Ideas to replace Halloween

[stressedandunimpressed]

We dont celebrate Halloween in our household, nothing to make a fuss of. It's just not a big holiday to us and we find it quite boring. Neither of my boys like going out in the dark and knocking on people's doors for sweets - They get sweets all year round and they're not into dressing up much. They prefer their video games to be honest.

I'm looking for some fun ideas to do instead of the usual Halloween things, I've got one or two ideas but I'm lacking in inspiration.

A white turnip (what the English call just a turnip) is a different thing according to Wikipedia? en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnip

One year we coincidentally booked tickets to see a musical in London & missed the whole shebang!

I had impression it was for parts of England.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/06/where-a-turnip-is-a-swede-and-vice-versa - "Hull, a turnip is a largish vegetable with yellow flesh, while a swede is smaller, with white flesh. In Hampshire, where I live, the opposite applies"

www.rocketgardens.co.uk/swede-vs-turnip-diary-of-a-rocket-gardener/#:~:text=In%20Cornwall%20some%20people%20do,might%20be%20called%20a%20neep.
"In Cornwall some people do indeed refer to swedes as turnips. It’s swede that goes into a Cornish Pasty.
In Scotland, a turnip might be called a swede or a turnip, and a swede might be called a neep."

There wasn't a nice accessible map for word disruption like there is for some word usage.

"Not according to Wikipedia."

😂

What? Kids are taught Guy Fawkes in school all over the UK... I've never lived anywhere (Yorkshire, Lancashire, London) that didn't have massive Bonfire Night celebrations with guys, bonfires, fireworks etc.

Of course kids know all about Guy Fawkes Night.

I'm assuming that you are English, which means that you have a perfectly acceptable gruesome autumnal festival to celebrate on 5th November. Have fireworks and a bonfire and eat sausages or cinder toffee or whatever your traditional Bonfire Night foods are. Make an effigy of a famous person to burn. I've never done Bonfire night so I don't really know what is involved in doing it properly but I'm fairly sure there are plenty of fun traditions involved.

Actually the modern way to approach bonfire night is to go on your neighbourhood WhatsApp/Facebook page to piss and moan for weeks on end about your stupid bloody dog crying.

This charming little chap was carved from what I would call a turnip

"Actually the modern way to approach bonfire night is to go on your neighbourhood WhatsApp/Facebook page to piss and moan for weeks on end about your stupid bloody dog crying."

So true 🤣

That turnip is a symbol of the rotten Americanisation sweeping like a rutabaga leaf over this once proud land.

I remember googling the word rutabaga thinking it must be something fabulously exotic only to find a feckin' turnip looking back at me.

Just do the things on offer then? Go to a pumpkin patch, my daughter loved this last year and we'll go again this year. I couldn't give a hoot about whatever halloween is, but I don't really care about xmas either but I partake in the things going on. There's no need to not celebrate halloween or to think "I'm celebrating halloween" when you go to a pumpkin patch or a party.

I would follow this.
If it isn't your cultural tradition and you don't want to participate then just don't.

If you want an alternative celebration round about then, look up Apple Day which is on 21 October. It can be as culinary, horticultural or pagan as you want. We have had some great Apple Day parties over the years.

We never did Halloween when our DC were small. Friends of ours used to have a bonfire party with roast potatoes etc which they loved.

Depending on where you live you might find some Wassailing events too, to coincide with apple harvests, apple pressing etc - there are a fair few down Somerset way & id imagine it must be the same in other places with decent apple orchards.

Freedom isn’t free.

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That is honestly terrifying. Fine work, whoever carved it, fine.

Maybe some people don’t live in the UK snd don’t cook. These are a picture of turnips and Swedes. Swedes are the yellow cut up ones.

You could also celebrate Oak Apple Day. Usually in May. Or Primrose Day in April. Finding out about them could be interesting.

What an awful woke thread 🤣
It's All Hallows' eve, harvest festival and guy Fawkes night
Celebrate or don't

NO BODY CARES 🤣🤣

@TizerorFizz you are completely missing the point 🙈

People in Scotland and Ireland call a turnip what people in England call a swede.

The same variety, it's one of those quirks.

Have you explained why you're hung up on Guy Fawkes on a Halloween thread yet? In our house we tend to mark that on a different date.

Why would you want to do that? Those things are not swedes, turnips or pumpkins.

Sadly you've missed Turnip Day, which was 26th July.

Some primroses, yesterday:

(In Scotland these are called beetroots. Traditionally enjoyed with a baked potato on Bonfire Night.)

@sheener

We despise Halloween and the Americanisation of our culture
It disgusts me that kids are taught this rubbish but most have never ever even heard of Guy Fawkes or November the 5th which could have changed European history.

One single event rarely changes history. Trends yes, single events no. When teaching history, it's important to focus on trends, and to give students an idea of broad historical context. A very important element of the events surrounding the Gunpowder Plot was the Observance of 5th November Act 1605, aka the Thanksgiving Act, which mandated celebration of the deliverance of the King and Parliament from "malignant and devilish Papists, Jesuits, and Seminary Priests, much envying and fearing..." This is the sort of thought that informed Guy Fawkes celebrations of yore. Children should absolutely learn of it. Sectarianism is generally frowned upon these days. There are umpteen very good reasons for this.

The lack of general knowledge and ignorance about their own country and it's history kids these days have is shocking.
Yes, shocking is the word.
The UK consists of four nations, joined (for now anyway) in a political union. Clearly not a fact fully appreciated by you.

Two of the four nations traditionally celebrated Samhain, a liminal time between life and death, harvest and winter, which was incorporated into the Christian feasts of All Souls and All Saints. Samhain and its Christian successors are periods when communities remember the dead, with many of the beliefs around Samhain continuing to inform the celebration long after the establishment of Christianity, at least in Scotland, northern English regions, and NI. Emigrants from these areas brought Hallowe'en with them to the New World, where they ditched turnips in favour of pumpkins and other members of the squash family. If you want a traditional UK Hallowe'en you could avoid pumpkins too, but they're very easy to carve.

If you despise Americanisation of British culture, may I suggest the traditional British Christmas goose instead of the turkey.

*Samhain is pronounced Sou (as in south) in.