Pumpkins at Hallowe'en - Instant tradition

I had a tub of Haribo packets ready last Thursday, The Lass was home first and made the effort of lighting candles in two lanterns to put on the front windowsill.

As I popped out on a shopping jaunt, a group of children (accompanied by responsible adults, it's that sort of suburb) were hovering about in front of our house in a rather indecisive fashion, so I went back inside to get the tub for them. I saw plenty more such groups on the way there and the way back, and had to repeat the exercise of bringing out the tub when I saw another such hovering group on my return.

The Lass told me that only one further group had plucked up the courage to knock on the door while I was out. At the post mortem, Her Indoors and The Lass confirmed solemnly that there is a rule that if you have sweets ready for trick-or-treaters, you have a lit up pumpkin visible from the street; and if not, children assume you are some sort of Hallowe'en Grinch and won't bother knocking.

I told them that this was new to me, we've didn't display a pumpkin in previous years, but kids still knocked. I went trick-or-treating with my own kids when they were younger (and I was the responsible adult waiting on the pavement), they just knocked at every door and hoped for the best, there was no concept of just knocking where a pumpkin was on display, some dished out sweets and some didn't.

They both remained adamant that this is - and by inference, somehow always has been - an unwritten rule. I did a quick and unrepresentative survey at work, nobody had ever heard of it.

So that's my question - is there such a rule? Or were Her Indoors and The Lass imagining it into existence? Did I miss something?

Instant tradition

From the BBC:

Mexico City has held its first Day of the Dead parade, complete with floats, giant marionettes and hundreds of dancers and performers.

Mexican tourism officials say the inspiration came from the opening scenes in last year's James Bond film, Spectre*, which was shot in the city. Bond is seen chasing a villain through crowds watching a parade of people in skeleton outfits.

It is hoped the new parade will attract more tourists to the city… But Lourdes Berho, chief executive of the Mexico Tourism Board, said Spectre had created "expectations that we would have something".

Whenever something is described as 'tradition', it always strikes me that it can't always have been tradition; there was a first time for everything. Most things are never repeated, but sometimes, a year later, people do the same thing again because they enjoyed/profited from the first time; after a few decades it is simply 'custom' or 'tradition' and it somehow has to happen in a certain way.

Social scientists, anthropologists, theologians, historians and so on will debate the origins of things more and more as time goes on and longer after the reason it happened the first time is lost in the mists of time. These people will look for deeper symbolism and so on, nearly all of which is is ascribed, attributed and invented long after the event. IMHO, the first time was just an unusual set of circumstances which people repeated a year later for a giggle and so on.

On the other hand, there are customs and traditions which die out, be that 'penny for the guy' being displaced by Halloween or some sacred Native American ritual. People bemoan their loss and talk about homogenisation of culture and so on. Well so what? I vastly prefer watching telly to Morris dancing or compulsory archery practice on the village green. Who are we to tell Native Americans that they should be performing certain dances at certain places at certain times of the year instead of watching telly?

Clearly, newer traditions serve people better than the ones they replaced and that is the end of that.

So well done Mexico City, and I hope it works out for you!

* Which in turn harks back to the opening scenes of Live and Let Die, thus possibly establishing a 'tradition' of their own…

Regarding October

October is a difficult time for supermarkets. They have to juggle Halloween, fireworks, Xmas, Diwali and Hannukah.

— Mark Wadsworth (@Mark_Wadsworth) October 26, 2015

Very true.

They are all rather similar (except Christmas) as this table points out

Festival	Festival of Light?	Fireworks?	Sweet things?	Savoury things?	Costumes?
Halloween	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Diwali	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Hannukah	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Guy Fawkes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No

But everyone has different sweets and savouries so it is a bit of a pain

Them pesky kids

I was suitably impressed by this group on the Tube yesterday evening, so I asked if I could take a photo: