Walking in south Tonbridge last week I noticed this gem in the window of a house (which shall remain numberless) on Woodfield Road.
"We do not celebrate Halloween in this house
so please do not disturb us"
So are they just miserable people with no sense of what young folk like and no willingness to adapt to modern ways or have they got a good point? Back in my youth they'd have been prime candidates to have their gates lifted (now there's another tale!) if indeed they had any gates to lift....
5 comments:
I can understand that some people do not want to answer their door when it is dark to people/children regardless of whether it is Halloween.
Some of the outfits can be a bit daunting for elderly.
I have a sign on my door to try to stop cold callers and this seems to work but the occasional person still calls so I just point to the sign and close the door.
So knocking on the doors, after dark, of complete strangers and demanding with menaces, gifts or rewards is "being miserable and unwilling to adapt to modern ways"?
After a hard day at work, most people just want to shut the door, pull the curtains closed and shut themselves off from the outside world. They do not want their evening to be contantly interrupted by a procesion of kids dressed in tacky Halloween costumes.
Trick or treating is a fairly recent practice in this country, having originated in the US of A. Like many other things from across the pond, it is an unwanted and unwelcome import.
It has nothing to do with being young, or not wanting to embrace "modern ways", and I fully sympathise with the sentiments expressed by the notice mentioned in your post.
People that welcome a call from trick or treat callers should follow this custom :
"It would not be wrong to say that Halloween is typified by carved pumpkin sitting out prettily on your porch welcoming passers by with their festive aura. You leave one on every window, beckoning the trick or teeters to stop by and pay you a delighted visit."
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PB come off it. From memory this is not the first time you've banged on about Halloween and American ways corrupting this great nation of ours. Actually Halloween has been around forever. Granted it hasn't always been celebrated by trick or treating and the like but it is essentially a pagan festival, which morphed into a Christian one (bit like Christmas in that respect)to remember the dead. In any case is it so wrong to import a few ideas from over the pond if the kids enjoy it? Maybe you just get spooked by the whole thing PB and are scared to admit that you're frit!!
Wrong on all counts except the first, TB! Yes I have banged on about Halloween before, although I obviously realise 31st October is All Hallows Eve and the day before All Saints (Hallows) Day. It is also the night when the souls of the dead are said to revisit their homes.
As for importing things from across the Atlantic, well call me an old curmudgeon, but we've adopted enough American words and "culture" already, thank-you very much, and don't need any more.
It's alright to make jokes about people beeing scared, but many elderly folk are genuinely frightened by kids (some of them quite threatening teenagers), knocking on their doors after night and demanding sweets, or other treats, under the threat of performing some nasty trick.
A few years ago, a friend of mine had his house egged, after ignoring "trick or treaters" ringing his door bell, and there have been instances of people having plants uprooted or their cars vandalised. "Harmless fun" - no; bloody nuisance - yes!
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