Still wet and wild at the moment, and the weather’s no better than it ought to be, too. Mr Stove is in, out, in, out more frequently than an English Prime Minister. Generally he’s been lit just for the cheer, but he can be a cussed soul, not liking to be called into service if he considers the it of it to be ‘not near enough zero Celsingams’.
We (voluntarily) go nowhere in such breezes. Many do, and cheerfully, and good luck to them and to their semi-sober crews. Cruising is not a problem, but I don’t do it because there’s too much opportunity for dispoliteness when passing other people’s boats, and much opportunity for disconvenience in esp for a single-hander when taking off or when landing. Besides, there’s no point, sow hybo ther.
I shall instead sit here today and think warm thoughts. Downing Street aflame, that sort of thing. Westminster in a state of embers perfect unto the baking of potatoes. Richy Soonbak with a sparkler in each ear and a Roman Candle up his Larry The Cat in Office. A politician with sufficient cojones to actually honour the pensions “Triple Lock” when it actually costs a bit, that sort of warm (and wholly in vain) thought.
Why does England do all of this foreign “Halloween” sh*te? It’s transatlantic, not local. Guy Fawkes Night is what England does and should (only) do. I have a distinct feeling that the change from real festival to plastic nonsense is a quite deliberate move over the decades led by a still-nervous Establishment.
That’s it, half of this post disappears each time that “autosave” kicks in and is lost. The internet here is positively medieval. To whomsoever stoled the Cholmondeston-with-Venetian mobile mast, please return it at your erliest convenience, whereupon you may be allowed your life.
G’bye folks until the internet returns!
The Diesel-Electric Elephant Company. 
When I was a kid and a lethargic (rather than active) cub scout, Halloween consisted of sitting around in the church hall in the dark lighting Akela’s chin from beneath with a bicycle lamp and telling stories about ghoulies bouncing up and down on our beds. Needless to say, Akela was later arrested.
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Sadly I was never (allowed to be) a cub or scout or even a cub scout. Mother used to say that my being ‘Emergency Protein’ was enough.
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How is it that parents who are afraid enough of bogeymen to confine their childen to the house and garden all the year round think it fine for said children to roam the streets at Halloween demanding sweets with menaces?
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I wonder if perhaps it’s the concept of the “alibi”? We had to let them go out, Officer, there’s no way to keep them in at this time of year. How were we to know that there was a serial child strangulationist living at No.12?
It is weird, isn’t it?
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When we lived in rural France anyone knocking at the door at night would be met with a levelled shotgun….no wonder trick or treat never took off there..
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The perfect response to such nonsense. I miss my shotgun. All that I have these days is the long nines and the stern chaser.
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Halloween, or All Hallows Eve is the day before All Saints Day. It is, in fact, a Christian festival. I used to teach in a Catholic School, and on the morning of November 1 the whole school went to church. (Even the non-christians, most of whom went up for a blessing when the communion was being taken. Yes, even Muslims.)
This was put at this particular time in the early church in order to try to replace the pagan festival of Samhain (pronounced ‘sowain’). At this time it was believed that the Earth and the realm of the dead came close enough for the spirits to cross over to visit their loved ones who were still alive. Extra places were set at table, and food put out for them.
In order to try to stamp out the festival (which, incidentally, involved bonfires, hence Bonfire 🌃 night in the UK) the Church linked it to evil spirits, and even devil worship. Many in the Church still condemn it as evil.
How it came to be a ‘fun’ time of kids dressing up and going round ‘begging with menaces’ for sweets, I don’t know, but it comes from across the Atlantic.
I object to it, not because of any perceived evil, but because, as you say, it’s not our thing.
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It is peculiar that it always appears to be what I know as “English” customs that are edged out and replaced. I am all for everyone celebrating whatever they want (even “independence” day! 😉 ) but not when it blots out such as Guy Fawkes Night (and it’s virtually illegal to celebrate St George’s Day now). First encountered this “Halloween” as a child when we lived near Alconbury, an American air-base in England. It seemed to be very commercial even then! I much preferred baked spuds, sparklers and £2.37 (inflation) for the guy…
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I couldn’t agree more, Ian. (Btw, in the US, that sentence has become ‘I could agree more’, which means the opposite! )
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I must congratulate you on bringing up the foreignness of this “Halloween” falsefoolery, it seems to stem from Chicago in the thirties although now pursued by the under toos with the encouragement of their unholy parentals. Guido is gone and this should still be celebrated in our English way.
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It is indeed an “alien” custom, and I rather think that the money to be made from it has a lot to do with its “success” in re-inventing and transplanting itself. I know that I am a moaning, boring old fart, but “Halloween” as done just isn’t very pretty or attractive. At least with an old-fashioned “Bonfire Night” there was no mass competitiveness in re whose parents had bought the best (most expensive) costume and wotnot. A spud was a spud, and a sparkler a sparkler – and everyone could enjoy the local council bonfire even if not their own. Not all “progress” is good. ;-(
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