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Hallowe'en / Halloween (General / Compendium Thread)

Shit man, when I was a kid Hallowe'en was all about the drugs'n'razor blades. And arson.
 
H_James said:
Shit man, when I was a kid Hallowe'en was all about the drugs'n'razor blades. And arson.
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Sounds like someone had a fun halloween growing up :twisted: :D
 
Hiya, where i grew up in Greater manchester, we didn't trick or treat, we did something called copper coaling. that we did up to bonfire night. We went to someones door and sang.
We come a copper coaling for bonfire night, your coal and your money, we hope your alright. filla dee, filla da, filla diddle i dum day.
The next house we come to is an old cobblers shop, with nowt in the corner but an old pepper pot. pepper pot, pepper pot, morning till night, if you give us nowt, we'll steal nowt and bid you good night.

Guy, Guy, Guy, poke him in the eye, tie him to a lamp post and never let him die.
christmas is coming the goose is getting fat, please put a penny in the old mans hat, if you haven't got a penny a hapeny will do,
If you haven't got a hapeny god bless you.
Although we always changed the last bit to if you haven't got a penny a hapeny will do if you haven't hapeny your windows go through.
We were delightful children.
And i still don't know how the song came about, although we did make a lot of money.
 
My new favourite song for having the lyric "poke him in the eye".
 
I'm expecting some FTMBers disguised as kids at my door this year. :lol:
 
hiya, These days the kids that come to our door look old enough to be working, you can only cope with so many scream masks and bin liners. Just to let you know, there are some other lyrics to that song, but they'd be classed as x rated.
 
Hello me again, going back to an earlier post by staticgirl, regarding mischief night, It made me think of what my Dad used to tell me.
He came from southern Ireland, and they did something similar, he said that they would dress up so no one reconized them, put soot on there faces and go door to door, carrying a turnip lanterns, and basically cause mayhem. It sounded quite pagan. They did this as grown ups, He said they had a great time, because nobody knew who they were.
I should imagine that it's just the same as everywhere else now, Trick or treating, More Americaized. Although saying that, wasn't it the irish imigrants escaping the potatoe famine who brought the turnip lantern over to america, which then over time was changed to the pumpkin?
 
whiner said:
... Although saying that, wasn't it the irish imigrants escaping the potatoe famine who brought the turnip lantern over to america, which then over time was changed to the pumpkin?
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And the Scots. We certainly carved 'tumshy' lanterns and even went an stole turnips out the fields, when we were kids. When we were quite young, we went 'guisin'' and had to do our little party piece before we got our Halloween, sweets, fruit, etc.
 
I grew up in west Lancashire and had much the same traditions when i was a kid.Dressing up ,trick or treat etc.
We swapped over to pumpkins years ago but still have a collection of bent spoons/knives from making turnip lanterns, that would make Uri Geller proud.
These days we always have a party on halloween involving watching lots of horror films and much booze.
We also don't get many trick or treaters which is ok by me as i like eating the leftover sweets.
What i have noticed in recent years is that when you do get trick or treaters at your door if you say trick instead of treat, thay don't know what to do. They expect a treat off everyone and don't have tricks worked out.
 
escargot1 said:
I'm expecting some FTMBers disguised as kids at my door this year. :lol:
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we do act the goat but tend to oppose the nanny state. i'll butt out now.
 
Pietro_Mercurios, I sit corrected. Yes you are right, the Scottish did have influence too.
With regard trick or treaters, it reminds me of last year, I bought a lot of chocolate and sweets for the little kids, that come round with their mum or dad, early in the evening, I went to my front door armed with enough sugary things to knock a horse out, while i was putting some into the bag of a little girl dressed like a fairy, she said, we can have money too you know. I must admit, i nearly died laughing. it was more like a hold up than trick or treating.
 
We have a big 'cauldron' full of sweets with a big handful of silver in the bottom. They love scrabbling their pudgy little hands in that. :lol:
 
Thats's a good idea, might try that this year :)
 
Your irish pagan turnip thing is exactly what we did as kids in Scotland.
 
