Halloween

Samhain (a Gaelic word pronounced “sow-win”) is a pagan religious festival originating from an ancient Celtic spiritual tradition. It is usually celebrated from October 31 to November 1 to welcome in the harvest and usher in “the dark half of the year.” Celebrants believe that the barriers between the physical world and the spirit world break down during Samhain, allowing more interaction between humans and denizens of the Otherworld.

Samhain Merges With Halloween
Neither new holiday did away with the pagan aspects of the celebration. October 31 became known as All Hallows Eve, or Halloween, and contained much of the traditional pagan practices before being adopted in 19th-century America through Irish immigrants bringing their traditions across the ocean.

Trick-or-treating is said to have been derived from ancient Irish and Scottish practices in the nights leading up to Samhain. In Ireland, mumming was the practice of putting on costumes, going door-to-door and singing songs to the dead. Cakes were given as payment.

Halloween pranks also have a tradition in Samhain, though in the ancient celebration, tricks were typically blamed on fairies.

https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/samhain

So you see Halloween didnt start in America as so many people think.
Personally I don't like Halloween.  Children going door to door is never a good idea.You never know who is behind that door. We teach our children not to accept sweets from strangers and here they are doing just that.

I hate that time year, kids scrounging or they'll knock your plant pots over or worse !!!!
Again another American 'tradition' allbeit Irish that we've taken on board.
We lock our front drive gates and turn the lights off till after 9pm.
Thankfully being on a semi rural lane we don't get bothered much, but don't give the b*ggars half a chance.

A few years ago I was told that if you put put a pumkin real or fake in your window that was to show you were ok with kids trick or treating. How that was supposed to works I'm not sure. I'm all in favour of kids having fun, but I think they should be accompanied by a parent or parents.

A pic of Gary Glitter would be a good deterrent

Naughty Mitten wrote:A pic of Gary Glitter would be a good deterrent

LOL !!!!, what a good idea

We always went with our kids and just stayed on the roadside while they knocked on doors. Back in Wigan we used to get loads of kids every year. Last year here in Morecambe I bought the usual sweets and treats - put a pumkin in the window - and nobody came!

Personally, I do what Ray does. I don't like it at all although I took my kids out every year when I lived in Canada as the people loved buying and giving out 'candy' and apples, etc, as much as the kids loved it.

When I first arrived in Canada i heard of stories of parents checking every item off the kids before allowing them to eat it. Some sick people would put broken razor blades inside the apples...