What’s Halloween like where you are?
I think it’s mostly a North American thang. Nog tells me that he doesn’t remember Halloween from when he was a child. And here in Spain it’s only been the last few years that schools have started having Halloween parties for children (though there is no such thing as trick-or-treating here).
My last real Halloween was seven years ago when I was back in Toronto for a short visit. And I really enjoyed it. I was staying with friends who live in a residential area with big old houses and huge old trees and lots of young families, and we all got dressed up to meet the little ones when they came to the door.
Robert had carved several amazing jack-o-lanterns and Adrienne decorated the front porch with plenty of ‘cobwebs’ and ‘bats’ and ‘spiders’ … and there was also very special spooky lighting (R is a lighting technician) which the kids loved. I’ve got some photos of it around here somewhere . . . 
casa azahar 
Halloween was always a big occasion when we were young. The only thing I don’t remember were pumpkins, but we used to have a lot of fun with apples and sweets. It’s got a strong resonance in Irish folklore, being the night before Samhain, the day of the dead. All Hallows Day, or All Saints Day is November 1 – it used to be a church holiday in Ireland when I was younger.
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My mother never allowed us to participate in any Halloween stuff (she belonged to a whacko religious sect), but since I’ve been on my own, it’s always been a major deal for me. Most years, I’ll dress in costume and attend a Halloween party somewhere. I also enjoy meeting all of the little trick-or-treaters at the door with treats.
This year, we’re not doing too much. We’ve got a little candy and some plastic spiders for the kids, and that’s about it. I’m wearing an orange sweater, though.
My Halloween “decorations” tend to stay up all year, as they fit in well with my collection of Mexican Day of the Dead knick-knacks.
Speaking of which, we’re hoping to make a trip this weekend to the Mexican Fine Arts Center (I can’t link to it from here, as my company blocks access to “cultural institutions” websites) for their Day of the Dead exhibit. The exhibit runs through December 2, and features ofrendas decorated by Mexican residents of Chicago.
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Here you go, PC – looked it up for you…
DÃa de los Muertos
Looks very cool! Tomorrow is a public holiday here – traditionally a time when people go to visit their dead loved ones at the cemetery.
My plan is to stay in bed reading and drinking coffee until I darn well feel like getting up. 🙂
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I love Halloween. I love to dress up. I loved it when I was a kid too. I miss being able to make cookies for the kids and hand them out. Nowadays people are so paranoid anything that is home made gets immediately discarded on suspicion of containing poison.
I find that sad, and insulting. I mean, are there REALLY that many people who are putting bad things in their cookies? Really?
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Well, I decided to look it up. Apparently, poisoned halloween candy is an urban legend, pins and needles are not.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/poison/halloween.asp http://www.snopes.com/horrors/mayhem/needles.asp
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Some bizarre traditon has sprung up here this year of throwing eggs, presumably as a ‘trick’. But my neighbour and I were surprised to see a couple of broken eggs splattered outside the front door; and yet no-one had even bothered to ring the doorbell. To be honest it did quite amuse me. A kind new Brit hooligan take on trick/treating, which I’ve always assumed originated in the US
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Oooo … I remember the egg thing when I was a kid. Not that I ever threw them, of course. 🙄 But windows (on both cars and houses) were a favourite target. Apparently next to impossible to get off after it dries.
Soaping car windows was also a popular prank. Can’t remember any others.
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I remember the egg thing, too. Of course I participated. My friends and I would hang around the big park and the cemetary in town and attack each other with eggs and shaving cream.
We didn’t do houses, cars, or strangers… but I know that’s not uncommon, either.
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I’d never come across the egg thing before. But I can see how it would appeal to kids. And it’s quite funny that they’re not really interested in *treats* just the tricks.
Well all I can say is roll on Bonfire night/Guy Fawkes night on 5 November which really is our big thing here. And all you have to contend with then is kids throwing fireworks………
Kids? Don’t you just love em? Well yes I really do actually. But quite relieved they don’t actually* live* in my place
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Bit of a threat really, isn’t it? Trick or treat? 😉
When I got too old to go out trick-or-treating I used to flummox some of the kids who came to the door by saying – ‘Ok, trick!’ – and they’d look all confused.
And there was that old Halloween chant:
Trick or Treat
Smell my Feet
Give me Something Good to Eat! 🙂
I honestly never did do the egg thing myself, but I used to watch my older brother and his friends do it.
I’ve only experienced one Guy Fawkes night – back when I was living in Bristol. It was great. We walked up to the Downs in the evening and there was a wonderful fireworks display put on (I think) by the city council. Families were there having picnics, lots of kids running around – very nice ‘ambientation’.
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Also, when I was a kid there were two things to shout when someone opened their door. One was Trick or Treat! and the other was Halloween Apples! , which always came out like – Halloweeeen Aaapullls! Ah, those were the days … 🙂
Of course you never really wanted anyone to give you an apple. My favourite treat was always mini chocolate bars – especially Oh Henrys or Kitkats.
The usual treats when I was a kid were handfuls of peanuts in the shell, apples, small packets of crisps, sunflower or pumpkin seeds, caramel popcorn, rockets, lifesavers and the much cherished mini chocolate bars.
Some cheapskates actually handed out leftover Easter candy! 😕
Also, we used to get little Unicef boxes from school to take around, so people could put coins into them. And most kids did actually bring the boxes back to school so we could make our contribution.
