Ooh, this looks fun!

[justice_turtle]

'In honor of All Hallow's Eve, I'm inviting trick-or-treaters to my 'door.' Comment "trick-or-treat" to this post and...well, you know the drill. Treats can be anything that strikes my fancy (pics of fave actors or pairings, one sentence fics, graphics, a few words why I'm glad to have you on my flist, etc. etc.). The more "houses" to visit the

Comments

[lost_spook]

Yeah, nothing much happens, especially now. I think it's mainly a hangover from my childhood, when it really wasn't common, and it was often a lot of older kids, with emphasis on the trick side of it, and old people getting scared. Also while mostly now, if it's done, it's parents taking their kids round to a couple of friends & neighbours, but the little kids in the terraced houses round here, will just go out by themselves and knowck on anybody's doors, and I know they do it at other times (Carol singing, and summer: "Can I wash your car?") but it bothers me. I worked with kids like them a lot, and they're so... hard to describe, but vulnerable under all their cheeky ways. Also, I'm in the NE now, and they have Mischief Night near to it, which is basically the trick without the treat and people throw eggs a lot. And sometimes that gets into Hallowe'en, so you can never be quite sure that you won't just get eggs all over your window. Or, because of Bonfire Night, fireworks or something.

Most years nothing dreadful happens, though! But I think spooky parties are a better idea all round, for us, anyway. :-)

And, um, bah humbug, and stuff. :lol:

[dbskyler]

That's too bad, especially as I think Halloween trick-or-treating is one of our best cultural traditions here in the U.S. It's a pretty awesome thing when done right.

[lost_spook]

Well, it's your thing; I don't think we copy it well! :-) But lots of children do go round to family, friends and neighbours, all dressed up & have fun - it just wasn't like that when I was small, and I still see some of the more negative sides here, now. But that is probably only me being gloomy!!

But then a lot of surviving traditions we have own to some dark/violent roots - it's that idea of 'misrule', basically, so (& especially this time of year) you get Mischief Night, and other random stuff although most of it has died out, or been banned. There actually are tiny bits of deepest, darkest England still around. Often run by jolly well meaning people keeping tradition alive and being careful and pc these days, but tradition isn't always nice. (And, yes, lots of these would make for good DW stories. :-D)

We have Bonfire Night very soon after, though, and that's the big one over here & again, especially where I came from, because we have a Guy Fawkes Carnival, which is a huge deal in my home town & beyond. (Bonfire Night has far dodgier origins, of course...!)

[dbskyler]

Trick-or-treating must seem like a really strange tradition if you didn't grow up with it. I had to look up what Mischief Night is; that doesn't sound good. Apparently they have it in some areas of the U.S. too, but not anywhere that I've ever lived. Halloween for me has always been safe and fun. Even when I lived in the heart of New York City, I saw little kids in costumes trick-or-treating, but instead of knocking on peoples' doors (which could have been problematic), they went to businesses. I got to see 4-year-old kids all dressed up, carrying little plastic pumpkin baskets, going into hardware stores and sushi bars and asking for candy, and getting it. It was adorable.