When did Halloween get like this?

[SoEasyToFall]

When I was younger Halloween was just about a school disco, and then when I was at uni it was a night out clubbing in fancy dress (or a flat party). It was never a huge thing.

Tonight while walking home from work there was masses of teens shouting abuse at everyone, smashing bottles and just being shits. More teens on the bus shouting abuse at everyone who wasn’t dressed up. I got called a miserable fat cunt because I wasn’t in a costume.

When did this happen? When did society get like this? I only left uni five years ago and it feels like it’s changed massively since then

I tend to stay in and turn the lights off. My grand daughter who is 5 said that some if the older kids were getting rude and taking all the sweets. It felt scary for her

Are you in the UK?

I actually can't stand Halloween. It's totally unnecessary day. Other countries (like mine, Austria, Italy(Venice), Brasil(Rio) and probably some more) are having nice festivals where everyone one is wearing nice costumes and they are celebrating something. In my country that festival is to push the winter away and to bring spring, we have it in February or March. As well I find Halloween unapropriate due to the fact it's on 31st Oct and as plenty of countries in Europe, we are having a All Saints Day on November 1st, where we remember our beloved ones who passed away. So it doesn't go together well with Halloween. So much crime, violence, harassment happens lately on this day, children watching horrors... Where are those beautiful Elsa and Cinderella costumes children used to wear... I wouldn't mind if it's gone forever and been replaced with something nice.

I feel like there is so much entitlement and disrespect. Last night I took my son to relatives and that was it. Today I went to walk my parents dog and there were so many sweet wrappers on the floor and it was just awful! I’m all for trick or treating but honestly, teach your children not to litter!!

Oh love….do you know what another name for All Saints Day is? It’s All Hallows Day. They’re connected…..from Wikipedia

Halloween, also known as All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve, is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It is at the beginning of the observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the Christian liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints(hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed

I feel embarrassed for you!

I was in central London coming home at about midnight last night and it was vile. Pissed up teens and early 20s in masks scaring people and scrapping on the tube platform. Admittedly I’m not out that late very often but it didn’t feel like a normal Friday night to me. People were using the costumes to make more mischief than normal.

Halloween wasn’t a thing at all in my childhood (70s) and I have no memories of anybody in my area dressing up and knocking doors.
It has taken off because of American tv and films.
I think it’s horrible.

Most likely to be in UK as it is UK based forum.

Exactly the same here too. And only visiting homes with decorations.

I do get what you mean. There's a lot of tat around but also some lovely decs to find and I'm a bit of an any-excuse-for-a-jolly kinda gal (who is also shamelessy attracted to tat😂)

I do love that it's a really old British tradition though.

We have so few left.

In the early nineties I visited an friend in North America and when I was with her in a local craft store was a bit bemused to see all the Halloween decorations being sold like pumpkin lights for a tree and light up Tombstones. Roll on the years and it all has crossed the Atlantic.

I grew up in Ireland where we had always done stuff for Halloween like ducking for apples getting false faces and dressing up. Dm would buy nuts which had to be cracked open and bake an apple tart with things hidden inside wrapped in greaseproof paper. A ring for marriage, button for singlehood and money for wealth. Also fireworks. This was the sixties. There was no trick or treating just tricks like knocking doors and running away. I remember one neighbour appeared with a dish of water and threw it around the hapless kids who had dared to knock on her door.

Halloween
Sorry, Track or Treat Night.Just another monetisation of a very traditional British Night. Been creeping up to years

Supermarkets have been full.of.Halloween products for a whole.Including quite frightening skeletons and costumes.

And the usual Disney massively overpriced junik.

Things fairly quiet near me except for constant firework noise.last night.

Not a Witch in sight

Hey Folks
You have Black Friday to look forward to soon. Loads of Money.

🎃🧹👽👎

I’m Canadian and we did do Halloween but it was just one night. Shops had bags of sweets but no decorations. We put out a jack o’lantern and once the sweets were gone, my mum blew out the candle and that was it.
When I moved here, we seemed to make a lot more of Guy Fawkes. Seems forgotten. Now, like so much else in the UK, we have adopted the American excess.

What's struck me for the first time is all these signs outside the decorated houses saying "No Entry", and police crime scene tape. Is it just my town? It's new, right?

I've not seen anything like that. It must depend on the area you live in.

There are people from US here too...
I would hope this is not happening in the UK... Like I said in my other comment - I absolutely can not stand Halloween, I think it should be banned the way it is now. Only nice costumes and celebrating, not everything going on with it.

It was always like this in the city I grew up in - from a day or so before Halloween to bonfire night, teenagers just went feral. Throwing fireworks, smashing up cars, setting fire to things and generally terrorising anyone who was out. Bricks, bottles etc. It was particularly bad when I was in my teens as they’d deliberately light fires then target the fire service. It was concentrated in certain areas which became no go zones.
Not encountered it on that scale anywhere else I’ve lived but I don’t doubt it’s a thing sadly.
It was lovely where I currently live - lots of decorated houses and dressed up people.

i don’t celebrate Halloween - I celebrate day of the dead with my connections to Mexico

Nov 1-2 - I build an altar in my house and remember all my loved ones who have died

I think it says something more about society and how people are just getting by…

Blame society not young people

The UK has deep rooted pagan traditions, folklore and mythical history are part of our cultural make up, it is not a new thing!

When I was a kid, the village I grew up i was a no go area on Halloween. Fireworks thrown at cars, flour and eggs at houses and one year my parents windscreen got smashed. This year, 40+ years later, my little nephews dressed up and went trick or treating in the same village to decorated houses and had a lovely time. So my perception was that halloween had got more fanily friendly, not the opposite...

Life is too short to live in bad areas. In my, older and wiser, age, I have decided that I’d rather live in a tiny bedsit surrounded by nice people and some greenery than be in a big house in an area with social problems.

That was on sale in Asda when mine were little 15 years ago

This is what happens when parents Mollycoddle kids.

It was loverly around here, lots of houses decorated big American style, huge groups of parents and kids trick or treating, men dressed as horror characters chasing people with chainsaws, dog walkers out handing sweets to passing children - you must live in an undesirable ward

Trick or treaters egged cars forty years ago and were often belligerent teens dressed in a bin bag. Anything must be an improvement on that.

I went to Halloween Karaoke at a pub in full costume and had a great laugh. I think because it was a Friday the belligerent drunks were just in costume...