IMPORTANT HALLOWEEN DEVELOPMENT

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

When I were a lad, we'd go from door to door and recite the following:

"The sky is blue, the grass is green, have you got a penny for Halloween? If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do, if you haven't got a ha'penny, god bless you."

I'm not making this up. This is what we did. Did everyone else just do "trick or treat"? Bobbyaro claimed he didn't know what I was on about on Twitter, hence the thread.

Malabelm · **Posted:** Sun Oct 31, 2010 19:22

I have never been trick-or-treating

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

HALLOWEENING!

And also, awww.

Trick or treating is American, isn't it? SOMEBODY TELL ME I DON'T LIVE IN SOME SORT OF STRANGE ALT-HALLOWEEN LAND!

LewieP · **Joined:** 29th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 7600

I was never allowed to go trick or treating. I think the whole thing is absurd anyway, and basically just an excuse for the scrotes round my end to pelt eggs at houses. Also, no I won't give you any sweets or money you child I do not know.

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

Trick or treating is cunty, though. It's basically threatening people for sweets. Shit don't fly round here. You say a rhyme and get sweets. Or fuck off.

I'd really like someone else to say they've heard the rhyme before, though. Bit weird.

JohnCoffey · **Posted:** Sun Oct 31, 2010 19:34

Sounds like a remix of Christmas is coming to me.

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

WIKKIE WIKKIE WAH WAH

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

You're making shit up, Jonnie.

Also, chocolate covered coffee beans stop parents bringing kids round your house again.

Dr Lave · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5979

I think I've heard that rhyme. Or one very similar.

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

metalangel · **Posted:** Sun Oct 31, 2010 19:43

JohnCoffey wrote:

Sounds like a remix of Christmas is coming to me.

I can't imagine it's much of a 'thing' in the UK yet, apart from in posh, pretentious neighbourhoods where the hateful parents want to take little Tarquin and Jocasta out in their organically-sourced FairTrade costumes. And they get given fruit and/or Waitrose extra expensive pulses and seeds.

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

Haha! Get yourself to Teesside for a shock.

As far as I can tell, the rhyme thing is more "traditional" (see also a carved turnip, not a pumpkin), and "trick or treat" is a more recent American import.

metalangel · **Posted:** Sun Oct 31, 2010 19:44

Wogan'sTrouserBulge wrote:

Haha! Get yourself to Teesside for a shock.

I suspect I don't necessarily have to go on Hallowe'en.

Malabelm · **Posted:** Sun Oct 31, 2010 19:45

Wogan'sTrouserBulge wrote:

Trick or treating is American, isn't it? SOMEBODY TELL ME I DON'T LIVE IN SOME SORT OF STRANGE ALT-HALLOWEEN LAND!

No, you're just weird. However, I do believe the traditional British line is “Ruse or Delicacies!”

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

MetalAngel wrote:

Wogan'sTrouserBulge wrote:

Haha! Get yourself to Teesside for a shock.

I suspect I don't necessarily have to go on Hallowe'en.

Definitely not. Although, you'd be forgiven for mistaking any day as Halloween.

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

Malabar Front wrote:

Wogan'sTrouserBulge wrote:

Trick or treating is American, isn't it? SOMEBODY TELL ME I DON'T LIVE IN SOME SORT OF STRANGE ALT-HALLOWEEN LAND!

No, you're just weird. However, I do believe the traditional British line is “Ruse or Delicacies!”

metalangel · **Posted:** Sun Oct 31, 2010 19:50

Wogan'sTrouserBulge wrote:

Trick or treating is American, isn't it? SOMEBODY TELL ME I DON'T LIVE IN SOME SORT OF STRANGE ALT-HALLOWEEN LAND!

Typical, any time anything isn't as your rose tinted specs remember it, it must be because those awful American people ruined it for you. They ruined everything in Britain. God, the bastards. Hate everything about them.

First of all, it's mentioned Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen Of Verona.

Second, Wullie/Gill/Jen/Malc1974/anyone else Scotch or knowledgable will tell you about guising.

