Explain Halloween to the foreigner!

[Feirefiz]

Of course I know what it is about in very general terms but I am unclear on some of the practical aspects.
Obviously the answers to the following questions will vary. Purely anecdotal data points are fine. I just want to get an impression what would be considered "normal."

How many trick-or-treaters do you get, or the other way round, how many homes would a kid visit?

How much do you give a child?

How much do you keep at hand in total?

How old are the children typically?

I assume that younger children are accompanied by their parents. Correct?

How late in the evening do typically expect them?

How universal is participation (on both sides)?

[Cluricaun]

Circa the good old days when I was a lad (May 14th-December 17th 1986)

1.How many trick-or-treaters do you get, or the other way round, how many homes would a kid visit?

Hundreds. As many as you could get to before your pillowcase was too heavy to carry anymore.

2.How much do you give a child?

A handful of lesser candy, a single of better candy.

3.How much do you keep at hand in total?

You run out no matter what and then pass out the stuff your kids don't like from their own hauls.

4.How old are the children typically?

Toddler to high school

5.I assume that younger children are accompanied by their parents. Correct?

Only really small kids. Old enough to ride a bike was old enough to go out on your own.

6.How late in the evening do typically expect them?

After 10pm you can start being a dick about it.


7.How universal is participation (on both sides)?

Nearly 100% minus religious weirdos.


Circa now, the age of suck

1.How many trick-or-treaters do you get, or the other way round, how many homes would a kid visit?

Maybe as many as 25 before the curfew expires at like 6:00pm, which is before anyone gets home from work so you're kinda screwed.

2.How much do you give a child?

A box of raisins or a granola bar or some hippie crap.

3.How much do you keep at hand in total?

Maybe $10 worth

4.How old are the children typically?

Toddlers.

5.I assume that younger children are accompanied by their parents. Correct?

Yes, because the entire world is populated with child poisoning pedophiles who wait behind their doors to kill and rape your children. Nice things to think about your neighbors.

6.How late in the evening do typically expect them?

By the time you get home from work, they're already done.


7.How universal is participation (on both sides)?

Most kids are forced instead to go to some stupid school holiday carnival because towns hate trick or treating.

[Sarahfeena]

Couldn't possibly have answered that question better than Cluricaun did.

[Rube E. Tewesday]

Not as bad as Cluri and Sarah where I live, thank goodness.

I'm in a pretty quiet neighbourhood, but I'd expect in the neighbourhood of 20-30 kids.

I generally give a handful of decent candy, unless it's teenagers with no costumes, who get a small amount of whatever crap is at hand.

Toddlers to the aforementioned teenagers may be around. Sadly, yeah, most kids who aren't of fairly advanced age are with parents, cause everybody's terrified.

I generally figure nobody's coming after about nine. As long as I'm awake, though, you get candy from me.


Wildest trick or treating ever was first Halloween in Iqaluit, Nunavut.
There's been a population boom among the Inuit. Inuit love candy. What better than a day when white people have to give you candy. We were swarmed. I have no idea how many kids there were, but had to be, I dunno, in the two hundred range. We refused to give up. Gave away all the candy we'd had shipped in from Montreal, all our pop, all our own candy, our pop tarts, plus I made three trips in the Arctic cold to the convenience store. Wild.

[Cluricaun]

You could well be the next John Frum.

[Laughing Lagomorph]

How many trick-or-treaters do you get, or the other way round, how many homes would a kid visit?

In recent years I lived on a dead-end street, we got very few trick or treaters. I think our neighbors behind us on a thru street would probably have their door ring maybe 15-20 times, with 1-6 kids each time. My nine year old son probably visited 20 homes last year, he could go to more this year.

How much do you give a child?

A small handful of individually wrapped candy, usually. Some people will give out single lollipops, or a small pre-packed bag of stuff.

How much do you keep at hand in total?

We always ended up with way too much. Probably one bag would do it but a couple of bags on more busy streets in our town.

How old are the children typically?

Toddlers thru early teens. It seems to me girls might do it a year or two longer than boys, who I think are afraid of being seen doing something "uncool".

I assume that younger children are accompanied by their parents. Correct?

Yes. In our small town outside Boston the cutoff seems to be maybe 10 years old, although younger kids might be without parents in a group of older kids.

How late in the evening do typically expect them?

If I recall correctly it is rare for anyone to ring the doorbell after maybe eight o'clock. As far as I know there is no official curfew though.

How universal is participation (on both sides)?

Pretty much every kid does it, there might be a few with parents of particular religions who don't. A fair number of people decline to give out treats, often either older couples with no children at home, or young people with no children yet. Usually if there is a house with no Halloween decorations, no exterior lights on, and no obvious activity inside the house trick or treaters will know not to bother.

