The ghoulishness of Hallowe’en?

There's a link on the thread discussion whether cultural traditions are overrated. It concerns what happens in Sweden for Halloween:
youtu.be/Vki-E-_KQUo
I think it's lovely!

Oh perish, why hasn't the link worked???

I absolutely loathe Halloween, and I think that it’s become extremely commercialised in recent years. I hate the open coffins, blood splattered body parts, and so on. When our children were small we used to make a pumpkin light and that was it! I wasn’t even bothered about doing that, but they used to ask for it. I hate trick or treating, it’s Americanised and purely serves the interests of commercialism. Furthermore, I don’t think children should be encouraged to think that if people don’t give them a treat, it’s okay to play a ‘trick’. Nor should they be knocking on neighbours or strangers doors, even if their parents are hovering nearby.
Maw, I’m so sorry that as the anniversary of your dear husband’s death approaches, you have to confront all this utter rubbish on your way to the cemetery. I think you’re right, it could well be very upsetting for the recently bereaved, just as Christmas is upsetting when people lose their beloveds around that time. Please just try to think of it as the rubbish it is, encouraged by commercial interests. Remember you husband as the lovely man he was and talk to your grandchildren about all the happy memories they have of him.

Shakes head... snowflakes or what?
People are becoming ever more sensitive to what has been a 'celebration' of sorts throughout the ages.
How anyone can correlate cakes with ghoulish icing, masks, skeletons, toys and the like, with bereavement and get upset about it, goodness only knows.
Yet some of those same people go to church and look at a supposedly real man, crucified, with blood pouring from his wounds.
Do those same GNers remonstrate when their GCs indulge in online games with fighting, killing and monstrous images or films such as Harry Potter which show graveyards and skeletons?
Hypocritical...IMO.

Why on earth have we adopted this American trend. When we were children it was nothing of the sort, some children just played "knock a door, run away" and that was that.

I don't like Halloween either, it gets more and more commencial as time goes by and like PECS I find the whole idea of dressing up as ghosts and ghouls unpleasant.
Some years ago we had a group of teenagers (not local) come and literally demand sweets or they would "trick" us - we didn't give them treats as we always saved them for local small children. The result was eggs dribbling down our front door.
Carved lanterns are fine, and perhaps supervised small children calling at the door.
However I don't really see why halloween would upset bereaved people any more than any other event, unless they believed in spiritualism.

Nobody is getting upset about Halloween cakes or suchlike tat GabriellaG - yet again you persist in getting the wtong end if the stick and beating us about the head with it.
If it is not too intellectually taxing I respectfully suggest you read my OP and for once try to show some emotional intelligence instead of arrogance.

Do those same GNers remonstrate when their GCs indulge in online games with fighting, killing and monstrous images or films such as Harry Potter which show graveyards and skeletons

Perhaps they do, I am happy to say my grandchildren have shown no interest in that sort of thing. ?

I would question your second example in any case.

I think the whole Halloween business has got out of hand, and as for 'Trick or Treat' I absolutely loathe this blackmailing American import. One neighbour had eggs thrown at her house, another had plants pulled up. Years ago when living in London I answered the door at lunchtime to find two children, each wearing bin liners with a hole torn for the head to go through, and their mother leaning on my gate;. She announced that as they were going away for Halloween they were 'collecting' a week early. My two dogs had run to the door with me and, put out by the rustling black plastic outfits, started barking madly, at which point mother and ghouls departed. I did wonder if they managed to collect anything. If this were made an evening for local charities, and children dressed up and went around with collecting boxes, I would be the first to reach for some cash!

this aspect of death (skeletons , ghouls, ghosties etc) is not one I am comfortable with dwelling on, nor I hope do the DGCs make that connection with the smiling loving Grandpa they have lost.
I don't think they will necessarily link the two in their minds MawBroon
It depends on their age, of course, but I remember DGD2 (then 3) telling me in a very matter-of-fact way, when we passed her DGF's old house, that 'Grandad is in heaven with the cat'.
Ghosts, ghouls, skeletons seems to be a separate thing altogether in their minds when young as I think she, at least, just pictured her Grandad as he was when still alive.

I don't particularly like this ghoulishness myself and especially not the knives - and it is the commercialism that upsets me as much as anything (a sea of plastic).

Old stories, including such as Grimm's Fairy Tales, were always scary but much has been 'Disneyfied' for today's youngsters.

