Halloween

Jaffacake2, laughing at stroppy little witch
We had bundles of spooky visitors, started with four teenagers with one mask between them! It went upmarket from then on with a really imaginative array of characters ( the tinies were just adorable).
Loved every minute!

We had lots of visitors to the door - all dressed up for Halloween 🎃🦇👻. Fortunately I had bought in plenty of sweets. I also went trick or treating with my three young grandchildren, waiting at the gate while they went up and knocked on the door. They really enjoyed it and said they can't wait for next year 😁

i forgot all about it and nothing happened to remind me of it.

M0nica

i forgot all about it and nothing happened to remind me of it.

Us too 😄 The front light came on at one point and we got up to see what had caused it but it must have been a passing cat. It was only later we wondered if a child might have wandered up, but no one knocked the door. Just as well as we had no sweets in the house.

Well I've never done anything as a child regarding Halloween, I've never done anything with my children regarding Halloween and i don't do anything as a grandma regarding Halloween.

Why ? Well, the reason is i was brought up in a Christian family so that takes care of the childhood aspect and when my children were small up to this present day I have faith and Halloween goes against everything I believe in.

Last yr my grandchildren wanted to show me their costumes, i said that i was going to bed for simple fact I can't show interest in something I don't go along with.

That's my take on the matter 😃

The first paragraph by Serendipity applies to me.

Had never heard of Halloween when a child myself, and nothing was made of it when my own children were young, (now late 40’s). GC have never gone trick or treating either.

Round here, unless you have a pumpkin or decorations up, no one seems to bother you, although judging by the posts on Facebook, in other parts of the town lots of T or T goes on.

Never have sweets in, so just as well we have no visitors.

Serendipity - I think that (like Christmas and Easter) All Hallows Eve was a Christian festival that has been slowly commercialised and become largely secular.

As a child we had church services on both days, 31st October and 1st November to remember "those who had gone before us" All Souls and All Saints. I remember being told it was one of the popes (Gregory?) who brought it from Italy to Europe.

If we’re going to be pedantic, they started out as pagan festivals and were co-opted by early Christian settlers 🤷‍♀️

AmberSpyglass I think this is not the Samhein equivalent.
It was moved from the spring I think.

I just googled this. There's something to do with moving the All Hallows from spring to the November.

Can't immediately find it.
Presumably it was combined with Samhein at that point - but I'm nearly certain it existed separately before.

Obviously most of the Christian festivals were overlaid on Pagan roots.

I didn’t put lights or other Halloween invitations out. This meant the only children who knocked were my grandsons, dressed as saviours of the Galaxy. It was so good to see them joining lots of other giddy boys and girls and so many good neighbours who made them welcome

Like notspaghetti, I seem to remember as a child that Halloween was only the slightly spooky precursor to the main events on November 1st and 2nd with the 1st being All Saint's day and a Holy Day of Obligation in my Catholic faith at that time when you had to attend Mass - very solemn & sombre - while the 2nd was All Soul's day when all the deceased in the family were remembered & honoured just as the Mexican Day of the Dead. But it was also my mate Valerie's birthday so a very jolly time in contrast was had with jellies in round fluted paper dishes & fairy cakes with icing & silver balls and lots of party games - know which I preferred

We'd lots of darling children over for pumpkin soup and ToT plus games and reading - delightful. We live out in the country, only our family were about.

I accomplished Halloween lunch for my husbands workers and easy biscuit sweets for them to take home to their families.

Lovely day and night!

I was brought up in a Christian family and have brought my son up to be a Christian. Nevertheless I loved a carved pumpkin with a candle in it at Hallowe’en, as did he. A bit of fun, hardly devil worship.
No children or teenagers round here (thank goodness),

Just found this:

The Feast of All Saints was originally only a local feast day to Rome. Pope Gregory III transferred the Feast of All Saints from May 13th to November 1st. Pope Gregory IV then extended this feast to the Universal Church.

Quite a lot on Wikipedia:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints%27_Day

Last year nobody came, so although I’d put a pumpkin in the window I was expecting much the same. But we had 8 in the end - last 3 being 3 hulking great teen boys, who were very polite, though.

Dh and I were obviously terribly disappointed that there were so many little packets of mini Cadbury’s chocolate fingers left over 🐷🐷.

Norah, may I please come to yours next year ? Sounds lovely

Serendipity22

Well I've never done anything as a child regarding Halloween, I've never done anything with my children regarding Halloween and i don't do anything as a grandma regarding Halloween.

Why ? Well, the reason is i was brought up in a Christian family so that takes care of the childhood aspect and when my children were small up to this present day I have faith and Halloween goes against everything I believe in.

Last yr my grandchildren wanted to show me their costumes, i said that i was going to bed for simple fact I can't show interest in something I don't go along with.

That's my take on the matter 😃

Wow, that’s quite hardcore! None of my fellow Catholic/Christian friends have ever objected to Hallowe’en, nor have any schools I have worked in, in fact they have all done some kind of fun, learning activity.
In our small village, the children all go out guising ( no Trick or Treating here!) together, and perform something together, usually having been tutored by the older ones. I think it’s a shame that they’re all dressed in shop bought costumes, when I think of how much we enjoyed making ours ( all mummies together one evening and lots of wine!) The guisers always finish up at the farmhouse, where Mrs Farm has been dishing out cakes and hot chocolate for years!

i'd never heard of it as a child, and only vaguely when grown up.
i don't like it at all.

I love Halloween and got just as excited as my grand-daughters this year. The house was decorated with spooky tat, I was made up as a witch, and my grandchildren as a cat, devil, and a black-garbed lady. My daughter was a vampire, and off we went.

There were lots of children out and about. People that didn't want to be disturbed made sure their houses looked unoccupied or, even better, left a bowl of sweets outside their front doors.

The mood was pretty festive, all in all. A celebration of Autumn and all things spooky. What's not to love?

Cobowich, what lovely memories for your little grand-daughters, I bet they had a whale of a time!
I'd been looking forward to Halloween since sowing pumpkin seeds last spring- 12 luscious/ugly punkies this year

My Gdcs attend a C of E primary, and AFAIK there’s never been a word said against Halloween. To the Gdcs (and I dare say to the vast majority of children - if not all of them) it just means very excitedly dressing up, and going out after dark to collect sweets.

Germanshepherdsmum

I was brought up in a Christian family and have brought my son up to be a Christian. Nevertheless I loved a carved pumpkin with a candle in it at Hallowe’en, as did he. A bit of fun, hardly devil worship.
No children or teenagers round here (thank goodness),

How lovely to see somebody using the apostrophe, as I do. It makes so much more sense of the word, but it’s dying out. I’m sure many people have no idea what Hallowe’en means.