Finally, it wasn't awful American people. It was us even more awful Canadian people. Wikiwahwah:

Quote:

The earliest known use in print of the term "trick or treat" appears in 1927, from Blackie, Alberta, Canada

Quote:

The earliest known reference to ritual begging on Halloween in English speaking North America occurs in 1911, when a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported that it was normal for the smaller children to go street "guising" on Halloween between 6 and 7 p.m., visiting shops and neighbors to be rewarded with nuts and candies for their rhymes and songs

MaliA · **Posted:** Sun Oct 31, 2010 19:51

I hope next door don't bang on MaliTowers door, as the drive is blocked again.

JohnCoffey · **Posted:** Sun Oct 31, 2010 20:03

Craster wrote:

You're making shit up, Jonnie.

Also, chocolate covered coffee beans stop parents bringing kids round your house again.

MrD · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 2139

That is the first time I've ever heard of such a rhyme.

Hearthly · **Joined:** 11th May, 2008 **Posts:** 13386

We get Hop-tu-Naa here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hop-tu-Naa

I've had about ten lots up to the door this evening, and my massive bowl of sweeties and other treats is almost completely depleted. (In all fairness some of the costumes and singing have actually been pretty good.)

I'll have to hand out 50p and £1 coins before too long, as it does seem mean to either (a) Ignore the doorbell or (b) Not give them something.

Mrs AE and AE Jnr need to get back from their Halloween party so I can turn all the lights off downstairs to dissuade further visitors, I think the porch light is far too inviting, but I'd feel bad if Mrs AE broke her neck trying to get back into the house.

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

MetalAngel wrote:

Wogan'sTrouserBulge wrote:

Trick or treating is American, isn't it? SOMEBODY TELL ME I DON'T LIVE IN SOME SORT OF STRANGE ALT-HALLOWEEN LAND!

Typical, any time anything isn't as your rose tinted specs remember it, it must be because those awful American people ruined it for you. They ruined everything in Britain. God, the bastards. Hate everything about them.

First of all, it's mentioned Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen Of Verona.

Second, Wullie/Gill/Jen/Malc1974/anyone else Scotch or knowledgable will tell you about guising.

Finally, it wasn't awful American people. It was us even more awful Canadian people. Wikiwahwah:

Quote:

The earliest known use in print of the term "trick or treat" appears in 1927, from Blackie, Alberta, Canada

Quote:

The earliest known reference to ritual begging on Halloween in English speaking North America occurs in 1911, when a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported that it was normal for the smaller children to go street "guising" on Halloween between 6 and 7 p.m., visiting shops and neighbors to be rewarded with nuts and candies for their rhymes and songs

I didn't say the horrible Yanks had ruined it, I just said I thought it was an import!

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

Atrocity Exhibition wrote:

We get Hop-tu-Naa here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hop-tu-Naa

I've had about ten lots up to the door this evening, and my massive bowl of sweeties and other treats is almost completely depleted. (In all fairness some of the costumes and singing have actually been pretty good.)

I'll have to hand out 50p and £1 coins before too long, as it does seem mean to either (a) Ignore the doorbell or (b) Not give them something.

Mrs AE and AE Jnr need to get back from their Halloween party so I can turn all the lights off downstairs to dissuade further visitors, I think the porch light is far too inviting, but I'd feel bad if Mrs AE broke her neck trying to get back into the house.

Now that's more like it! Where are you based? Yeah, the Isle of Man, then?

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

Quote:

Guising
In Scotland and Ireland, "guising" — children going from house to house in disguise — is traditional, and a gift in the form of food, coins or "apples or nuts for the Halloween party" (in more recent times chocolate) is given out to the children dressed up in various costumes.[29] The tradition is called "guising" because of the disguises or costumes worn by the children.[30] By the 19th century Halloween in Scotland and Ireland had a strong tradition of "guising" - Scottish and Irish children disguised in costumes going from door to door for food or coins.[2] The earliest reference to "guising" in English speaking North America occurs in 1911, in Kingston, Ontario.[10] There is a significant difference from the way the practice has since developed in North America with the jocular threat. In Scotland and Ireland, the children are only supposed to receive treats if they perform for the households they go to. This normally takes the form of singing a song or reciting a joke or a funny poem which the child has memorized before setting out. Occasionally a more talented child may do card tricks, play the mouth organ, or something even more impressive, but most children will earn plenty of treats even with something very simple. Often they won't even need to perform.[29] While going from door to door in disguise has remained popular among Scots and Irish at Halloween, saying "trick-or-treat" has become common.

I guess we fall under the Scotland umbrella up here, then. EXPLANATION ACHIEVED. Where are all the jocks tonight? Tell me they're out guising.

