mixed in are plenty of very pretty and princessy witches outfits with dramatic but 'appealing' make up. Cute baby outfits with l only a vague passing reference to a 'scary' creature. And a good scattering of fairly generic fancy dress outfits like pirates or jesters or the Mario brothers and so on.

It seem like it's going the American way to me.

Live across the pond and no, the kids are all dressed as superheroes rather than ghouls or whatever.

It's totally been changed from what it's roots. I have to say I always wince at the irony of articles explaining how some Halloween costumes are cultural appropriation and offensive* while totally missing the point that celebrating Halloween in that was is textbook cultural appropriation all in it's self. It shows a real lack of awareness.

*Not that there is anything wrong with ensuring you don't dress in a way that is likely to offend people on racial or cultural grounds. I'm very conscious of it. But Halloween has a cultural significance to me which is completely undermined and ignored by every single article I've ever read on the subject.

We had lots of Disney princesses and superheroes this year, but we also had quite a few witches, pirates, skeletons, and scary clowns (one even had a red balloon). We had a mixture, really. My daughter dressed as a bat.

Mumsnet before Halloween: it’s not even a thing! In my day we never! Damn American tv taking over our pure and blessed British culture!

Mumsnet after Halloween: Americans don’t do it right.

@Yaley, thing is, as with most Christian traditions, the notion of All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day is an appropriation of other traditions (in this instance, Samhain). Christmas is actually all about the Winter Solstice, or Yule, that celebrates the shortest day of the year and the rebirth of the sun. It's highly unlikely that Jesus was born on December 25th! Don't most scholars think it was actually September/October time?? Largely on the basis that it's unlikely that shepherds were tending their flocks in fields in December!

Right, UserX? I thought the same thing. :)

I much prefer the American approach to costumes - lots of wit and humour, and topical satire. I really dislike the current UK costume trend for very realistic wounds and injuries created with make-up and prosthetics.

True safariboot, I wasn't really thinking of the grown ups, more what seems like a nice family neighbourhood event without any of the anti social behaviour we get round here. Again, I probably have a rosy view. Would be interested to know from Americans if you do get this? Last night, we had homes egged, pumpkins smashed and fireworks thrown at people in the area.

'Sexy anything' costumes are not something I like seeing, but then I'm not particularly fond of the really terrifyingly violent costumes that seem to be the norm here as well as those. Will probably just keep hibernating through it all.

Lots of kids here don't do scary either. My daughter was a unicorn, my youngest was a policeman. We had a variety of different costumes at the door last night, some witches and skeletons but we also had Buzz Lightyear and a Rubik's cube.

London here. I would guess 95% of my callers last night were dressed spookily. Loads of witches, vampires, ghosts, skeletons. I had a brother sister combo dressed as Harley Quinn and a zombie pharaoh who looked amazing.

The only non-spooky one I can recall was three teens dressed as Rock Paper and Scissors. They did look good.

Don't most scholars think it was actually September/October time?

I've always heard spring, around March/April.

And they seem to go trick or treating in the middle of the afternoon!

The clocks don't go back until 5 November in the US.

I'm sort of a Halloween Grinch. I hate it and it makes me cringe. To put things in perspective I could happily be a Goth but I would have to keep a range of clothing from GAP just to put on this time of year so I was not associated with it.

Now I have kids, they want to get involved in parties etc. We went to one at the weekend. Thank fuck its ok to dress up not in gory stuff. My boy 2 when as captain Jake (of kids tv) and my daughter 6 as Bell. I went in normal clothing.

I agree Americans decorate beautifully with autumn wreaths and harvest produce. I was in Boston one October and spent a while photographing the front door steps of houses. I love the idea of an autumn wreath on the door.