Comments by "" (@Iain1962) on "How Guy Fawkes night is falling from favour in Britain" video.

  1. Hallowe'en is an ancient act to scare away evil spirits. The first of November is All Hallows Day, or All Saints day if you prefer. In order to make sure that the Saints were not disturbed by evil spirits on their day, people would try and scare them away by dressing up in costumes on the Hallow's eve, hence Hallowe'en. We all used to do it when I was young, and we would knock on all doors not just people we knew. But you didn't just stand at the door and get a handout, you had to go in the front room and perform something, a poem, or sing a verse of a song, or recite something or other, otherwise no sweeties !! There were other traditions, dooking for Apples, which involved leaning over the back of a chair, holding a fork in your teeth with which you tried to let go and stab apples floating in a bucket or a tin bath. Now they just do this trick or treat thing, which came from the USA, nothing to do with our traditions. All the effort has been removed as usual in the modern world, just gimme the sweets !!
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