Chocolate Forum
Chat => General => Topic started by: wjp666 on October 31, 2009, 03:34:21 am
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just wanted to wish everyone here a very happy halloween, if that's your kinda thing. i know it's not a big deal to most people but in the last few years it's realy taken off as a big celebration in this neck of the woods. everyone i know seems to be going to these major parties this year to get tanked up...
...and i'll be at home watching Most Haunted Live and nursing a baby to sleep. ;)
anyone here got any plans for it? going to dress up as anything cool?
trick or treat, people!
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I am astonished at the growth of halloween in the last 20 years. It is now, economically and in terms of how much notice people take of it, bigger than Easter.
I am not a great fan of the festival personally. I know that makes me seem like an old grump, but my concern is really borne out of how it sits with modern life.
Going back a few hundred years, when high days and holidays were few and far between, such festivals were latched onto by the community as a means of letting off steam and coming together for shared food and fun.
Times have moved on and people live more isolated lives. Elderly people are scared when someone knocks on their door at night because they don't know who is there and what their intentions are. Halloween has been used by a monority as an excuse to extract funds from unwilling givers and to taunt and intimidate vulnerable people. Little children dressing up collecting chocolate treats from neighbours is one thing. However, teams of deamnding teenagers (and older) inflicting nasty 'tricks' on people who don't pay up - or even on people who don't fit their idea of 'coolness' is quite another thing entirely.
I stopped giving treats to halloween door-knockers when they turned their noses up at sweet treats and make remarks my meaness as they walked down the path towards equally rude and ignorant parents who were obviously expecting me to subsidise their children's pocket money.
However, if you are celebrating tonight, or if your kiddies are happy with sweet treats and graciously receive them, have a great evening and don't mind the old grump sitting with the lights off and the blinds closed!!
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Halloween is a shameless Americanisation of the pagan festival, Samhain. I still carved a pumpkin, though ;) Time to get the horror films out. Oh, and it's my and my partner's first wedding anniversary today!
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Aww, have a lovely anniversary dr. My hubbie and I are about to clock up 25 years of marriage.
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happy anniversary, dr.t! what a great day to get married on!
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I went back to Halloween 1376. Bloody ell, it was scary!
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I recently heard Trick or Treating described as 'begging and egging', and that's exactly what some kids have turned it into. Like Oldspice said, kids who actually dress up and do it for the fun of it aren't the problem; it's the kind of brats who see Halloween as carte blanche to go to stranger's houses and demand cash that put me off.
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Hmmm...
I have mixed opinions on Trick or Treating. On one hand, I really don't have a problem buying sweets for Trick or Treaters. I've never had a problem with older kids begging for money, they have all happily accepted a handful of Haribo over the years :D
On the other hand, I don't allow my own children to go knocking on doors because I don't want them to be a nuisance to others. I let them dress up and hand sweets out to anyone who knocks on our door but they have never been allowed out themselves. They don't like it but it's tough ;)
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I went back to Halloween 1376. Bloody ell, it was scary!
They didn't have Halloween in 1376. I think you must have crossed into a parallel dimension.
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Hmmm, well, OK - All Hallow's Eve, but wasn't sure if everyone had heard of that, so gave it, it modern name.
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I went away for the weekend and there was a huge Halloween party on the Saturday where everyone dressed up and had fun - me and two friends went as red devils.
One for wjp though - while you were up feeding and settling the baby etc, did you happen to hear the huge firework display at 2 am from Bowleaze???? It was right outside our window and we're very intrigued because nobody was there to set them off and nobody was even watching except us! We wondered if it was something to do with the Olympic thing and they got the timer wrong...
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One for wjp though - while you were up feeding and settling the baby etc, did you happen to hear the huge firework display at 2 am from Bowleaze???? It was right outside our window and we're very intrigued because nobody was there to set them off and nobody was even watching except us!
i heard fireworks going off most of the night, but not specifically at 2am. bowleaze isn't too far from where i am either. (i guess i was too engrossed in Most Haunted to notice, hehe.)
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don't mind the old grump sitting with the lights off and the blinds closed!!
That was me.
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bah, humbug!