Happy Halloween

WHEY HEY! JS, Tell us all about it in more detail, it certainly sounds more exciting!

So far tonight (7pm) we've had 3 groups of children around - all aged 10 and under (I think under the considerable make up and masks!) and accompanied by several parents. I send OH out with a bag of goodies but I did hear lots of squeals and giggles and more to the point, good manners with many 'thank yous'. Heartnening.

WHEY HEY! JS, Tell us all about it in more detail, it certainly sounds more exciting!

When I was a child, my mother used to put a bucket of water under the letter box in the porch on mischief night. Lit fireworks were quite often "posted through"

Thankfully,  much tamer tonight, just kids (with parents), all well behaved, so far!

I may be wrong (I often am) but isn't Hallowen a Pagan festival, I remember one very religous man that I worked with who wouldn't have anything to do with it on those grounds.

 

Grandkids love it though

Yes it is 'All Hallows Evening', shortened to Halloween, when the spirits of the unhappy dead are supposed to walk the land and originally a lantern made from a turnip (we didn't have pumpkins then, apparently), was left burning outside cottages to ward off the evil spirits.  When the original Settlers went to America they started to use pumpkins.

(explanation from yesterday's Radio 4 'The Food Programme')

Another explanation:  

The origins of the festival
Hallowe’en seems to have grown around the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain, marking the end of the light half of the year and the beginning of the dark half.

Samhain was in part a sort of harvest festival, when the last crops were gathered in for the winter, and livestock killed and stored. But the pagan Celts also believed it was a time when the walls between our world and the next became thin and porous, allowing spirits to pass through.

The practice of wearing spooky costumes may have its roots in that belief: dressing up as a ghost to scare off other ghosts seems to have been the idea.

I must admit to quite enjoying it.  When we were children we had 'Mischief Night' where we used to play tricks on our neighbours and friends.  Here in our little cul de sac we usually only get visiting children that we know, though last year (when we put out a special Halloween doorbell which had a ghoulish face and an evil laugh as the ringtone) we got loads of extra visitors.

We've even dressed up ourselves, so that when we answered the door we scared the kids more than they were supposed to scare us.

Each to their own, but we treat it as a bit of fun - and if you take part in it, it makes it more fun. 

We used sugarbeet to make our lanterns as kids. Walked around the village and churchyard. Scared ourselves witless. No trick or treat. Wasn't happy about Halloween then and still uneasy now. All Souls tomorrow much nicer to remember those I've loved and lost.  That said walking back from town today i some beautifully decorated houses

Half a dozen callers tonight all young ones with parents and all dressed up fantastic i had plenty of chocolate on hand.

v9

WHEY HEY! JS, Tell us all about it in more detail, it certainly sounds more exciting!

Exciting but not in a good way. Lots of fires, lots of damage, far too many arrests. Mizzy night (30th) is notorious I'm afraid 

Where I live now it's the 31st and trick or treating by little ones. It's much nicer 

This afternoon I had a mum, from in the Clise, asking if it would be OK for her two young girls and a friend to trick or treat us. Realising that we probably had not made any arrangements for treats she even supplied those!!! She said it was the first time they had done it and were very excited. Whilst we don't like Halloween we were happy to oblige and they had lovely costumes and were excited. So that all went well but then we went into lockdown, lights off etc. Perfectly happy to help if pre arranged but not on an ad hoc basis. Had some bad experiences in the past.

David

I was brought up in a village called Stannington, near Sheffield - sadly, not a village any more.  We had a tradition which has now disappeared, called Cakin' Night - or Cakin Neet as it was pronounced, locally.  This took place on November 1st - All Souls Day - and was similar to Halloween in that as children we went from house to house, dressed up in ghoulish costumes - but at each door, we chanted: 

"Cake, cake, copper, copper, cake cake, copper copper, if you haven't got a penny a hapenny will do, if you haven't got a happeny then God Bless You."

We were then given either cake or a penny and off we went merrily on our way.  None of this 'trick or treat' nonsense.

This custom, which has now sadly disappeared probably has its roots in the Gaelic festival of Samhain as Valda explained, and was limited to just two or three villages in the vicinity of Stannington but there is also evidence of Gaelic customs being prevalent in other parts of North East Derbyshire.

There is an interesting article at https://traditionalcustomsandceremonies.wordpress.com/tag/stannington/

I had read somewhere, that the custom was also linked to the outbreak of the Great Plague at Eyam which isn't that far away from Stannington, but since I can't find any reference to it now, that was probably more to do with folklore than fact.

Fortunately, we didn't get any nuisances knocking on our door......hopefully they know better. 

Just have 'mischief night' to come, although again that's not been an issue locally for us.

Then the dreaded bonfire night.....

We're away from home this year so haven't had any knocks on the door.

But it's all been good natured enough in the past, usually just very young children in a variety ofvgarbs, accompanied by parents or older siblings (many of whom I taught some years ago!)

Last year we had a lovely group of youngsters from the houses in our close. One little girl, obviously appointed the spokesperson, came out with the "trick or treat" line to which I replied "ooh, lovely, I'll have a treat please". 

"Oh!" she said and held out her bag of sweets for me to pick one, bless her!