Halloween - Knock Knock

[JAS]

I used to have a basket of dfunsize choc bars and let them pick something each at the door when we had some kids living in the area but they've long gone now and I can't think of anyone for a couple of streets with kids.

Now we get the little ferals from the local council estate (sin city) and they loosen the wheelnuts on cars or put fireworks in bins etc regardless of whether you give them anything so they can get stuffed.

Don't usually answer the door after dark unless I'm expecting viaitors anyway cos it's either drunk idiots looking for the bingers in the flat downstairs, Jehova's or groups of Poles trying to pressure people into giving them money

...and the Munster game is online so it'll take an earthquake to shift me from the compoooter now

Regards
JAS

[Strawb]

Went out and brought some freddo for the lil shites and no one knocked.

[stan]

Went out and brought some freddo for the lil shites and no one knocked.

yeah, I also got some freddo's, but went out, drank heaps, came home, slept it off, woke early for some f***** reason, now eating freddos and on here.

[Strawb]

Went out and brought some freddo for the lil shites and no one knocked.

yeah, I also got some freddo's, but went out, drank heaps, came home, slept it off, woke early for some f***** reason, now eating freddos and on here.

same here but no freddo's yet

[locky801]

no no-one called here either, pretty peeved off about that

[MagicKiwi]

Having lived in Adelaide for 34 years, can someone tell me when this sort of thing started? Was I asleep? Since when do Adelaide kids go out at night knocking on doors for some American celebrated thing?

[Psyber]

I think my 60 metres of steep driveway will inhibit the modern kid..

I was right, not a mouse stirred at my door.

[Booney]

Having lived in Adelaide for 34 years, can someone tell me when this sort of thing started? Was I asleep? Since when do Adelaide kids go out at night knocking on doors for some American celebrated thing?

They shouldn't be, thats for sure.

[Wedgie]

Having lived in Adelaide for 34 years, can someone tell me when this sort of thing started? Was I asleep? Since when do Adelaide kids go out at night knocking on doors for some American celebrated thing?

Dunno exactly but I remember kids doing it in the mid 80s as I used to keep a bucket full of water balloons inside my door and when they said 'Trick or Treat' I'd say 'Trick' and pelt them all with my trusty water balloons and continue to pelt them as they ran off down the street.
Geez I'm a prick but as a teenager I enjoyed that immensely!

[locky801]

Having lived in Adelaide for 34 years, can someone tell me when this sort of thing started? Was I asleep? Since when do Adelaide kids go out at night knocking on doors for some American celebrated thing?

Dunno exactly but I remember kids doing it in the mid 80s as I used to keep a bucket full of water balloons inside my door and when they said 'Trick or Treat' I'd say 'Trick' and pelt them all with my trusty water balloons and continue to pelt them as they ran off down the street.
Geez I'm a prick but as a teenager I enjoyed that immensely!

GOLD WEDGIE

[Punk Rooster]

Having lived in Adelaide for 34 years, can someone tell me when this sort of thing started? Was I asleep? Since when do Adelaide kids go out at night knocking on doors for some American celebrated thing?

probably no different to why millions of non-christians celebrate Christmas/Easter, non-horse lovers celebrate Melbourne Cup Day etc...

Halloween is an annual festival celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints, but is today largely a secular celebration.

The festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half", and is sometimes[3] regarded as the "Celtic New Year".[4]

The celebration has some elements of a festival of the dead. The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family's ancestors were honoured and invited home whilst harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm

Would rather celebrate a celtic/pagan ritual over anything the Catholics have on offer....

[StrayDog]

Having lived in Adelaide for 34 years, can someone tell me when this sort of thing started? Was I asleep? Since when do Adelaide kids go out at night knocking on doors for some American celebrated thing?

probably no different to why millions of non-christians celebrate Christmas/Easter, non-horse lovers celebrate Melbourne Cup Day etc...

Mass cultural importation or repeated initial external exposure (in the case of "Trick or Treating", decades of American television, and now the internet), then a self perpetuating cycle of promotion, social acceptance (blind or otherwise), social expectation, profits and further exposure, not necessarily in that order.



Dressing up and going door to door didn't originate in North America, but seems to have resurfaced there several years after initial Celtic emigration to the region, as described in the Wikipedia Trick Or Treating article. In part:-

"At the time of substantial Irish and Scottish immigration to North America in the late 19th century, Halloween had a strong tradition of "guising" - children in Ireland and Scotland disguised in costumes going from door to door requesting food or coins.