I have a lovely gold paper-covered gift box here. I'm going to cut a hole in one end, stick my hand through, fill the box with sweets to cover it, offer sweets from it to the kids and then when they reach in, GRAB! :lol:
 
Pietro_Mercurios said:
And the Scots. We certainly carved 'tumshy' lanterns and even went an stole turnips out the fields, when we were kids. When we were quite young, we went 'guisin'' and had to do our little party piece before we got our Halloween, sweets, fruit, etc.
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Not forgetting 'treacle scones' and dookin for apples.
 
escargot1, Sounds good, although these days, they'll probably take legal action against you for psychological damage. :lol:
With ragard the tunips, it's a celtic thing ( i'm proud to say) :p
 
whiner said:
escargot1, Sounds good, although these days, they'll probably take legal action against you for psychological damage. :lol:
With ragard the tunips, it's a celtic thing ( i'm proud to say) :p
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your prob right there, but kids and adults now seem to get away with much worse, and halloween is a night id fun and pranks. :D :lol:
 
Last Hallowe'en, a friend of mine memorably said: "we never had pumpkins when I was a kid - did anyone else get fobbed off with a potato lantern?" I've never heard of this before (it was all turnips round our way, and I'm the same age). He's from Liverpool and he would be talking about the early 1970s. So did any of you lot get potato lanterns? I'm tempted to have a go at carving one out just to see how it works.

Or possibly just make some sort of poor quality joke relating to Monster Mash.

BTW, Dr_Baltar - treacle scones? I like the sound of them, what are they?
 
potato lantern?

Bloody luxury!

We had to make do with chessnut lanterns, and glad we were with themm too
 
Don't know about potato lanterns, but the two things I remember about turnip lanterns are 1) try not to cut off both hands hacking out rock hard raw turnip with the various increasingly dangerous things you use out of frustration and 2) don't light the candle inside unless you want the house to smell of rotting compost.
 
SEE Normal video *CHANGED* into a dark, sinister jumble

A Halloween story for you: Stoke up the campfilre...

Normal video *CHANGED* into a dark, sinister jumble when left in abandoned house: See the results:

Here's a video some friends and I shot about a year ago in an abandoned house, in part of our town the old folks call, Darkness Valley.

We heard a local ghost story of a girl who was abandoned and died in this house, and we thought we'd make a parody of a "paranormal investigators" video, as a joke. Sorry, but we weren't taking our "investigation" seriously when we made this video originally; we do watch The Haunting and TAPS/Ghost Hunters, but we certainly are NO professionals (as you can tell from the first 2 minutes of our video, below), and we were skeptical of the story we were "investigating".

We found the so-called "Darkness Valley" location with the house where the girl was supposedly abandoned and died, shot a few scenes here and there of our fake investigation, then we burned & traded a few DVDs on the spot, and forgot about it.

This year, we went back to check on the place, and found some of our stuff still in the old house, including one of the DVDs we'd made, dirty from the rain & weather that had gotten inside. Took it home, and after several washings, finally got it to play (more or less), but... it was... different.

It was NOT the same video as when we'd left it there in that old house in Darkness Valley. It had changed.

We recognized some parts, but... it just wasn't the same.

It started out playing fine for the first 2 minutes while we introduced the "crew", but as we approached the house in the video, it started messing up. It got darker. Our narration dropped out, the music was messed up, and in most parts - just strange sounds & static. I've been told that the ink dye used to "burn" home-made type DVDs can actually "biodegrade/rot" with exposure to weather, heat, and sun, but this is.... much, much more than that.

The closer we got to the girl's bedroom in the video, the more disturbing it got. Clips we never filmed, started "appearing" in the video - taken from different angles, some even with a different kind of camera than ours. And the girl in our mockumentary video, who was supposed to be portraying the original girl who died there: She looks the same, at times, but... I'd swear it's someone/something else coming through.

What really creeped us out was when we watched it a couple of times, and started noticing the CHANGES.

