Halloween as a cultural event

Agree with Historyenne. My DH hates Halloween, because in our part of the world it has completely replaced the Scots traditions for this time of year (there are loads of Americans in St Andrews). I loved it as a child, but it makes me a bit sad that if we have children here they won't get to experience the proper Scottish version of things. DH has already banned pumpkin carving (it should be turnips) for future children!

As a 50 year old Brit - I'd like to say that as a kid we didn't celebrate Halloween.....we knew about it but it wasn't a big thing. For us Guy Fawkes/Bonfire night was the big thing. It's really taken off here in the last 10-20 years and I wouldn't say just for kids either. At work in the call centre downstairs they are all decorated up with people coming in fancy dress. But I do hold with the notion that the fancy dress should be scary or horror based - after all that is what Halloween is. You can even do a pirate costume now because of Pirates of the Carribean.
I hate halloween and the kids begging from door to door (I will watch some scary movies though).....funny how it's suddenly acceptable to accept sweets from strangers when you've been teaching kids all year that they shouldn't do that! But DW loves it, so insists on carving a pumpkin and putting it in the window with other decorations. So she does that but she has to answer the door every 5 mins to the little beggars!

  Yet, every Halloween we dressed up as all sorts of zombies, vampires, and ghouls, and attended scary-themed parties.  I guess my parents were too worried about us having pre-marital sex to worry about other 'dangers'!

Well, also, when I said 'always,' I suppose I really meant since the mid-to-late '70s.  That seems to be when a lot of the big movements really got going. 

So, not sure when you were growing up, but if it was prior to that, then yes, the churches were generally more concerned with traditional sinning than that you'd read a children's book and decide to become a Satanist.

As a 50 year old Brit - I'd like to say that as a kid we didn't celebrate Halloween.....we knew about it but it wasn't a big thing. For us Guy Fawkes/Bonfire night was the big thing. It's really taken off here in the last 10-20 years and I wouldn't say just for kids either. At work in the call centre downstairs they are all decorated up with people coming in fancy dress. But I do hold with the notion that the fancy dress should be scary or horror based - after all that is what Halloween is. You can even do a pirate costume now because of Pirates of the Carribean.
I hate halloween and the kids begging from door to door (I will watch some scary movies though).....funny how it's suddenly acceptable to accept sweets from strangers when you've been teaching kids all year that they shouldn't do that! But DW loves it, so insists on carving a pumpkin and putting it in the window with other decorations. So she does that but she has to answer the door every 5 mins to the little beggars!

I can understand both sides of this spectrum. For you guys growing up in the UK, it's not a childhood fond memory or anything that you can look back on and say "I had a GREAT time with this, I want my kids to experience those times as well!". BUT Guy Fawkes night is! So you will be inclined to take your kids out to that tradition. Us American's will feel the same way about Guy Fawks as you feel about Halloween....So it does kinda go both ways. I think it's great though that you are so caring and open with your wife that you let her do it no matter what you feel for it. I think that's what counts!

For me, Halloween has always been a fun memory as I did do the Church Harvest parties and stuff (And I have trick or treated as well many times) as a kid. I was never into the scary dressing though, I was always "cutesy" things like an Angel, a Lady bug, etc. In Idaho, Halloween is HUGE for kids and adults! So, for those with no kids trick or treating, we would do Adult Halloween parties or I had one friend where we made it a tradition to do a Halloween party/Chilli competition cook off party! We went and bought little $5.00 Starbucks gift cards and would give prizes to whomever won the most votes for the best chilli and for the best Halloween Costume! It was SOO much fun every year and we would just take turns at who hosted it! But like a potluck, EVERYONE would bring something to share (if not chilli) like food, drinks, etc. And we would just socialize and laugh and dance! Good times! I miss that!

We also joked that Halloween was the only time a year prude girls like me could dress like a hooker and not get labeled anything bad! LOL!

funny how it's suddenly acceptable to accept sweets from strangers when you've been teaching kids all year that they shouldn't do that!

