Happy Halloween

[Which Tyler]

Anyone else doing an antipasti board for the trick-or-treaters?

I call him "Reek"


I'm also putting a play-list together to put by the antipasti (and cauldron of sweets) - any suggested alterations welcome. Kid friendly

1 Monster Mash - Bobby "Boris" Pickett
2 The Addams Family - Vic Mizzy
3 The Point of no Return - Andrew Lloyd-Webber
4 Amityville (House on the Hill) – Lovebug
5 This Is Halloween - Danny Elffman
6 Overture from Phantom - Andrew Lloyd-Webber
7 Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr.
8 Thriller - Michael Jackson
9 Addams Groove - MC Hammer
10 O Fortuna (From Carmina Burana) - Carl Orff
11 Monster - The Automatic
12 Time Warp - Rocky Horror
13 Funhouse - P!nk
14 Tubular Bells - Mike Oldfield
15 Somebody's Watching Me – Rockwell
16 Halloween – Aqua
17 (Don't Fear) The Reaper - Blue Öyster Cult
18 Halloween Theme - John Carpenter
19 Hungry Like The Wolf - Duran Duran
20 I Put a Spell on you - Screamin' Jay Hawkins
21 Ghost - Kate Perry
22 Psycho (Murder Sequence) - London Philharmonic
23 Evil Woman - Electric Light Orchestra
24 A Nightmare on my Street - DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince
25 Monster - Lady Gaga
26 Ghost Town – Specials
27 Zombie – Cranberries
28 The Monster (radio edition) - Eminem & Rihanna

 

[Which Tyler]

Remember kids, "trick" is as valid as "treat" tonight

ETA: Ahh... dammit! it tells me I can post the pic, then doesn't post the pic!

It's the old "sprouts dressed as Ferrero Rocher" trick

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Never really got Halloween. We don't really celebrate it in Chinese culture. We have mid autumn festival instead at this time of year and Moon cakes (take out the bitter yellow part).

Still, happy Halloween and all that and I won't be opening my door to kids, as gonna scoff the sweets I have myself so expect my house to get egged or TP'd.

 

[Which Tyler]

 

[ncurd]

I'm going to watch The Shining at the cinema tonight. That's my plans in their entirety.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Don't really get it, or really remember when it became a thing, but the kids seem to enjoy it and the farm shops enjoy fleecing everyone.

Mrs VT has put a pumpkin in the window and a few other bits around the door, the price for which is that she gets up to answer the door every time.

To the parents amongst you, enjoy the sugar rush.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Apartment living is great this day of they year!

Don't really get it, or really remember when it became a thing, but the kids seem to enjoy it and the farm shops enjoy fleecing everyone.

Mrs VT has put a pumpkin in the window and a few other bits around the door, the price for which is that she gets up to answer the door every time.

To the parents amongst you, enjoy the sugar rush.

Heard Halloween isn't much of a thing in the UK with burn a catholic night just after? Sounds like you're being indirectly influenced by us with the yanks as our proxy!

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

 

[ncurd]

Don't really get it, or really remember when it became a thing

Heard Halloween isn't much of a thing in the UK with burn a catholic night just after? Sounds like you're being indirectly influenced by us with the yanks as our proxy!

So in the mid 90's it was very much not a thing parents in the UK would describe trick or treating as begging, I know both my parents and my wives though the same thing and I was banned from doing it. By the late 2000's my Mum was decorating the house and dressing up for the local beggars

I think its just American influence has made it bigger with Guy Fawkes being the made celebration this time of year.

 

[Which Tyler]

I was trick or treating in the 80s; but it was with 3-4 houses that had been pre-arranged by the parents. Costumes were home-made and basic. Dressing up was definitely as "the bad guys" though - ghosts and goulies, skeletons and devils - no Robin Hoods or superheros.
Tricks were as valid as treats, in the form of harmless practical jokes.
It was very much in 3rd place, behind Guy Fawkes, and even further behind Harvest Festival.

Obviously, the origins of halloween pre-date christianity (as Samhain), becoming associated with devilry because... early christians, and anything that isn't christian must be devilry. Those same early christians insisting that the following day be all-hallows' day, to combat the evil of... relighting fires, and welcoming the ancestors.
But the current version has certainly been eaten up, commercialised, and spat back out to the world by America.


Personally, I quite like it, and especially 4 years ago, it was basically the first time for the community to let its hair down and get together. I like that it still does the latter aspect, especially since 2020 when it was the first opportunity to for the community to let its hair down and get together for some harmless fun.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Interesting, it's always been big here for obvious reasons.

I've become a bit more interested in recent years, mostly from a historc pov and I haven't taken part, having dived into early Irish pagan traditions. The best music festival here in my opinion is Solstice (formerly body and soul) which is a summer solstice festival that has a lot of pagan stuff if you want to find it. Would love to fo Derry Halloween which I've heard is similar.

St Brigid, one of our patron saints, is also most likely a figure stolen from Irish paganism. So definitely something I've become interested in.

As a childless man approaching 30, the commercial side of it doesn't hold much interest yet!

 

[Which Tyler]

Interesting, it's always been big here for obvious reasons.

Not that obvious.

Obvious because of Samhain, or obvious because catholicism and all hallows' day?

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Not that obvious.

Obvious because of Samhain, or obvious because catholicism and all hallows' day?

I think one runs into the other but the catholic celebration would have been why it was so popular initially. Most christian holidays originating from Britain and Ireland are taken from Pagan holidays which is now being recognised.

Up until the last 10 years or so the focus and education would have been around All Hallows day (called Alll Saints Day more commonly here) amd the idea of lanterns guiding lost souls to heaven. Recently, the Samhain celebration has been far more widely embraced as the catholic church loses it's influence day by day and paganism isn't seen as blasphemous!