To wonder why it's bad to 'beg for sweets' but not bad to drag around a burning effigy of a Catholic while begging for money?

[TheWindBeneathMyFlaps]

Is it because one is perceived as American by people who are a little bit thick

DH is 50. He went trick or treating and carved vegetables. He's from Essex.
We have photos of him and all his little friends dressed up.

Where did this idea that it's American come from? And even if it was American would that be enough to not celebrate something that kids enjoy? When the UK was off spreading its culture forcibly all over the world that was fine, but when one of its former colonies spread a little back, it's offensive.

I don’t know anyone who thinks Hallowe’en is American. But my children were early twenties and it definitely wasn’t a big thing in the shops when they were young, people think it has become Americanised as it’s now such a big event like in America. No idea why you mention Guy Fawkes, your thinking seems rather muddled.

When you say DH “and his little friends”, do you mean short adult friends, kids or the carved vegetables themselves?

If DH was trick or treating by himself as a 50 year old man (or with other adult friends), that would be weird and maybe a bit creepy. OTOH, nothing strange at all if he were supervising children trick or treating. Context is everything here.

Wow.

Mischief night is a thing here too! Night before Halloween, all sorts of shenanigans (some mild/amusing, some going too far like alarming/harming livestock).

We had Halloween in the 80s, it was great! It's even better now I think, and DS loves it as much as I do.

I'm Catholic and have never been bothered by effigies of Guy Fawkes - he was a terrorist that tried to murder a load of innocent people.

You know that Halloween (samhain) is far, far older than Guy Fawkes Night, right? And that it's been celebrated for thousands of years in various ways? It's not meaningless at all!

It's not begging.

It's guising and you perform a party piece and get a sweetie in return.

DH "went trick or treating". We have photos of something that happened in the past.

For the hard of thinking, I'm not admitting to dh being a pedophile. He once was a child and had little friends. He was little.

He now takes our children trick or treating, yes, obviously. But the point I was making is that people have been trick or treating for a half a century at least. I'm sure you realised that but I know MN loves to run with something that someone pretended to misunderstand.

What was your party piece Major Carol? We never did the party piece but, but I am thinking of making the kids do something this year!

I lived and taught in a certain area of Newcastle 20 years ago and it wasn't fun. It was pretty threatening. But the Newcastle riots had happened a while before nearby and I know people remembered. It was a v deprived area.

The kids would discuss how much money they'd collected in the morning. I had my car egged once and they didn't even knock to ask for anything! I don't live there now and the demographic has changed a lot so I'm not sure if it's still going on.

Apart from its not. As with most traditions the ones that could be capitalised are the ones we now celebrate en masse. The ones that couldn’t are largely forgotten unless they are observed by the very religious.

We did Halloween in the early 80s but just on our road with crepe paper cloaks and cardboard hats. Bonfire night was more of a thing, with a bonfire and fireworks in someone's garden and a guy with a balloon face which popped grew up catholic. The scouts would put a guy in a shopping trolley and ask for pennies.

I have good memories of this but being a bit of a scaredey cat find bonfire night a bit disturbing and only ever go to organised ones despite the nice neighbourhood memories. Nothing to do with catholicism. I also don't like asking for sweets as I am terribly British but my kids don't mind. And the system now is good - pumpkin = want to give you sweets.

You seem to think people who may not agree wholeheartedly with you are 'thick' or 'hard of thinking' op

And your posts are aggressive and angry

Go to Lewes bonfire night! Absolutely brilliant
They really do drag burning crates through the streets and burn huge effigy's on the biggest bonfire I've ever seen. The fire works are also fantastic.

Op, you yourself seem a little bit thick.

Glad it wasn't just me! 😂

I haven't seen anyone dragging around a burning effigy of anyone.

Sorry that should say, and I grew up catholic. Although on that note halloween is literally the eve of the all saints feast day which is followed by all soul's day so there is religious/historic significance to the spooky costumes.

Locally Halloween is a fun thing and some houses put on full dramatic displays in their garden, complete with singing projections and flying bats on strings, smoke machines and statues.

It's actually almost a drama trail and now quite fun to find the best ones locally. Some focus on impressing us with their pumpkin skills. Some houses clearly spend the whole half term week Halloween crafting.

All the sweets disappear quickly in the local shops; Dh has already got some bags in.

It’s not really true to say it’s been celebrated in Britain since the Middle Ages. It’s a Celtic festival and has been celebrated in Scotland and Ireland far longer than that - it’s pre-Christian. I don’t know much about its history of being celebrated in England but I think that is fairly recent. We certainly celebrated it when I was young and living in England (though no trick or treating) but I don’t think my mother’s generation did.

it became huge in the US because of the number of Irish and Scottish immigrants, and I think its celebration in England is at least partly to do with its visibility in American culture. So in England it’s not completely unreasonable to view it as a US import, even though it definitely isn’t in Scotland or Ireland (not sure how Wales, which also has Celtic roots but quite different culturally to Scotland and Ireland fits in).

As for a penny for the guy - I agree with you - unless you are living in the 1970s or earlier, I don’t think that is actually a thing.

You don't tend to see 'a penny for the guy' now since children can't buy fireworks. It is only in a few places where Guys are still paraded through streets (Lewis for example??).
Mainly now it is bonfires, possibly with a generic guy / political figure on.
We commemorate the foiling of the plot to blow up Parliament. To me the fact it was catholics is irrelevant.

The fake spider web stuff is dangerous to wildlife, it can trap birds. Please don’t use it.

I’m Irish. Hallowe’en is a big thing here. I never heard of anyone considering it an American tradition. When I was a kid, we didn’t say trick or treating. When people answered the door, we would say “Help the hallowe’en party “. You would get some sweets but also fruit and nuts. We used to crack them open with a hammer. The costumes used to be mostly scary because they were homemade and it’s harder to make superhero costumes and stuff like that. You could buy cheap masks in the shop and make the rest of the outfit at home. Lots of witches with black bin liners for dresses. I’m only in my 30s but it has gotten a lot more commercialised over the years. Lots of people have parties instead of going house to house or go to organised events. Where I live, it’s still very wild. Massive big bonfires, bangers and fireworks, vandalism.
The local shop used to sell barm brack cakes with the novelty ring baked in and they would put a solid gold ring in one so you always hoped you’d get lucky and find it.
I always liked hallowe’en night. It was different to other celebrations. It felt a bit pagan, scary and exciting. I think it is less good now the kids are dressed as paw patrol characters etc but they enjoy it.

Sadly, we have enough of the real stuff to not need the fake.

I’m a cradle catholic aged 58.

i went to hallowe’en parties as a child dressed as a witch every year. No trick or treating.