The Switch Witch

Hmm... surely it would be simpler to just not participate in Halloween?

Sounds like a lot of faff and still buys into the American trick or treating nonsense.

A “tradition”:too far.

Surely it is cruel to prevent children from joining their friends in the local customs.

Halloween has been a tradition in my part of the U.K. for presumably thousands of years.

What happens to all the sweets?

Glorybee. My son makes them “disappear” over the next few months.?

PinkCakes

Hmm... surely it would be simpler to just not participate in Halloween?

Quite right, it's an American import. They won't adopt bonfire night, why should we indulge in their money spinning fest?

While we are at it, don't forget that Christmas is illegal. In 1644, an Act of Parliament effectively banned the festival and in June 1647, the Long Parliament passed an ordinance confirming the abolition of the feast of Christmas. Good old Cromwell.

Spangler. Halloween was an export TO the U.S.A. not the other way around. They allowed it to mutate and then we imported back their bastardised version.
Halloween existed here in my part of the U.K. for thousands of years as a pagan celebration of the end of summer.

You are right Esspee, I did hope that my post would be seen as tongue in cheek. Halloween, or to give it's original name, All Hallows. This is where All Hallow’s Day and All Saints’ Day originate from; and the evening before was known as All Hallows’ Eve and this later became known as Halloween. The religious connotations behind why Christians celebrate All Saints’ Day is because they believe that there is a spiritual bond between those in heaven and the living.

Before Christianity there was the pagan festival of
Samhain. It was a Celtic pagan festival meaning ‘Summer’s End’ which celebrated the end of harvest season.

All Hallow’s Day and All Saints’ Day and All Souls day came about in the eighth century, when Pope Gregory III decreed that November would be the time to honour all saints and martyrs.

You can learn a lot of fiction at a catholic school. What they didn't know, they made up.

When I was a kid we called it duck Apple night. That was all. Thrilling days.
That switch witch thing is a tradition too far, like another gransnetter said.

Esspee

Surely it is cruel to prevent children from joining their friends in the local customs.

Tricking and treating are not traditional at Hallowe’en. Dookin for apples, treacle scone etc are.
This Switch Witch no way constitutes “local customs”
TG Covid should put a stop to the door to door thing at least.

It sounds a bit unnecessary. Our lot don’t seem to worry about the bulk of the Hallowe’en booty mysteriously disappearing overnight anyway.

If the sweets are removed and then eaten by other, presumably older children, then the ‘sugar problem’ isn’t really solved, just moved.
I expect the older ones are trusted to clean their teeth more thoroughly than the younger ones.
It was Parkin, treacle toffee and toffee apples to do the damage when I was young, lovely!