We kept re-watching it - some times it would be the same as the previous time we watched it; other times, there'd be slight differences. As it grew darker outside, the video seemed to get more and more dark & abstract. Some of the girl's toys in that house which we remembered seeing, but NEVER FILMED, started "appearing" on some viewings. Like that dirty yellow blanket we saw in her bedroom...

As it got later, we kept re-watching it, and it got worse. Bad things started happening. I can't say for sure what exactly we saw in the video, none of it makes sense, but it's like some kind of... "cancer"... none of us just FEELS right after seeing what we saw. Two guys have experienced medical/mental problems since that night we saw what we saw.

We decided to post the best transfer we could get from that DVD online. But first,

****** THE RULES: ******
========================================
THIS IS NOT FOR REALLY LITTLE KIDS!

IT'S RECCOMENDED YOU DON'T WATCH THIS MORE THAN ONCE. If you do watch it more than once, and you see the changes, obviously, that will cause problems with your state of mind, possibly physical sickness.

IF YOU WATCH IT MORE THAN ONCE, AND SEE OR HEAR CHANGES, NO MATTER HOW SMALL: This can be as bad as you allow it to be. It can prey on your mind to the exclusion of all else. So, it would probably be best, to Just Not Worry about it, and tell yourself you didn't see it.

The transfer we made of the video from the DVD: Note that it seems fine up to the point at which we're approaching the house (about the first 2 minutes - and Yeah, we thought this was a joke, so we were Not taking this "investigation" seriously to start with), then it gets worse & more dark & abstract the closer we get to the girl's bedroom, where the story said she was found, under her favorite yellow blanket:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHQjrUPkv9U

- G Lantz
 
In the spirit of not being a complete killjoy I have decided to spoiler-colour this post ... hope it works I RECOMMEND .. ahem ... I recommend you do watch this film, just don't bother doing the face-slap I did at all that Blair Witch bollocks first.

It's actually quite a nice little project :)
 
I think these safety tips are just a wee bit ott.

Tips For A Safe Halloween
24 Oct 2008

To help make sure everyone has a safe Halloween this year, State Public Health Director Dr. Damon T. Arnold has some warnings for both adults and kids.

"Halloween can be a fun and exciting night, but it can also be dangerous. There are many safety issues you need to consider when choosing a costume, trick-or-treating, decorating and driving," said Dr. Arnold.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), four times as many children age 5 to 14 years of age are killed on Halloween evening compared to any other night of the year because of falls, being hit by a vehicle or other accidents. The National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA) also reports an average of seven deaths and $24.9 million in property damage each year in the United States as the result of home fires caused by Halloween decorations, the majority involving candles.

Halloween celebrations can also lead to serious injuries. Adults considering wearing colored contacts as part of their costume need to make sure they are fitted by a professional. Colored lenses purchased without proper examinations and fittings can cause corneal scratches, infections and potential blindness. Only eye care professionals licensed in Illinois are authorized to prescribe contact lenses and retailers are forbidden to sell lenses without a valid prescription. Stores selling lenses without a prescription can be served with a Cease and Desist orders and could also subject to civil penalties of $10,000.

"Stopping unlicensed practice is always a challenge, but conducting compliance audits at this time of year and imposing the maximum allowable fine for any violation will gain the attention of retailers who are breaking the law but find the profits hard to give up," said Daniel E. Bluthardt, Director of the Division of Professional Regulation with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. "We will continue to invest resources into cutting off the supply of non-prescription cosmetic contact lenses and hope to see a reduction in the number of infections as a result."

The following are tips for a safe Halloween.

Treats

- Parents should inspect all treats and throw away any unwrapped or loosely wrapped items.
- Homemade items or baked goods should be discarded unless you personally know who gave them.
- Parents of young children should remove any choking hazards such as gum, peanuts, hard candies and small toys.
- Inspect commercially wrapped treats for signs of tampering, such as an unusual appearance or discoloration, tiny pinholes or tears in wrappers. Dispose of anything that looks suspicious.

