Halloween. Your own experience

Kylta

To be honest as child/teenager, I loved Halloween, to many growing up in my area it would seem it was a right of passage for many. The collecting of tyres and pallets etc, the fighting between different areas over a piece of rubber or wood, maybe it was tribalism. But that was closed to four decades ago.

Halloween as a parent was another issue, I absolutely detested the night, ( along with paddys night, and new years eve). Halloween is basically a night of mayhem and madness for some people.

But what of your experience of Halloween?

Kylta

Kylta wrote: »

To be honest as child/teenager, I loved Halloween, to many growing up in my area it would seem it was a right of passage for many. The collecting of tyres and pallets etc, the fighting between different areas over a piece of rubber or wood, maybe it was tribalism. But that was closed to four decades ago.

Halloween as a parent was another issue, I absolutely detested the night, ( along with paddys night, and new years eve). Halloween is basically a night of mayhem and madness for some people.

But what of your experience of Halloween?

Ahh well, I'm single and childless so my experience is different than others. Personally, I love Halloween, and have always done so. It's a great festival aimed at children, which is great in itself. I always have excessive amounts of sweets, fruit etc, in my home for any children who come around for Trick'n'treating. I also love the dress up aspect of the festival and seeing the creative interest that the children often put into designing their costumes.

As an adult, I've always (whenever possible) attended Halloween parties, dressing up myself, and having fun with it. It's a chance to leave one persona behind and go a little nuts one night of the year.

It's become a fairly popular holiday in Asia, and I really enjoy the joy that the children have in dressing up, and when they receive the candy/sweets. It's fun.. (especially for the poorer kids, who often haven't experienced anything similar before)

I've seen people/parents advocate to stop/censor Halloween, and I have nothing but contempt for these people. It's a great festival for children, and anyone who wants to bring woke/religious agendas into it, should be kneecapped. (no, not actually kneecapped, but you know what I mean. hopefully.)

Kylta

Deleted User wrote: »

Ahh well, I'm single and childless so my experience is different than others. Personally, I love Halloween, and have always done so. It's a great festival aimed at children, which is great in itself. I always have excessive amounts of sweets, fruit etc, in my home for any children who come around for Trick'n'treating. I also love the dress up aspect of the festival and seeing the creative interest that the children often put into designing their costumes.

As an adult, I've always (whenever possible) attended Halloween parties, dressing up myself, and having fun with it. It's a chance to leave one persona behind and go a little nuts one night of the year.

It's become a fairly popular holiday in Asia, and I really enjoy the joy that the children have in dressing up, and when they receive the candy/sweets. It's fun.. (especially for the poorer kids, who often haven't experienced anything similar before)

I've seen people/parents advocate to stop/censor Halloween, and I have nothing but contempt for these people. It's a great festival for children, and anyone who wants to bring woke/religious agendas into it, should be kneecapped. (no, not actually kneecapped, but you know what I mean. hopefully.)

When I was small we never said trick or treat. It was always help the halloween party.
When the kids knock on the door I won't give them anything unless they say help the halloween party. Hate that saying trick or treat.
The covid has stopped the councils doing their halloween festivals this year.

Kylta

Kylta wrote: »

When I was small we never said trick or treat. It was always help the halloween party.
When the kids knock on the door I won't give them anything unless they say help the halloween party. Hate that saying trick or treat.
The covid has stopped the councils doing their halloween festivals this year.

Trick or treat. Smell my feet. Give me something good to eat.

We did the trick or treat thingy as kids (I'm in my 40s now), with most adults asking to see our "trick" in order to get the sweets. Good confidence boost for kids to see a receptive/supportive audience. (I have a wide variety of memories of Halloween from being a kid through to an adult accompanying neighbors kids around when their own parents weren't available)

Covid stopping it makes some sense, although, I suspect it's down to laziness in adults from finding a safe way to do it.

storker

I loved Halloween as a kid and I still do. I liked the idea that there really were more spooky things afoot on that particular night, and I still do even though I don't believe in it. My wife and kids love it too and we have as many Halloween decorations as Christmas decorations, so our front room is turned into a homage to the Chamber of Horrors, plus 3' voodoo/vampire bride and groom hanging in the hall...

