What Do You Think About Halloween?

idiosyncrasy | 12:13 Thu 05th Sep 2013 | Religion & Spirituality

52 Answers

We are fast approaching the time of the year when we will get the trick & treaters on our doors. Halloween is celebrated in several countries of the Western world, most commonly in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and occasionally in parts of Australia.
But where does it originate?

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Mamyalynne

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

Old_Geezer

It used to be a pleasant part of the year, but now the masses have adopted the US practice of getting others to give their kids sweets under the threat of doing something nasty if refused.

I suspect most cultures had a curiosity of past generations and spiritual world. I'm unsure whether there is a single creation of a ceremony with that in mind.

rockyracoon

I hate Halloween, I've no objection to parties and the suchlike, but this practice of trick or treating pee's me off no end, in fact I stick the dog in the porch to scare the sods off.

Bah humbug!;)

marje

Trick or Treat seems, around here at least, to have taken over from the Christmas carol singers. Plenty of trick or treaters last year but no carol singers. It'll be interesting to see what happens this year. Personally, I don't mind trick or treaters, they come in appropriate costumes and look really good. Even little ones come round with a parent or older sibling. I always have a tray or treats for them.

mikey4444

We never celebrated Halloween at all in Britain, when I was boy in the 50's and 60's. The only reason we do now is because the supermarkets have cottoned on to how much money they can make, selling us cheap Chinese made rubbish. Its yet another example of Coca cola-culture. We have fallen for yet another commercial American trick. We will be celebrating Thanksgiving soon at this rate.

Bring back Firework Night !

pastafreak

I'd rather see Thanksgiving celebrated here than Halloween....and it would be another bank holiday. ;-))

jno

trick or treating's Scottish, I think.

Old_Geezer

Oh we did Mikey. It was always low key and uncommercialised but there was parties and bobbing for apples, and all sorts of stuff. It never used to be high profile since we had Nov. 5th nearby, but it was noted. I recall the local church hall used to hold an event for the kids with the usual party food, games, and small gifts.

ladyalex

We always celebrated Hallowe'en in Scotland when I was a child by going out 'guising'.
We went round the neighbours houses saying 'Please help the guisers'.
If they let you in, you had to do a 'turn' of some sort ...sing a song, say a poem, do a dance , tell a joke or whatever and were rewarded either with a small amount of money or some sweeties and/or apples.
No tricks were involved and if they didn't let you in, you went on to the next house.
The kids still do it here, but are usually accompanied by a parent.
We also had dooking for apples (bobbing in English I suppose), eating scones covered in (black) treacle that had been suspended from the ceiling with your hands behind your back, eating mashed potatoes to find the charms in them and, of course, ghost stories.
I loved it, still do, and always let the guisers in.

gingejbee

I regard it as another money-making opportunity for the retail sector - and an absolute pain-in-the-rear otherwise.

naomi24

I don't think about it. We rarely get 'trick or treaters' here. Ultimately it's just another money-spinner like St Valentine's Day - another one I don't think about.

vulcan42

I live in a small village that has few children but teenagers from the nearest towns have removed all the fun from halloween. They arrive by car in normal clothes, won't accept anything but money and are usually drinking. Some will offer to "sing" a carol at the same time, for extra money, to "save coming back again".

Octavius

I love it, we decorate our house, play spooky music out in the front garden and we also have a smoke machine swirling out around our fake tomstones. I dress up myself and open the door for trick or treaters. Last year I won best dressed parent. Great sense of fun in our village.

ludwig

I think it's a shame that it's become americanised and you now get a whole supermarket aisle dedicated to costumes etc.

I'm not so much of a grumpy old git that I won't play along with it though. We always keep some treats handy for anyone who comes knocking.

atalanta

There's a criminal offence called "demanding money with menaces".
One Halloween I had to go out, but when I got back I found some "trickers" had thrown eggs at my front window, and it was a terrible job to get the mess off the brickwork.
Makes you want to put up a camera.

paddywak

I'm afraid I'm in the grumpy old git gang and hate being disturbed by trick or treaters knocking on the door,usually just when something interesting is about to happen in the program I'm watching,Trish on the other hand loves it and always has loads of assorted goodies at hand, I must admit though last year it looked like the local parents had made a special effort and most of the little ones looked really good

idiosyncrasy

Question Author

Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition.

This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that this day, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

In Hungary, and many other European countries, families spent the day at the graveside of those who died praying for their souls. This still continues to a small degree by the older generation.

It was in the reign of Pope Gregory III that 1st November was designed as a day to honour the saints & martyrs commonly known as All Saints Day and the day previous became All Hallows Eve, this later became known as Halloween.

Today it is tradition that people dress up and visit local homes "tricking & treating". Halloween ghosts are often depicted as fearsome and malevolent, and our customs and superstitions are scary too. We avoid crossing paths with black cats, afraid that they might bring us bad luck.

For those who think it is just a little fun - beware - it is not fun. Halloween is much more than a holiday filled with fun and tricks or treats. It is a time for the gathering of evil that masquerades behind the fictitious characters of Dracula, werewolves, mummies and witches on brooms. The truth is that these demons that have been presented as scary cartoons actually exist.