trick or treating (page 3)

friendorfoe

Lets not forget this is another day to watch the excitement in are childrens eyes lets give them something they can believe and look forward to as a child before they grow up and reality sets in.
This is something I was able to share with my daughter visiting with are neighbors ( who treated me better then the borg I grew up with at least they accepted me ) and the giggling she just scored and my inner warmness (from the over-sized rum and coke I was drinking and the warm greetings I was getting from worldly assocition I was warned against). It just goes to show me the Jws have been around since the late 1800s but good neighbors have been around alot longer.

outnfree

teejay,

I will speak only to logistics.

When I was a JW wife and my worldly husband insisted on taking our children trick or treating, I, too, felt that it was unfair for my children to be receiving treats at the neighbors' while our house was dark and uninviting. I did not want to distribute candy myself, therefore I devised a solution: the honor system.

I made up a cardboard sign of a ghost saying "Take ONE and Go-oooooooo!" and set out a large dish of candy for the neighbor kiddies.

(There actually were leftovers!)

So if you change your mind, and you want to delight your child by letting them know that it's okay for them to dress up and trick or treat, there is this alternative open to you, without involving your wife.

And now that I DO stay home and offer treats to the kids (as opposed to sitting in the dark or going out to a film?) I get SUCH a kick out of seeing the little ones in their costumes.

It's such FUN!!! Last night my son went to the Halloween Dance at school and one of the guys came disguised as a belly dancer with two inch polished nails!!!! (and abs that many women would die for )
After the dance was over one of the children's five aunts showed up with her mother lined up against a wall outside the gym -- all in costume! -- as a surprise. It was a riot!

Nelly and Wifey,

I am surprised that Hallowe'en seems so 'rough' in Britain. Here, nobody would dream of trick or treating early -- in fact the city has assigned hours on Hallowe'en night and the focus is candy not money. When I was young, the money received on Hallowe'en was put in 1/2 pint milk carton containers for the benefit of UNICEF. The school collected them and sent them on.

There are still those who T.P. (toilet paper) or otherwise trick some in the neighborhood on All Hallow's Eve (variously called Devil's Night, Cabbage Night), but it is quite mild fun here in the suburbs. I can recall squashing eggs on fellow trick or treater's heads or hitting them with a sock filled with flour in my youth. (The bad kids would egg people's houses and also write with shaving cream rather than soap on windows and cars.)

In the city, apparently things get ugly on Devil's night with arson being a problem so that there has been a concerted effort in recent times for parent involvement and patrols to aid the police and fire department to keep things peaceable.

outnfree

Par dessus toutes choses, soyez bons. La bonte est ce qui ressemble le plus a Dieu et ce qui desarme le plus les hommes -- Lacordaire

Seeker

I loved Halloween as a child; great fun to dress up and get mucho candy.

I have no problem with it now. Have fun.

What I have always found incredulous is the way adults are taking over the holiday and celebrating it with parties? What's up with that? This is a kid's holiday.

larc

Seeker,

I guess the reason the adults have their parties is because we are all kids at heart, even an old curmudgen like me.

Seeker

larc,

I can understand that, all right, but why not just have a party? Adults can have parties any day of the year. Why co-opt a children's holiday as an excuse?

larc

Seeker,

Well, where I live, the local tavern has a haloween party on the weekend on a different day than than the kids night out. People bring food and there is a costume contest. A good time is had by all.

mpatrick

My daughter (4 years old) loves dressing up and going trick or treating. She talks about it year round. Last year she asked everyone if they had a cat, and if they did, could she see it. We must have been at every house for 5 minutes each. I loved seeing the excitement in her eyes and see you harm in it.

My husband and I have a Halloween Party tonight and I made some YUMMY Buckeyes (little bites of heaven). For anyone unfamiliar with them, they consist of loads of peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar rolled into little balls and dipped into chocolate with the tops showing...like Buckeyes, the worthless nut that Ohio is known for.

mpatrick

He does not believe who does not live according to his belief.-Thomas Fuller

COMF

I suggest volunteering at your neighborhood PTA carnival, or something similar (like the Baptist Church's "Fall Festival" being held on the 31st here), if you're not into the trick or treat scene. I, for one, am looking forward to it more this year than I ever have. It'll be the first time I've taken part in Halloween in my own house in a nice little friendly neighborhood teeming with young childrien. The candy is already bought; the pumpkin sits on the kitchen cabinet waiting for facial surgery; and poor Yorick sits in the living room window grinning at passers-by, a red candle waxed to his gleaming top, red wax run in rivulets in different directions down his bony sides and solidified in one eye socket. Alas, poor Yorick! No Visine can help him now.

Mood music, courtesy of Loreena Mckennitt:
- http://www.scarletmoon.com/fred/sounds/mp3s/Samain_Night.mp3
- http://www.scarletmoon.com/fred/sounds/mp3s/All_Souls_Night.mp3

Me at the PTA carnival a couple of years back:

COMF

Mum

I love Hallowe'en! At work all of us adults have a costume contest with various categories and a dessert contest.

In the last several years, I have been a black cat, Bashful of the 7 dwarfs, Dr. Bonkers (brain surgeon), and Bunny the bathing beauty (thanks to those night shirts with the bikini-clad beauty silk screened onto them). This year I'm LulaBelle the Southern lady. I like being the characters, not just dressing up! My friends are encouraging me to get involved with a local theatre group because I get such a kick out of this stuff!

There are other ways besides trick or treating to celebrate. Some parents I know have parties instead. Whatever you like, go for it!

Regards,
Mum

Mommie Dark

Hallowe'en and Days of the Dead have always been a part of harvest rituals in lots of cultures. In Mexico cleaning the cemeteries is part of the routine after the crops are in and it's done in time with the harvest moon. The veil between the living and the dead was believed thinnest during the 'death' of the year and it was considered respectful (and prudent) to honor your dead at this time of year. The fact that life can only continue if rooted in the decay of that which has gone before was celebrated with macabre glee, a collective ghoulish grin at our inevitable mortality, a necessary reassurance that the cycles of life continue whether we wear a mortal coil or not.

Carve the veggies into lanterns for old lost skeptic Jack who didn't believe the faerie folk could lure him into the darkness...and give the little ghoulies and ghosties some sweeties so they don't play tricksies...you never know what spirits walk among the mortals on All Hallow's Eve, so smile and giftie all the wee ones who tap at the doors on Beggar's Night.

It's not a Christian thing, it's a mortal thing.

trick or treating

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