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Halloween quandary - to Trick or to Treat?


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Should I go to the shops and get lots of Curly Wurlys, sherbert fountains and fun size Mars bars for the kids who will be knocking on my door tomorrow evening.......

 

........or should I just buy some offal from the butchers, some trick blood, some cheap Vodka and a werewolf outfit?

 

 

Your advice is required *tongue*

 

Steve

Se7en-Up!

 

It'S NOT Green!, its the colour of an unripe MANGO

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Ours came round last week.....obviously too scared to come out on the night.....especially down our road where there are no street lights........anyway told them to clear off when they did come last week........well........I was in the middle of my dinner *mad*

 

Simon Bell - Caterham 7 Duratec R

I`ve seen the future.....and it`s powered by duratec

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Not forgetting

 

Not being able to overwrite the Microsoft American Engish dicksionharry

 

McDonalds

 

 

And apparently they are having an election, I was a bit surprised as there has been no coverage on the BBC which coincidently *confused* comes from Bush House *mad*

 

Your rant may be over but I've hardly started.........

 

When you realise the worlds not nice just drop your pants and slide on the ice!!!

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Well he has just gone up in my estimation......

 

But I think knocking on doors with plastic masks of my ex wife is a bit more recent as opposed to the more acceptable beheading of people that dissagree and dunking witches 😬

 

When you realise the worlds not nice just drop your pants and slide on the ice!!!

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It's just recent in the UK (because of Cromwell). In Ireland it has been common practice for centuries. When I was a kid in the 60s, all the local neighbourhood children used to dress up and go around knocking on doors. This was nothing to do with Hollywood or American TV - it was an ancient custom. The children didn't ask for "Trick or Treat", they asked for "Any apples or nuts?".

 

In Britain, Haloween was abolished because of its links with Catholicism (although its roots are pre-Christian). Funnily, some of the customs associated with Haloween (fireworks, bonfires, door to door collecting etc) were incorporated into the Guy Fawkes celebrations - which, of course, was OK because that was anti-Catholic.

 

All that's happened is that the ancient, forgotten, customs of pre-reformation/pre- puritan England have been re-introduced via the US. I find it all strangely ironic and somewhat satisfying.

 

 

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Reminds me of when we were in America 2 years ago and were due to fly home on the 31st October. Our son and his girlfriend were with us and we were driving back to the airport late afternoon.

 

As we approached the car hire return, there was this guy standing at the end of the lane dressed and looking for all the world like Freddy Kruger and brandishing a fake knife. As we drove up to him he grinned menacingly causing Mrs C and young Mstr C's girlfriend both to shriek in terror. 😬

 

Mrs C immediately shouted to me "keep going, keep going, lock the doors" 😬

 

It actually scared the women quite badly until I patiently explained that it was halloween and if they look around they would see others dressed in a similar fashion.

 

I also agree that 'trick or treat' is just another stupid Americanism that we don't need over here.............along with many other stupid Americanisms. Apart, that is, from the 2.3L Duratec which can only be sourced from that suddenly wonderful country. *cool*

 

Brent

 

2.3 DURATEC SV. Gad these things are expensive

 

Edited by - BRENT CHISWICK on 1 Nov 2004 11:39:45

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Maybe if we convince the kids to ask for "Any apples or nuts, mister?" we can claim it's an Irishism rather than an Americanism.

 

One of my favourite films is "Meet Me in St Louis" which has a very "Hollywood" haloween scene.

 

I think the red and white Coca Cola Santa dates back to around 1910.

 

On the subject of Christmas, it's interesting that, in England, Santa Claus for many years was referred to as Father Christmas. It seems to me that the terms "Santa Claus", "St Nicholas","Santa" etc were more casualties of the reformation or Cromwell. Again, some of them have come back into general useage in more recent years because of the Americanisation of the UK.

 

 

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Being Irish, he was always Santa Claus (or even Santy) to me. The odd thng is, in Irish Gaelic, he's called " Dadai na Nollaig" - which translates as , you've guessed it - "Father Christmas". Irish logic at its best.

 

Other differences between the weird English terminologies for Christmas and other celebrations/feast days etc are -

 

St Stephen's Day - called Boxing Day in Britain

 

Mother's Day - called Mothering Sunday in Britain (why don't they call Father's Day "Fathering Sunday?)

 

 

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The Coca Cola/Santa thing is an urban myth, see here.

 

It seems odd that such a ridiculously religious nation as America should be so keen to celebrate witchcraft *confused* Halloween was a non-event when I were a lad and Bonfire Night was on the 5th, none of this weekend-beforehand-and-afterhand malarkey *mad*

 

Brent, what were you doing abducting my daughter to the US 🤔 Or was that before Mstr C and Miss W became an item *eek*

 

M1 7 SMW 1.4-now-1.8K Mem.No. 10376 Picture here 😬

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It was never about witchcraft - that's the Hollywood element. The ritual surrounding All Hallows Evening (to give it its proper Christian title) was to pray for the souls of the faitfull departed (as it said in my Cathecism). I always thought it was a bit odd because-

 

"Faithfull departed" - means that they were believers who were now dead (logical I know)

If they were believers they should have made it to heaven. If that was the case, why the **** did we have to pray for them seeing as how they had already made it to heaven. Indeed, they should have been putting in a good word for us mortals left here on Earth.

 

The original celebrations at this time of the year go back even further than Christian times. The ancient Celts of these islands had a ceremony called "Samhain" which kicked in at the end of Autumn and the beginning of Winter. It kind of marked the passing from warm summer days to long, cold, winter nights.

 

 

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Eric,

the reason we don't have 'fathering sunday' is that whilst 'mothering sunday' is a very traditional English (or maybe british, but I can only speak from an englishman's view point) celebration, Fathers day is a new modern invention mostly likely made up by the US medal and card manufacturers in order to sell more stuff!

Personally no one in my family ever mentioned it, and my father would have told me off if I bought him a card!!

 

and Father Christmas is the only christmas time figure I'll admit to... again, Santa Claus has come into use in the UK in the last 15-20 years due to US media.

 

Grumpy Old Man.

 

(ps I'm not really that old.. in fact I could win award for youngest sheddist...)

 

 

 

Edited by - neil.cavanagh on 1 Nov 2004 14:04:23

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