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?

It's not meant to be scary costumes. The disguises are to confuse the spirits of the dead that walk between worlds at that evening, so they don't take you back to the realm of the dead.
???possibly someone with more Celtic knowledge than me can confirm.

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

@steff13, I've just had a google. Apparently thoughts are that it was September...all to do with the way the Jews broke up the calendar and therefore assumptions about the birth of John the Baptist.

Info here

I googled "When was Jesus actually born?" and found this.

Halloween is for dressing up...as whatever you want. No one made a rule it has to be scary...which some people in the UK/Europe seem to think. In the US, over 30 years ago, kids were dressing as they wished...when I was a kid...angel, ballerina, barbie, turtle etc. Who cares if it is not spooky. Its meant to be fun...kids dress as they want...

@whiskyowl Day of the Dead is a Latino holiday when people celebrate and remember their ancestors and others who have died. It is traditional to paint one's face like a skull, but with decorations.

This picture has perfect Day of the Dead makeup:
cdn.allsoulsprocession.org/wp-content/uploads/rick-kopstein-asp2016-34-110616-260x378.jpg

People make a shrine or posters to honor those they are grieving, yet it is still a celebration. It is a collective way to process a grief. It is also a reminder that we have ALL lost someone we loved, that we are together in that.

Here is a link to a gallery of photos from last year in southern Arizona, where these practices have been adopted by the population at large, not just Latinos or people living in the older neighborhoods.
allsoulsprocession.org/galleries/2016-gallery/

If you look through the pictures, some people are carrying photos of pets who have passed away, which I find really sweet.

When I was a child there was no Halloween at all. No one out and about, no one knocking on doors. I was The night before a Holy Day, just like many other days. All Hallows was the next day, so Halloween was All Hallows Eve, you can hear the relationship between the two names.

I can remember bemusement at the first Trick or Treaters I had ever experienced! That would have been late 60s/early 70s, and very frowned on by the Catholic Church (and probably many other churches).

All Souls Day takes us nicely up to Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes Night, which I think we should make much more of, particularly of the Guy Fawkes bit. We might learn to stand up to our rulers then and actually make a difference.

Day of the Dead is what they call it in South America. It's All Souls' Day in the Christian calendar, a day to remember those who have died. Halloween means the eve of All Hallows - All Saints Day, Nov 1st.

I love Bonfire Night and hope people are still interested in it. I think it's important to teach our children at least one uniquely English tradition, along with all the many diverse celebrations we learn about.

Yaley Americans aren’t “doing Halloween wrong” at all.

I’m British and have been dressing up for Halloween for 40 years and there’s never been a requirement for costumes to be scary. The scariness element is pretty recent in the UK. My kids have rarely dressed as something scary even when we lived in Britain.

The reason it looks like day time to you is that (depending on the state) it doesn’t get dark as early here in Autumn.

I live in Texas, it wasn’t dark here until just before 7pm last night. If we’d taken photos at 6pm it would have been broad daylight.

To make you feel better we went round last night with several ghouls, witches and zombies last night, although my own completely British children weren’t in scary costumes.

I’m in scotland and it’s always been scary here. Idea is that you are scaring away the spirits by being even scarier.

For those of you wondering about Dia de los Muertos

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead

I grew up in an area of So Cal where this was a big deal, even back in the '60s. Tamales, Buñuelos, y Calaveritas, yum!

Día de Muertos is a three-day festival from 31 Oct - 2 November.

31 October is All Hallows Eve, when the spirits of dead children visit at midnight. The spirits of adults visit on 2 November. People take food and drink to the cemeteries and have parties with music at their families' graves. It's a really joyful festival.

Fairfax there may always have been scary costumes but that’s not the same thing as it can only be scary costumes.

I’m Scottish and lots of our costumes growing up weren’t scary.

A pretty dim view is taken of non-scary costumes in my neck of the woods.

I much prefer the American sense. I don't want my 2 and 6 year old dressed up as mad witches or have to explain what zombies are. They don't need to be covered in fake gore.

They dressed as a stormtrooper and a jedi last night.

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

Dia des los muertos is nov 2nd, not Halloween, which is oct 31st. Nov 1st is Día de los Inocentes / Día de los Angelitos. And its Mexican, not Latino. Brazil has Finados on Nov 2nd as well. Bolivia has Dia de los ñatitas but that is in May, not November.

And Halloween does have an actual meaning, btw. Have some respect for traditions instead of lumping them all into one vaguely offensive mass and treating them all the same. They are not.

I’m American and you’ve got my back up. In the run up to Halloween I read several threads about how Halloween was never a big thing in the U.K. and it’s an American tradition to trick or treat and get dressed up etc.
But now we suddenly don’t understand Halloween? So is it our thing or are we doing it wrong?
Honestly the America bashing does get old.

OP - ahem, yes, nothing to do with All Saints Day if you are looking at Samhain.

GodisDead Halloween is a Scottish and Irish tradition that predates the existence of the US.** It’s certainly not a n American import up here

GodisDead ignore, MN goes bonkers around Halloween every single year.

Lots of English people yelling “American Import!” While the Scots and Irish MNers scream with frustration and attempt, yet again, to educate.

Those damn Yanks, with their dastardly own traditions and separate culture. Anyone would think they were a totally different country to the UK or something. Scandalous!

Fascinating to read about a multicultural hybrid between European-origin traditions and south American ones in the USA. Thank you all so much for the information.

So in some places in the American south do the festivities last for 3 days from 31 Oct to 2 Nov?? Will different communities do different days, or is it more mixed??

I'd really like it if there wasn't the emphasis on 'scary' costumes that there is here.

Cute 5 year old witches and bats is rather sweet, but we were out last night and came across quite a few genuinely creepy/unpleasant-looking older kids (only 8/9/10ish) in full-face Scream masks, full-fce black-glitter skeleton masks, some horrible Undertaker-type ones...

I'm pretty robust but I actually thought a lot of it had gone too far.

My DD and her friend (5/6) were properly scared by some of the trick-or-treaters who rang our bell. Not being able to see any face at all, and for it to be covered by a grotesque mask, isn't terrible 'naice' imo. Plenty of ways to be 'scary' if you like without going far too far towards the unpleasant and grotesque.

Would rather rather there was more invention in the costumes and not just these horrible creepy ones.

That said, I adored the small boy who came to our door as 'Medusa' last night :) he was fab.

Yes but what does cute have to do with the night of the living dead? That'a fancy dress party isn't it?

I dislike the horror now but spooky is fine.

I have an Irish family and we always dressed as ghosts, devils, witches etc and did apple bobbing etc at home. I really hate the gory dead schoolgirls you see on the doorstep now. I had a 5/6 year old last night in a blood spattered uniform.Just what is that parents thinking??