The Off Topic Topic

[Tamas]

Question for the Yuros.  I know Halloween has made some inroads in ye olde world, wondering if it has gotten to kids trick or treating.

Because of our baby I was too distracted to realise  Halloween was coming and when we went out that evening it was quite the surprise to see a lot of families in the neighbourhood out trick and treating, several houses were decorated to varying degrees as well. Its a very white middle class neighbourhood though,so YMMV

[Josquius]

I had a couple of kids come to mine.
One was dressed as Freddie Kruger. Which I just don't get. Does a <10 year old kid have a clue who that is?
When I was a kid it was semi contemporary so sort of there. But now?

Trick or treating has always been a thing though. Common when I was a kid. Though these days the costumes are getting stupidly elaborate and taking effort. Used to be just jumper over your head.
The mischief night term seems to be falling out of use sadly with the trick part withering.

One of my big Conservative views is we need the government to get protectionist with our holidays and crush American style halloween beneath a souped up official holiday guy fawkes.

[Jacob]

"Weird horrible guy with a melted face and claws on his hands" seems a reasonable halloween costume, whether or not you've seen the movies.

We had something like 120 or 130 kids come to our place. I was never raised with Halloween, but I've really grown to enjoy it over the years.

[celedhring]

I was also surprised when a workmate told me her 14 yo dressed up as Krueger this year. He hasn't even seen the movies (just clips), but he thinks he's cool. I guess it's some fad we grown-ups are just completely alien to.

[Admiral Yi]

It could be a Tick Toc thing.  At the karaoke joint there was a spate of people singing Fleetwood Mac (they all thought it was Stevie Nicks) and very recently a spate of people singing songs from Hamilton.  I asked and people said yeah it's a Tick Toc thing.

[The Brain]

Halloween is a big kid thing in Sweden these days, but anecdotally I have yet to encounter trick or treating.

Then what do kids do?  Here getting loot is pretty much the whole point for kids.

I don't know. But you see a lot of dressed up kids and stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if trick or treating is a thing in suburbia (where I don't live).

[Barrister]

Question for the Yuros.  I know Halloween has made some inroads in ye olde world, wondering if it has gotten to kids trick or treating.

Talking to our Spanish student she had gone trick or treating back home, but it was a pre-arranged thing where you just went to houses that were already expecting them.

[Maladict]

Question for the Yuros.  I know Halloween has made some inroads in ye olde world, wondering if it has gotten to kids trick or treating.

Talking to our Spanish student she had gone trick or treating back home, but it was a pre-arranged thing where you just went to houses that were already expecting them.

It's getting fairly common here now. You put a light or some other sign in your window so kids know there's loot to be found.
On the 11th it's St Martin's Day and they get to do it again. The day after St Nicholas rides into town, it's a nonstop sugar rush from Halloween until December 5th 

[Sheilbh]

Yeah I think it depends on the type of neighbourhood you live in. Nothing where I am but I'm in a pretty dense bit of a city. I imagine more in suburbs.

Growing up in Scotland we still had guising which I think is the origin of trick or treat. That was a lot more organised/pre-planned. But that's because we lived in the far north of the Highlands so our nearest neighbour was at least a mile away so you need a route and timings because everyone's driving

There were halloween parties though. Many memories of my mum's variations on bin bag costumes: Darth Vader, Dracula etc

I think in Scotland Halloween is possibly more traditionally important than Guy Fawkes Night which is far, far more English. I love both. I think we should be hoping for new tradition in the middle and turn it into some sort of British carnival week.

Lewes already does the burning effigies - last night's Suella as Ursuella (got a friend whose family are from Lewes so go every year and apparently it was very good):

"Weird horrible guy with a melted face and claws on his hands" seems a reasonable halloween costume, whether or not you've seen the movies.

Yeah also he's been around for 40 years. It's like kids in the 70s dressing up as a Boris Karloff's Frankenstein or Bela Lugosi's Dracula. He's part of the canon of Halloween monsters - like Michael Myers.

[Tamas]

It could be a Tick Toc thing.  At the karaoke joint there was a spate of people singing Fleetwood Mac (they all thought it was Stevie Nicks) and very recently a spate of people singing songs from Hamilton.  I asked and people said yeah it's a Tick Toc thing.

It's kind of crazy that I am entirely disconnected from the most prominent (and unbelievably large-scale and international) avenue of culture-spreading.

[Sheilbh]

It's kind of crazy that I am entirely disconnected from the most prominent (and unbelievably large-scale and international) avenue of culture-spreading.

Think about this a lot. As I'm in my 30s I'm somewhat aware of what's going on on Tik Tok like any other adult, because people curate it and put it on Instagram.

I also think there's something interesting/weird about this that we're not just in different communities on the internet but on entirely different platforms (largely by age)

[Josquius]

This doesn't concern me. I never saw the appeal of Instagram and Snapchat when they were the hot things so why should Tik tok be any different?

There's added dodginess with tik tok with the whole Chinese spy thing too.

I'd like to hope our cultural obsession with youth is coming to a close. Not that I'm going to be cool either way. But it does help maximise what good shit can be made.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

It's kind of crazy that I am entirely disconnected from the most prominent (and unbelievably large-scale and international) avenue of culture-spreading.

not sure I'd use 'culture' and 'tiktok' in the same sentence, unless it also contains 'ruining'.

that said and to answer yi's question: There were some people on the march on halloween. But it's dependent on the region and not something everyone does. Luckily.

[Duque de Bragança]

Question for the Yuros.  I know Halloween has made some inroads in ye olde world, wondering if it has gotten to kids trick or treating.

Heard in the métro John Carpenter's Halloween theme (over here movie was called La Nuit des Masques back in 1978 title still shows up in movie tickets) and the Exorcist Tubular Bells theme, played on cell phones, with people over 15-18 wearing make-up and some disguises going to some kind of Halloween party.

I didn't see trick or treating but then I live in the city centre. Might be a suburban thing (as in zone pavillonaire as in American suburbs not Euro-style suburbs).

[Tamas]

It's kind of crazy that I am entirely disconnected from the most prominent (and unbelievably large-scale and international) avenue of culture-spreading.

not sure I'd use 'culture' and 'tiktok' in the same sentence, unless it also contains 'ruining'.

That's just the thing though. I despise Tik Tok but just because I despise the source of popular contemporary culture it still is contemporary culture. I mentioned here a few days ago this video from this year's Sziget festival where young people explained a whole set of expressions they were familiar with in a nuanced manner thanks to Tik Tok (English words so no doubt shared globally) that I only knew the "hip" meaning of maybe two. That's how young people talk and I have no idea what it means. And the same way me and friends of my age use expressions we learned when we were young, they will do so with these words.