Halloween at the mall!?

[Meier Link]

Ok so when I was a youngster I remember Halloween being not only a fun time filled with candy but a scary night filled with random screams and spooky houses set up to get a rise out of people.

This year is the 2nd year I have got to take my son out trick or treating and I must say the whole feel isn't the same anymore. Most of the lights weren't on and the ones that were just barley went as far as to set out an uncut pumpkin.

I realize times have changed over the course of my 27 years on this earth but I find it odd that this holiday seems to have been limited to the Hanna Montana and other preteen exploits. There really isn't anything that spooky about Halloween anymore, even the traditional door to door work out that use to accompany Halloween has been limited mainly to high traffic shopping malls, buisness districts down town, the zoo, and at the local churches "trunk or treats".

I find this astonishing that most people have limited their childrens expirances of Halloween when they themselves talk about how much fun they use to have going out for 4-5 hours checking in as much candy as humanly possible. I am still trying to figure this one out. Is it pure lazyness, the lack of interest, lack of time, or just a fear that has been instilled into a parents brain that they are going to meet up with a hooligan and that childs candy is going to be messed with by some psyco?

I really feel that Halloween in a way has lost it's edge and became the lame laid thing that no one really cares about anymore.

So what I am wanting to know is pretty simple. How does the Halloween of today compare to what it was in your childhood? Do you feel that children are being deprived of what Halloween was when you where a kid?

Also feel free to make other comments / debates on other areas of what I have been talking about. I really don't want this discussion to be limited to the 2 questions above. I am just running out of time and have to head to work soon.

[Dr_Flea]

Personally for me i remember Halloween being HUGE when i was a kid!!!
That was when i lived in England and it is preety big over there!

As for Australia its preety much not celebrated really!! I didn't have 1 trick or treater where i live so yeh for me its gotten preety dull from when i was a kid untill now.

I made sure i had some Candy in the house this year!! one year i forgot so i gave the kids a packet of chips each!!!

But yeah im preety sure me and my current girlfriend if it goes as far as getting married and having kids will most likely make the most of halloween with out kids its just a fun holiday!!

~Dr_Flea~

[Freya]

I know what you mean, Meier. Halloween's changed. Even for me. (And I didn't celebrate Halloween even ONCE xD")

I've waited for kids to come to our house on Halloween, but there were none. Not a single kid who knocked at the door and wanted candy. I was shocked. But I remember it's been like this since a few years. (I think 3 years ago a few kids came, but I'd missed them all <.<")

When I was younger, it was normal that there were at least 5-10 kids coming to our house, but it seems parents don't want their kids to go around anymore. At least that's what I think. Maybe I'll ask our neighbors, they've a little kid. Besides, I've only seen parents coming along with their children ONCE. That was also quite weird. O.o

I hope my kids (waaaay in the future now xP) will enjoy Halloween, but I'm not sure about that, to be honest. Most people tend to not open the door anymore, as they're annoyed by all the kids wanting candy. xD"
... perhaps it's just because I live in a small village. ^^" A friend of mine told me that there were kids knocking on his door on Halloween. .-. (But, also, not as many as a few years ago.)

[Dodie16]

Yes. I agree that it's a lot different from when I was younger. Here's just a few examples:

When I was in elementary school, we were allowed to have Halloween parties in our classrooms. We could bring candy and soda and share with everybody in the class. We also had a few fun activities. It didn't last all day, only usually the last couple of hours of school, but it was still fun. Now, (at least where my little cousins go to school) they aren't allowed any sort of holiday parties at school. After school hours however, there was a school-sponsered event that they went to on Halloween. I thought it was pretty nice of them to do, but here's the strange part: It was called "Fall Festival". Apparently, a bunch of Churches a while back got upset that a school was throwing a Halloween party, because Halloween was originally about demons and such. So in order to please the churches and families who were deeply religious about these things, it was changed to "Fall Festival".

Also, when I used to go trick or treating, I was allowed to go with a bunch of my friends around the neighborhood with no parental supervision. My little cousins aren't allowed to do that. When I asked why, I was told that it's much more dangerous for children to go out alone today than it was when I was younger. I don't think it's very fair to them that they don't get the same priveledges as I did when I was thier age, but I understand the concern.

My cousins still get excited about dressing up and getting candy, but it doesn't seem the same to me, like when I was younger. Maybe it's just that I remember my experiences more fondly than I really recall. Nostalgia has a way of doing that to people.

As far as actual numbers of trick or treaters, I live in a neighborhood that has lots of households that have children, so we get plenty of trick or treaters and have lots of houses that have thier lights on and pass out candy. I don't think that it's changed that much, at least for me and where I live.

So I suppose on a closing note, yeah Halloween does seem a lot more watered down than when I was younger, but maybe it's just what I think. Maybe kids today are alright with how it turned out.

[Victoria]

It really depends on the area you live in. Some areas are still awesome about Hallow's Eve, while some others have become lethargic. You also have to take into account that all the kids back then grew up to be our age and either moved elsewhere or don't have kids of their own.

So over the years, the amount of kids in a given neighborhood shrink more and more.

I know a friend of mine in the east coast just had a blast going trick or treating. So yeah, it really depends where you live.

[Unknown Entity]

I was never really encouraged to join in on the Halloween celebrations. I never went trick or treating until I was 15, and even then I was only aloud in certain areas and was given a curfew of 9pm at the latest (my mother is over protective).

I disliked staying home and giving away the candy to the trick or treaters at my door... ¬¬

In the younger years of primary school, we were usually given a small treat, like a scary looking ginger bread man, or a bat or a ghost, or whatever. Maybe even they'd cook something different for the school lunch kids.

At my secondary school, they'd be some posters up and around, cakes on sale in the canteen for anyone interested (they tasted the same as the cakes sold any other day, just with orange icing >>; ), and in the Spanish department, we usually ended up making something to celebrate the Day of the Dead.

[Che]

It's definitely not what it used to be.

It actually seems less about being scary and more about being someone you're not. Like a slut. Or a whore.

The old people just stay inside and turn the lights off and watch movies and won't open the doors for kids ringing the bell to get some candy. The young people just use it as an excuse to go out and have a themed party. The little kids really don't get what we used to get as an experience. Or maybe it's all in our head. Maybe it just seemed cooler when we were little, and it's the same now that we're grown up but we figured out how lame it can be.

[Josh_R]

For me growing up Halloween used to be amazing haunted houses set up top scare the piss out of you. Like Che said it is all about being some one you're not instead of being scary. My best halloween costume when I was little was Jason Vorhees and it was a great year..Me and my girlfriend took her little 10 year old brother out on halloween and I fix his ass up good he was a zombie and a good one at that, now keep in mind I have not gone out on halloween for a couple years..Well we go out and i'm expecting to see kids dressed up in scary costumes like me and my friends used to but instead I see hanna montana and things that upset me..Halloween used to be awesome and scary now it sucks balls...
I have a great halloween memory that came to my mind and I must share. When I was eight I went out for halloween dressed as a ninja(come on what little kid didnt want to be a ninja)me and my parents went up to a house with hay strung out everywhere and what I thought was a scarecorw on the ground. To my suprise it was a guy who jumped up and chased and damn near made me piss my pants. Ahhh good times, I think next year I will set up a haunted house to scare little kids shitless so that when they are older they have those memories when they grow up and appreciate them...