We usually got 0-2 visitors on any given Halloween, though, usually 0 as we live in a part of town without many kids around, and we're at the end of a cul-de-sac. Of course the chances of getting someone coming to the door are vastly increased by not bothering to have any treats handy. Our daughters prefer to go trick-or-treating around their friends' estates, and usually come back heavily-laden with swag.

corner of hells

I went to a Halloween party years ago with my now wife , she dressed a sexy nun.

Changed my whole perception of Halloween , nuns and religion.

Feisar

I always liked it.

Great crack as a young lad. Trick or treating, ducking for apples, bonfire and free fireworks from Dad's friend in the Gardaí. Then in my twenties going to fancy dress parties and ending the night with a lady in a slutty nurse/schoolgirl/wally/nun/take yer pick outfit. Now I'm usually sitting in and dolling out treats to the kids. I always compliment the lad in the bin bag, I was that soldier!

whisky_galore

Imported trick or treat Americana and an excuse to act the bollix, bonfires, throwing eggs and fireworks.

Feisar

whisky_galore wrote: »

Imported trick or treat Americana and an excuse to act the bollix, bonfires, throwing eggs and fireworks.

A certain cohort will act the bollix regardless of an excuse or not.

o1s1n

I loved it as a kid for similar above mentioned reasons. We'd form a massive gang and go search for bonfire wood/bits and pieces. Also go knocking door to door to see if people had anything they wanted to chuck out. All seemed a bit lawless and tribal as mentioned, but almost sanctioned by adults. Was weird upon reflection.

I have one distinct memory of a huge gang of kids coming over to our bonfire from one of the dodgier areas in Bray to steal our stuff. They were all armed with chair legs and sticks. Absolute mayhem ensued!

Gregor Samsa

I loved halloween growing up in Dublin. When we were younger we "collected" and we said "help the halloween party" (never called it trick or treating), and my Mum would take us for a tour around the bonfires in local estates. If you were lucky there'd be a car in one of the bigger ones, which was always a treat to see.

Our estate didn't have a green at all, so the tradition was to build a bonfire in the middle of the road of a cul de sac near my house. The surface was concrete. When I got to about 14, me and my friends became the generation to build it. Neighbours would give us wood, we'd start collecting as soon as we went back to school in September, and we'd have to defend our stash from kids from other estates, sometimes physically. I remember one night sitting around the embers of it at about 10 PM and a neighbour came out and told us he had an old sofa we could take and thrown on it. We carried it from his garage and sat on it for a bit, before throwing it on and getting another couple of hours out of the bonfire. A brilliant night I'll always remember.

One of my friends use to get loads of bangers and fireworks from Newry every year, so that was always fun. Next day, we use to go out first thing in the morning and collect all the spent bangers and rockets from the roads around. There's be a little bit of powder left in each one, and we'd pour it all into a pile and set fire to it.

I live in a town on the west side of the country now. Halloween is so much more calm here. No bonfires, very few bangers and fireworks. The kids go tick or treating, and mine absolutely love it - i think they prefer it to Christmas. It's very child-friendly, and there's a good buzz about the place for about 2 hours. On a usual year, we'd get about 40 kids at the door. I enjoy making the bags of treats and answering the door to them and seeing the costumes. But it's nothing like what I had growing up at all.

My wife then is from a very rural area, and to them halloween was just being at home wearing a mask, eating nuts and bobbing for apples. She thinks what we have going on now is crazy, whereas to me, it's all very, very tame.

Gregor Samsa

whisky_galore wrote: »

Imported trick or treat Americana and an excuse to act the bollix, bonfires, throwing eggs and fireworks.

Nah, the term might be American, but the tradition goes way back here. My parents both went "collecting" on halloween as kids in Dublin in the 1940s, same as I did in the 70s and 80s. As mentioned above "help the halloween party" is what you'd say at the door.

Bob Gray

Always had a hoot as a kid, I have an aunt who's only 10 years older than me, and she still loves Halloween, so she would organise all sorts of stuff for us on the night, games, renting out a heap of horror films and the inevitable trick or treating (although we said the same as a lot of ye here, help the Halloween party). We'd hit every estate up the hill in Leixlip and back to my grandparents house games/movies.

When we got older, the focus was always the bonfire, building up our stock, fleecing other estates' bonfires and acting the maggot on the night.

Now that I have my own kids, we'd bring them around the estate and over to the grandparents and of course the aforementioned aunt
They've always gone for a theme each year, although I'd say that's the majority of my wifes doing, but this year they want to go scary with their costumes so I'm thrilled.

Feisar wrote: »

I always compliment the lad in the bin bag, I was that soldier!

