How Is Halloween Celebrated in the U.K.?

[Observer]

Many, many years ago, in the western U.S.A., it was customary to tip over outhouses on Halloween. Later, with the advent of indoor plumbing, it devolved into throwing toilet paper rolls up into people's trees.

I had an older brother who would 'trick or treat' with a pillowcase. He started at around 4 p.m., and kept at it until 10 or 11 p.m., and then lurched home with thirty-five pounds of candy and gum.

He now wears dentures.

Haha. The older kids, used to go around blowing out your candle, the more violent ones, would boot it out of your hand like a football. Our pockets were stuffed with matches to re-light the redundant candle. Of course when I got older, I didn't resort to that kind of thing.

[Ms Diddles]

I never heard of Halloween when I was a kid, the big thing next to Bonfire Night (Nov. 5th), was Mischievous Night. Kids would go around being a nuisance in the neighborhood, wiping treacle (molasses) on car door handles.
Tying the dustbin to a door knob, then knocking so they open the door, and pull their dustbin over, spilling into the house, some really bad'uns would put fireworks in letter boxes and set them alight.

For a couple of weeks before bonfire night kids would go door to door asking for twigs, branches, or old furniture to use to build the bonfire. It would be erected on some spare land, or a farmers field. Some of them were taller than a house, it was for the whole neighborhood to come out and roast potatoes and hand out home made toffee and stuff, ....ah, those were the days.

Wow!

I haven't thought of Mischief Night 8n years.

Nobody up here has heard of it.

Is it a Yorkshire thing?

[c.d.]

Wow!

I haven't thought of Mischief Night 8n years.

Nobody up here has heard of it.

Is it a Yorkshire thing?

It existed when I was a kid here in the U.S. It was the night before Halloween and it was called "Devil's Night." Basically ringing doorbells and running and soaping windows. Ah, those were the days.

c.d.

[Enigma]

Traditionally c.d. November 5th has been celebrated more but that’s dying out somewhat. Kids used to make a ‘Guy’ from old clothes then go from house to house asking “a penny for the guy.” But I haven’t seen that for years. Trick or treat has now taken over. We still have firework displays and people still do fireworks from home too (if they’re willing to sell their car to pay for them) We usually hear fireworks from early October (kids) but I only mentioned the other day that I haven’t heard a firework yet. It’s certainly not celebrated anything like the extent that they do over there though c.d.

Enjoy your celebrations

5th November Guy Fawkes Day: The celebration of the capture of the only person who entered parliament with an honest intent.

[Wickerman]

Wow!

I haven't thought of Mischief Night 8n years.

Nobody up here has heard of it.

Is it a Yorkshire thing?

I didn't think so, I thought it was nation wide, but then at that age you think everywhere is the same. I married a Lancashire lass and she tells me they had Mischievous night too, so there we have it, not just a Yorkshire thing.
Perhaps just a northern thing?

[Wickerman]

5th November Guy Fawkes Day: The celebration of the capture of the only person who entered parliament with an honest intent.

Or did he?

I've read a few books on this conspiracy, one of the more intriguing stories is that the whole thing was a frame-up to portray the Catholics in a bad light. At the time they were a minority in England and hated by the government. Practicing Catholics were hunted down and priests were either imprisoned or put to death.
Apparently, according to this one author, gunpowder was a controlled substance at the time. The Tower of London was the only storage location in the country. There were strict government logs kept for the movement of gunpowder in and out of the Tower yet, it appears the page or pages which cover the days leading up to the discovery of the plot, have been removed from the log.
The author argues that the plot was really conceived by the government, most likely Lord Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury.
Lord Cecil had a reputation for hatching devious plots.

[Enigma]

Thanks Wickerman for that information. This theory does not surprise me in the least and may well be correct. My comment was intended as a light hearted commentary on politicians generally, then and now.

Sorry to have digressed from the tenor of the thread. To return to the subject, I can say that Halloween in Australia is not the big deal it is in America but is becoming somewhat of a 'thing' for children, pushed mainly by the chain stores who see it as another marketing opportunity.

[Pcdunn]

narky = pumpkin??????

c.d.