Hearthly · **Joined:** 11th May, 2008 **Posts:** 13386

Wogan'sTrouserBulge wrote:

Atrocity Exhibition wrote:

We get Hop-tu-Naa here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hop-tu-Naa

I've had about ten lots up to the door this evening, and my massive bowl of sweeties and other treats is almost completely depleted. (In all fairness some of the costumes and singing have actually been pretty good.)

I'll have to hand out 50p and £1 coins before too long, as it does seem mean to either (a) Ignore the doorbell or (b) Not give them something.

Mrs AE and AE Jnr need to get back from their Halloween party so I can turn all the lights off downstairs to dissuade further visitors, I think the porch light is far too inviting, but I'd feel bad if Mrs AE broke her neck trying to get back into the house.

Now that's more like it! Where are you based? Yeah, the Isle of Man, then?

Indeed, it's one of our curious Celtic IOM type thingies.

I've never had any group try to do any of the songs in Manx (this year or any other year), it's always the English versions.

There was one year when Mrs AE and AE Jnr were staying at the in-laws as AE Jnr was ill, so I was in the house by myself, and partaking of a few hefty glasses of wine whilst playing on the XBox, (the original XBox as it was then), as any reasonable man would do in such circumstances. (I had to be within shouting distance of work at the time.)

I'd neglected to get any sweets in so was basically forced to hand out money to the Hop-tu-Naaers all evening, I think one of the more enterprising groups of children realised I was a solid bet for easy cash, and either by good luck or judgement, returned at just the right point in the evening when I had enough wine on board to not be able to definitively identify them as repeat visitors.

THE COLLECTIVE - 'Hop-tu-naa Hop-tu-Naa singy singy etc'

ME - 'Haven't you been round once already this evening?'

THE COLLECTIVE - 'No!' .... 'Erm, no' .... 'Yes!.... No?'

ME - 'Hmmmm'.... (hands out cash, again)

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

Gilly has confirmed a similarly worded rhyme in Scotland via Twitter. I'm definitely not alone! And AE, booze and charity are a dangerous combination!

GovernmentYard · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5318

If I were at home to trick or treaters/anything else like that surely I'd be putting some sort of halloween related shite on the front of my house?

Curiosity · **Posted:** Sun Oct 31, 2010 22:16

I think you're just making shit up, WTB!

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

NEVER!

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38651

Being a fellow Tee-tee-teessider I have naturally heard and spoken said rhyme many times. Never went halloweening myself though.

Begging, innit?

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

No, it's fun. It's not begging if everyone takes part. Then everything is spread around evenly. Haribo come out on top, obviously.

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38651

Speaking of, I've got a big Fucking bucket of swizzles stuff here and we've had 2 visits! What am I going to do with all these sweeties?

MR WINKY FACE

Also, 5 Saw films back to back is warping my mind

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

That happened to us last year! But IIRC the weather was miserable. We had a better turn out this year. The remainder of the sweeties are being "dealt with" as we speak.

sdg · **Posted:** Sun Oct 31, 2010 22:38

I've just read this thread, sorry I wasnt here to back you up sooner Jonny! I didn't know the second part of the song just the first, which we sang when someone answered their door. Then we wouldn't get any sweeties 'til we did a song or rhyme or joke. Usually someone would make tablet so you'd get a lot of that at this time of year. We also called it guising as Perkies said.

TheAlbin0Kid · **Posted:** Sun Oct 31, 2010 22:44

The second half of that rhyme is familiar to me, but never heard it specifically in a Halloween context before. No idea which context I DID hear it in though :shrug:

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

That was the "I sneaked into your bedroom whilst you were asleep, whispered it into your ear, stole one of each pair of your socks and ran away cackling into the night" context.

Nik · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 1982

DavPaz wrote:

Being a fellow Tee-tee-teessider I have naturally heard and spoken said rhyme many times.

Quote:

Never went halloweening myself though.

Um... sadly not :this:

Quote:

Begging, innit?

Pretty much. We used to find the best option was to find the streets populated by "keeping up appearances" types. They'd try and compete with each other as to who gave out the largest amount of money to each group of kids. Quite why they cared about impressing us is a mystery.

