AIBU to hate Halloween and Bonfire night.

Yammy,
Halloween was originally Scottish/English but the Yanks took it and made it super big and commercialised...how typical of them! Lol

When I was a kid, you know waaaaaaay back, we didn't have pumpkins we carved turnips/swedes.
Kids nowadays don't know the pain!!
Coming up to Bonfire Night, my friends and I would have loads of fun with either an old pushchair (if any of us could fit in it) or a wheelbarrow with one of us dressed as the guy for Penny For The Guy. I guess that's banned now!
We'd sometimes have a lantern for then, too. Well waste not & all that!
People would love it when our guy moved or sat up & said hi.
Oh, those were the days when fireworks weren't going off all year and Halloween was just one night instead of all month!
I feel sorry for anyone with PTSD/anxieties, like soldiers for example!!

I remember in the late 1960s going to an organised (army) firework display. I loved it. However, Halloween? No thank you. I only found out yesterday that there’s such a thing as ‘professional pumpkin carvers’ - yes, it was in the USA, but all the same!

I'm not keen on Halloween either too commercialised and American.When little we hollowed out a turnip and had a nightlight in and ducked for apples.
Bonfire night is usually organised by theParish Council and preCovid was well organised with food at the village Hall,Bonfire and fireworks but that has been scaled back. If the weather is like it is today with flood warnings neither will happen.

I love Hallowene, but I hate bonfire night as it is so cruel to animals. Fireworks should be banned.,

Children and grand children all grown up so don't have to bother too much anymore.

I'm not keen on either but still went with the GC to a pick your own pumpkin field this afternoon and have a date with them tomorrow to cut them out and then use the flesh in cakes and soups. We will pop a pumpkin out and ask trick or treaters to pick a bag but not knock but I will spend evening in the kitchen with the dog.

Bonfire night terrifies me and the dog so we will hide but I'm glad our children and grandchildren enjoy it so much.

I'm not a fan of either too

I’m not a fan of Halloween, it’s a far cry now from the dressing up and dooking for apples of my Glasgow childhood.
I just can’t see the need to celebrate all things dark, ghoulish and scary, surely it’s better to focus on the beautiful things in the world.

I love it. We have a Halloween walk where I live. You register with our local “spotted in….” Group and say whether you want to just decorate with some Halloween decs or decorate, light a pumpkin and give out treats. I love doing the treats, so I’m number 17 on the walk, the kids have to find the “ slightly” hidden pumpkin and then knock for their treats. Great fun, roll on Sunday Evening ??‍♀️??‍♀️

I've got a bag of M&S Zombies Eyeballs ready to dole out. If no one comes DH and I will tuck in (they are chocolate in case anyone is concerned!). That's Halloween sorted for me.

I prefer both of them to Christmas!

Although I don’t like the trick or treat aspect of Halloween, I can see how the carved lit pumpkins, and yes, even the much criticised plastic costumes provide so much fun for children, so I’ve no problem with it.

As a family though we didn’t bother much with Halloween, but we did regularly go to a very well organised bonfire and fireworks display on a village green near us.

The organisers spent weeks planning the most fantastic firework display, there was a huge bonfire with the guy of course, and the hot food on offer was very popular with adults and children alike!
I can clearly remember the delicious venison burgers and even curries, plus hot drinks.

These days though my impression is that fireworks seem so much noisier than they used to be.

Petera

Pammie1

@Petera. All Hallows' Eve was when the Church traditionally held a vigil during which worshippers would prepare themselves for the following feast day - All Hallows Day - with prayers and fasting. It was originally celebrated on 13 May to honour St Mary and the Martyrs and the name comes from the Old English ‘Hallowed’ meaning holy or sanctified. Later it became All Saints' Day, a day to honour all the saints, and then evolved further, to specially honour those saints who didn't have a festival day of their own.

Pope Gregory IV made the festival universal throughout the Church - the festival was moved to 1st November, and subsequently became All Saints' Day for the western Church. Many Hallowe'en traditions have evolved from an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain, which was a celebration of the end of the harvest, and preparation for the coming winter. Early Church missionaries chose to hold a festival at this time of year in order to absorb existing native Pagan practices into Christianity, so smoothing the conversion process and the Orthodox Church celebrates All Saints' Day on the first Sunday after Passover, keeping closer to the original 13th May.

Yes thanks Pammie - I understand this (but not in the interesting detail that you have given). However, given that it was part of the liturgical year and dedicated to remembering the dead I can't quite make the link with disliking it for purely ‘Christian’ reasons, unless it’s a similar argument to objecting to Christmas because it’s mostly not related to its original purpose.

I can’t either. I know the factual stuff from historical interest and the Pagan celebration had nothing to do with witchcraft or satanism, it was more a ‘harvest festival’ type of thing. Perhaps some kind poster will come along and enlighten us.

Have never 'celebrated' Halloween and luckily I live too isolated to be bothered with trick or treaters.
I am amazed at the 'tat' for sale which will end up in the rubbish bin, the cost of it all and the dangerous fireworks. So many people are moaning - perhaps more p.c. to say complaining! - that they can't afford the essentials in life but can afford to send it all up in smoke. I am aware that there will be the usual retaliatory remarks, but I have my hard hat on and, luckily, we haven't all come from the same mould!!

Pammie1

@Petera. All Hallows' Eve was when the Church traditionally held a vigil during which worshippers would prepare themselves for the following feast day - All Hallows Day - with prayers and fasting. It was originally celebrated on 13 May to honour St Mary and the Martyrs and the name comes from the Old English ‘Hallowed’ meaning holy or sanctified. Later it became All Saints' Day, a day to honour all the saints, and then evolved further, to specially honour those saints who didn't have a festival day of their own.

Pope Gregory IV made the festival universal throughout the Church - the festival was moved to 1st November, and subsequently became All Saints' Day for the western Church. Many Hallowe'en traditions have evolved from an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain, which was a celebration of the end of the harvest, and preparation for the coming winter. Early Church missionaries chose to hold a festival at this time of year in order to absorb existing native Pagan practices into Christianity, so smoothing the conversion process and the Orthodox Church celebrates All Saints' Day on the first Sunday after Passover, keeping closer to the original 13th May.

Yes thanks Pammie - I understand this (but not in the interesting detail that you have given). However, given that it was part of the liturgical year and dedicated to remembering the dead I can't quite make the link with disliking it for purely ‘Christian’ reasons, unless it’s a similar argument to objecting to Christmas because it’s mostly not related to its original purpose.

Brought up in Scotland where there was no trick or treating. It was guising. You went to a door to ask "please help the guiser". You had to do a little song, verse of a poem, tell a few jokes, anything entertaining and was rewarded with money. The money collected was either saved or handed over to parents to buy fireworks for Guy Fawkes' night. Therefore I find the modern Trick or Treating akin to begging and can't for the life of me find it has anything to do with Halloween. The plastic tat generated for the occasion is awful.

It's a choice. Our family always celebrate Halloween, but not Bonfire night. My road has a lot of children, they all dress up, they come with their parents, my long term neighbours; its a bit of light fun at a dark time of year. I used to make a lot of bits and pieces but when I was cross examined about whether they contained nuts a few times I stopped (better safe than sorry) now I buy miniatures of choc bars and say everything has nuts. We don't do Bonfire night as one of my cousins was killed on that night in the fifties. Someone threw an army rocket on the fire, it shot out straight through my cousin's chest so it's a matter of respecting that memory for us.

I absolutely loathe Halloween. So much money wasted on costumes etc. And the ghastly trick or treating- though I do get treats for my visiting grandchildren. The only Halloween we or our children had was a pumpkin lantern.
I do like Bonfire Night, though I don't go to a party now I used to love them.

@Petera. All Hallows' Eve was when the Church traditionally held a vigil during which worshippers would prepare themselves for the following feast day - All Hallows Day - with prayers and fasting. It was originally celebrated on 13 May to honour St Mary and the Martyrs and the name comes from the Old English ‘Hallowed’ meaning holy or sanctified. Later it became All Saints' Day, a day to honour all the saints, and then evolved further, to specially honour those saints who didn't have a festival day of their own.

Pope Gregory IV made the festival universal throughout the Church - the festival was moved to 1st November, and subsequently became All Saints' Day for the western Church. Many Hallowe'en traditions have evolved from an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain, which was a celebration of the end of the harvest, and preparation for the coming winter. Early Church missionaries chose to hold a festival at this time of year in order to absorb existing native Pagan practices into Christianity, so smoothing the conversion process and the Orthodox Church celebrates All Saints' Day on the first Sunday after Passover, keeping closer to the original 13th May.

Sago, myself and my teen granddaughter did Scaresville for a few years. It’s a haunted village in long Milford Suffolk held at Kentwell Hall. It’s one of the highlights of my years dressing up as a ghost or a China scary doll and scaring paying public. I’m so ‘Scaresville sick’ as it’s been cancelled because of Covid. So I really don’t mind the pumpkins but draw a line to £ land shite!!

No, OP, you’re not being unreasonable, you’re entitled to your view.
I love both, as do my grown up children and grandchildren. I used to have a big bonfire party up until a few years ago, safely controlled with fireworks and food. Now we enjoy other people’s.

Lots of aspects of Halloween now (including the awful trick or treating) is an American import - yet another way to get people to spend money on (usually) plastic tat. However my elderly neighbour, who lives alone, loves it as she keeps a big bowl of chocs by the door and gets to chat to lots of children (often with their very grateful parents) so who am I to complain?? I don't mind about fireworks but bangers should be banned (our poor pets). When we were young it was confined to one night (just penny for the guy usually the day before), turnip lanterns; a bonfire constructed on a nearby field, and the whole neighbourhood would go along, and then smaller party gatherings with friends - apple bobbing for the kids; then sausages and toffee apples, sandwiches and drinks for the grownups But I DO remember one little girl getting badly burned and we weren't allowed to go to a bonfire after that - has put me off ever since.

I remember Halloween as ‘duck apple night’ when I was a kid. there was the odd pumpkin, but that was about it. The trick or treat thing was imported from the US - I seem to remember reading somewhere that it took off here partly because of the Scenes in the movie ET where the kids were dressing up to go trick or treating. I quite like watching the children making their way round the neighbourhood - the very little ones with mums or dads, and usually buy in some mixed sweeties and crisps, and put them in a pillow case so that the trick or treaters can have a lucky dip. Turnout is quite good here with lots of people dressing up their front paths etc. Not so keen on bonfire night because the fireworks are usually going off weeks in advance and my dog hates them !!

Petera, to me Halloween is a celebration of the dark side, its ghoulish and quite frankly awful. Enough said.