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General discussionDoes anyone else not celebrate Halloween?(66 posts)(66 posts)
(66 posts)
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Posted October 31, 2018
Glad to hear that All Saints and All Souls days are still prominent in Spain, France and Poland.

Halloween is on the rise in Australia. Each year more and more families swallow the blue pill and start trick-or-treating and putting up decorations.

To be honest, I would love to experience Halloween in the US where it has bit of history to it, but not here.
Posted October 31, 2018
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Symphony8: Glad to hear that All Saints and All Souls days are still prominent in Spain, France and Poland.
Yeah we have "pyhäinpäivä" (day for saints) as well, but it isn't really celebrated. Maybe some go to visit their dead relatives on graveyards, to put fresh flowers there, but even that seems to be rare nowadays. The dead don't care.

I was more thinking of "halloween" in the context of "hey let's dress up to monsters and superheros and go to trick'r'treat". As said, that doesn't exist here at all (instead, kids here go to ask for candy door to door on Easter, dressed up as witches, go figure), but some adults use "halloween" as yet another excuse to go to a restaurant to drink themselves silly and contract STD.
Posted October 31, 2018
Halloween is just another excuse for corporations to milk people.

Edit: Correction.
Post edited October 31, 2018 by viperfdl
Posted October 31, 2018
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tinyE: I don't even acknowledge birthdays anymore, but I always get up for October 31st.
Saved for future ''it's my birthday'' again,yearly announcements.
Posted October 31, 2018
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viperfdl: Halloween is just another excuse for corporates to milk people.
TRUE, but being milked by corporations is so much more fun on Halloween!

It's 5:30 am right now and I'm dressed up as a student wizard. I wouldn't get away with that on Columbus Day! :D
Posted October 31, 2018
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tinyE: It's 5:30 am right now and I'm dressed up as a student wizard. I wouldn't get away with that on Columbus Day! :D
Just imagine what fun it would be during Spring Break...

btw: Thanks for letting me realize that I wrote corporations wrong. :(
Posted October 31, 2018
I haven't celebrated Halloween nor given out candy etc. for probably 20 years or more. I'm not a big traditionalist or fan of holidays in general so don't bother with any of them on my own. If I'm invited to a gathering or similar I may go, but in the case of Halloween I wouldn't bother dressing up or anything as I'm not that into it. It's possible someone enthusiastic enough could goad me into it, but not on my own decision.

Having said that, if I were to do so... dressing up as a skeleton might fit. :P

I see the holidays as something more for traditionalists, kids and whatnot and I lost any excitement I ever had over them a long long time ago, so now I only do it if other people are excited about it and want me to be involved and drag me into it more or less. :)

With respect to Halloween, we tend to get anywhere from 0 to 4 visitors on Halloween night, usually based on how the weather is. I'm in Canada and Halloween is often freezing cold here, sometimes with snow on the ground which makes dressing up in a costume without any protection from the cold a non-starter for most people if we get an unlucky weather batch during the holiday. So no point buying a bunch of candy etc. as I'm not into eating it myself either.
Posted October 31, 2018
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tinyE: It's 5:30 am right now and I'm dressed up as a student wizard. I wouldn't get away with that on Columbus Day! :D
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viperfdl: Just imagine what fun it would be during Spring Break...

btw: Thanks for letting me realize that I wrote corporations wrong. :(
Don't thank me, Your post was dead on (no pun intended). Corporations are one of the reasons I gave up on Christmas and so many others, but I need a vice somewhere. :P In that I suppose the problem lies with me.

Hey, i'm only human, :P

Also it should be noted that I;m loaded on pain meds right now, so that might have something to do with it.
Post edited October 31, 2018 by tinyE
Posted October 31, 2018
Dunno, not really a thing here. At least I've never seen kids going around before (neither where I lived before nor here).

