Halloween scares my DGC

There is a long history in the NE and Scotland of celebrating Halloween. Children went door to door but were expected to do a 'party piece' when it was answered, sing or recite a poem. Years ago my children always had to visit an 80 year old neighbour in their costumes and sing for him. He remembered doing the same in his childhood. So it's not all imported from the USA although I agree the commercialization is.

Absolutely agree with what everyone here has said. As a child I was barely even aware of Halloween. This year it seems to have got bigger and nastier than ever - it seems that even adults are expected to dress up for it now. I'll be glad when it's over. Then of course we get the fireworks, making me, DD and cat jump out of our skins. Bah humbug!

I absolutely hate Halloween . It's not only a disgusting money spinner for the shops but a gorefest that trivialises death. In a country where church going is on the decline, it's alarming to see what amounts to the worship of evil.
People are spending a small fortune in my local party shop on hideous masks and elaborate grave gear. What's wrong with a homemade pumpkin head? Meanwhile, they pass by the old man who sleeps rough on the common without a second glance. The price of one bottle of fake blood would buy him a cup of tea.
And as someone whose loved one has been diagnosed with a potentially terminal illness, I do not wish to see skeletons at every turn.

I was surprised to see how much it has taken off over here, a strictly Catholic country!! It has got worse in the 7 years we have been here with many shops full of ghoulish windows and selling costumes etc. On the other hand the cemeteries are full of flower sellers ready for tomorrow and Monday when it is traditional to pay respects to the dead! In the end it's all a matter of profit for someone!!

Another Hallowe'en hater here, and I'm unashamedly bah humbug too.
I've just got back from the hairdressers and several of their staff were dressed in quite horrible clothing and makeup. A lady came in with a little boy while I was there, he took one look at one of the hairdressers and screamed the place down. He was inconsolable and the mum had to abandon the appointment.
Needless to say she was pretty scathing.

I agree all that's said about over the top scariness at Halloween - the same goes for TV and the new Jekyll and Hyde series, at least you can turn that off but there is no choice if you have to go into a shop. I have a lingering fear of going upstairs in the dark because as a child I was told that a wolf lived in a cupboard next go the toilet! Somehow reading fairy tales doesn't seem to cause nightmares, or does it?

I'm with all those who think that Halloween (in its current form) is an import from across the Atlantic and has got totally out of hand. I dislike the fact that parents feel obliged to buy their children the ghoulish ''fancy dress'' clothes and as for the dreadful ''Trick and Treat''............Don't start me!

Agree with all who dislike the horrible Halloween images, and sympathies to eGJ. I don't want it at all, but because we have lovely little neighbours will keep a few bars of chocolate available just in case their parents let them knock at our door.
We've just come back from the Midwest of USA and Halloween was everywhere, but not in the gruesome way it's done here.
Off this topic - I'd love to change my username (created without enough thought) but understand it isn't allowed. Nuisance, as I'd prefer to be more anonymous. Daughters looking in can be very critical of one's views!

This Halloween stuff is nothing more than copying the Americans. Crazy and stupid. I will not answer my door to any trick or treaters. I am not a miserable old bugger, I just do not believe in it.

I detest all the gruesome displays, but today I noticed the supermarket was taking them down and putting up the Christmas displays. At least they're not scary (unless you look at some of the prices! ).

I don't give out sweets. Our lights will be off tonight. There are always a few parents that bring their children up to our door, even with all the lights out, but we ignore the knocking.

I think it's got out of hand. Anything for profit these days. One of my local shops has really gone to town with it this year. There's blood dripping down the doors and windows, wedding dresses splattered in fake blood and bloody hand prints all over the display. It's not Tesco's it's the Barnardo's charity shop!

I heartily agree with everything said so far. Years ago, when teaching, the children might paint "witchy pictures" having been told that the origin oF Hallowe'en was that witches were allowed one night in the year to be about, before All Saints' Day on November 1st.
One of the worst features now, is the pressure felt by parents to spend money they can ill afford on the trash in the shops. One week supermarkets are asking shoppers to buy items for food banks, the next they seem to be encouraging those who need them to spend what money they have on rubbish. Also I know of pensioners living alone who are frightened of " trick or treaters" and of getting eggs thrown at their door if they don't answer!

I absolutely agree with those who are concerned about the upsurge in gruesome Halloween stuff! Of course we are, as ever, running after the USA where it is now apparently a bigger event than Christmas. My little granddaughters love to dress up as witches etc but that is a long way from the appalling, horrific costumes now on display. But how to rein it in? It is all about money...

