Trick or Treat
 

Well, it's started. This is the one night of the year I wish I lived at the end of a 5km track in the campo! We will be up and down answering the door like a couple of jack-in-a-boxes until about 11pm now.

Do you get many trick or treaters where you live? We actually made our permanent move to Spain on this date (5 years ago today) and it took us by surprise because we hadn't realised it was so popular here. We hadn't got any sweets in so offered the kids who called some small change instead, and they looked really disappointed and asked for caramelos instead - bet that wouldn't have happened with British kids! We didn't make that mistake again.

Re: Trick or Treat
 

They import the american rubbish as much as we do (and yes I know Halloween originated in the UK).

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Thankfully we dont have the kids at the door here, so no problem, did have in UK though:frown:

Re: Trick or Treat
 

I was just curious, do the children over there not follow "trick or treat" etiquette? If a house's porch light is not on, children are not supposed to go to that house because the people who live there are not participating in Halloween.

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Halloween originated centuries ago and not in the UK, it is a corruption of all saints day and is well celebrated by the Catholics. Trick or treat I do not remember until the eighties in the Uk but maybe that is my bad memory.

Graham

Re: Trick or Treat
 

1. Over 80% of Spaniards live in flats
2. I'm not sure even the houses have porch lights :rofl:

Luckily there are not any trick and treaters near me. I'm also surprised how commerical it has become in Spain although this is very recent, just like it is in the UK

When I was a kid I'd be getting the guy ready for fireworks night, we didnt celebrate haloween at all

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Interesting article in Wiki which seems to indicate it's actually originally a celtic festival , and originated in either Scotland or Ireland. Wherever it started, we can agree it wasn't in the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

I think the November 1 events in Spanish speaking countries are more of interest - just my opinion.

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Yep, they'll be gowing to the cemetries with a duster and broom tomorrow morning!

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Agree with you. Today the town has been full of people carrying bunches of flowers and flower arrangements. Our cemetery is on the outskirts of the town and it is great to see whole families walking there to clean the plaques and put their flower displays in place.

No trick or treaters yet. Have the sweets but no-one seems to be bothering this year. It is always hit and miss here.

rosemary

Re: Trick or Treat
 

I don't either.

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Very few knocked on my door this evening, so I'm presuming it's because my boys are now grown up and the local kids tend to knock on the doors of houses where they already know the residents.

Looks like I'm going to have to finish off the Chupa Chups!

Re: Trick or Treat
 

It goes way back as long ago as I can remember in the N.E. and well before that I believe and was often known as guising.
Sometimes a group of them came in the house, an area of floor would be cleared and they'd put on a brief but very lively show of some sort.

Re: Trick or Treat
 

No-one has ever kept the Halloween tradition where I have lived in Spain. More popular with the young teenagers is el día de las castañas tomorrow. They all go into the campo to drink and roast chestnuts. We used to see them passing by at the end of the garden, some even had shopping trolleys with food etc. you could see all the small fires out in the hills (a bit worrying!) I think this custom is spanish wide, certainly around cádiz and Extremadura.

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Sometimes I feel that the land of Geordies, Mackems and Smoggies ie the North-East, is the last genuine part of England. Always good to hear your recollections of the place.

Re: Trick or Treat
 

My Dad was visiting some years ago and we were saying how it was a sign of the times when parents go out trick or treating with their kids, admitedley they don't come to front door but you can see them at the end of the drive keeping watch.

When we were younger we went out on our own I said, he laughed and said "No son you just didn't see me"

Re: Trick or Treat
 

"Penny for the Guy" not Trick or Treat in my childhood

Re: Trick or Treat
 

The Spanish kids in our village come round with a letter asking if they can come back later for trick or treat.

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Just a matter of time before the little gobshites start posting their demands on the internet.

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Our village is really small and still in the dark ages I am surprised they did it at all!! I actually thought it quite respectful to check that you didn't mind them coming round!

Re: Trick or Treat
 

I am with you on that, respectful and showing that the parents are taking responsibility for any annoyance that their child could be causing other members of the community.

I looked out of the window at 10.15 because I heard childrens voices. Six young lads (about 10 years old) were walking down the middle of the road, each had a very small (looked almost empty) carrier in one hand and a white paper bag in the other. They were busy eating what was in the paper bag so I presume that it was a bocadillo, none of them knocked on any doors. At the bottom of the road they met up with 3 slightly older children who live in our street, they compared booty and chatted for a few minutes and then parted. One of the three was dressed as a nun :ohmy::lol:, could not really work out what the other two were dressed as but it did mean that I did eventually manage to throw out some sweets.

