'Trick or Treat' and Guy Fawkes Night.

[Steadyguy]

Here in UK we are approaching my two dreaded celebrations in the shape of 'Trick or Treat' and Bonfire Night in remembrance of one Guy Fawkes who tried to blow up our Houses of Parliament.
Am I alone in detesting these two nights?

[pat]

I've never understood why we celebrate Guy Fawkes's attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament. He failed to do it!

As for trick or treat, it's a less attractive American ritual that's unfortunately found its way to our shores. Pointless and irritating. (Bah humbug.)

[technomc]

Was it really nearly a year ago me and my 2 were in NY.....?

Halloween was fab...we loved it...but that was because it was a great effort by every1...unlike the efforts made in the YUK...but i agree, it's not our tradition, so leave it alone..
[actually i feel the same way about school proms too...]

[pat]

Have school proms caught on over here too? They seem rather cruel affairs to me. All very well for the popular cheer-leader girls, but bad news for the less attractive ones. At a time when young girls are at their most vulnerable they're categorized by something as trivial as looks.

[technomc]

Unfortunately YES pat they have...

At age 16...
Expensive prom dresses...
Unusual, and usually expensive, modes of transport to get there...
Expensive venues...
Expensive food..
....and extremely expensive soft drinks [bearing in mind they are too young for alcohol]
The last one held by my daughters school was charging £25 a head for mediocre, luke warm buffet and a disco at a local hotel. Orange juice was £1.50 a glass....
The kids were arriving in stretch limo's etc....the lads had mostly hired dress suits, and the girls were all in ball dresses, with hair-do's and all the other expense that goes with it.

Then they do it again at 18 when they leave school a second time...

Bloody ridiculous....

[pat]

Bloody ridiculous indeed, techno. So not only are the girls discriminated against by virtue of physical attributes, but also, no doubt, by what their parents can afford. I remember once being humiliated in school assembly by the particularly unpleasant headmistress of the time over a coat that my parents had bought for me, being the best they could afford. It was not a pleasant experience.

[birdy]

Expensive prom dresses...
Unusual, and usually expensive, modes of transport to get there...
Expensive venues...
Expensive food..
....and extremely expensive soft drinks [bearing in mind they are too young for alcohol]
The last one held by my daughters school was charging £25 a head for mediocre, luke warm buffet and a disco at a local hotel. Orange juice was £1.50 a glass....
The kids were arriving in stretch limo's etc....the lads had mostly hired dress suits, and the girls were all in ball dresses, with hair-do's and all the other expense that goes with it.

I wonder if the current economic times will encourage less such extravagance. 

FYI, T, even the Greenwich Village Halloween parade is being toned down this year - there will be only a few floats, because the usual sponsors are cutting back.  But I see that the stores are full of the usual candy, costumes, and related paraphernalia.

The difference from my childhood is that then the holiday was mainly for children, with mostly homemade costumes, and now it's been taken over by the adults, who of course spend lots more.

[Steadyguy]

Pat, I recall being one of 3 lads in my class not able to go to see the Festival of Britain in 1951. The other 27 lads all went. These things are with you for the rest of your life.Even when I was at college, I used to envy the students signing up for ski-trips over Christmas. I had to become a temporary postman over the vacation to earn my spending money for the rest of the year.