Hallow-e'en

[cranioscopical]

Hallow-e'en is a big event here, in Canada.

It's also my son's birthday.
We didn't celebrate Hallow-e'en in the U.K. so, when we moved here my son, who was five at the time, was thrilled to find that everyone in his world would hand him a 'birthday' treat if he just knocked on their door.

The picture is of what my wife just created from a pumpkin.
We and others donate decorated pumpkins to a local organization that sells them and puts the proceeds towards food for some who are less fortunate than ourselves. It's fun and mildly useful at the same time.

Does anyone have Hallow-e'en favourite images/stories to share here?

Does Cody eat pumpkin seeds?

[tomos]

Does anyone have Hallow-e'en favourite images/stories to share here?

Does Cody eat pumpkin seeds?

-cranioscopical (October 19, 2007, 09:18 AM)

kindof..
mean I dont know about Cody - we'll have to wait for the experts to comment on that

it is celebrated in Ireland - not sure, but think it's a very old pre-christian festival *
[I think it probably was in UK too but got "transferred" to Guy Falkes" day & most of the traditions got lost ?]

we used to light bonfires on the local green area -
not very environmentally friendly ones with tyres etc. but hey it was the 70's

we didnt do the door to door thing
but played great games at home -

• try get coins from the bottom of a basin filled with water with your hands behind your back was my favourite

• then apples would get tied hanging to a crossline:
  - blindfolded & again with hands behind your back you'd try get a bite from the apple.. great debates about whether using your shoulders allowed or not

* Wikipedia says:

Halloween originated from the Pagan festival Samhain, celebrated among the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century. Halloween is now celebrated in several parts of the western world, most commonly in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom.

I guess they mean Scotland when they say UK there at the end (?)

[tomos]

The picture is of what my wife just created from a pumpkin.

-cranioscopical (October 19, 2007, 09:18 AM)

btw thats really impressive -
do they keep long - or get all distorted as they dry up (which would be interesting too!)

[JennyB]

it is celebrated in Ireland ...

we used to light bonfires on the local green area -
not very environmentally friendly ones with tyres etc. but hey it was the 70's

we didnt do the door to door thing
but played great games at home -

• try get coins from the bottom of a basin filled with water with your hands behind your back was my favourite

• then apples would get tied hanging to a crossline:
  - blindfolded & again with hands behind your back you'd try get a bite from the apple.. great debates about whether using your shoulders allowed or not

-tomos (October 19, 2007, 10:20 AM)

Hey, Tomos, I didn't realise you were Irish!

I remember all those games too, and back in the 1960's, listening to ghost stories in a farmhouse lit by a Tilley lamp. 

As an old storyteller once told me, "It was the electric light killed the ghosts."

Well, that and the other boyos who were abroad by night in the North during the '70's!

[nudone]

best pumpkin i've seen, cranioscopical. 

[Deozaan]

I've never been very artistic with pumpkins, but I once made one of a logo for a website my brother and I started up.

Hallow-e'en

Hallow-e'en

The logo can be seen on the website: GoldToken.com <-- Turn-based games website, like Chess, Checkers, Battleship, and other classic games.

Anyway, If someone makes an outline of Cody that would be a fun carving to make.

[tomos]

Deozaan,
on the black background it looks really good 
would make a great logo like that with a black background

hi Jenny!
grew up in Clare.
wasnt in a story telling tradition though unfortunately -
I mean not in my family circle - nothing to do with the electricity 

[Deozaan]

Deozaan,
on the black background it looks really good 
would make a great logo like that with a black background

-tomos (October 19, 2007, 12:34 PM)

Thanks. The black background is the picture of the pumpkin outside in the night with a lit candle in it.

[tomos]

Deozaan,
on the black background it looks really good 
would make a great logo like that with a black background

-tomos (October 19, 2007, 12:34 PM)

Thanks. The black background is the picture of the pumpkin outside in the night with a lit candle in it.

-Deozaan (October 19, 2007, 12:52 PM)

hah!
I thought it was the bit you cut out

[cranioscopical]

The picture is of what my wife just created from a pumpkin.

-cranioscopical (October 19, 2007, 09:18 AM)

do they keep long - or get all distorted as they dry up (which would be interesting too!)

-tomos (October 19, 2007, 10:24 AM)

We're about to find out 
We sprayed it with some special fixative which ought to slow the rate of decay. Keeping it cold will help. To keep it cold will be more difficult than usual as we're experiencing temperatures around 18C at the moment. Typically we'd have had hard frosts by now, but not this year. That's very pleasant in the short term but kind of worrying in a wider context.

[cranioscopical]

I've never been very artistic with pumpkins, but I once made one of a logo for a website my brother and I started up.

-Deozaan (October 19, 2007, 12:09 PM)

It's nice that you kept a picture of that!

[cranioscopical]

Since it's that time of year again I thought I'd give this topic a nudge.
There are some quite impressive pumpkin carvings here

[nosh]

best pumpkin i've seen, cranioscopical.  Thmbsup

I'm a few years late, but +1.


This pumpkin will scare the pants off most DoCos.

Spoiler

[Renegade]

This pumpkin will scare the pants off most DoCos.

-nosh (October 27, 2010, 12:39 AM)

[rjbull]

We didn't celebrate Hallow-e'en in the U.K.

-cranioscopical (October 19, 2007, 09:18 AM)

UK has now adopted trick-and-treating, aka demanding money with menaces, which would be criminal in adults.  However, there are some better things:

Wychwood Brewery

[Tuxman]

Halloween? It is, basically, a disgusting way to teach children how to go begging, combined with trying to blackmail them ("give us candy or we'll do a oh-so-funny harm to you").

US-Americans are weird.

[Deozaan]

Halloween? It is, basically, a disgusting way to teach children how to go begging, combined with trying to blackmail them ("give us candy or we'll do a oh-so-funny harm to you").

-Tuxman (October 28, 2010, 12:34 PM)

That's now how my family did it. We were very polite (making sure to say thank you) and never begged. If a household doesn't want to participate they just leave the porch lights off. Though the customary greeting is "Trick or Treat!" we were never instructed to, nor did we come to the conclusion ourselves that this meant we needed to extort candy on the threat of a prank. In fact, one time I was told to perform a trick (in the sense of a dog performing a trick) in order to get a treat.

I'd think that the traditional celebration of Christmas (aka Giftmas) or birthdays in the USA causes more children to beg than Halloween.