Halloween; Harmless friendly fun, or sinister, intimidating and frightening

It's that time of year again. Trick or treat.

For years I have turned off my lights and pretended to be out whilst cowering in a corner, dreading that ring on the door.

Even when no-one has rung, I have had eggs thrown at my house, and noisy groups of youngsters making a racket outside, generally making a nuisance of themselves. In the morning, you never know what sort of mess is left to clear up.

Every year I pray for heavy rain whcih never comes.

Do other people feel this way, or perhaps you happily open the door handing out sweets and having a good laugh?

Hi Celia

I think you have been very unlucky with Halloween. It sounds like older children have taken it over in your area and used it as an excuse to be cruel.  

We are very lucky in our road - there are a lot of young children living close by. They knock on the door with their parents and my children prepare a bowl of sweets and biscuits to hand out. So far we have never had any trouble.

However, I don't like the idea of Halloween. The message is not good for children. It teaches them that it's a good thing to beg at people's doors and if they don't get what they want they can seek revenge. How can this be a good thing? Many schools discourage it now.

Also all those sweets cannot be good either.

It would be better if children could be encouraged to do some good work for charity at this time of year - and I think many schools encourage this type of activity more frequently now. Comic Relief and Children in Need are just some of the good causes that children are encouraged to get involved in. I think we should see more of this and also helping out elderly neighbours and underprivileged people.

Jenny

I hope you all had a safe Halloween without any problems.

My daughter remembered to buy some sweets when she was out getting her hair cut. We bought some pick 'n' mix from the post office and chocolate eyes and put them in a bowl.

We had lots of young children knocking on our door. They were all very sweet 'young ones' so we dished out all our sweets. They were all very pleasant and said 'thank you' and wished us a Happy Halloween. No one was rude or unkind. All polite. And all finished nice and early by around 7.30.

Here's hoping that every one else was treated in the same friendly manner as we were.

Jenny