We're pretty lucky in our town, there is relatively little of the hyper-vigilant paranoia Cluricaun describes, and little to no government interference (curfew or whatever).

[Laughing Lagomorph]

Circa the good old days when I was a lad (May 14th-December 17th 1986)....

I guess you're the kind of person they mean when they say someone grew up fast!

[jali]

T'was the springsummerfall of his contentment.

[The Original An Gadaí]

How many trick-or-treaters do you get, or the other way round, how many homes would a kid visit?

We live on a fairly dark corner so we don't get all that many. Also our doorbell doesn't work. Sometimes we get half a dozen or more, usually only a handful.

Right behind our house there's a green, with a square of about 60 or 70 houses. Some kids would visit them all, other kids would only visit friends' houses. Some kids (back in the day at least) used to visit as many houses as they could, sometimes a couple of hundred.



How much do you give a child?
Once or twice I've been caught and ended up giving them money but sometimes they're too young to know what it is. Usually a bar of chocolate, some crisps (potato chips) and maybe something like a mandarin orange.


How much do you keep at hand in total?
A set of fun-size chocolate bars with maybe 30 packets, about 10 or so packets of crisps, lots of fruit.


How old are the children typically?
4-10

I assume that younger children are accompanied by their parents. Correct?
Yes, or older siblings/friends.


How late in the evening do typically expect them?

between about 5 and 8, sometimes later.

How universal is participation (on both sides)?
It used to be 100% for kids in the area, I'm not so sure any more. A majority of homes will participate here, I'd imagine 90%, if a kid called and you weren't prepared you'd hopefully find something to give them.

[Queen Tonya]

How many trick-or-treaters do you get, or the other way round, how many homes would a kid visit?

I live in one of the great ToTing neighborhoods, an endless subdivision, we typically get 100-200 kids. Many parents from neighboring towns drive vanloads of kids over here and drop them off for hours. The poorer urban areas are bad to ToT in, maybe 1 in 10 houses participate, or it might be too dangerous of an area, so we get a lot of extra. Used to be closer to 250 but dropped severely after 9-11 for whatever reason. It's been steadily increasing but was still under 200 last year.

How much do you give a child?

Good* candy is usually 3 for the little kids, a small handful of cheap candy for the sullen teenagers. Teens with good attitudes and at least some attempt at a costume get the good stuff, too.

How much do you keep at hand in total?

Tons. I start looking for sales and coupons for candy in September. Normally about 15-20 bags, 2/3 good stuff and 1/3 cheap crap. This year I have 50 glow-in-the-dark necklaces and about 70 mini-bubble bottles to supplement the candy offerings.

How old are the children typically?
Babies in strollers to early twenties.

I assume that younger children are accompanied by their parents. Correct?

Yes. A lot of parents take the opportunity to walk with the older kids and socialize with the neighbors, too.

How late in the evening do typically expect them?

Technically, the city has a curfew of 8 or 9, but it's never enforced. The rule seems to exist to give the cops a reason to bust on troublemakers, but regular kids out for candy aren't made to stop. Part of the fun of it as a kid is being out after dark. We get the babies and toddlers around 5-7, kids until about 8-9 and older teens keep coming around until 10 or so. Folks turn off their porchlight/extinguish their jack o'lanterns either when they run out of candy or they want to avoid the teenagers.

How universal is participation (on both sides)?
In my area, about 60% of the houses pass out candy. It royally ticks me off to see an entire family walking their kid around, since it means they're not passing out at their house. Traditionally, mom or dad walks the kids while the other one hands out. As a single mom for years, I had to borrow a spare friend or grandparent to sit and distribute while I walked with my son, it's just not right to take and not give!
It's very unusual for kids not to participate, only the strictest religious families forbid it usually. Some parents don't let their kids go door-to-door, though, and instead visit shopping malls, community centers or churches that set up supervised activities. There's an abomination around here called "trunk or treat" that a lot of places do; instead of passing out candy at home, participants bring candy and all the vehicles make a big circle in a designated parking lot, kids go car to car collecting and usually have games and costume contests and such.

* typical good candy bag
typical cheap candy

[Feirefiz]

Thanks for your answers!

6.How late in the evening do typically expect them?

By the time you get home from work, they're already done.

Do I understand this correctly that depending on your location it might not even be dark?

Technically, the city has a curfew of 8 or 9, but it's never enforced. The rule seems to exist to give the cops a reason to bust on troublemakers, but regular kids out for candy aren't made to stop.

You have no idea how scary the idea of a curfew is to someone who isn't used to it.

[Queen Tonya]

I kind of have an idea, since I grew up in this city and never even knew we had one until a few years ago. It's seriously never enforced, holiday or no. I truly think it only exists so that the cops have a reason to run kids that are up to no good out of town or into their homes.

