In England - Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night used to be more
important. When I was young we would all go around asking' "Penny
for the guy. mister?". Some of us even had guys - usually and old
jumper and torn trousers stufffed with newspaper topped with a Guy
Fawkes mask.
Now days that has all but died out although we still have fireworks and
bonfires. What has replaced it really has been the American version of
Halloween.
Halloween has many ancient connections to our folklore but I don't
think kids are really aware of much else beyond the dressing up, Trick
or Treating and cutting faces in pumpkins.
Andrew
Trick-or-treating should be outlawed in this country (England). Furthermore, why oh why do
people think it's traditional to eat turkey at Christmas?
Now here's another question: in what countries does 1 November have some significance?
The fact that the word 'Halloween' is in origin an 'eve', like Christmas Eve or New Years' Eve,
suggests that 1 November (All Saints' Day? sorry I'm not religious) was once important in this
country.
In the US Halloween is second in money spent (if that's the standard
of significance) only to Christmas. I think Halloween as you have
suggested means All Hallows Eve or All Saints Eve. In this country
older religious traditions recognize All Saints Day (Nov. 1st). Some of
the newer and more fundamentalist traditions would like to ban
Halloween as being satanic and a bad influence on children. AS you
can tell by my profile pic, I'm all for "dressing up." Kirk