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BreOl72: but at the same time neglect our own traditions. (Hexennacht/Walpurgisnacht)
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Swedrami: As a former full-time Dorfkartoffel I can assure you that Walpurgis (that's the night of 30th April transitioning into 1st May for those not in the know) is still celebrated, at least in the rural Hinterland-parts of Germany.
Complete with a huge bonfire where a life-size straw puppet dressed up as the Winterhexe ("Witch of Winter") is burned to drive away the remaining spirits of winter. And the prior erection of a Maibaum (or "Maypole", a pole of 10-20 meters length) which is watched all night long for not getting sawed down and taken away by the neighbouring villages' youth.
Sounds pretty fun. Also, being a Dorfkartoffel is awesome. Used to be one myself and would always want to be one again...if not for the availability of jobs and decent internet.

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toxicTom: The local tradition called "Flenndippeln" (Going with a little crying pot) went as follows:
Interesting. I didn't live too far away from that area but I've never heard of it. We did "Zampern" in ~February though, going from house to house (and stopping cars, people), dressed up and playing music to get sweets, money, alcohol etc. I also did "Laternelaufen" once when I was in Kindergarten. Never seen it again after that, not sure it's even a thing anymore.
Posted October 31, 2018
I celebrate all paid vacation days! And weekends. :-P



Also, I don't open the door for people I don't know.
Posted October 31, 2018
It's strange that so many people think it's an American.
Samhain

Samhain was a three-day Celtic New Year festival that began on 31 October and, according to some scholars, was a time when the "Lord of the dead" was honoured. The Celts, who lived in Britain about two thousand years ago, believed that during Samhain the veils between this world and the spirit world were at their thinnest and spirits of the dead could mingle with the living. Marked by bonfires, it also celebrated the abundance of food after the Harvest.

Other historians question this version of events. 'Celts' is a broad term encompassing many different tribes in ancient Britain and the festival was celebrated very differently from place to place. Some historians argue that Samhain wasn't a widespread Celtic festival in the British Isles at all. As the Celts did not leave written records, it is difficult to know for sure.
All Hallows' Eve

In the middle of the 8th century, Pope Gregory III moved the date of a Christian feast – All Hallows' Day, or All Saints Day – to 1 November, and his successor, Gregory IV, made its celebration mandatory. It's not clear if it was a deliberate attempt to 'Christianise' Samhain but whatever the reason, the new date of All Saints Day meant that Christian celebrations of the holy dead and Samhain were conflated together. Local pagan customs in Britain blended into Christian religious holidays and vice versa.
Posted October 31, 2018
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teceem: I celebrate all paid vacation days! And weekends. :-P

Also, I don't open the door for people I don't know.
That explains that.

I've been out her knocking for two hours!
Posted October 31, 2018
The shops in the UK are flooded with Halloween merchandise, but I couldn't tell you who's buying it. I live near a school, a prime location for little 'uns to prowl the streets for candy. Every year I prepare a bowl of treats, and every year it falls to me to eat it. I'm starting to wonder if my pathological insistence on being prepared is just a cover.
Posted October 31, 2018
When I was a kid it's never been a thing and we'd only knew through movies of its existence.
When I was on the social side of horror (been always a junkie of horror) there were people who used to dress up in horror movies themed costumes like vampires, murderers of all sorts, many girls liked to wear big witch-inspired hats and then party all together.
Clubs and pubs do themed nights and I'm sure people go to parties in big cities here and there.
Never been my things.

Since like 5 years children like to go "treat or tricking", I live in a flat so I'm kind of immune to that but people who live at road level are subject to nasty tricks sometimes if they don't give candies like blown up mail boxes or burnt intercoms.
Posted October 31, 2018
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markrichardb: The shops in the UK are flooded with Halloween merchandise, but I couldn't tell you who's buying it. I live near a school, a prime location for little 'uns to prowl the streets for candy. Every year I prepare a bowl of treats, and every year it falls to me to eat it. I'm starting to wonder if my pathological insistence on being prepared is just a cover.
Sadly there's no bottle rockets,bangers or firecrackers as there was in years gone by.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionDoes anyone else not celebrate Halloween?(66 posts)(66 posts)
(66 posts)