The day before Halloween which to me is one of the strangest celebrations of all time. If you are a fan of Halloween which in my mind is entirely ok, I would maybe recommend you stop reading now, because I struggle to find a positives about it. It really is just not for me.
When I was growing up Halloween simply didn’t exist and in the last 10 years or so it has grown into a very sizeable business for supermarkets, corner shops and of course the pop-up shop. With a huge array of costumes and accessories available to buy for just one night. This doesn’t take in account all the cakes, sweets that are turned into Halloween foods that are normally full of additives to make your kids go crazy for a few hours.
Halloween is a big celebration in America and for reasons beyond my comprehension we have imported it to the uk. Which if I’m honest I find a great shame. I’m really not very keen on the idea that my five year old twin girls grow thinking it’s ok to scare the crap out of people in ridiculous outfits.
What is Halloween? What is it actually celebrating, originally it was a Christian holiday that honoured the saints and the day was known as All Saints Day, it was also a day to ward off ghosts. How far removed is it from that today. I imagine if you asked any child what Halloween is they would probably come back with getting dressed up as a scary Skelton or a monster or as I have seen this year lots of superheroes, and of course sweets by the bucket load.
Today we live in a society that can’t help itself from making money out of every event in the calendar year. We seems actually quite sad.
What are we teaching our children I think it’s a wrong message about how we behave in society and quite often have a total disregard for other people, which is why we have to be careful how we convey this to our children. Though the many activities of a modern Halloween.
Modern day Halloween has some very strange practices , here are a few I struggle with.
1. Is it really a clever idea to encourage our children to knock on strangers doors and ask for sweets, we wouldn’t encourage them to walk up to a stranger in the street and ask for sweets. I consider it exactly the same thing. Also knocking on a old persons front door at nighttime can be very scary for them especially when they live on their own.
2. Going out and buying costumes and masks with the intention to scare the living daylights out of anybody and everybody they come across. This is particularly worrying when it comes to the older generation, who can easily be very frightened. Especially when it’s large groups of teenagers with fake blood and costumes which would scare the strongest of people. Quite often the results of them not answering the door kids will feel it’s ok to throw eggs at the windows.
We have a habit of starting traditions in the uk and this is certainly become a very over-rated tradition. I was staggered at the aisle after aisle of Halloween merchandise at our local Asda store. The amount of merchandise seems to grow year on year. These costumes and accessories are not cheap, for them to be used for probably a maximum of two days, and the following year will be back again to spend more money. That’s a lot of pressure on Parents financially. Year on year.
I not entirely a stick in the mud when it comes to Halloween and obviously having five year old twin girls I have had to relent a bit. We attended the schools Scaries and Fairies disco which is Halloween themed event. It was actually good fun but I believe that is because it was a organised event. Today I shall be doing pumpkins with the girls and that Is is my limit.
My five year old twin girls have asked to go trick and treating around our area with us of course, but we have said no, because we feel at five years of age they are far to young, to knock on strangers doors, and ask for sweets.
I could always hope that Halloween is made illegal but that won’t happen while the shops are making money from it.
Do you celebrate Halloween? Or are you like me that thinks it should be banned. I would love to know your thoughts.
5 Comments
David @ DadvWorld
October 30, 2017 at 6:32 pm
CONTROVERSIAL!
I see a few of your points on this one Nige but I’m not sold on them :/
I think it’s pretty much like everything else, as long as you educate your children on exactly what’s right and wrong and how to enjoy Halloween safely it’s fine.
We’ve gone all in this Halloween because Corben has a natural love for all things Zombie related. It happens to be his birthday in October too so we smashed the two together and have had almost a 2 week Halloween celebration, much to your despair LOL!
I don’t encourage Corben to go around scaring people but more admire the effort and craft of his friends fancy dress etc. Also tomorrow will be the first time we take him Trick or Treating. Without sounding snobby, our area is pretty nice and the whole village tend to get involved in Halloween, Scarecrow Competitions and anything else it can throughout the year. I’ve never lived in a place like this and it genuinely has a community feel which is rare nowadays. This means we finally feel safe to have a walk around the surrounding streets and visit only the homes that have decorations lit up etc which for gives the message they’re happy to be involved.
I can see your point about if being a huge money making ploy, as is Christmas. Really, unless you’re a religious person practicing christianity, should you get involved with Christmas?
Great post as always mate 🙂
PS> You’re not going to unfollow and block me are you?! HAHA!
Tom Briggs
October 31, 2017 at 1:54 pm
I’m not a fan of Halloween either and won’t be letting my kids take part as it goes against things we tell them all year round. We’ve made pumpkin lanterns as the kids really wanted them, but they’re not being put in front of the house and we won’t be answering the door tonight!
Mummy2twindividuals
October 31, 2017 at 8:04 pm
I’ve got to agree with David. We’ve done lots of Halloween crafts with my three yr old twins and this year they dressed up as a bumblebee and ladybird so not exactly terrifying. Our village put a lot of effort into decorating and there is a great buzz. One house is all lit up and you are invited inside for a spooky tour (not at all scary) with a charity collection bucket. We only visit decorated houses and ensure good manners. I’m not sure what the equivalent to a Scrooge is but I think it’s you. 😝🎃👻
Neil
November 1, 2017 at 9:55 pm
Very thought provoking post. Our Daughter is 4 years old and this is the second year we’ve taken her trick or treating. I don’t believe in the big over the top celebration it has become recently but love it purely because she loves dressing up. The first year we took her round the neighbours houses only who we knew would love to see her and this year we went to the next street down but only knocked on houses with pumpkins or decorations outside. For me it’s just another way to enjoy time with my Daughter. #TriumphantTales
Mrs Mummy Harris
November 5, 2017 at 11:49 am
Me and Hubby love halloween and used to host parties yearly before ben was born. But it was just us friends at home dressed up drinking. In terms of trick or treating my nieces and nephews do it in my mums cul-de-sac where they all know eachother and the trick part of it we tell them is when the neighbours dont answer the door.
I hate the idea of houses being egged etc so they know its either sweets, money, crisps and sometimes fruit or no answer from the door, they then come back and watch fireworks in the garden from the comfort of my mums conservatory. A great birthday celebration for one of my nieces!!!
Thank you for sharing this with us at #TriumphantTales. I hope to see you back next week!