PSF Chat II

[Smiles2us]

^ I truly enjoyed reading about that and your experience!  It actually made me very happy.

Hope you have a fantastic day... maybe enjoy a sweet piece of candy in remembrance of your 'Halloween' experience.  

Most don't celebrate Halloween for any dark meanings.  It's more for just kids having fun and getting some treats, dressing up, going door to door.  There is also a tie-in celebration called "Autumn Harvest" for the farmers who get their harvests around this time. 

[flemishcap]

Awesome backstory there, Kiku.   Thank you for sharing that.

[kiku]

Thank you for reading, @flemishcap . And I'm glad to hear it made you very happy, @Smiles2us . 
Happy Halloween everybody!

[Anyponedrawn]

It's very nice to read, Kiku.  It's kind of crazy to think that this "holiday" didn't even penetrate Germany all that much until the 90s and later.  I don't do anything on Halloween personally, but it's neat to hear about it elsewhere.

Thank you for sharing.  I think I prefer St. Martin's Day.

[Grapefoot]

No one visited this Halloween.  Now I have a whole bag of candy.... uhhh.

[Silverwing]

It was freezing cold... I also had no visitors.  But I kind of expected it this year.

[Grapefoot]

I figured after over a year of government restrictions, freedoms being squashed, mandates, and everything else, that SOME kids would come out and get some candy here. 

[flemishcap]

I don't do anything for Halloween.  It's one of those holidays I don't follow.  The main one's are Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter in that order to me.  But I do have a bowl of candy incase neighbor kids stop buy.  Most have grown up though and moved out or are too old.

[kiku]

It's very nice to read, Kiku.  It's kind of crazy to think that this "holiday" didn't even penetrate Germany all that much until the 90s and later.  I don't do anything on Halloween personally, but it's neat to hear about it elsewhere.

Thank you for sharing.  I think I prefer St. Martin's Day.

Me too!  It's always so nice to see the procession of kids carrying their colourful lanterns and singing.
I still remember my excitement as a kid watching the bonfire, the band playing along with our singing and "St. Martin" on a horse galloping around the fire. 

[NostradamusTheSeer]

Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, the kids all dressed up and went out to the costume party on Friday night and the actual door-to-door thing the following evening.  Four to six seems too early, though--I'm still out walking the dog then. In my old 'hood I never even started handing out candy 'til '5:30, and that went 'til half-past seven or eight... though, after a decade, a lot of the kids 'round D____ Road either got too old or knew all my tricks too well to be scared any more.

Oh, and my nephew won first prize at his school's Halloween bash for his Suicide Squad Joker costume-- $25.  (a la Jack Nicholson)  Wait'll they get a load of me....

[Grapefoot]

St. Martin's is a real thing in the US too.  I wasn't Catholic growing up, but I had friend's who were.  At my church (non-denominational) we had a thing call "Fall Harvest" which was similar to Halloween, but without the Satanic undertones some people like to use.  At the church, kids would dress up as well, and go around the entire grounds and to different rooms as teachers, parents, church workers, would pass out candy.  There were also games, food and drinks.  Just sort of a big community get together.

But even a ton religious people in the US celebrate the Halloween, but the more commercialized, fun version with just costumes and candy.  Not the evil spirits, goblins, ghosts, etc.

I've got to say I really love reading how everyone celebrates things here.

[RainySunshine]

I have never heard of St. Martin's Day in the US or Canada.  I did some looking at it seems to be practiced as a more local level among certain groups of people, specifically German descent Catholics.  But what I do know, is growing up my church had fall events for kids.  I used to go out with my friends through the neighborhoods to get candy and see how big a haul we could get.  We wanted the big ticket items, such as the extra good chocolate candies.   None of us cared for the hard candies or sugar treats, which we would give to other kids or other siblings within our group.   It was so much fun. 

I remember I dressed up as a police man, firefighter, air force pilot, explorer, etc.  

We did it for fun.  We didn't do any of the dark, sinister things that some people tie to Halloween.  That was nonexistent, and still is to me.

[kiku]

Thanks for the interesting info, @Grapefoot and @RainySunshine , I didn't know about that! 

[Smiles2us]

I think Halloween is overall just meant for innocent fun, candy, dressing up, and getting spooked! 

The darker things some of the comments above have mentioned are very minuscule and mainly amongst small cults. 

[Silverwing]

We've all made halloween sound far more sinister than it is.   Lol!  Santanic vibes guys?  Really?   99% of people aren't part of some witches coven during Halloween night.