MawBroon while I have been typing my rambling post a lot more people have posted. I am sorry if you have had a battering as this is so obviously a very sensitive time for you. The unpleasant Americanisation of what used to be a harmless minor occasion with pumpkins and tea lights, now turned into a 'celebration' of ghoulishness, is sure to be a strain to cope with.

Thank you maddyone for your sympathy but as it happens my walk up to our village church with Hattie is through two pleasant fields and the churchyard itself is a green and pleasant place. You look out over rolling fields with the village nestling to one side and it could not be further from the ghoulish or “creepy”image of a graveyard if it tried. That is how I want my DGCs to regard it, a peaceful rural “garden” where Grandpa’s body rests as he has no use for it any more , not a spooky scary place.
I am sorry if that has not come through in my posts.
I am not personally bothered by the commercial Halloween tat but deprecate this obsession with the scary side of death, the fascination with the macabre in an increasingly violent age, particularly where adolescents are concerned.

As the you Tube link I posted didn't work, I should perhaps explain that the Swedish custom for Halloween is to light lanterns (in jars, H&S!) in the local churchyard and remember loved ones who have died.

Peaceful and respectful.

I like that, we could learn much from them.

I agree with you Maw. I remember being scared and horrified as a child when I saw an American comic with skulls, skeletons and gravestones at Halloween.

None of that was part of the Halloween that we loved as kids in Scotland in the 1950s.

I remember feeling horrified too at a children's party which had an old fashioned Punch and Judy show where Punch beat Judy, threw their baby out of the window and was finally hanged! I was nine or ten at the time, so I knew it was a puppet show, but I didn't understand either then or later why such horrific events were being laughed at!

I'm a Facepainter- and do mostly children's birthdays, but also have done Halloween faces too. I've recently (3 years) refused to do any more gory faces, and blood etc, as to be honest, I find them all a bit grisly.

Good for you ladyinspain you have principles, rare where money is concerned.

Like Trisher, my main objection is to all the ghastly plastic tat that is mostly going to end as landfill.

I don't mind trick or treating, though never did it as a child. Our dds enjoyed it when they were children, so I always put a smallish pumpkin in the window and have goodies ready. It's very largely quite young children who come, nearly always with a parent hovering at the end of the path.

Occasionally we've had teens wanting money - they get short shift! Ditto just once a pair of teens who came before the day, since, 'We're going to be at a party on Halloween night.'
Well, tough!

It's just more American rubbish!
When I was a child ( with a Scottish Grandma) we used to have a big family party & bob for apples, play silly games & do Highland dances. I loved it.
My younger son refuses to let his 3 go 'Trick or Treating' & they are upset as 'all their friends do it'. It's a shame to have more pressure on children.
Roll on Bonfire night!

Instead of Halloween at the church my son works out and also one my daughters attend they do a shine party instead, maybe if not comfortable with Halloween this is something that may be more comfortable with.
I lost my husband Boxing Day but in truth can’t really relate Halloween to that,mind you it still doesn’t feel like he is gone,can’t quite get it in to my head that I won’t be seeing him again but that’s another subject entirely

In our village, villagers are asked if they would like to receive the “trick and treaters”. people who don’t are left alone. The children have to make their own costumes and be accompanied by an adult all in a 2 hour period. I put out a pumpkin, a few lights and spiders on the night. A really pleasant evening.
The plastic tat as described is from the Zombies craze and really is nothing to do with Halloween. Just another marketing ploy. The answer is not to buy it.

Craftycat
^roll on Bonfire night!^

Bonfire night is when the 'image' of a man is burnt to death.
Dangerous noisy fireworks are let off scaring pets and wild animals.
Not forgetting the unnecessary injury caused or the problems for our fire service.

Much as I empathise with the recently beraved, it is too much to ask that Haloween celebrations be cancelled so as not to hurt their feelings.

I am reminded of a complaint some years ago that a recentlt widowed lady complained to the BBC because a lot of the programmes were reminding her of her dearly departed and distressed her.

Halowwen celebrations did not take place when I was a child, we ad Guy Fawkes instead, so it holds no significance for me other than the joy it has given to my children and Grandchildren over the years making life fun, as it should be.

There will always be recently bereaved so it is impossible to find a time when there are none. Many, however, do take solace in the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson in his poem "In Memoriam"

www.online-literature.com/tennyson/718/

All Saints every time. The other thing is just an excuse to market rubbish. - And very upsetting to those with feelings.

Not my favorite holiday.