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?

We’re Brits living in the US and I love Halloween out here, it’s fab! I love that the kids can go as whatever they want as opposed to seeing hundreds of little witches. One of mine went as rainbow dash!

Coyote

Erm the origins of what is now called Halloween have meaning too. I am sure you didnt mean to imply that they don't.

Whilst I understand how some people mark Halloween, I am uncertain as to ‘the meaning’ and why it is celebrated. My understanding is that it stems from a belief that lost souls in purgatory become unsettled on the eve of All Souls’ Day and roam the earth. Not sure why one would celebrate that.

It's far, far older than Christianity so has nothing to do with purgatory. It's seen as one of the nights when the veil between the worlds is thin, when the ancestors and the beloved dead return to their families, when the past, present and future are linked and can be seen. Christianity came along and put their spin on it. Halloween means the Eve of All Hallows or All Saints; the feast day of All Saints is 1 November. The unsainted dead are celebrated on All Souls Day, 2 November. The period of three days is known as Hallowtide. The eve of All Souls would be 1 November, not 31 October.

Some in America decorate their homes at the start of October! They seem to be more exited about Halloween than Christmas.

Our decorations go out on October 1, and we usually take them down November 1. Not today, though, it was raining all day.

Americans don't do "fancy dress" at the exhaustive frequency that it seems to occur here in the UK (school fund raisers, birthday parties, dress like a whatever to raise money for the charity of the week). Halloween is the one big chance a year to dress up as whatever they damn well please.

You have a point there. I think why I liked seeing so many properly spooky little costumes on Tuesday was that it made a change from the endless stream of princesses and superheroes that you see at every party and school dressing up day. It was novel.

Halloween is the one big chance a year to dress up as whatever they damn well please.

This is very true. It would be considered very odd to have a costume party in the US, especially for adults, at any time other than Halloween. So people tend to go OTT a bit.

Several years ago we were invited to a Halloween party that specified costumes "from the Seventies."
Well, being the history lover that I am, it occurred to me that the hosts didn't specify a century so DH and I went as George and Martha Washington.

Not long after we arrived in the US we were invited to a party where we were supposed to dress in 'cruise wear'. That was quite confusing...