Nik · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 1982

The slightly more uncouth variant was:
"The sky is blue, the grass is green
Give us a fiver for Halloween
If you haven't got a fiver, a quid'll do
If you haven't got a quid, we'll mug you."

Even as a child I recognised the futility of mugging someone who actually didn't have a quid.

Blucey · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 2051

Wogan'sTrouserBulge wrote:

No, it's fun. It's not begging if everyone takes part. Then everything is spread around evenly. Haribo come out on top, obviously.

when I first moved up north I remember the first halloween was fucking ridiculous. we had a nice house but the neighbours were a bit chav. our first knock on the door was on the 15th and then we had a steady stream of kids/teenagers turning up every evening either in shit masks, no costume at all or the pitiful pulling their top up so it looks like they have no head. we told them to come back on the 31st and then promptly fucked off to the cinema.

we moved to a nicer road a couple of years later and as a result tonight we had no begging little cunts at all, so that's good.

sinister agent · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 7046

We went trick or treating once, possibly a couple of times. Back then most of the neighbours knew each other, plus most of our street saw the lot of us running around the place after school and that, so they vaguely recognised us. I don't remember much about it, but we've had the odd few kids come trick or treating before. They're always pretty young and cute, if slightly terrified. Possibly I should have put some clothes on first, but hindsight is 20/20.

They, and we, never actually did, or threatened to do, the 'trick' part. I'm pretty sure everyone knew it, too. Quite apart from anything else, if we egged a neighbour's house or whatever, it'd mean we couldn't hide in their garden next time we were playing hide and seek, and with a bajillion kids running around, you needed your options.

Malabelm · **Posted:** Mon Nov 01, 2010 1:21

The only kids we had knocking on our door were the young'uns in the street with their parents. I still sat in the living room and left Miss Malabar to deal with the giving of sweets, but I'm pretty sure that's what she's for.

Relatedly, I can't feign being impressed by things children do. I talk to them like they're adults, no matter how young, and I suspect it won't be something I can change unless I eventually have kids for myself. It's a constant source of amusement for others as I squirm when children try talking to me.

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

Blucey wrote:

Wogan'sTrouserBulge wrote:

No, it's fun. It's not begging if everyone takes part. Then everything is spread around evenly. Haribo come out on top, obviously.

when I first moved up north I remember the first halloween was fucking ridiculous. we had a nice house but the neighbours were a bit chav. our first knock on the door was on the 15th and then we had a steady stream of kids/teenagers turning up every evening either in shit masks, no costume at all or the pitiful pulling their top up so it looks like they have no head. we told them to come back on the 31st and then promptly fucked off to the cinema.

we moved to a nicer road a couple of years later and as a result tonight we had no begging little cunts at all, so that's good.

I can't say we've ever experienced that!

Wullie · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 6183

superdupergill wrote:

I've just read this thread, sorry I wasnt here to back you up sooner Jonny! I didn't know the second part of the song just the first, which we sang when someone answered their door. Then we wouldn't get any sweeties 'til we did a song or rhyme or joke. Usually someone would make tablet so you'd get a lot of that at this time of year. We also called it guising as Perkies said.

Like Gill I knew a variation of the first part of the song, but I've never sang it or been encouraged to sing it.

However, I always had to perform something. Usually whatever poem or song we'd been learning at school. I'd get one hell of an amount of sweeties off most folk if I recited something like "Tam o' Shanter" or "To a mouse"*

I've only ever sent one guiser off with next to nothing, he had the bright idea of doing "Paki jokes" & didn't know anything else.
*You can see why, they're epic! To A Mouse. Tam o' Shanter.

EDIT: Nae guisers for the second year in a row

No even family.

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38651

You from Teesside, Nik, or is it just the rhyme you were 'this'-ing?

Zardoz · **Posted:** Mon Nov 01, 2010 13:43

TheAlbin0Kid wrote:

The second half of that rhyme is familiar to me...

Yeah, same here.

AHA!

Quote:

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat
Please put a penny in the old man's hat
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do
If you haven't got a ha'penny, then God bless you!

Be Excellent To Each Other

IMPORTANT HALLOWEEN DEVELOPMENT
Childhood memories shattered

Who is online

Be Excellent To Each Other

IMPORTANT HALLOWEEN DEVELOPMENT Childhood memories shattered

Who is online

IMPORTANT HALLOWEEN DEVELOPMENT
Childhood memories shattered