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In Scotland we don’t have Trick or Treat – we have Guising.
Children garb themselves in fancy-dress, sometimes spooky, sometimes not – and go round the houses in their neighbourhood.
At each house they have to earn their Halloween – maybe by singing a song, playing a piece of music, telling a joke or story. They must entertain – or they get nothing.
It’s customary to give sweets, nuts, fruit or small amounts of cash.
At some houses there will be a Halloween party in full swing and the Guisers join in for a while. There will be Dookin’ for Apples and other traditional games.
We used to tie strings to the pulley and attach pancakes (Scotch ones) covered in treacle or syrup. The idea was to eat the pancake without using your hands – getting your face, hair and clothes clarted in the process.
The Primary School my children attended had a Halloween Party every year and prizes were given for the best costume in each class. The Teuchters scooped the board one year when a Statue of Liberty, Cleopatra and Robin Hood all took prizes. (smug)
And – I nearly forgot – we have Neepie Lanterns. Instead of hollowing out a pumpkin – we hollow out a turnip/swede. The smell of burning neep takes me right back to childhood. Aaaah.
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Hello folks. We didn’t celebrate Hallowe’en at all when I was a kid in England. I don’t even think there was much about it on television (in American films or so), so it was hardly heard of.
My first encounter was when a classmate’s Scottish mother staged an enormous Hallowe’en party. It was very exciting and great fun. I must have been about 9 or 10. There was dunking for apples, guessing games, and eating apples dangling from string and, I think, we played “murder in the dark”. They had a lovely big house and lots of children and it was a real good party with all the friends who were invited.
In Germany Hallowe’en has suddenly appeared over the past 3-4 years and the Germans claim that it originates from the Celts in this part of the world. I refuse to accept that “trick-or-treating” is a tradition here, as kids have only been doing it for at most 3 years. So I’m a nasty old person and I switch off the doorbell.
The traditions of kids running about at night which I tolerate, because, in this part of the world they *really* are traditions, is the Walpurgis on 30 April where they play horrendeous pranks (with eggs, soap, ketchup and toilet paper) and then when the altar boys go round on Easter morning (at about 4.30) to wake the congregation for early mass. (Awful, I know, but they’ve been doing it for centuries.)
It seems silly to me to copy something they’ve seen on television. Just for a few sweets.
On 1 November people do flock to the cemetery here. The weather was very amenable this year and due to the warm October the leaves were only beginning to colour and it was very sunny and autumnal. We planted some chrysanths on my parents-in-laws’ grave.
There is also a very strong tradition of Carnival which people are now not bothering with so much, in favour of this “new” event they’ve found. This year the Carnival societies (which have a genuine tradition going back to at least the 18th century in the form they are now) have forbidden their members to hold Hallowe’en parties. Now, that’s going a bit far, I think.
Anyway, Hallowe’en has now taken over completely and everyone I know went to a party on Tuesday.
Anyone know what it’s like in France? Ha! I forgot, I can ask my son who is studying there. He’s just had the whole week off for Toussaint.
Sorry this is so long!
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“Sorry this is so long!”
Not at all – it was a great comment and very interesting. PLUS, you’re the only person here who has spelt Hallowe’en properly. Well done! 🙂
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Yeah…Guising is a particularly Scottish thing. In the England of my childhood, Halloween simply consisted of games at home involving apples, string and water-filled washing up basins. In England, I gather it’s become more commercialised with the influence of US TV.
Here’s what Halloween looked at round my way:
http://bonoboworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/pop-magic-draaa-gonnn.html
PLUS, you’re the only person here who has spelt Hallowe’en properly. Well done!
Uh huh? So you write fort’night too, do you? 😉
(But I see you don’t spell spellt properly – unless you were refering to a Hallowe’en custom involving a variety of cereal crop.)
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When I was a kid I only ever saw it spelt Hallowe’en … and nuthin wrong with spelt/spelled either. Spellt? 😕
I saw those magic dragon pics the other day – adorable! 🙂
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In Liverpool (and, I believe, elsewhere in NW England) they have this other thing…’Mischief Night’, when kids go around causing random mayhem. A favourite trick is the one where you wrap dog shit in newspaper, put it on someone’s doorstep, light it and ring the bell…
The interesting thing about Mischief Night is that it’s neither publicised nor sanctioned. Kids just do it of their own accord.
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There used to be a thing in Detroit called “Devil’s Night”, where local kids (and presumably “grown ups”) would go around torching abandoned buildings. Back in ’88 or ’89, there were over 800 documented incidents. I think last year, there were less than 150. Figures aren’t in yet for this year.
Harmless fun with eggs and shaving cream is one thing (as is the Flaming Bag of Poo, which I’ve never seen done, but have heard of before); senseless arson and violence is another matter entirely. Makes no sense to me.
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(Trillian)
Sorry this is so long!
I’m sorry this letter is so long. I had not the time to make it shorter. – GB Shaw
I know exactly what he meant and quote him often. Unfortunately, this is what’s known as a ‘bastard quote’. Shaw didn’t actually say that. Instead, he was asked why he’d written a long letter to somebody. He replied:
Because I don’t know him very well.
…conversely, with someone you know intimately, a few words dashed on a postcard can speak volumes.
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