There is always that one trooper

freshpopcorn

If I’m honest I was from the countryside and it wasn’t really a thing.
Even in the town people weren’t overly into it.
The people into the bangers and bonfire were mainly the rough troublesome kids.

whisky_galore

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

Nah, the term might be American, but the tradition goes way back here. My parents both went "collecting" on halloween as kids in Dublin in the 1940s, same as I did in the 70s and 80s. As mentioned above "help the halloween party" is what you'd say at the door.

Decorating with Chinese made plastic is hardly tradition.

Gregor Samsa

This is a fantastic video of some kids from Cavan talking about what they did at halloween in 1986. Every one of them is wearing a black bin bag. They obviously also see the night as one of sanctioned anarchy. The accents are the cherry on the cake.

https://www.rte.ie/archives/exhibitions/895-halloween/287765-halloween-in-cavan/

Gregor Samsa

whisky_galore wrote: »

Decorating with Chinese made plastic is hardly tradition.

You were on about trick or treating, not decorations. You're coming across as a halloween version of the Grinch. Grab a black bin bag and a devil mask and have some fun this year (well, next year - most kids won't be out collecting this year).

BuboBubo

Putting on old clothes, coats, plastic masks, they cut the noses off us Knocking on doors "help the Halloween party". Lived in a very rural area - trudging up country lanes with my friends, scaring the sh1te out of the younger kids with ghost stories on the way.

Carrying home 8 stone of monkey nuts, 56 apples and a few sweets if we were lucky. Even got a few coins occasionally. We usually weren't home until midnight, walking home as slowly as we could, enjoying the craic.

We had such freedom in the 80s. Kids being ferried around in people carriers with their parents watching their every move was unheard of. I'm glad I grew up back then, it was great.

dotsman

Halloween is an Irish tradition dating back millennia that we have spread all over the world (even more so than Paddy's day). Has it evolved in that time? Yes. Has it changed rapidly in the past few decades? Of course.

It is not about "America" (for all those with a chip on their should regarding the "America"). Like Christmas and Easter, it has evolved rapidly on a global scale. The US, as a major centre of Western Society and cultural influence for the past 70 years of course has an impact, but it is simply one of many.

Church on Tuesday

I've yet to meet someone who didn't/doesn't like Halloween who wasn't a thundering cnut

Ekerot

It's amazing, I don't believe in ghosts or demons but I always think they're afoot for one night only on Halloween night. It just feels different, it helps I had family who loved the holiday too and I lived not far from a few cul de sacs that were nearby.

Did the trick or treating every year when I was a kid, now I usually end up watching a few horror movies with friends.
Covid is gonna put a stop to most plans this year but at least I can still watch a few movies with friends over the internet now.

Aglomerado

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

My wife then is from a very rural area, and to them halloween was just being at home wearing a mask, eating nuts and bobbing for apples. She thinks what we have going on now is crazy, whereas to me, it's all very, very tame.

This was my experience as well, no calling door to door. Playing snap apple at home and pretending to like barm brack so you could get the ring.

Local boys would collect stuff for a bonfire and have it on a friendly farmer's land, we'd head down to it for an hour or so and some adults would be there to keep an eye on things and sometimes bring a few bowls of cocktail sausages for everyone.

I loved the horror films on TV (I still do). Around 1987/1988 RTE showed 3D films (3D glasses were given away with the RTE Guide). One was called the Mad Magician, it was really cheesy but I loved it. I saw a lot of Hitchcock films back then too, including the Birds and Psycho.

Good times!

lucalux

Born in late 80's for reference, rural area!

I remember the black bin bags as costumes, smelly plastic masks (with the sharp edges), oranges, monkey nuts, apples, and sometimes coins thrown in with mini kit kats and the like. You'd curse the ones giving you fruit!

Roamed the roads trick or treating, as was pretty usual for us anyway, bonfires were lit at local school or the like, with adults around usually.

My father would always have fireworks for it, which he would let off, fairly safely (mostly), at our house, and the neighbours would know that, and call over for the light show. He was a bigger kid than all of us in that regard, living his childhood dreams maybe.

At home we played bobbing for apples, and the one where you put a grape or raisin at the top of a mountain of flour, and you got a butter knife to slice away portions of the flour, trying to avoid knocking it down the mountain. Whoever eventually knocked it got their face pushed into the flour. A high stakes, high anxiety kind of game!

