To think my MIL is wrong?

[Bluemonkey18]

I was talking with gf mother (61) about carving pumpkins and she said that they didn't have pumpkins back in the 60s and instead carved turnips. She said they would put a candle inside and run around, rattling bins and scaring people. And that trick or treating wasn't a thing.

I'm an 80's child was born 78 grew up in the north. We called it duck apple night and we did duck apple's. We carved turnips and put a candle in. We did trick or treating we wore a bin bag over our coat with a hole in the bottom to put for our heads through. Had holes in the sides to put our arms through.

I was born in 1983 and we had turnips. We always went halloweening as we called it and we would be given money more often than sweets. We also Saif the rhyme
The sky is blue
The grass is green
Have you got a penny for Halloween
If you haven't got a penny a hapenny will do
If you haven't got a hapenny then God bless you

In the 70s in SE England we had Halloween parties which we made our own Halloween fancy dress for. Eg. A witches hat out of card painted black, a ghost outfit out of a sheet. We did apple bobbing and other games. I first heard of trick or treating from the film Halloween in the 80s and then started to hear of teenagers doing it.

I'm sure trick or treating got popular after ET came out.😂😂😂

1980s Yorkshire - Halloween parties, trick or treating in basic costumes, turnips not pumpkins, apple bobbing etc. Then Mischief Night on 4th November.

I agree. Hallowe’en was hardly known in the 60s. I do remember carving a turnip sometime in the 80s. Pumpkins are a relatively recent thing.

Swede carving here in the 70s/80s.

Plus we had mischief night . Gates were removed, washing taken, bins over turned etc etc

My dad used to take our gate off and hide it so it couldn't be pinched

What do you mean you think she's wrong? Why would you choose to doubt her?What's the basis for your belief?

Pumpkins are an American plant and Halloween tradition. They're really recent here - last 10 or 15 years IME. We didn't have them in the 80s or early 90s. Swedes all the way!

Yep, me (47) and DH (46, nearly 47) have said this for about 2 weeks every year for the last 10 years or so.

Always turnips with a candle in at Halloween.
Walking around, with friends.
No trick of treating, but apple bobbing and maybe a toffee apple at home

I'm a Londoner in my 60s. I don't recall doing Halloween at all as a child, although late 70s/early 80s it was used as an excuse for fancy dress parties for students.. not really for children.
Bonfire Night was a much bigger thing, we used to take a guy out and beg for money,I think the idea was to fund fireworks, but in fact parents used to fund that. There were a lot of Fireworks Night celebrations in peoples gardens, and places like tennis clubs would always have a bonfire and their own firework do. I don't remember the really big firework displays till I was more or less grown up, .. remember seeing some forming a crown, so for a jubilee or maybe Charles & Di's wedding?

Always turnips (neeps) in Scotland. Pumpkins are a relatively new thing. Never saw them growing up in the 70s/80s. And guising is still going strong (not trick or treating) - you have to tell a joke, sing a song or do a something otherwise you don't get sweets. I remember inflicting my recorder playing on some poor souls guising on Halloween 😂

I was born early 70's in Scotland. We went out with our turnip lantern, guising round doors. Used to say poem.

Sky is Blue
Grass is green
May we have our halloween.

Although loads of people made you do a song / joke .

We got lots of apples and monkey nuts with some sweet thrown in. And if lucky some neighbours used to make candy apples.

That brings back memories of burning turnip, oh the smell - and carving was such hard work, I broke at least one potato peeler each year!

I was never allowed to go guising but my children used to dress up at Halloween and were invited into friends and neighbours houses, they had to tell a joke or sing a song and were rewarded with sweets and money. We had dooking for apples and treacle scones on a string that they had to try to eat with hands tied behind their backs. Great fun.

This was in Scotland, just because it wasn't the custom in parts of England doesn't mean it didn't happen...

YABVU & fairly patronising to assume a 61yr old is wrong about her own childhood! As with many others I can confirm turnips were the only thing to carve, pumpkins weren't even seen till.much later. Trick or treating was a corny American thing & although we did go guising it was largely for games such as bobbing for apples. Guy fawkes & penny for the guy was much bigger, although more about the bonfire & less noisy fireworks.

Hope you have suitably apologised to MIL for doubting her

Wow were not senile yet most of us are still working I think you need to read some traditional folk law and customs yes we mainly celebrated November the 5th but we did carve lanterns from turnips along with making toffee apples, apple bobbing and making a guy to wheel around the streets to get pennies to buy fireworks. Everyone gathered wood for weeks and joined together to party. ....maybe our generation are just more skilled with a knife ...but the children were peeling spuds with knives at 5 or 6.

I carved turnips and trick or treated in Ireland in the 70s. We definitely said “Trick or Treat”
I remember the mask or false face as well called them that I wore in 1977 or 1978.
There were very few options available everyone wore one of about 6 possibilities.
My
dad even tried to grow pumpkins in his greenhouse for us but they never worked.

Halloween is coming and the geese are getting fat
would you please put a penny in the old man’s hat
if you haven’t got a penny a Hapenny will do
and if you haven’t got a hapenny god bless you and the old man too.

child of the eighties. Halloween was a carved turnip with a candle inside and string through so you could carry it when you went Halloween rhyming. You dressed in a bin bag and a plastic Halloween mask from the shops. Fireworks and bengal matches.

why are you so patronising that you think she is wrong?????

Yes, that is all absolutely true. More a festival in Scotland or Ireland to fairly recently, none of my English cousins had ever heard of it.

It was singing round doors rather than T orT. 'Halloween's coming on and the goose is getting fat will you please put a penny in the old man's hat. Can you imagine how embarrassing that was for children?

Also bobbed for apples in water, and made apple tart with coins hidden inside, bet that broke a few teeth.

Trick or treating was definitely a thing when I was at primary school in the mid 1980s, but not as big as it is now. We carved pumpkins as well, not turnips / swedes. My parents remember carving turnips in the 1950s but no trick or treating, just a penny for the guy ahead of bonfire night.

😁

Of course she is correct.

You clearly haven't a breeze of your recent history!

Pumpkins are America bullshit imported with the general commercialisation of what was a Pagan holiday.

Sit and listen if I were you, you might learn something 😁

I was born in the very early 70s in the South East and I don't remember pumpkins or carving anything. Trick or treating was just coming in in the early 80s but not everyone was doing it. But lots were and throwing eggs/flour at cars / front doors where you weren't given sweets was a thing.

That's all true. We carved Swedes and no trick or treating.

I'm hoping that meant that because she very young at the time she may not have remembered correctly - not that she may now be 'too old' to remember 😠