Do you Trick or Treat?

Halloween one of those occasions I never really understood, I'm very vague on the actual meanings of it, why do we even celebrate it? what 'religion' if any does it cover? is it accepted by other religions?

this year we dressed up and went for a spooky walk in the woods!

My lack of knowledge is probably due to us being fairly nonreligious, I like to learn about religions I am interested in all faiths but do not follow strictly any one given faith, I encourage my children to talk and learn about every religion whilst I sit on the side lines and haven't really made my mind up as to what I believe if any of them, I always say I live my life doing what I consider to be morally right, you know treat others like you want to be treated, don't kill anyone, don't steal anything all the fundamental morals to co exist, and hope then for the best!

But that's besides the point really, Halloween always bemuses me for the Trick or Treat element of it, yes I like the costumes, I like the decorations, and hey any excuses to put on a bit of a party is always warmly accepted, but why do we go out knocking on doors?

2008 how we normally celebrate dress in a costume but no major Halloween activites

To go trick or treating has always been a source of controversy when I was younger my mum would not let us go trick or treating, we never got dressed up for Halloween, and only occasionally had a pumpkin, mum and dad would answer the door to the odd person who knocked and reluctantly give out their small change or chocolate biscuits, but we never made any form of effort, and I do remember one year wondering why we couldn't go out like 'everyone else did' but it wasn't a great source of anguish and was soon forgotten.

So when I left home and had my own children, did I spare them the same  longing to be included? well.. no. Every year I sort of skimmed passed Halloween, I did buy them dressing up outfits, but more so because they like to dress up in general, not for a specific Halloween purpose, and we did buy the odd decoration, more so because my other half loves decorations! but we until last year (2010) we never went out and never held a party or did anything in particular to mark Halloween itself.

Last year tho, I decided that if the children asked, we would go trick or treating, we were at our old house last year, which was on the outskirts of a small village, so living out of the village we never got trick or treaters coming to our door, so upto this point it had been easy enough to ignore. Last year however the children did ask, there friends had been talking about trick or treating at school, so I arranged with the neighbours and we went up into the local village, the first time I'd ever been out on Halloweens night, and I was pleasantly surprised, there was loads of decorations out in the street, people had decorated their drive ways and created almost a street party feel to it, there were lots of families walking around, Chloe took hand wrote thank you notes, and we walked around a few of these displays collecting sweets from pumpkins mouths, and finding treats inside old coffins. It was quite nice and we returned home after having a fun time.

2010 trick or treating display in the local village

This year however we have moved, I do realize that the small community feel to Halloween is not the 'norm' and this year not knowing anyone local to go to, I am not sure if we will be going out Trick or Treating.

I am not sure I like the idea od knocking on 'strangers' doors, I can see the attraction if it is a community thing, and everyone is happy about it, but I don't really like the idea of going to peoples houses who I don't know, and knocking on their door asking for treats.

So this year, having just moved house and not knowing anyone here, I think we will be carving the pumpkins we brought the other day, we will eat hot dogs and drink cherryade, we will eat the sweets we brought our selves and tell spooky stories.

and while I'm thinking about it I might go and look up the true meaning of Halloween.