Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

This is our first Halloween back in UK. Tentatively asked a neighbour whether we should expect any Trick or Treaters this evening - "Oh no! We don't like that here, it's so American". After 30 years in Canada, I felt like quite an outsider! But to all of you here with happy memories of carving pumpkins, of visits by witches and monsters, and doling out mountains of candy, and who are missing the fun, Happy Halloween!:

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

I don't have any memories of tricking and treating in the UK at all. Maybe it is because they never did it. I don't know.

I DO remember dressing up and going to an adult-supervised children's party, though. Great fun!

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

No, I don't remember that either, Guy Fawkes ruled and it's good to see it's still going strong. The two events are too close together, and I guess in the long run they'll merge. But much as I love Halloween, it's very kid-oriented and the bonfire bashes here seem to include adults more, with beer, cider and mulled wine on offer at local events.

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

Thank goodness, no halloween!!! I may be a party pooper but I do not enjoy it at all! Just an excuse to collect free candy to last your kids until Christmas. Some of my friends in neighbourhoods with lots of children say they get between 100 and 150 kids and spend well over $60 to $100 on candy. It is just the usual money making racket from stores. Excessive overspend!

Tomorrow they will be playing Christmas music to make people shop some more! I must admit here in Canada where I live they have asked people and stores not to display lights until after 11th November out of respect.

We had Guy Fawkes as a child and I am glad that that is now usually controlled at schools and charity events to avoid the pain it brings to pets and wildlife!

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

BTW LC won't take you long to feel you belong when the good old British traditions roll on :D

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

There are quite a few Trick Treaters here in London. They are walking up and down the high street and not knocking on doors. I just saw a little kid with enough sweet stuff to last him through next summer. :-)

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

Scary Boo! :D

Halloween ,when I was nubbit but a kid in the UK, was about carving a jack-o-lantern . We put a candle in and then the thing shone out the lounge window.

It was a cosy family affair, although sometimes with another family & friends. We played bob the apple and old games like that and then there would be a delicious ghosty story by candle light with the curtains safely drawn. It was so much fun .

I don't know when the trick/treat thing came into play or why. It wasn't about kids going out to ask for sweets.
My Mum was Irish and so steeped in old folk lore. The Banshee and the like. Dad came from the rubble of a blitz London and had tales of dark shadows and mad murderers. We knew what the eve was about and Mum & Dad set a great atmosphere.

In my memory , the only time children or adults went door to door knocking was to carol sing.

The only time I remember it being OK to ask strangers for something was before Guy Fawkes when someone would have made a 'guy' and then ask for a "penny for the guy'. You didn't knock on doors though.

Here in New Zealand , they don't seem to do much really or know what Halloween is about. Sometimes there is a group of kids , dressed up & door knocking to ask for sweets. Doesn't seem very family friendly to me but , hey, what do I know. After years of the Trick/Treat thing in Canada , I can quite see why you would miss that.

Get thyself to a good quality Guy Fawkes night. :)
They don't do that here in NZ either for obvious reasons. :zzz:

and remember LooseChippings

"From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
please, deliver us!"

:scaredhair:

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

What a wonderfully evocative tale you tell, Bev, and such lyrical prose! You've done my soul good.:starsmile:

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

After living in 5 different countries, Canada the longest, I'm not sure that I can ever feel I really belong here. The curse of the expat! This is why this forum is such a help, perhaps we are a nation, or at least a nomadic tribe.

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

After 12 years here my OH and I still do not feel we belong :ohmy: Yes the curse of the expat.

Bevs I remember the "penny for the guy" where I grew up, it was mostly the youth and children from the poorer farm workers surrounding our neighbourhood and we could hear them singing songs and have this stuffed chap made of straw decked out in an old men's suit sitting in a wheelbarrow and our mom would give us the pennies to put into their money boxes. You are right they never knocked on doors, just walked down the road rattling their tins. Then when it was dark (because it was Southern Hemisphere quite a lot later) we lit crackers and sparklers! No begging for anything and it was only much later when at school did I learn that "Guy Fawkes" was actually a person :lol:

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

I TOTALLY agree with you!!!

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

One of the great things about this forum and the people who come here is that it provides validation for our feelings - feelings about not belonging, desire to home, etc. Without this, some of us would still be saying we are just imagining it, that we will feel differently tomorrow, that we are simply homesick and we just need to go there for a holiday, etc., etc.

This forum makes us confront our thoughts and feelings and call them what they really are - a yearning to go home. There's a certain clarity that comes with this realization and, from that, it is possible to move forward and actually DO IT.

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

When you feel a touch marooned, it's good to share with a like minded soul ....innit:)

I know. Ten years in NZ & I have come to realise I will never totally feel that sense of belonging. It just doesn't lift my heart & soul.

:lol: So true.
The council estate we lived on edged onto open heath land and commoners grazing land , so the local bonfire was over the road & the guy went on that . Thinking back, I do feel it was a local 'gypsy' family that made the guy and their kids that sat with it. They may not have been but that is what touches the edge of my memory.

We wrapped up warm against a frosty chill with double socks on & our woollen hats and mitts . Turning our faces to the warm of the bonfire with Mum's hand just ready to catch our sleeves in case we stepped too far.
Always crispy jacket potatoes & joy of joys, a sparkler. I still love sparklers to this day. I love the light and the smell of them.

Later , came the organised do's. The fireworks so mesmorising. The bonfires amazing. Still a great evening out though, that just looked, felt and smelled right somehow.

They do have fireworks here but mostly of a New Years eve and these are not organised 'do's despite us being semi-rural :ohmy:

When we first came to our village Nov 5th was a bonfire and firework night as a fund raiser for the scouts but that's stopped now. So I am totally sparkler-less without a cause :cry_smile:

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

Ah ! I see you are in Northants. Not far from my husbands home town of Wolverhampton.

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

I remember trick and treating as a kid and penny for the guy, so it isn't a new thing and its not just a North American thing either.