My parents always checked my candy when I was really young and the school would hand out pamphlets on how to spot suspect Halloween candy. We were instructed to only to eat packed or wrapped candy, never to eat fruits or homemade treats and if in doubt, throw it out. Also, even if it's Halloween, we knew not to get in a stranger's van because he offered us candy.  We always trick-or-treated with parents or as a group, we never went inside anyone's home (unless we knew them) and we only went to houses with their lights on and with decorations up.

My parents always checked my candy when I was really young and the school would hand out pamphlets on how to spot suspect Halloween candy. We were instructed to only to eat packed or wrapped candy, never to eat fruits or homemade treats and if in doubt, throw it out. Also, even if it's Halloween, we knew not to get in a stranger's van because he offered us candy.  We always trick-or-treated with parents or as a group, we never went inside anyone's home (unless we knew them) and we only went to houses with their lights on and with decorations up.

Same here as well!

I get maybe 2 or 3 groups of children trick or treating here. But that's 2 or 3 more groups than I had in the US!

The only people who trick-or-treat at my parent's house are my little cousins who are driven over by their parents to show off their costumes and no more than 3 groups of other people. My parents live on a main road, so it's considered "dangerous."

we only went to houses with their lights on and with decorations up.

This little bit of info doesn't seem to have crossed the pond, either. We have lights on ans decorations out and get no-one, but then when we are getting ready to go out and the lights are off/the pumpkin has been brought in, we get kids knocking on the door. Last year when we took the baby so his grandma could see him in costume we left a chair with an unlit pumpkin blocking the path to our house so people would know not to bother coming up the steps and when we got home someone had just moved it out of the way 

  DH has already banned pumpkin carving (it should be turnips) for future children!

I did a turnip mort-heid the first year i was here... That is hard work!

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I'm wearing my spooky Halloween shirt today and dark grey nail polish. I'll be getting a small pumpkin (well, that's all I've seen!) today when I pick up some candy just in case kids come. I've seen lots of signs at pubs and stuff for Halloween parties this week, though. I assume those are for the adults! ;P

I did a turnip mort-heid the first year i was here... That is hard work!

Hubby was talking last night about carving turnips when he was young. I thought it sounded awfully hard!! I just had a hard time with our two pumpkins!!!

Health and Safety let kids play with knives back then to carve turnips......   

Agree with Historyenne. My DH hates Halloween, because in our part of the world it has completely replaced the Scots traditions for this time of year (there are loads of Americans in St Andrews). I loved it as a child, but it makes me a bit sad that if we have children here they won't get to experience the proper Scottish version of things. DH has already banned pumpkin carving (it should be turnips) for future children!

See, my husband and I have talked about that sort of thing, too.  But he reckons that the actual Scottish traditions, for whatever holiday, died years ago with no help from America, so he doesn't really see a problem with it.  Plus pumpkins are a much bigger canvas to work with.

He actually got really annoyed last year.  We were watching some program on BBC Alba, going on about holiday traditions, and it showed groups of 'Hebridean youngsters engaged in local Hogmanay traditions,' very much making out that these things are still thriving.  He says that he's never seen anyone do that in his life, he just remembers his dad & granddad talking about it. 

But, of course, we must give the impression that nothing here has changed in the last 60 years, or it might hurt tourism and disappoint all the folks who moved to Glasgow or Inverness as soon as they could get away from home! 

Well, I learned today the first mention of Trick or Treating is from an article from Canada. So we can blame it on them!

Also, there has never been an actual proven case of tainted candy being handed out. There were some people who killed their own kids and blamed it on candy though.

As usual, the UK likes to treat the US as if it is one big homogeneous lump.  In St. Louis my friend's kids still do little poems to get candy and I used to go tic-tacing, but let's all act like it is just the way it is in the movies. 

We've officially had more trick-or-treaters here than we did in the US last year. I'm thrilled!