I've never heard the word "narky" either!

I have read that the Irish used turnips with candles as lamps, and switched to pumpkins after immigration to America.

[Pcdunn]

It existed when I was a kid here in the U.S. It was the night before Halloween and it was called "Devil's Night." Basically ringing doorbells and running and soaping windows. Ah, those were the days.

c.d.

That's right, and Devil's Night pranks got so bad in the early 20th century that Halloween parties (and later, trick or treating) were thought up by parents and other adults to discourage vandalism in the urban and rural areas.

I went to a Catholic school in the Sixties. We were only allowed to dress up as saints and martyrs for the school costume parade. Lots of sheets sacrificed for robes, as I recall. (Usually, our families would also let us do trick or treating in the neighborhood in more ordinary costumes.)

[Ms Diddles]

Building a bonfire by kids is hardly allowed now [ Bonfires are mainly council/ local authority run now ] But oh what fun we had trying to outdo next streets bunch of kids by building a bigger Bommy
Regards Darryl

Yeah, my partner has recollections of collecting wood for the bonfire with his pals and then actually sleeping out at night amid all the wood to protect it from rival groups of kids in the neighbourhood who would try to pilfer the best bits for their own fires.

Apparently this was standard practice in the area and the parents didn't bat an eye!

Different times.....!

[Ms Diddles]

That's right, and Devil's Night pranks got so bad in the early 20th century that Halloween parties (and later, trick or treating) were thought up by parents and other adults to discourage vandalism in the urban and rural areas.

I went to a Catholic school in the Sixties. We were only allowed to dress up as saints and martyrs for the school costume parade. Lots of sheets sacrificed for robes, as I recall. (Usually, our families would also let us do trick or treating in the neighborhood in more ordinary costumes.)

I had never realised that this was such a big deal!

I have not once heard Mischief Night mentioned during my twenty eight years in Scotland, and had kind of forgotten it existed until Wick alluded to it.

I just googled it, and it's actually quite interesting.

It dates back to the 1700's and is celebrated quite widely.

I knew it as "Micky Night" on Nov 4th, when myself and the other kids in my Yorkshire village participated in small acts of wanton vandalism (and spent much of the night running away and hiding)!

[Dickere]

I didn't think so, I thought it was nation wide, but then at that age you think everywhere is the same. I married a Lancashire lass and she tells me they had Mischievous night too, so there we have it, not just a Yorkshire thing.
Perhaps just a northern thing?

I think so. I'd never heard of it growing up in London.

Halloween was totally uncommercial, no trick or treat then. Just run around for a bit with a sheet on.

Guy Fawkes night was definitely the big event, not that I was allowed to do penny for the Guy, my mum thought it was begging. Can't remember the last time I saw one now, years ago.

[Rosemary]

Hi y'all, it's been a few years.

in NOLA we'd roam the French Quarter with moms & nuns in tow, until the fateful year we entered a cottage on the Rue Dauphine where some unholy shenanigans were going on. The partly, nearly or no-dress participants threw cash at us, which my Mom stomped upon, cursing and uttering maledictions in Spanish. Never done again and we immediately went to church at St Louis Cathedral, for beignets and hot chocolate. All the adults were muttering while we children giggled, having seen little to nothing of the malarkey inside.

now in Cajun country it's more sedate, with churches handing out candy and hot dogs, only this year since the covid restrictions and general freak people scare. In the smaller areas near bayous there are bonfires with bbq (I swear it tasted like roadkill) far too many libations, and small votive candles on family tombs amongst the live oak and moss. In the swamps people gather to look for feu follettes, the alleged souls of children not in heaven. There's also tac-tac: popcorn balls rolled in Steen's cane syrup & toasted chopped pecans. We do carve pumpkins, but many of us don't put them in pies preferring sweet potatoes. Because we are mostly Catholic, the graves are tended to in the mornings before trick or treat, since the priest blesses them the next day. It's not traditional, since November 1 is All Saints' Day..the 2nd is All Souls' Day, the proper one for tending, decorating graves while picnicking and getting quite into an alcoholic stupor. No Penny for the Guy here.