Things we normally didn't have to worry about:
- Driving down the road and having screaming teenagers throwing fire crackers at your horse and buggy.
- Mailboxes being smashed with pumpkins.
- Some teens even thought it was hilarious to sit on the back of a truck holding buggy shafts and go down the road as fast as you can until you can't hang on any longer. The buggy would then be on its own and crash.
- A few years they burned down an Amish barn.
Even though we are no longer Amish, I still like to stay in the house on Halloween night.
I have always loathed Hallowe'en since 'celebrating' it began to be introduced here in the early 80s when the film ET was released here. It was an excuse for shops to sells cheap plastic junk and poorly made costumes at expensive prices and we teachers had yet another reason to remind children that it is not a good idea to knock on the door of strangers, go off with older kids they don't know etc.
ReplyDeleteIt has always been part of British culture - some people made jack'o'lanterns to keep 'evil spirits' away and to 'light home the ghosts of recent dead' who were thought to be allowed one visit home, but it was not thought of as fun. (Try making a lantern from a swede - you come out with sore, cut hands! Pumpkins were not grown here.) It was a serious day when people remembered their dead family memberprayed for their souls.
We did have mischief night on November 4th when we played pranks on each other and even our adult relatives, but never bothered strangers. Over step the boundary between fun and bad behaviour and teachers or parents came down on us heavily. But the awful things done in the name of hallowe'en fun and the dreadful films that now help in the so called 'celebrations' are, to me, a step back in human development. I know some will say I'm a kill-joy but I watched my elderly neighbour in London terrorised by hoards of badly behaved brats because she didn't realise the date and had no treats to hand out. She ended up having fireworks put through her letter box flap and her house set on fire by the 'high spirited' little darlings and she was not the only one. It is one thing I wish we had not imported from the US.
Halloween when my two children were young meant fun times gathering with neighbors. our children did run door to door between some houses to 'trick-or-treat'. it was lovely in our tiny neighborhood just to bond and we all had great fun feeling very safe. I now live rural in the woods. no children. no Halloween. I miss it. we also loved gathering for Christmas caroling. I sure wish I could experience that again now, too!
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame that you have had such bad experiences of Halloween. My mother celebrated halloween and we always had a party, apple bobbing, games, she would decorate a room with tree branches, fake cobwebs, spiders, we sang a song for halloween, it was very traditional for us and we had a lot of fun. In those days nobody in the UK observed halloween so we were oddballs but now it is popular and today when I visited a seaside town (I have done a post on my blog about it), there was such a great atmosphere, people having fun (definitely no malice) and tonight kids coming round to the house to get sweets and all dressed up - it's all very friendly here.
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ReplyDeleteThat is terrible what those teens did.
ReplyDeleteMy memories of Halloween are different. It was always a night of good fun...no horrible pranks that I can think of. Sometimes I have run out of candy to hand out at the door, but never was traumatized by anyone because of it.
Oh, that saddens me what some people consider `fun`.
ReplyDeleteI am glad the police got involved.
Halloween isn't what it used to be.
So, it's probably wise to stay indoors.
Stay warm!
I do not celebrate Halloween either - the Bible is very clear on staying away from all things evil!
ReplyDeleteI did forget though what day it was for a while and ended up going grocery shopping last night. I prayed for the safety of all those kids out and for their salvation - and for mine when driving home (you never know who is out leaving a bar!).
What was celebrated by my mom here in the US as 'mischief night' and by me as a child, as halloween was all fun and games but as I grew older and wiser as a Christian, I came to realize that I had to make a decision as to whether to celebrate a "sanitized" version or throw it out altogether... and since my husband and I agreed, we decided to not let our children celebrate, yet still give out candy and a cute little Christian tract (with the Good News) to each child who came to the door. If it fell on a church night, the church usually had something for the children that did not involve ghosts, goblins, witches, etc... Every year, for our own children, we would have a special after school treat a few weeks earlier and call it our "Falling Leaves Party" and would invite the neighborhood kids over to play in our heavily leaf laden yard and would serve doughnuts and cider and play some games ... but their favorite was "who's hiding in the leaves" :-) It was always a hit and the kids would go home with bags of treats. Neighborhood parents liked it, too, because it gave their kids something safe and special to go to.
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