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.
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.
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... ;)
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!
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
momijizukamori
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-10-13 08:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-13 10:27 pm (UTC)Of course, Guy Fawkes Night is a modern contrivance too, just not quite as recent.
FF
no subject
Date: 2009-10-14 07:03 am (UTC)Of course, it would be hard to have Guy Fawkes Night before Guy Fawkes... ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-10-14 12:08 pm (UTC)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!