Am just off to help at a Bright Light party that my church is holding in order to counteract the horribleness of Hallowe'en. Hallowe'en encourages children to think about witchcraft and evil but we will be having fun in a happy, 'bright' way!

Here in Birmingham,a cafe was told by police to remove their display,which is extremely gory and features dead people with slit throats and a dead,bloody baby with a knife in it.I find it disgusting that the place concerned have removed the baby but left the rest of the display defiantly the same.Young children should not be exposed to this in my opinion and I pity any poor mums who have recently lost babies-they must have found it very distressing.

oznan that must be the most horrible display ever! Not sure how they have got away with it, I would be very tempted to throw eggs at their windows as a trick!

I am dressed as a black and white cat at the moment, as we are going to a Halloween tea with grandchildren.I am not bah humbug about Halloween but it must be done appropriately.

Was only chatting to my friend this morning about the same thing, about how children will have nightmares, there's nothing wrong with a bit of Casper the Ghost but ghosts on the BBC weather map - really?! It's too gruesome and unnecessary, witches and cats, fine, severed limbs, blood and knives through necks a definite no. How long before the good and the great are blaming Halloween for encouraging violence in the same way video games and tv are already in the hot seat? Quite frankly I think they will have a valid point.

Thank goodness our only grandson will be 16 in 2016.

We've copied the US again . Wonder if W'rt carry such
gory, expensive tat?

We're definitely going to sound curmudgeonly as we dislike the habit
of children we don't know from a bar of soap, begging at our door.

When they were younger our neighbours children - on both sides -
only knocked on people s' doors they knew. * We used to buy a tin of Q St. and watch them delve in with big grins. They never forgot to say thank you; their mother was always within arms' length chatting to us. The other mums used to watch from the top of our drive.

Yes, there'll be fireworks which will upset all animals including our two cats and, doubtless kill wild birds from fright

Sorry to be so negative.

Yesterday the queue outside a shop that sells fancy dress stretched right down the street, the shop was packed and there was a member of staff controlling entry. What a waste of money. I heard on the radio that in the USA millions of dollars are spent each year on Hallowe'en. In my day Hallowe'en was very low key, certainly not ghoulish. Actually the only event I remember was going (on the bus) to a teenage party at a friend's house carrying a home-made witch's hat and with some front teeth blacked out with a fibre pen. Why do we have to import these customs from the US? Such as Fathers' Day - and now it is really difficult to find cards that say 'Mothering Sunday' and not Mothers' Day. In my day (!) fireworks were on Bonfire Night. Now, any excuse and there are fireworks. A week ago we heard huge explosions at about 10.30pm, DH and I were rather alarmed, the next day we read in the local paper that it was the university celebrating the installation of the new chancellor. No warning to people so that pets could be kept inside. End of rant!

I think I cured our only neighbour with a child when he called round some years back on Hallowe'en. We had just come back from my brothers funeral and answered the door in black with handky and streaming mascara along with various ex wives . I apologised profusely for having nothing to offer but must have so appalled them that they never returned.[thigrin]
Last night with the DGSs we had a delicious meal of dragon spit, goblins' blood, toads' eyeballs witches' fingers and slime pie under the watchful eye of a pumpkin. No one dressed up and they went home this morning . Their mum is a bit down so we hoped to cheer her .

is what I meant of course.

My late mum, who lived alone, used to feel really frightened at Halloween. Even though she didn't approve of it, she used to keep sweets to give as "treats". When I told her she ought not to open the door after dark, she said she was afraid of being "tricked" and had had eggs thrown at the house. I'm sure most trick or treaters mean no harm, but they don't always realise the worry they can cause. I wish this particular custom had stayed on the other side of the Atlantic.

We met friends for a pub lunch today and the staff were busy getting ready for a Hallowe'en do tonight. Every surface was being decorated with plastic spiders, cobwebs, pumpkins etc.

They even had plastic blood running down the cisterns in the Ladies loo.

Lovely!

MoBrown I am with you as well on that. Very scary for small kids and thet should not be in shop windows etc.
DS went to a pantomime when he was three and someone was dancing about in a skeleton costume and he was very anxious about that for a long time.
It was never as bad as it is nowadays and seems to get worse and worse with stupid things on ordinary TV programs. Of course the Shopkeepers love it to boost their profits.