Will Halloween Be Cancelled?

Same here only if there is a lit pumpkin in the window/doorstep and the house is decorated do children knock.

We usually go to a NT place for pumpkin carving ; presumably that will be cancelled too.

There are a few Hallowe'en games online, Starbaze which are traditional (old-fashioned) but could be fun.

Its NOT imported ,its been done in Scotland and Ireland for hundreds of years .I love Halloween,like a previous poster I make up wee bags in advance ,with an apple a satsuma a handful of monkey nuts some sweeties and a 50 pence piece .
Our wee ones (and big ones) know they have to do a turn to get a bag,its a poem or a song or a dance and some of the worst jokes you'll ever hear from tots that make you smile just to see them,all dressed up and having a ball.
What alot of moaning minnies you are "ladies" I guess you never had FUN when you were wee ,no need to spoil it for everyone else though ,after all its been a horrible few months for everyone and the kids need some laughs .

Callistermon Thank you! will have a look

Hopefully it will be cancelled I don’t like it as a celebration at all
The razzmatazz is from USA it may have been done in some parts of U.K. for hundreds of years but not in the way its done now perhaps it’s still lovely in villages where everyone knows everyone but it’s not a nice time in towns and cities for most people

callistomon no nobody celebrated Hallowean when I was growing up it just didn’t exist for us it wasn’t until my children came along that I knew it was a ‘day’

Callistemon

I'd never heard of Mischief Night Maggiemaybe
What did I miss out on?

Oh, lots of fun, Callistemon! It was the night before Bonfire Night. Door knocking, tying neighbours‘ door knobs together, egging windows putting treacle in your friend’s hair and bubble gum in locks. Picking flowers from one teacher’s garden and presenting them to another who lived up the road (she was delighted). I’m answering for a friend, you understand.

I am early sixties, lived in London as a child and we always celebrated Halloween at home and in school.

Yes of course we had fun when we were kids but we didn’t do anything Halloween related - it wasn’t a thing. The point I’m making is, during. a pandemic, is it reasonable for kids to trawl the streets to people’s houses ( even those with a pumpkin in the window) to be given sweets by the bucketload from complete strangers? Carving pumpkins yes, dressing up in homemade costumes yes, playing a few little games in the back yard yes- all the rest - no.

Am not sure if I had even heard of Halloween as a child, but it wasn’t celebrated in any way where I grew up (in the North)
But ah! Mischief Night is another matter, we all looked forward to it greatly?knocking on doors and running away and tying dustbin lids to door knockers were great favourites.
Strangely, all the Catholic families ( including us) celebrated Bonfire Night with a Guy just as enthusiastically as anyone else.

As always opinion is divided but the main consideration this year is the spread of the virus. Surely we can’t hand out bowls or bags of sweeties or get close to the children. Will we be disinfecting the doorbell after each visit? I suppose at least the ghosts and ghouls will be wearing face coverings?

If anything’s cancelled just have the best time you can. My mum used to talk about the war and stuff they did. So we must embrace our new normal and I’m sure Christmas s will happen and we will just do the best we can. I work in a nursery and the children’s Christmas party already cancelled no magician no Father Christmas but we are still going to have a tea within the room and play pass the parcel and encourage our traditional songs and games.?

Never celebrated Halloween as a child, but we did stand in the street with a "guy" asking strangers for "pennies". I can't help thinking it is much safer for children to go to neighbours houses, accompanied by an adult! Although that probably won't be happening this year.

We no longer have small children in the village so last year I was forced to eat all the chocolate myself

I’m sure it’s all been thought through and there are good reasons, Harris27, but I’m just curious as to why there can’t still be a magic show or a socially distanced visit from Father Christmas?

I love Halloween. It does seem to have been the past 25 years it has taken off here. I had some lovely times with my daughters when they were growing up. We always went tricking or treating with them and were very strict about saying please and thankyou. The policy in my area is you only approach houses with pumpkins. I'm sure my daughter will do some low key fun activities with my grandsons such as pumpkin carving and making spooky biscuits. Unfortunately I think we all know that there are always parents who have little interest in what there childeren are doing and they are a nuisance without a pandemic. Parents / grandparents who do care will make any occasion special. Due to the rest a curfew would probably be a good idea. Of course retail will suffer, as they wont be able to sell all that tat!

Duck apple night it was known as in our house. Apples were strung up on a butchers hook which was permanently embedded in a wooden beam. Hands behind back as it swung to and fro, and sideways and nearly knocked your teeth out.

Mum would have spent all day cutting and scooping out the insides of a turnip then a candle centred inside it---stinking the place out
There was a goodly supply of home-made treacle toffee and that was that. It was fun though and so homely when I think back because there'd be a lovely fire in the grate.

So glad that my offspring also sampled this way of life as it's been a lasting memory for them. My D's especially as they stayed with gran many a time which delighted my mum.

I can live with my thoughts easily as it helps to block out this present way of life which I think is a sad one for children growing up.

Completely agree Paddyann
My grandchildren one way or another will have their Halloween fun, even if we have adjust some of the traditions to suit the ever changing situation.

Are we all not trying to make the best of the current situation?

Covid19 2020 has (I have agree with Paddyann) made load of old moaning Minnie's bah humbug!
Sounding almost gleeful

Let our wee children have some happy times.
Even during the war my father said he as a child had some really happy family memories.

We no longer have small children in the village so last year I was forced to eat all the chocolate myself

I was a good girl, Grandma70s and only bought Haribos, which I loathe!

Covid19 2020 has (I have agree with Paddyann) made load of old moaning Minnies bah humbug!

I don't think most of us are!

I don’t think it’s being a moaning Minnie to say we dislike some aspects of Halloween.

My son was born on Halloween so I always had a Halloween themed party for him. It was great fun and the children loved it.

vegansrock

I don’t think it’s being a moaning Minnie to say we dislike some aspects of Halloween.

Like this:
their little darlings
rummaging their grubby little mitts through sticky sweets.
kids to trawl streets demanding sweets

Nice.

It rather sounds as if it's not commercialism you dislike and festivals you despise, vegansrock, but in fact fun and children both together in the same sentence, heaven forbid.

*callistemon” so you think the only way to have fun is to trawl the neighbourhood for sweets? I do dislike that aspect of it. No problem with pumpkin carving or dressing up or playing games. They can be fun. So stop picking out one aspect which many dislike- to accuse everyone who may dislike children calling on complete strangers asking for sweets of being anti any fun.

No way is Halloween an American invention.
It is the end of the summer festival of Samhain a delightful pagan festival (as is Christmas which celebrates the birth of the sun).
In my youth it was celebrated by gatherings where traditionally there would be games involving dooking for apples where you had to get your reward by removing the apple from a basin of water with your hands held behind your back. A suspended treacle scone had to be eaten, again with your hands behind your back etc.
Children, in home made fancy dress, would visit neighbours and friends to perform their “party piece” of a song, poem, dance, gymnastic performance, or recitation for which they would be rewarded by a handful of nuts, some fruit or homemade goodies such as tablet or toffee.
This celebration made its way across the Atlantic where it mutated and unfortunately returned, much altered, in relatively recent times.

Did I say that?
No.
So don't twist what I have said, please.

Your views are quite plain.