"Trick and Teat" is the theme of this week's "52 Ancestors" prompt. However Halloween
was almost a non-event in both my childhood and my daughter’s, as
its traditions took a long time to reach Britain from across the Atlantic.
Image courtesy of Pixabay
I can remember, though, a popular children's game we played at Guides in autumn - "Apple Dookin" where we had our hands tied behind our back with a scarf, and had to kneel at a tub of water to try and grab an apple with our mouths without getting wet. Another version (still with our hands tied) was to hang apples on a piece of string and again try to get a bite out of them as they swung too and fro.
Turnips were used to to create lanterns, as pumpkins were a rarity here.
Shops here
eventually
discovered the commercial opportunity from Halloween and have been
full of orange and black wares, since September. Where I live, houses
with young
children have luminous skeletons and witch decorations in
their windows and an occasional pumpkin appears at front doors. The
primary school marks the event with a school disco - in fancy dress of
course!
"Trick and Treat" has never caught on much in my experience, with reservations about youngsters knocking on the doors of people they don't know. In the seven years we have lived in our present home, it is rare to get guisers - last year a group (with mothers in the background) regaled me with jokes e.g. What does the Chinese skeleton order in a restaurant? Answer: Spare ribs!!
What I do love about this time of year are "Pumpkins"! My daughter even gave me a pumpkin candle for my birthday in September. They are such lovely, cheery symbols and I could not stop photographing them when we on holiday in New England.
Witches
were always a popular
theme at fancy dress parties throughout the year and my daughter (and
now granddaughter) enjoyed reading the "Worst Witch " books. As for
chants - it was:
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
(As proclaimed by the witches in Shakespeare's "Macbeth").
 |
| Image courtesy of Pixabay |
"Trick and Treat" has never caught on much in my experience, with reservations about youngsters knocking on the doors of people they don't know. In the seven years we have lived in our present home, it is rare to get guisers - last year a group (with mothers in the background) regaled me with jokes e.g. What does the Chinese skeleton order in a restaurant? Answer: Spare ribs!!
What I do love about this time of year are "Pumpkins"! My daughter even gave me a pumpkin candle for my birthday in September. They are such lovely, cheery symbols and I could not stop photographing them when we on holiday in New England.
We just had to pull into this huge display, so I could take this photograph!
A pumpkin dominating this display at Boston market
*************
Join Amy Johnson's Crow
Facebook Group "Generations Cafe."
to read posts from other bloggers taking part in the
Facebook Group "Generations Cafe."
to read posts from other bloggers taking part in the
2019 "52
Ancestors" Challenges.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comment which will appear on screen after moderation.