Barm brack and the coveted rings every year.

Hassling neighbours you didn't like was a part of it too. Nothing too sinister but 'spooking' people.
To be honest I know a few adults (grown men) who would use the night as an excuse to annoy their neighbours, allowing local kids to take the blame.

One local man actually beat some local kids, which were about 11/12, with a length of heavy plastic piping one year, because the kids were going past his house on the road making noise and that caused ructions. Safe to say his house was a target for the next few years, bangers in the garden and the like

Changed as I grew up, kids would be driven around to houses, or brought into the nearest estates near the town.
As a teenager it became a night for drinking, and that was dangerous enough at 14/15. Good memories though

Gregor Samsa

Aglomerado wrote: »

Around 1987/1988 RTE showed 3D films (3D glasses were given away with the RTE Guide). One was called the Mad Magician, it was really cheesy but I loved it.!

Ha! I remember that! The magician throwing playing cards at the camera, and us all in our red and blue cellophane glasses flinching as the cards came at us.

iamstop

I like making the costumes and dressing up for the night as an adult. Sometimes I win prizes. Other times people buy me drinks. Great craic. I also tend not to repeat costumes. An incomplete list:

Jesus - Made a 7 ft cross from cardboard. Won 1st prize (100 Euro) at the work party
Pirate Music - Another work do, I dressed as a pirate and was the DJ
Lego Man - Full cardboard costume. Came 3rd in the nightclub of about 1000+ people
Dexter
Barb from Stranger Things
Disco Space Man - Based on cover art from Parliament/Funkadelic
Turntable - Used bike boxes to make a giant turntable costume that I wore. My arm was the tone arm. The record even rotated. Had bike lights for the strobe light and cue light. Got bought loadsa drinks that night. People taking pics and saying I should enter competition is such and such bar/club.

iamstop

iamstop wrote: »

I like making the costumes and dressing up for the night as an adult. Sometimes I win prizes. Other times people buy me drinks. Great craic. I also tend not to repeat costumes. An incomplete list:

Jesus - Made a 7 ft cross from cardboard. Won 1st prize (100 Euro) at the work party
Pirate Music - Another work do, I dressed as a pirate and was the DJ
Lego Man - Full cardboard costume. Came 3rd in the nightclub of about 1000+ people
Dexter
Barb from Stranger Things
Disco Space Man - Based on cover art from Parliament/Funkadelic
Turntable - Used bike boxes to make a giant turntable costume that I wore. My arm was the tone arm. The record even rotated. Had bike lights for the strobe light and cue light. Got bought loadsa drinks that night. People taking pics and saying I should enter competition is such and such bar/club.

I'm quite partial to cosplay events in Asia, myself.

All the same, I've dressed up, and partied for Halloween every year (except this year). Gas fun.

Edgware

A pal of mine always made sure he had a few chocolate laxatives throw in with the sweets he'd give out at the door. Trick or treat me arse

Beechwoodspark

My area of Kildare it’s fairly quiet

The kids don’t seem to bother with it, I asked one friend of my sons (2nd class) last week and he said “nah it’s crap”?!

Last year the teacher asked them to do fancy dress on Halloween and the majority of them didn’t bother or else wanted to wear what I would call “first disco” name brand type outfits to impress the others - not scary costumes.

Lots of ppl in this area who are from diff parts of Ireland and indeed from further afield.

They don’t seem to be interested in it over the last few years

When I see the reports of fireworks etc going off in dublin. It really is a different experience outside the m50.

Edgware

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

My area of Kildare it’s fairly quiet

The kids don’t seem to bother with it, I asked one friend of my sons (2nd class) last week and he said “nah it’s crap”?!

Last year the teacher asked them to do fancy dress on Halloween and the majority of them didn’t bother or else wanted to wear what I would call “first disco” name brand type outfits to impress the others - not scary costumes.

Lots of ppl in this area who are from diff parts of Ireland and indeed from further afield.

They don’t seem to be interested in it over the last few years

When I see the reports of fireworks etc going off in dublin. It really is a different experience outside the m50.

"The teacher asked them to do fancy dress" Ooooh Vicar!

cj maxx

Going out to lift gates and harmless stuff. Ducking for apples etc . NYC is great craic though. They really dress up . Some are very funny and complicated. Like a man dressed as Bill Clinton getting a bj from Monica. Complete with head movements !

bobbyy gee

No one calls it Paddy's night