General Chat

Here in Canada yes it's as big as in the States. The kids have no real concept of spirits etc they're just having fun and dressing up to be given as many sweets and crisps as possible. They really do try and see who will get the most sweets, my kids used to make it last until almost Christmas...but it was slim pickings and not their favourite sweets by then of course.
The schools will have. a parade in the afternoon and all the locals can come and watch the kids starting with the youngest cute little things ending with the older not so cute kids.
We might get as many as 100 kids knocking at our door, I'm currently buying up boxes of sweets and crisps to have ready to hand out - cost me a small fortune each year but it's pay back for all the years my kids went out.

:-D :-D :-D

More fun than being told WE were rude for not answering our door.

As Argyllgran says, Halloween is 'Samhain' - a festival celebrated by Celts.
The Celts believed that on the night of Samhain, the boundary between the living and the dead became blurred, and the spirits of the dead returned to earth.

However, Celts were not necessarily Irish or Scottish - they were an ancient people who spread throughout Western Europe, including Britain, over a wider region, so they were in Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall - and all over Western Europe!

Basically they were Pagan tribes.
As someone who lives by the basic Pagan 'rule' - Do what you will, but hurt no other - I don't condone the 'modern' analysis of halloween. As others have said, it's a form of blackmail performed by people who are totally unaware of it's origin and meaning.

I'm sure many parents would object to my asking their child, who knocks on my door, which ancestor they hope to 'reincarnate'
:-D :-D

There have been no firework events locally for years, as the insurance and H&S requirements became too complicated and expensive.

There used to be a big one in a nearby village, to which dozens of people went every year - but no more.

Re Hallowe'en -
about 40 years ago, we had friends from England visiting us, by chance at Hallowee'n.
Some children came to the door, were invited in and did their recitations/songs, and given their rewards - and our friends had absolutely no idea what was going on. They'd never heard of Hallowee'n!

Yes, Halloween was a completely non event growing up but penny for the guy was popular, and fireworks were always in your back garden. No firework events around at all. Even better was that there were few big bang fireworks.

Now there are no Guys and we have not had Carol singers for years and years.

Added: seems Oxford has banned the bonfire at the councils big event. I don’t like the public events as it is so dark, as least the bonfire gave out some light .

When i was a youngster, halloween was not something we got involved in. My mother would not let us don a white sheet to be a ghost and then knock on some poor old ladies house and scare her to death.

It is an American thing and I also am surprised that children are so involved because its all to do with celebrating spirits and the " other side" etc and so how do religious groups celebrate this?? Its not really about who can collect the most goodies by knocking on doors.

Guising is another as they now call it. We used to make a guy and stick him in a wheelbarrow and collect pennies to give to our parents to buy sparklers on Nov 5th but not by knocking on doors. We would stand outside our local shop and people would drop pennies into our bucket that way, we never asked.
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Few years ago this lad, not dressed up had a bucket in his hand and knocked on my door. asked him what he wanted and he said, "collecting for guy fawkes." I told him NO you should not be begging by knocking on doors and sent him away.

That's the problem now, all these things have become over commercialised and Halloween has just become an excuse for a party!

The "trick or treating" thing is American, and sadly has crept in over here too.
To me it seems cruel , and blackmail.

I don't know about Ireland, but Scotland has always celebrated Hallowe'en in one form or another, since about the 16th century or earlier - originating as Samhainn..

When I was a child, children would (and still do to some extent) go door to door, dressed up in amateur home-made spooky costumes (ghosts in sheets, etc) - traditionally to scare off evil spirits.
We were expected to perform a "party piece" of some sort, and would be rewarded with nuts/fruit/sweets. Money was unusual, and was looked on as a bit of a cop-out on the part of the householder.
Sadly, the party piece expectation has largely faded out.

There was no threat of a "trick" if a "treat" wasn't forthcoming - though sometimes a garden gate would be lifted off its hinges, just as a joke with no malicious intent.

I remember one year a child came to the door, and sang a song which my father (not a follower of pop music) thought was called "A Mole Shook Up".

I’ve never done Halloween, always seems to be a very American thing and getting more and more commercial. But I was surprised by an advert for Ireland - the home of Halloween. Are they claiming to have ‘invented’ it or are they doing it bigger than the US.