Rosemary

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Halloween or All Hallows Eve existed long before All Saints Day.

The Italian Pope (can't remember which one) invented All Saints Day to fall on November 1st to try and stop the Pagans from celebrating their harvest festival on the 31st.

Italians all go to the gravestones of loved ones today too. Officially known as All Saints Day it's also called 'Il giorno dei morti' .... the day of the dead.
It's a national holiday too - no work or school today.

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Sorry you are correct, I should have typed Halloween is a shortening of all hallows eve the day before all saints day. Sorry about that, a senior moment.:rolleyes:

Graham

Re: Trick or Treat
 

You don't have to apologise to me ............. I spend some time each October teaching the Italians that Halloween was not a party invented by Americans but rather, it has deep seated roots which their Pope tried in vain to wipe out. I like telling them that bit :lol:

Re: Trick or Treat
 

It was actually not so manic here last night as it has been in previous years (think we got 8 or 9 calls in all) and was obvious that the kids weren't as dressed up as they normally are. Another sign of "la crisis", parents don't have the money to spend on non-essentials.

No way am I going to finish off the Chupa Chups, just the smell of them makes me feel sick! The leftover sweets will get dished out today, to whoever is passing.

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Another sign of the crisis is that the Chupa Chups factory in Asturias is moving to China :(

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Back in the mist of my mind we did not trick nor treat nor penny for the guy in my childhood in our wee village. We dooked for apples and got messy biting treacle scones hanging from the pulley.

My kids went guisin' having learnt a song/dance/poetry or a string of jokes and went round their friends parents houses only. They had to do something to earn their treat not just stand there and ask for it ! Some of them put on quite a show. I remember one girl singing to us, really good she was.

Bonfire night was a village/family affair with food and fireworks.

Last night in the area of all my local bars/ shops it was a steady stream of dresed up children of all ages. Some bore no resemblance to spooky things although bizarre :D

Re: Trick or Treat
 

I am amazed at some of the ages that got dressed up (almost 20yrs some I saw and know), even more amazing were the fabulous costumes and make up they had, off they went in their cars, to where I don´t know.

Nobody knocked on the doors here though.

Is it a holiday yesterday and today? Loads of cars in our village and bars full at the mo.

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Holiday today, a lot of people go to the cemetaries to visit their departed.

Re: Trick or Treat
 

HI, I am from the posh part of Newcastle (Scotswood Elswick and Benwell) and have to admit I've never heard of it.

Re: Trick or Treat
 

....and here's me thinking that all the posh baggers live ap at Gorsforth.

In any event that probably explains it, either that or you're not so long in the tooth as me.
Guising was certainly a common thing around all the pit villages in my neck of the woods, but there again maybe it was all different for all you posh city types. ;)

Re: Trick or Treat
 

In north east Lancashire we had the Mummers, it's a very long time ago so I've only a vague memory of it......

As I remember they used to wear turbans and had painted faces, they all wore a striped pinny (apron) and had dusters.
They would come in the house and start dusting while all the time going mmmmmm mmmmmm mmmmm, they would be given some small change but the only thing they would say was mmmmmm.

(that's the nearest I can get to the sound they made) :)

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Mmmmm, strange buggers you Lancastrians, mmmm very strange indeed. ;)

Re: Trick or Treat
 

:p :rofl:

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Do you paint the coal white before you go first footing ???

Re: Trick or Treat
 

:rofl:
Of course they do, but they have to wash it properly first.

Re: Trick or Treat
 

HI DICK, Is 76 next birthday long enough??

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Err right, :huh:

In that case I presume you had much better things to occupy your minds in your younger days in your neck of the woods......or should I not ask ? ;)

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Well at least it would be in the right place for that, as everyone knows we in the North keep our coal in the bath!:D

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Your right,
Often think of missed opertunities when the blood dropped below the waist.

Re: Trick or Treat
 

Reminds me of this old girl up our way not so long ago who used to go into the local coal depot every week.
She had an ancient possibly siver cross pram and lined up in the queue of big trucks, some transporting big bulk loads of coal to power stations, others delivering locally.
First she took her turn on the massive weighbridge and got weighed-in empty, before filling up her pram with a shovel and then joining the big truck queue to weigh-in loaded, and pay on the way back out.
I recall she had quite a walk along a busy trunk road after that to push her pram-load all the way back to her house.