The earliest known reference to ritual begging on Halloween in English speaking North America occurs in 1911, when a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported that it was normal for the smaller children to go street "guising" on Halloween between 6 and 7 p.m., visiting shops and neighbors to be rewarded with nuts and candies for their rhymes and songs.. Another isolated reference to ritual begging on Halloween appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920.

The earliest known use in print of the term "trick or treat" appears in 1927, from Blackie, Alberta, Canada"



"Trick or Treat" is by no means encouraged in the StrayDog realm.

This year, a freshly printed and laminated sign fixed firmly to the front aluminium fly wire door, to the effect of:-


"Greetings All.

Sorry, we don't
believe in "Trick or Treating".

Please respect our wishes by
not knocking on our door.

Thankyou."



I'd say we had five or six groups come by, most did so well after sunset. As our window is near the front door, we could hear that the young ones had no real problems understanding it (we made sure it was well illuminated), as well as a couple of groups being actively encouraged to do so by the accompanying adults before knocking, for which we were grateful. The majority of groups seemingly went about their activity with dignity.

There was, however, one raucous group. A few of their number came to our door and banged quite loudly, despite our wishes. As they didn't bolt off in a hurry I gave them the benefit of the (fleeting) doubt, assumed that they were just over zealous, and weren't simply being an obnoxious pain in the ar5e.

I came out only after they'd moved on, there were probably 15 of them ranging in ages of 10 to 15. Seemingly few of them had made any effort to dress up for the occasion. In hindsight, "mosquito" costumes for the lot of them would have been most appropriate.

Thankfully, (mildly pi55ed off as we were by this time) they didn't manage to wake up our little daughter or this group - in particular the adult with them - might have been rapidly visited by a couple an angry spirits that no amount of Hallowe'en dress-up will have appeased, and from which no amount of praying would have afforded salvation.

A couple of them seemed a bit disappointed that a nearby neighbour's letterbox didn't yield any lollies after they shook it a few times. The middle aged "responsible" male that looked on from the street looked as though he'd rather have been back at the pub.

If we were passively - in our own domain - not in favour of "Trick or Treat" before, this one group did little to change our minds, despite the efforts of the majority of smaller individual groups that came by.

(I know it's an American tradition etc, etc - but I do love seeing the little kids faces when you give them something)

Yeah, us too, but still plenty of Christmases and big childrens' parties to look forward to that will do our family nicely in our little patch of suburban heaven.

To each their own.

[Gingernuts]

Would rather celebrate a celtic/pagan ritual over anything the Catholics have on offer....

Most people quite happily accept the public holidays associated with these Christian 'rituals' however, which is something that irritates me immensly.

My suggestion is that if we are truly a secular/multicultural society then priests/pastors of particular religions should be able to write out 'public holiday' certificates similar to sick certificates.

You want Easter off? Certainly, present your cert and it's all yours. Ramadan off? No problem, just get your Iman to sign this.

No belief? No holiday sorry sunshine, see ya tomorrow.

[Psyber]

Would rather celebrate a celtic/pagan ritual over anything the Catholics have on offer....

Most people quite happily accept the public holidays associated with these Christian 'rituals' however, which is something that irritates me immensly.
My suggestion is that if we are truly a secular/multicultural society then priests/pastors of particular religions should be able to write out 'public holiday' certificates similar to sick certificates.
You want Easter off? Certainly, present your cert and it's all yours. Ramadan off? No problem, just get your Iman to sign this.
No belief? No holiday sorry sunshine, see ya tomorrow.

I could see a market arising for new religions with massive lists of Holy Days, particularly Mondays, and a quick "baptism" system for a fee.

[Gingernuts]

Would rather celebrate a celtic/pagan ritual over anything the kiddy-fiidling Catholics have on offer....

Most people quite happily accept the public holidays associated with these Christian 'rituals' however, which is something that irritates me immensly.
My suggestion is that if we are truly a secular/multicultural society then priests/pastors of particular religions should be able to write out 'public holiday' certificates similar to sick certificates.
You want Easter off? Certainly, present your cert and it's all yours. Ramadan off? No problem, just get your Iman to sign this.
No belief? No holiday sorry sunshine, see ya tomorrow.

I could see a market arising for new religions with massive lists of Holy Days, particularly Mondays, and a quick "baptism" system for a fee.

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Interesting that this can be kept up for 48 hours (& by one of the hall monitors no less) by a few of the delete happy prefects.

Would rather celebrate a celtic/pagan ritual over anything the Catholics have on offer....

* Edited by mods *

Your point has been taken Sheik.