Intended to politely discourage the children from ringing at your door

[purpletigron]

http://www.neighbourhoodwatch.net/images/resources/trick-or-treat1.pdf

!

Comments

[frostfox.livejournal.com]

I am lucky here, I will get lots of Trick or Treaters, on the 31st, all under the age of 10, all charming and polite.
No older kids on the make, no troublemakers. If I turn the hall light off, no one will bother me.

FF

[whotheheckami.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting that. I'm reminded of the code within the American military, which I may be common in the rest of the US. If you want don't want to be Trick or Treated you leave your porch light off on 31 October

[watervole.livejournal.com]

There's something terribly American in the assumption that the porch light is normally on. No wonder they have such a high rate of carbon emissions.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

Very hit and miss around here. We had some very wet and bedraggled little ghouls one year, and had no sweets in because none had turned up the year before. The next year, we got a huge tin of sweets, and not a soul was out on the street.

[frostfox.livejournal.com]

It's very much a modern contrivance in the UK. When I was a kid it was 'Penny for the Guy' at this time of year, we hadn't even heard of 'Trick or Treat'.
Of course, Guy Fawkes Night is a modern contrivance too, just not quite as recent.

FF

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

Though trick or treat is very similar to the Souling and Mischief Night traditions that were strongly associated with Hallowe'en in this neck of the woods.

Of course, it would be hard to have Guy Fawkes Night before Guy Fawkes... ;)

[cabbage.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid (in north-east Scotland) it was "guising" - dressing up was not always in spooky things and the intention was that you had a "party piece" to earn your reward.

Various of the parents down our street would lay on things (ducking for apples, for example, later replaced with the "safer" version of trying to spear them with a fork dropped from a chair...). It was a very middle-class area :)

We've had a mixture. None at all last year, but previously we've had the older kids wearing a mask, and younger ones with their parents. We've also had "carol singers" before Christmas whose only carol is two lines of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" followed by an expectation of money. It's not that I'm expecting four-part harmony, but a proper carol would be nice!