Local Halloween stories

[Satcomer]

Any one have some good local Halloween stores. Well I have the story in my area of the Bunny Man Bridge.

To bad the cops put up video surveillance to watch the kids. The funny thing about it is from all the development throughout area there is absolutely none around this bridge for several miles. There are no large houses (it's a very rich person area) with miles of this bridge.

The even are many YouTube videos about it.

 

[Rhisiart]

I'm a Halloween humbug. A true vampire scrooge.

Wales - and I am sure the rest of the UK - has never traditionally celebrated Halloween with 'Trick or Treat'. As kids we would dress up as witches and vampires and just run havoc around the streets. Sometimes we would have a party with dunking apples and teeth breaking treacle.

Not that long ago 'Trick or Treat' arrived here as a US import and I can't stand it.

I don't mind kids having fun, but trashing my beloved sun-lounger and throwing it into a ditch just because I had no sweets (candy) behind the door upset me greatly.

My wife loves it (to be fair she was born in San Francisco). She always tries to get to the door before I do. That way the kids get sweets and not hosed down with a vase of stale water.

I adore America (I have visited 26 states to date), but I want things American to stay in America. Otherwise why go there if life here in Wales is no different?

Vive la difference!

God bless America!

Duw cyfnerthu ni oll yng Nghymru (God help us all here in Wales)!

 

[Satcomer]

Well your description about this being only American is funny to me. I say this because is was a Englishman that got me in the season of the fun of Halloween being fun again. You can hear is podcast is The Strange but True Radio PodCast.

 

[bbloke]

I'd say Halloween is not solely American , but I'd say Halloween, as we think of it, is primarily an American event. I've seen Halloween become more popular in the UK over the years, but, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I saw virtually no Halloween celebrations at all. No trick-or-treating, nothing. It was just like any other night. Perhaps post-2000, I have seen a very small number of trick-or-treaters come to the door now. Maybe two, three, or four during the course of the evening?

This got me wondering, though... I can say what I've seen first-hand, but I wondered whether Halloween was celebrated much worldwide. I had a look on Wikipedia to get an idea of how widespread Halloween has become:

Ireland
Halloween is very popular in Ireland, where it is said to have originated, and is known in Irish as "Oíche Shamhna" or "Samhain Night".

Scotland
Scotland, having a shared Gaelic culture and language with Ireland, has celebrated the festival of Samhain robustly for centuries. Robert Burns portrayed the varied customs in his poem "Hallowe'en" (1785).

England and Wales
Halloween celebrations in the UK were repopularised in the 1980s with influence from America, and saw the reintroduction of traditions such as pumpkin carvings and trick-or-treat.[citation needed] Between 2001 and 2006, consumer spending in the UK for Halloween rose tenfold from £12m to £120m, according to Bryan Roberts from industry analysts Planet Retail, making Halloween the third most profitable holiday for supermarkets.[5] Nowadays, adults often dress up to attend costume parties, pub parties and club parties on Halloween night.

United States and Canada
The commercialization of Halloween in the United States did not start until the 20th century, beginning perhaps with Halloween postcards (featuring hundreds of designs) which were most popular between 1905 and 1915...

...There is little primary documentation of masking or costuming on Halloween in the United States or elsewhere, prior to 1900.[13] Mass-produced Halloween costumes did not appear in stores until the 1930s, and trick-or-treating did not become a fixture of the holiday until the 1950s...

...In the United States, Halloween has become the sixth most profitable holiday (after Christmas, Mother's Day, Valentines Day, Easter, and Father's Day)...

...Halloween is now the United States' second most popular holiday (after Christmas) for decorating; the sale of candy and costumes are also extremely common during the holiday, which is marketed to children and adults alike.

Mexico
In Mexico, Halloween has been celebrated during the last 40 years where the celebrations have been influenced by the American traditions, such as the costuming of children who visit the houses of their neighbourhood in search of candy.

Australia and New Zealand
However, Halloween has recently gained a large amount of recognition in Australia and to an extent New Zealand, largely due to American media influences. In 2006, costume shops reported a rise in sales on Halloween-themed costumes, on October 31, 2006. On Halloween night, horror films and horror-themed TV episodes are traditionally aired.

Caribbean
Halloween is largely uncelebrated in the Caribbean. However, like Australia and New Zealand, the event is not unheard of in the Caribbean and is seeing some increase in popularity.

Malta
Halloween had never been celebrated in Malta until recently, with its popularity increasing thanks to the many costume parties, usually for teenagers and young adults, being organized on Halloween night. Trick-or-treating is not widely known in Malta.

People's Republic of China
There is no Halloween in Chinese tradition, but there is a similar Chinese holiday called Ghost Festival. The Ghost Festival is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday, which is celebrated by Chinese people in many countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 14th night of the seventh lunar month, which is called Ghost Day. In Chinese tradition, the ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower world.

Other regions
In other regions, Halloween has become popular in the context of American pop culture. Some Catholics and Protestants do not appreciate the resultant de-emphasis of the more spiritual aspects of All Hallows Eve and Reformation Day, respectively, or of regional festivals occurring around the same time (such as St Martin's Day). Business has a natural tendency to capitalize on the holiday season's more commercial aspects, such as the sale of decorations and costumes.

This leaves me with the impression that Halloween certainly has European roots, but that it took off, as we think of it now, mainly in North America and has been exported back again.

 

[Rhisiart]

One British Halloween celebration that goes back a long way is the annual 31st October 'shindig' in Highgate Cemetery, London.

The cemetery is split in two. The East Cemetery is well kept and is home to the graves of Douglas Adams (The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy), George Eliot (a woman BTW), Michael Faraday, Alexander Litvinenko (Russian spy, murdered by radioactive polonium poisoning in London in 2006) and Karl Marx. The gateman I once knew was constantly being asked where Groucho was buried.

The West Cemetery is pretty much left to itself, apart from keeping the paths clear(ish). This is where London's 19th century celebrities were buried. A mix of circus owners, newspaper proprietors and scandal makers (including the Two Famous Irishwomen).

The West Cemetery is cordoned off by the local bobbies every Halloween night to stop black witches and shamans climbing the walls and getting up to all sorts of mischief (orgies, sacrifices etc.).

White witches and shamans don't approve of this sort of thing. Neither does the Commissioner for the Metropolitan Police.

 

[fryke]

Here in Switzerland we didn't have Halloween. We had things like going to the forests with little lanterns, which was kinda similar. Nowadays, we still don't "do" Halloween, but all the stores are trying to sell American Halloween stuff produced in China to our kids. Guess young parents simply love to see their children as monsters.

 

[icemanjc]

So what actually is the point of halloween, what are we actually celebrating, I think its dumb. It's big in Florida, but I take no part in it.