zaza_gabor的日记, 2015年11月1日

I have never seen any one put No trick or treat signs up around here. Great idea! 

Way to go with the walking. I struggle with mine and it is always hopeful to get out there and enjoy the weather. As for Halloween, I bagged up popcorn for the kids. A bit high in carbs, but better than candy. It is too bad that you feel the kids are knocking on "strangers" doors. When I was raising my children we made sure they knew everyone on the block and only knocked on doors of family members and people they knew, It might be an interesting goal to get to know the families in your community so they don't have to knock on a strangers door. 

We used to call it guising when I was growing up. That was a long time ago! We went to all the neighbours we knew - basically the tenements next door - and either sang a song, recited a poem, did a dance etc. whatever we were good at. 

This 'treat-or-trick' business is relatively recent in the UK, where Halloween has otherwise been celebrated for a long time. My partner remembers celebrating it with friends when he was a kid but finds the concept of treat-or-trick frankly alien, which it actually is: it came from the US. In fact a lot of people here don't like the concept at all, hence the signs displayed on doors. I don't go as far as displaying a sign as I simply don't answer and don't open the door. The kids who knocked on my door last night don't actually know me: what makes them think it is OK to approach a perfect stranger? However I understand what you mean and where you're coming from regarding the treat-or-trick thing. But you have to bear in mind people haven't necessarily caught up with it here and some don't want to. And the really sad part is the sense of community here has been hurt on some level and in some people's mind, trick-or-treat has just been added to a long list of antisocial behaviour, along with vandalism, noise and harassment :( 

LACH PZB: which shows different people experienced it differently as they were growing up! :D Where my partner grew up, kids celebrated Halloween but didn't go treat-or-treating. 

Does your neighborhood participate in Guy Fawkes Day? That is foreign to us here in the US. 

Yes, I know there will be fireworks and the likes in my neighbourhood. It's not something that is part of US traditions I would think: what is being celebrated is Guy Fawkes' failure to blow up the Parliament :D 

I'm from Scotland not the US. In the 60s and 70s when I was growing up we called it guising which comes from the word disguise. We dressed up as various characters not necessarily spooky ones. As you said trick or treat is American. There were certainly no tricks involved when we were guising. You dressed up, performed and were given an apple, some sweets or a few shiny copper coins. It was very innocent and all the mums were looking out for us.  

Trick or treating has never been embraced here in Britain the way it was supposed to be. There's the "knocking on a stranger's door" issue and the "opening your door to a couple of older thugs" issue (which has been a problem in some parts of London). Consequently a lot of people just choose to ignore the whole thing and wait for Guy Fawkes Night. That's much more fun. 

LACH PZB: yes, I know you are British, I was trying to explain the situation here in Britain to Ted Hamilton who is US-based. 

I know:) I was just wondering if you called it guising in England? 

I find it interesting how things have changed in the US. My father recalls that he and his friends would to things like push over out-houses and other acts around his small childhood town. I grew up and the occasional family would get toilet paper flung through their trees, leaving white draped trees in the morning, often accompanied by smashed pumpkins. Now it seems that the focus is on gathering up as much candy as possible. One wonders about the obesity rates in the US when the grandson comes over with a candy bag that weighs over six pounds. I saw Jimmy Kimmel, one of our late night tv talk show hosts, posting video of children being told their parents took their candy and the reaction of the children. It was cruel and pathetic. I can see why this would not catch on in England. I am concerned that with the advent of TV and the Internet, our communities are losing traditions and people are becoming more isolated, even though they live next to each other. My wife and I often purposefully go visit people just to drink coffee and talk. This seems a lost aspect of community living and we all can benefit by reaching out to our neighbors.  

I don't know if people are more isolated since the invention of the Internet: isolation was already spoken about in the sixties and seventies when they built council estates in the UK (I believe they are known as projects in the US). Then television kept people locked up at home instead of sharing time with their friends and neighbours. Yet I remember a time when television promoted knowledge and beauty, not ugly reality TV with horribly dull and uninteresting people who then find stardom(!) for all the wrong reasons. And, talking about how people don't take the time anymore to meet and talk to each other, the same thing could be said about work, how it takes up most of our time, even spilling on our free time, destroying our social life and preventing us from enjoying our family and friends more. It's not to say that I don't know my immediate neighbours: we talk to each other and, without being in each other's pocket, we look out for each other. And if Halloween has become an excuse to stuff oneself with candies, what about Christmas? which has become a completely mercantile event and an excuse to stuff oneself with undigestible food :D lightyears away from the spirit of good will it is supposed to promote. I don't think community spirit has completely died: it's changed over the years it's true, with people keeping more of a distance because they're (too) busy but, as long as we are human, we will keep a sense of community.  

LACH PZB: it's called trick or treat or trick or treating I think in England but people don't seem to pay much attention to it and my partner told me that the practise was virtually unknown where he grew up. 

Its origins are from Ireland then Scotland - either the Celts or pagans (or both) had some sort of celebration at that time. The comments on community spirit make me feel quite sad and nostalgic - I must be getting old! 

I've been thinking a great deal about this over the past months. My challenge to lose weight and get healthy needs to include a component that replaces unhealthy eating with positive activities. This last May my niece plowed up a 1/4 acre of land and planted pumpkins. She had a group pumpkin planting party. She then tended the patch, inviting people to come help weed now and then through social media. Two weeks ago she held a Pumpkin festival where volunteers played games and children were able to get a pumpkin. In a community as small as ours it was an amazing turnout with over three hundred people attending. When it was over, she went door to door in the low income housing area and handed out pumpkins to families. A positive time with positive people doing community action that is healthy. I really enjoyed it. 

I've been thinking a great deal about this over the past months. My challenge to lose weight and get healthy needs to include a component that replaces unhealthy eating with positive activities. This last May my niece plowed up a 1/4 acre of land and planted pumpkins. She had a group pumpkin planting party. She then tended the patch, inviting people to come help weed now and then through social media. Two weeks ago she held a Pumpkin festival where volunteers played games and children were able to get a pumpkin. In a community as small as ours it was an amazing turnout with over three hundred people attending. When it was over, she went door to door in the low income housing area and handed out pumpkins to families. A positive time with positive people doing community action that is healthy. I really enjoyed it. 

Thank you for sharing this wonderful story. I hope other community members will play forward her thoughtful deeds and actions. 

Ted Hamilton: What a wonderful initiative on your niece's part! She seems to have dedicated a lot of time and energy to it but I am sure she was repayed tenfold with the positive vibes and feelings her action triggered in other people.  

LACH PZB: I spent the first few years of my childhood on a council estate (cité HLM) in the 70s in France and there were people from various countries and cultural backgrounds living there. The mothers would take turn to babysit the kids on weekdays when the school was out and this allowed us kids to get in contact with customs as varied as Kabyle, Spanish, Algerian, Portuguese, Senegalese, West Indian, Vietnamese and regional (Bretagne, Normandie, Savoie, Alsace, etc). People talked to each other and helped each other in other ways and there was a real sense of community on the estate where I grew up, although council estates were infamous for killing it and being a fertile ground for criminality and lawlessness...