6 PM and no trick or treaters yet. More Snickers for me...
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I'm effin' stoked!
(27 posts) (11 voices)
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weematt
offlineMemberBusiest year ever. Is this a clue about the recession? We had so many guisers* we ran out of apples and ended up with no leftover sweeties worth nicking. We even had a mum and two kids who came from Southampton and we live in Glasgow! In one case the accompanying adults were also in costume.
* guiser - a child who comes to your door on Halloween dressed up (disguised) and who asks for a Halloween treat in exchange for a song, poem or joke.
Posted 6 months ago # -
The All New Jeni B
offlineMemberweematt, I had a big debate with a friend last night on FB about 'guising'.
They insisted that it was 'guysing' because of Guy Fawkes, but I reckoned it was two separate things: 'Penny for the Guy' on Bonfire Night as you carried your 'Guy' to your bonney, and 'guising' for disguise for Hallowe'en.
After much discussion, and umpteen links to various websites, I won.Muwahahaha!!
Thankfully, because of our long, dark, spooky, tree-lined drive, we don't get any guisers, but friends reported that there were carloads where they live, with few being from the actual area, but being shipped in to the 'posh' places by their parents!
Posted 6 months ago # -
simonjmr
offlineMemberWhen growing up in Yorkshire November 4th was mischevious night, with none of this trick or treat malarky on Halloween (we did have apple bobbing but that was about it).
But since moving to the South West / AOuth Wales area over 11 years ago they don't have mischief night at all.
Posted 6 months ago # -
rikkor
offlineMemberRe: "guisers". (Geysers?) In the American Midwest, especially Iowa, they do Halloween the day before and call it Beggar's Night. So, in theory, the child has to exchange some lame joke or song or some boring sh-t for candy. My (informed) guess is that it is a Puritan leftover deal, disassociating the whole thing from anything Catholic-y. You just get a dull stare from anyone in Iowa when you tell the person that Halloween is actually October 31. But, a person gets a lot of dull stares in Iowa.
Posted 6 months ago # -
The All New Jeni B
offlineMemberRikkor, here's a bit of info about Hallowe'en and guising in Scotland...We're all Pagans at heart...
Posted 6 months ago # -
Ironduke
offlineMemberThanks for the link Jeni. I love the idea of the scottish holding up their hollowed out turnip lanterns as a Yank with a huge pumpkin swaggers past. Blackadder would have enjoyed that.
Next year I think we'll revert to the authentic Skulls of our Enemies on poles around the Duke encampment.
Posted 6 months ago # -
rikkor
offlineMemberThanks, Jeni. Me being me (I being I?), I found a spelling error.
"harping" back to the pagan days
Harking, or better yet, hearking is most likely what they were looking for.
I always love when articles say things like "apples were sacred to Druids". It seems that everything is sacred to every displaced group. In the US, every landscape feature, twig or clump of dirt is supposed to be sacred to some tiny band of Indians. With all the worship of marshes and tree stumps, it would seem impossible that they find the time to get so drunk, but, they do.
Posted 6 months ago # -
The All New Jeni B
offlineMemberIs it at all possible that the Scots, Irish and indigenous American Indians are genetically linked?
Posted 6 months ago # -
Ironduke
offlineMemberThere does seem to be an interesting coincidence of comparatively unmodernised indigineous populations being introduced to alcohol relatively late (in the evolutionary sense, rather than the 'sun well over the yardarm' sense), and then gaining a reputation for getting rat-arsed.
Native Americans, Aborigines, Scots...
Posted 6 months ago # -
The All New Jeni B
offlineMemberId, all places where the English marched in and imposed their rule...
Posted 6 months ago # -
rikkor
offlineMemberJeni, as someone who can be proved to be all Irish going back to the dawn of literacy in my family (circa 1880, and only on one side), being related to Native Americans could explain the drinking thing (and maybe the red faces). I am certain my Celtic forebears believed apples to be sacred, as well as anything else that could be fermented. I have some relatives who are locally famous for collecting raisins and sugar in prison and brewing poitin in the cell toilet.
Posted 6 months ago # -
The All New Jeni B
offlineMemberVery enterprising of them.
I think I may have some relatives who have cultivated cannabis in their lofts.
(We don't speak to, or of, them too often, only when trying to be excused from Jury Duty when we discover that yet again, one of 'that' side of the family is the defendant...
Posted 6 months ago # -
The All New Jeni B
offlineMemberYep. Actually, once I start my post-Grad Diploma I'm done with it, even if I never actually work as a lawyer. Woo hoo!
Posted 6 months ago # -
dvo4fun
offlineMemberThe jury rules were changed in England a few years back so that people employed in the criminal justice system could be summoned. I got asked to attend.
Great civic duty & all that but when I pointed out that at any court within a 40 mile radius I was quite likely to end up on a jury where I knew either the defendant or a witness they said forget it. As you say Jeni Woo hoo!
Posted 6 months ago # -
The All New Jeni B
offlineMemberIndeed dvo!!
My uni pal was a Para-legal in England for years and was delighted to hear that once he's graduated here, he's exempt. He couldn't understand how it would be possible for those within the sphere of criminal justice or legal communities to possibly serve on a jury for exactly the reasons you mention.
Here, even if you know either the prosecuting or defending solicitor you are excused, so given that there's a relatively small circle of solicitors in this area, the chances are that I'd know one of them.And again. Woo hoo!
Posted 6 months ago #
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