It's usually light here when the littlest kids start visiting, sunset isn't until ~6:30 but the babies don't miss not being out after dark. I can't imagine ToTing ending before it's even dark and people aren't home from work yet, bizarre.

[Laughing Lagomorph]

...
How old are the children typically?
... to early twenties....

!!!


This amazes me. I don't think I've ever seen anyone old enough to drive trick or treating, either in upstate NY when I was a kid or here in the Boston suburbs.

[The Original An Gadaí]

In addition there are bonfires here, and no curfews that i've ever heard of. It's a rite of passage to get drunk at a bonfire for 13 or 14 yr olds. Also, although illegal, there are tonnes of fireworks and bangers let off today. The kids procure them in Northern Ireland where they are legal.

[Cluricaun]

Thanks for your answers!

Do I understand this correctly that depending on your location it might not even be dark?

Sadly, yes.

[Laughing Lagomorph]

So it turns out my town did restrict trick-or-treating, at least this year. A recorded call from the police went out indicating the hours were 6-8 pm (I don't have a landline but I heard about the call).

My son and his friend must have hit 30 houses, I think he got at least 3lbs of candy.

One thing I saw a lot of, some people will leave a bowl of candy outside the door instead of hand it out. Usually this is because they aren't home (often bringing their own kid trick or treating) but one bowl had a note that said they couldn't answer the door because of flu in the house!

Also because the weather was so warm many people were sitting outside their front doors instead of inside, and some of the candy-hander-outers were themselves in costume.

[Vox Imperatoris]

Queen Tonya, your bag of cheap candy is better than your expensive one! There's much more variety of flavor.

Also, we have been all gone on Halloween night, but it's typical practice, at least around here, to leave a pot of candy outside for kids to help themselves when you're not there to pass out candy in person.

We don't usually get many trick-or-treaters, maybe a dozen or so, but that's just because we live downtown in the historical district, and it's kind of out of the way. If we lived in a big subdivision, there would be tons. When I was little, we lived in a relatively remote and expensive subdivision with very few families with children, so we just went around to the neighbors and then drove down to a big neighborhood and trick-or-treated.

I've been exposed to the "Halloween is Satanic!" idea, but I've never known anyone, even living in Alabama, who refused to participate for religious reasons. It is a bit funny that the "real" holiday is All Saints' Day, but nobody cares about that very much anymore and we just celebrate the eve. October 31 also happens to be the day Martin Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses.

P.S. I'm back!

[tunaman]

Are Halloween parties still popular?

I grew up in a small town outside Atlanta where everyone knew their neighbors. When I was of trick or treating age (1974-1981), Mom would let us leave as soon as it got dark, and we'd stay out until 10-ish, walking to every house we possibly could in the time allotted. Except when we were very young, Mom didn't dream of escorting us.

But by the mid 80s, fear of pedophiles, people putting razor blades in candy, and kids causing trouble led to the majority of kids being sent to Halloween parties at schools, churches... any place that had a gym or large meeting space. There was always one large party held by the city, and several smaller parties held by various churches and\or civic groups who didn't host the city's party that year. This put a huge dent in trick or treating; it seems like the number of trick or treaters dropped by 80% or so.

After a couple of years of this, my family moved to a gated community that didn't have a lot of kids. Then I moved to various apartments and was always out for "adult Halloween" after that, so I have no idea if these parties are still around or not.

[tunaman]

I've been exposed to the "Halloween is Satanic!" idea, but I've never known anyone, even living in Alabama, who refused to participate for religious reasons.

I've known two.

One was one of the guys who painted my parent's house (the one in the gated community I mentioned in my last post). He was one of those creepy fundamentalists who found "evil" in almost everything. He told me I was going to hell for playing Dungeons and Dragons, and that Duran Duran were agents of the devil.

The second was a housekeeper who worked for my folks for a few months. She was from South Georgia and was a member of one of those churches that only have around 20 members. She wasn't "anti-Halloween" as much as she only celebrated holidays mentioned in the Bible. The crazy woman didn't even celebrate Christmas because it was some "Catholic conspiracy" that had no mention in the New Testament.

[jali]

My only exposure to the "Halloween is Satanic" school of anti-thought was in a drug store in Wilmington, Delaware. The store clerk started preaching at me as she was ringing up my candy purchases. She was scary as hell and I wondered why she worked in a store with Halloween decorations up all over and Halloween candies for sale. She was a real life monster to me.

[Laughing Lagomorph]

... Duran Duran were agents of the devil.

....

Of course he was right about this.

[Rube E. Tewesday]

Just in our circle of acquaintance, there's a surprising number of people who don't celebrate Halloween for religious reasons, or only allow their children to have non-scary costumes. And we live in Toronto.

Still never encountered anybody who handed out Chick tracts instead of candy, thank goodness.

[jali]

Speaking of Dur...

[Glazer]

Dumbo the angry Elephant God has struck down your evil video.