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.

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

I well remember taking part in "a penny for the guy" but we didn't dress up or try to frighten anyone.

I'm surprised to return to the UK and find that halloween dressing up is so popular. At a cafe in Brixham yesterday staff were dressed as witches, though a younger one looked very attractive looking like a cat!!

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

"Penny for the Guy" is Guy Fawkes ie 5 November. Hallowe'en is the last day of October. It was celebrated in my youth in Scotland where the custom of "guising" was well established. (Dressing up and visiting neighbour's houses.) No connection I think between "guising" (meaning acting in the Scots Tongue, and Guy Fawkes. Or is there ?

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

You are being pedantic :D No connection at all, just different cultures and what we remember growing up. We do know they are on different days. Some of my friends in Kent posted on FB they had about 80 kids arriving dressed up asking for sweets, so in some areas they are jumping on the bandwagon :eek:

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

The great thing about the traditions are that you can leave and come back again a quarter of a century later, and they still carry on - like Corrie! It's the people you leave behind when you move that grieves you, not so much the loss of place.

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

Yes, Wolverhampton is not far as the crow flies, but as someone unused to these roads - the speed, twists and turns and endless roundabouts - it's a long way. We like Northamptonshire, it has some stunningly pretty villages, the canal network gives it a special charm and it's a great central location for further travels. So many places to see, so little time!
And BTW, I'm taking your advice and we'll be driving to two Guy Fawkes bashes hosted locally this w/e, complete with beer and cider for the 'grown-ups', so I'll try to post a photo so you can share in the spirit of bonfire night. I have to say some things are much more liberal here - drinking outdoors at a public event with children present would never be permitted in Canada.:p

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

Lots of treat of treaters came by us.
My Dd got to go out all dressed up and treat or treat too, something she had never done in the US as we lived in a rural place.
It was lots of fun, a few houses went all out with the decorations and the adults had as much fun as the children.
My Dh was left home handing out the sweets, we went through 4 bags and had two bags of tangerines on standby in case we ran out of sweets.
Tomorrow is the village bonfire and fireworks hope it stops raining long enough to go.

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

Confusing as I only left the UK 2 years ago and I took my kids treat or treating for 8 years in the UK. There were loads of houses on our estate in the UK decorated. What surprised me more was here in the US Halloween is made out to be so big, but come Halloween night it felt just same as the UK.

I know my friends in the UK were trick or treating with their kids as usually.

What I did like about Halloween in the UK is kids dress up more traditionally for Halloween, as in always something scary. Not just any dress up, which I like as less likely to change the costumes into something sexy for a 7 year old girl.

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

Trick and treating? As a kid, we used to go "guising" and made lanterns out of turnips! It was a different time to say the least.

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

Funny, you miss all the scarey costumes, I miss all the kids in non scarey that we made up in the US, we used to go to a friends party every year. The costumes were amazing and there was a competition for all age groups. Dd and I went as a ladybird and an aphid last year. He we had trouble getting anything last minute that wasn't a witch this year as I usually plan in advance and was busy moving here this time.

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

Hi Mummy

I think its familiarity that we all crave, only scary costumes is what I am familiar with so thats what feels right to me.

As you spent a large number of years in the US with your kids I'm sure the different costumes is what you feel familiar with.

Familiarity is sometimes what makes us feel safe and at home. I think it plays a huge part in why expats don't always feel at home in their chosen county and also why if they return after a long time, its not always easy to settle.

I move home after only 2 years and 3 months in 4 weeks, so hoping its not changed that much:)

Re: Halloween and feeling like an alien!
 

After only a couple of years you will fall back into it like you were never gone. I'm getting more settled by the day and thats after over 20 years.
The only reason we ended up getting Dd a witch costume was she was ribbed for not having a scary one for the school dress up day before halloween. :( So she conformed for the actual day and was very happy about that.