-
Posts
-
A ring on the doorbell, followed by “trick or treat?”, is heard in households in many countries around the world each 31st October.
There are several reasons for the international spread. Partly it is due to the migration of US families and partly to the cultural dominance of the USA (what child with a television set can have failed to have seen Spielberg’s ET or at least one of The Simpsons’ seventeen Treehouse of Horror Halloween Specials?).
In other words your kids are watching too much tv. :roll:
The phrase “trick or treat” may be relatively new but when I was a child (yes I can remember that far back – just!) we used to get dressed up and go around the neighbours wishing them a happy halloween…one of our neighbours always had a large bowl (I think it was an old baby’s bath bowl) of cold water with apples and onions, we’d have to close our eyes and see which we managed to get. Another neighbour used to make her own toffee apples then hang them at different lengths from the washing line, we had to try to eat a whole apple with our hands behind our backs. Other neighbours would just have bowls of sweets for us to dip into. A bit different to today’s trick or treat but celebrating Halloween was here before the American influence.
@jen_jen wrote:
The phrase “trick or treat” may be relatively new but when I was a child (yes I can remember that far back – just!) we used to get dressed up and go around the neighbours wishing them a happy halloween…one of our neighbours always had a large bowl (I think it was an old baby’s bath bowl) of cold water with apples and onions, we’d have to close our eyes and see which we managed to get. Another neighbour used to make her own toffee apples then hang them at different lengths from the washing line, we had to try to eat a whole apple with our hands behind our backs. Other neighbours would just have bowls of sweets for us to dip into. A bit different to today’s trick or treat but celebrating Halloween was here before the American influence.
We didn’t do trick or treat when I was little…. but I took my kids round to friends to do it. They loved getting dressed up and pretending to scare people…. it was just good fun, we never gave any thought to the origins of it. Where I live now we don’t have kids trick or treating
… maybe when I have a grandchild I will re start the tradition with him/her and scare a few folks :shock: ….. cant wait :Di’ll always be a misog when it comes to halloween………i hate kids banging on the door with the expectation of me throwing something nice in their carrier bag or bucket……i’m sure a brick would offend……
i watch my poor cat, the terror in his eyes as the dreaded fireworks go off……..why do we have fireworks at halloween?……….i can’t comfort him, he doesn’t understand what i’m trying to do and i just worry that the stress it causes him could end up with me having a vet bill as cats are known to suffer bladder problems when stressed
i always understood trick or treat to be an american thing……….why did it have to come over here?………we have our own traditions which to be honest seem a lot less ‘plastic’
Not a ‘supporter’ of Hallowe’en or Trick or Treat in themselves, mainly because of my ambition to become a miserable git as I get older.
However I had a tin of Roses and some Haribos/Allsorts/Starbursts ready last night. Kids (and the parent accompanying them) should get some reward for their efforts and experience some kindness and good humour from a stranger. Anything that increases safe, good-humoured human contact in a community has to be a good thing.
Cutest must have been a boy and girl not more than about 2 and 3 – almost brought a tear to my eye. But I couldn’t help blurting out to a couple of young teenage girls “Is that all you got? A hat?” . They still got sweets though.
Get involved in this discussion! Log in or register now to have your say!