Halloween Recap

[WOM]

We had 70 - 80 kids, and most were in pretty serviceable costumes. Mostly little kids and only 6 or 8 'big kids'.
No vandalism / smashed pumpkins.
One complaint that we painted over the purple door.
Best costume: two girls dressed as the twins from The Shining.
Best laugh: kid in an orange tarp with an orange rubber traffic cone on his head: "Do you know what I am?" "Ummm...Harry Potter?" He didn't seem to appreciate that, so I gave him extra Maynards.

[diggedy derek]

Tescos had run out of pumpkins so we carved a skull out of a watermelon. Pro tip.

Our son was dressed as a Ghostbuster and my wife created a Proton Pack out of cereal packets and yogurt pots.

[ad hoc]

Last night was no different from the night before, and I am sure tonight.

On the other hand I did spend the day in Transylvania, so you know, woooooo, and that.

[Patrick Thistle]

We didn't have any callers apart from a delivery driver dropping off some free drier balls.

[ursus arctos]

Do people in Transylvania visit cemeteries today?

I've never been sure of the geography of that practice.

[EIM]

Someone carved a pumpkin for the pub and it caused a bar fly outbreak and I've spent all day scrubbing dark corners and spraying chemicals onto the ceiling.

[San Bernardhinault]

Our airbnb had no visitors. The front door is down a steep driveway and the road has no sidewalk so it was no surprise. The missus had bought some emergency sugary treats just in case. Now I have to eat them all. It’s a tough gig but someone has to do it.

Earlier we went to meet a friend downtown for a happy-hour late lunch and cocktails. There was zero evidence of anything halloweeny at all. Which was a bit of a surprise.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Do people in Transylvania visit cemeteries today?

I've never been sure of the geography of that practice.

It's fucking massive here. Torrential rain notwithstanding

[ad hoc]

Do people in Transylvania visit cemeteries today?

I've never been sure of the geography of that practice.

Yes, but it;s not a day off. We thought about going to my wife's home town on Sunday, but instead are going to light some candles around here in places where we have memories of her various family members. I'm not sure if Romanians (ie orthodox Romanians, which is most of them) do. I presume, given the pictures on the walking thread that James in Slovakia got the day off today, presumably for this reason. I know it;s a holiday in Hungary today.)

[ursus arctos]

Not a holiday for Orthodox Romanians

Ireland is not surprising

[DCI Harry Batt]

Didn't happen here at all.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Only one group at the door, things are clearly demarcated round here between people who are receptive (decorating the houses) and those who aren't (like me), but I had an emergency supply of lollies I brought back from America last month and the group who chanced their arms seemed happy with that.

Then I got a reverse trick or treat in the form of my next door neighbour bearing a Beer 52 box which the Evri driver had left in plain sight on my drive when I was at work and she kindly took it in so that the local youth didn't get an unexpected bonus on their rounds.

[Simon G]

It's very much the case on the estate where I live that no decorations (which can be as little as a pumpkin outside the front door) means no interest - by and large.

We took our 5 year old twins out for an hour (fortunately the hour it wasn't raining) and they got a little haul of sweets. Whilst out, we left a bowl out the front for others to take one - clearly some were more greedy than others as when we returned there were 7 left. After we went through the twins' boxes to remove sweets my wife doesn't like them having (like hard lollies) and added them to the bowl it managed to last another 3 or 4 knocks at the door before we had to start apologising to knockers. Annoyingly, removal of the pumpkins and minor decor didn't stop all the knocks, but it had ended by about 7.

All in all, a very pleasant evening with like-minded people and, from what I could see, little unsociable behaviour.

The twins were dressed in skeleton suits.

[WOM]

The retired firefighter across the road and five houses up posted on FB that he got 400 kids. He's full of shit, but he rides a Harley with the smoking ruins of the twin towers airbrushed on the fairing, so interpret as you wish....

[DCI Harry Batt]

I never knew it was such a competitive sport.

[WOM]

Hah...you think that's bad...you should have seen the humble-bragging from those who gave out full-size candy bars instead of the standard little Halloween ones.

[ursus arctos]

"Neighbourhood" FB/Next Door/etc groups are a Living Hell, Ex. 39,352

[Gangster Octopus]

I was given a small packet of Love Hearts and my wife a small packet of Fizzers yesterday evening when we were in Pizza Express...

[caja-dglh]

Hah...you think that's bad...you should have seen the humble-bragging from those who gave out full-size candy bars instead of the standard little Halloween ones.

One of my kids friends had prepared a map of the full size houses in the neighborhood. I helped her by adding a new one I knew about. The best was a house that used to be a full-size house had been sold in the past year and the new owners were not aware of its history and were shamed by hundreds of kids. "You've run out of full size already?"

My son got 8lb of candy.

I need to check in on my friends who went to the Mars factory - that place is normally crazy and this was its final Halloween before closing.

[elguapo4]

Here, kids only knock on doors of decorated houses, and as I forgot to get any treats, I went to the local with my brother and my friend. They gave out free cocktail sausages, which was nice.

[Capybara]

I didn't even know that house-decorating was a thing until Saturday when I saw several examples on the way to the game in Colchester.

[S. aureus]

My daughter dressed as Mike Wazowski and went trick-or-treating with her friends, turning her nose up at the plastic jack-o-lantern I'd gotten out for her to put her hoard in and instead taking a pillow case. She seemed pretty happy with her haul, except for one place that was giving all the kids bananas, with a helpful healthy eating card attached.
My son had arranged to meet his friend to go, dressed as "Harry Potter", which was going to involve putting on his glasses and drawing a lightning bolt on his forehead (which, believe it or not, was actually more effort than he'd put in to his costume the last few years), however his friend flaked at the last minute so my son stayed home with me complaining that I was handing out too much candy and there'd be nothing left for him.
Probably about 50 kids swung by, mostly little kids but 3 small groups of teenagers, who had gernerally put some effort into their costumes. One group did have a guy dressed as a gorilla (fine) and 2 guys who hadn't bothered at all. I can't say that I paid enough attention to the costumes to pick a best. One kid (about 8 by the looks of him) talked my ear off when he showed up.

[Benjm]

The decorated/non-decorated opt in/out is observed here too. We don't and hadn't had callers for some years even before the pandemic. Of thirty odd houses in our road, three or four were fully decorated from a quick glance up and down. I'm a little surprised that there weren't more. There has been quite a turnover of residents through the course of the pandemic and the new arrivals are usually families with young kids.

[WOM]

I commented to my wife that I'd seen almost no Harry Potters this year, and then I got 4 in one whack of kids. "Which house are you?" elicited a lot of blank stares, but one kid pointed to his 'G' button.

[ad hoc]

Not a holiday for Orthodox Romanians

Though apparently in Transylvania a lot of them do go, having adopted the event from Hungarians. It is, I have to say, a genuinely beautiful and moving celebration. When we go "home" we meet loads of E's family members, often distant cousins who she only ever encounters by chance on November 1st, as well as various childhood friends of hers. Coupled with the autumn mist, the candle light, and the roasting chestnuts that everyone eats, it's incredibly atmospheric.

Anyway we took a walk to the village cemetery and got the feel for it



From above looking down on the graveyard

The grave we adopted and remembered my wife's parents and brother and my dad