Costumes

- Should be bright, reflective and flame retardant.
- Be sure children know how to "Stop, Drop and Roll" in the event their clothing catches fire.
- Use face paint instead of masks, which can interfere with a child's vision, or wear masks that are well-fitting with eye- and ear-holes that do not obscure sight or hearing.
- To reduce the likelihood of tripping, children should not wear long, baggy or loose costumes or oversized shoes.
- Accessories should be flexible and made of soft material, not sharp or pointed.

Parents Should Also…

- Supervise children younger than 12 years of age trick-or-treating.
- Not send children out on an empty stomach. You don't want kids munching on treats before there is a chance to inspect them.
- Plan a trick-or-treating route in a known neighborhood and set a return time.
- Establish a curfew for older youth.

Children Should …

- Not enter homes or apartments without adult supervision.
- Walk, not run, from house to house. Do not cross yards and lawns where unseen objects or the uneven terrain can present tripping hazards.
- Not ride bicycles, which could catch costumes in the chains and spokes.
- Travel in groups when adult supervision is not provided.
- Use flashlights and look both ways before crossing the street.
- Stay on sidewalks, not in the street. If there are no sidewalks, walk on the left side of the road facing traffic.
- Not cross the street between parked cars.
- Go to familiar neighborhoods. Only go to well-lit houses and remain outside while waiting for treats.

Motorists Should …

- Slow down, especially in residential areas.
- Enter and exit driveways and alleyways slowly and carefully.
- Watch for children darting out from between parked cars.
- Have children get out of cars on the curbside.

Homeowners Should …

- Turn on an outside light if welcoming trick-or-treaters.
- Clear walkways and yards.
- Keep dogs and other animals inside and away from the door.
- Keep highly flammable decorations, such as dried flowers, cornstalks and crepe paper, away from all open flames and heat sources, including light bulbs, heaters, etc.
- Use flashlights as alternatives to candles or torch lights when decorating for trick-or-treaters.If using candles to illuminate Jack-O-Lanterns, place pumpkins well away from anything that can burn including doorsteps, walkways and yards.

Illinois Dept of Public Health
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Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/126750.php
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i understand the dangers kids get into at halloween but surely if kids are at a young age they shgould not be going out without supervision anyway.

as for car accidents and house damages that can happen all year round not just halloween, i mean christmas time there are alot of decorations around, and kids going out to festivals and christmas shopping and to see parades and so forth, you run the risk of this kind of stuff happening everyday.

it just seems to be spoiling the whole tradition of halloween.
 
What's all this about making halloween lanterns out of turnips?
Are you sure they weren't swedes?

Must admit, I have never had the inclination to carve horror from a potato.
 
ramonmercado said:
I think these safety tips are just a wee bit ott.

Tips For A Safe Halloween
24 Oct 2008

- Inspect commercially wrapped treats for signs of tampering, such as an unusual appearance or discoloration, tiny pinholes or tears in wrappers. Dispose of anything that looks suspicious.


Illinois Dept of Public Health
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/126750.php
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Or get the boys at the lab to check commercially bought milky sweets for melamine. You don't want your kids shitting a worktop over a week.
 
jimv1 said:
What's all this about making halloween lanterns out of turnips?
Are you sure they weren't swedes?

.
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If they're swedes they scream HURDY GURD! as you carve them.
 
jimv1 said:
What's all this about making halloween lanterns out of turnips?
Are you sure they weren't swedes?
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No, I'm not sure at all. There's been one of those freaky reality-shifts, like when a celebrity you remember dying turns out to be alive and well, regarding root vegetable taxonomy as far as I'm concerned.

I am sure turnips were great big purple things with yellow flesh when I was a kid, whereas now they seem to be small with just a hint of purple on top with white flesh and the big purple ones are suddenly swedes. Or something. This interdimensional travelling is very confusing.
 
This is the very nub of my jist. We were taught to make lanterns out of turnips and then I found out that I was really carving swedes.

I blame europe. They'll be banning Blue Peter advent crowns next.
 
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