How did Halloween get so big in the UK? (www.youtube.com)

submitted 4 months ago by tetris11@feddit.uk to c/chrisspargo@feddit.uk

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Trick or Treat

Apparently originated in Canada in the 1920s, who copied it from "(dis)guising" from Scotland/Ireland.

Guising / Souling

involved kids singing at a door around October, or November.

"Ma feet's cauld, my shune's thin;
Please my cakes an' let me rin."

After which they'd get cakes and lemonade

English people claimed it was a weird invention from the US when it came over in the 1980s. Scots and Irish though it was just a weird resurgence of Guising.

Pumpkin

Not native to the UK, we used to put candles in turnips. It migrated to the US and they changed it to a pumpkin and we took it back that way

Guy Fawkes

Kids used to wheel around a straw effigy and ask "penny for the guy" but apparently (according to BBC and Wikipedia) it's a new invention (1910) invented by Big Fireworks to sell fireworks on 5th November to kids as "Fireworks Night".

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[-] yakko@feddit.uk 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It's a bit of a collaborative effort imo. There's not a lot of Samhain left in the modern rendition, but that's arguably where the idea got its start. It bounced around between cultures and now it's not even slightly about marking the harvest or any pagan traditions, but it's a great way to mark the time of year and have a little fun.

[-] tetris11@feddit.uk 2 points 4 months ago

The only holiday I actually enjoy

this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2025

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