Halloween

[A Quiet Monkfish]

I'm all for keeping traditions alive, and will continue to do so tonight. Lights out, curtains drawn from 4pm to 9pm.

[Majorblue]

Re: Halloween

Please sir can I have tooth decay and type 2 diabetes.

[Divine Wright]

Re: Halloween

I'm all for keeping traditions alive, and will continue to do so tonight. Lights out, curtains drawn from 4pm to 9pm.

Call it Nos Galan Gaeaf then ….. that’s the traditional way of saying it … none of this All Hallow Eve muck…. Unless you are a massive Catholic or Prot or wrreva.

[Grangenders]

Re: Halloween

It’s a shame that the storm is not coming in a couple of nights earlier

[The Bloop]

Re: Halloween

It’s a shame that the storm is not coming in a couple of nights earlier

Still at least an 80 or 90% chance of rain after 5pm. Fingers crossed that'll keep the pesky beggars at home.

[Moodybluebird]

Re: Halloween

Still at least an 80 or 90% chance of rain after 5pm. Fingers crossed that'll keep the pesky beggars at home.

If the little bleeders have to throw eggs at my windows why don't they hard boil them and take them out if their shells first ? Just a thought.

[bobh]

Re: Halloween

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-67067171

[NYCBlue]

Re: Halloween

Grumpy old men.

[ToTaL ITK]

Re: Halloween

Yank rubbish, just ignore it

[splott parker]

Re: Halloween

Retailers saw an opening a few years back with Hallowe’en, they’d made a killing for years around this time of year selling fireworks until health & safety curtailed that. Hallowe’en stepped in and has become a right earner. When I was a kid about now bangers were going off left, right and centre, young boys were dragging trees around the streets for their bonfire. The bonfires had to be guarded from rogue arsonists from other gangs, it was a yearly ritual. I s’pose the killer was that there was no money to be made from us cutting down trees, dragging old mattresses and furniture to our patch whereas just the fancy dress alone for Hallowe’en must be a right industry that goes on for over a week. Haven’t seen a penny for the guy kid for ages, in fact do people still make guys?

[A Quiet Monkfish]

Re: Halloween

Retailers saw an opening a few years back with Hallowe’en, they’d made a killing for years around this time of year selling fireworks until health & safety curtailed that. Hallowe’en stepped in and has become a right earner. When I was a kid about now bangers were going off left, right and centre, young boys were dragging trees around the streets for their bonfire. The bonfires had to be guarded from rogue arsonists from other gangs, it was a yearly ritual. I s’pose the killer was that there was no money to be made from us cutting down trees, dragging old mattresses and furniture to our patch whereas just the fancy dress alone for Hallowe’en must be a right industry that goes on for over a week. Haven’t seen a penny for the guy kid for ages, in fact do people still make guys?

The difference between bonfire night and halloween, apart from the obvious tradition v non-tradition Yank influence, is that bonfire night was when you made the night by doing things - making a guy, gathering stuff for the bonfire etc. As you say halloween is just an excuse to sell cheap plastic junk to parents and kids for rip off prices..

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: Halloween

The difference between bonfire night and halloween, apart from the obvious tradition v non-tradition Yank influence, is that bonfire night was when you made the night by doing things - making a guy, gathering stuff for the bonfire etc. As you say halloween is just an excuse to sell cheap plastic junk to parents and kids for rip off prices..

Indeed. I see Halloween in the same vein as pizza. Originally European and sold back to us by the yanks.
I used to be sniffy about Halloween effectively subsuming bonfire night until I remembered that it's about burning a catholic insurrectionist. However, Mr Fawkes seems to take a back seat in Lewes, where they burn and effigy of the pontiff....

[79blue]

Re: Halloween

Back in the 1970’s my mates and I could not be bothered to make a guy, so we dressed up my little brother as a guy and stuffed his clothing with straw. We then dragged him around the houses on a go cart, asking for a penny for the guy at each house. I think we made quite a bit by bonfire night.

[Optimistic Nick]

Re: Halloween

Grumpy old men.

Completely! What’s the problem? Little kids having some fun and you give them some sweets. Really don’t see the problem with it

[jimmyscoular]

Re: Halloween

Yank rubbish, just ignore it

The juggernaut that is "yank culture" is an interesting topic. I have lived in the United States for many more years than I lived in Cardiff (18 vs 40). I have seen American "prom" culture take hold in the UK, something that did not exist when I was whiling away the years at St. Illtyd's. Halloween trick-or-treating in costume has won the day also, even as dear old Guy Fawkes night has receded. And, of course, fast food. Our common language is a big reason for it, I suppose, since language is so formative to culture, and is made even more potent by the immediacy, first of television and the movies, and now of social media. The "yanks" do fun well, and kids elsewhere eventually want in.

Some things do not translate well. College/university sports are a massive industry here, but, so far as I can tell, remain invisible in the UK. This is a function of size. The United States is so vast that many tens of millions of people lack access to a professional sports team, so college sports supply the gap. High school sports, too. Any self-respecting high school here has its own 3,000-capacity sports stadium where (American) football games are well attended. We played in the parks and the public fields, with no one in attendance except a few particularly dedicated parents standing around the sidelines.

Do UK high schools do the big-production graduation ceremonies, now? When I "left school" (graduated) we simply gathered in the assembly hall on the final day, received a few parting gifts, and headed into the world. No gowns, mortar boards, processional music, parents and family in attendance. No such pomp. Has that simplicity also fallen to the juggernaut?

O.K., then. I'll be going home soon to hand out candy at the door. I have my scary music ready to go.