Halloween

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IzzyD said:
I live in England and Halloween is relatively new here so my mum never celebrated it when she was a child. For that reason my family didn’t celebrated Halloween when I was younger and the first time I went trick or treating it was with my friends when I was 12. This year I won’t be celebrating it because my family is going on holiday to the lake district but we will probably carve a pumpkin or something (or do you call them jackolanterns in America?).
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That’s an interesting comment, since we got Halloween from Great Britain (granted more Scotland than England, in terms of recent history) only about a century ago. It’s really not that distinctly an American thing.

By the way, we speak of carving pumpkins as well. We call the carved pumpkins Jack-O-Lanterns. In Scotland they originally carved turnips into Jack-O-Lanterns, but pumpkins are easier to carve and look more impressive.
 
Aelred_Minor said:
That’s an interesting comment, since we got Halloween from Great Britain (granted more Scotland than England, in terms of recent history) only about a century ago. It’s really not that distinctly an American thing.

By the way, we speak of carving pumpkins as well. We call the carved pumpkins Jack-O-Lanterns. In Scotland they originally carved turnips into Jack-O-Lanterns, but pumpkins are easier to carve and look more impressive.
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Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that England didn’t have halloween-that came out all wrong! However trick or treating was first made popular in the US and has only (relatively) recently become fashionable in England. I don’t think we have a name for carved pumpkins in England… I think we just call them carved pumpkins lol.
 
IzzyD said:
Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that England didn’t have halloween-that came out all wrong! However trick or treating was first made popular in the US and has only (relatively) recently become fashionable in England. I don’t think we have a name for carved pumpkins in England… I think we just call them carved pumpkins lol.
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I see. I believe in Scotland the kids had to sing for their candy. Maybe they still do. And from what I’ve read it all goes back to pre-Reformation England, when children went door to door offering to pray for people’s dead relatives in return for “soul cakes.” After the Reformation it got combined with the Christmas tradition of singing door to door for a reward.

It was American kids, around the 1950s I think, who decided pranks and extortion of candy by threat of pranks were a lot more fun than musical performances. :rolleyes:

Of course, when I was a child I didn’t have a clue what “trick or treat” meant until my last year or two of it, and even then the threat was never serious. I assume that is typical.
 
englishredrose said:
What do you make of Halloween?
Do you join in any community spirit fun in it or do you avoid all of it?
Do you watch any horror movies
Do you watch any popular gothic style movies
What do you make of popular gothic fashion all year round never mind just at Halloween.
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Do you have this in the U.K. now? I know when I lived there they didn’t. When we came to the states in the 50’s, I had some idea what was coming but the first set of kids literally scared the wits out of my mother. After she became accustomed to it, she actually let me and my brother go out with our masks on. Was fun until my brother almost caught pneumonia one year. The doctor had to make a house call on that one.

That said, the feast sure inspired a lot of Hollywood films. 🙂
 
englishredrose said:
What do you make of Halloween?
Do you join in any community spirit fun in it or do you avoid all of it?
Do you watch any horror movies
Do you watch any popular gothic style movies
What do you make of popular gothic fashion all year round never mind just at Halloween.

Is it just a piece of harmless fun that you let your kids join in or do you see the darker side of halloween and concerned how fashion horror helps link us to evil that bit more and see the danger in making evil attractive? What are your thoughts on Halloween and all things are this time? Is it really a bit of fun that allows to enjoy evil innocently or is there something more serious? Do you know anyone who couldn’t fight evil over goodness through direct result of harmless fun at halloween? Not hearsays per se but actually know of anyone but please don’t disclose their identities 🙂
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The occasion of Halloween is a great opportunity to teach some of my dear young friends. My confirmation class and I put on a little party at the church and invited the classes from 5th grade on down to come. The games we had were as follows:
  1. Walk with the Apostles - instead of a cake walk we use cookies and instead of numbers we wrote the names of the 12 Apostles (post Judas so Mathias got a card this year) on each card on the floor. When the music stopped an Apostle’s name is drawn and if the kid was on the name they got to pick a package of cookies. Saint Bartholomew was a popular saint this year. So they have fun and learn the names at the same time 👍 The verse for the walk was one of my favorites 1 John 2:6 “He that says he abides in Him outght to walk even as He walked.”
  2. Face painting - with items such as crosses, angels, etc. No Bible verse for this, I will have to come up with one, any suggestions?
  3. A haunted house - the kids would be blindfolded and led by one my students through a darkened room. Along they way they would feel various ‘strange’ items and maybe something would gently brush across their face :bigyikes:. The Bible verse outside the haunted house this year was Psalm 23 - “Ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me.”
  4. Fish Pond - the kids are given a fake fishing rod which they cast over a wall decorated with fish and such. Once the line is over the wall a ‘fish’ is hooked and the kids pull it out to see what type of candy is on the line. Before the kids could cast they would have to read the Bible verse. The bible verse here comes from Matthew - “Jesus said to them, ‘Come with me and I will make you fishers of men.’”
  5. A Candy Quiz - here I asked all the teachers to give me a set of 5 questions for the students from their classes to answer. If they get all 5 correct they get a full size candy bar. Anything less then perfect gets a mini candy. Also, I told my students running this to be strict with the all 5 correct bit because the leftovers we would share today in class. No Bible verse her so I would appreciate any suggestions.
  6. Ten Commandments Game - cards with numbers on the table all mixed up, the kid draws a card and has to give the commandment which corresponds to that number. This is a tough one so the prizes have to be big to lure the kids to the table. The bible verse for this was out of Exodus and about Moses on Mt. Sinai.
At the end we had a costume contest with categories of scary, funny and saintly.:angel1:

The kids have fun and at the same time are exposed to elements of their faith in a warm, dry and safe environment. It also allows my students to learn about their faith and do some those ‘works’ Saint James says we should do.

Interesting topic.:tiphat:

God bless
 
Halloween sounds childish and really fun but for me it is really a glorification of the devil. Why don’t we celebrate the Saints, instead? I’m pretty sure that there’s a saint that would interest everyone out there – be they ancient or modern saints. 🙂
 
Maunongon said:
Halloween sounds childish and really fun but for me it is really a glorification of the devil. Why don’t we celebrate the Saints, instead? I’m pretty sure that there’s a saint that would interest everyone out there – be they ancient or modern saints. 🙂
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activates role-play geek mode

Cuz clerics and paladins get boring really fast. 😛
 
Maunongon said:
I’m pretty sure that there’s a saint that would interest everyone out there – be they ancient or modern saints. 🙂
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I have promised myself that the last All Saints Day my son has to go to at school, I am going to let him go as the** head** of John the Baptist on a platter.
 
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