Goodreads Ireland discussion

With all the Halloween talk and enthusiasm heres a dedicated thread to discuss it.
What are peoples plans for this year?
What are peoples best Halloween memories?
What are peoples favourite Halloween films ?( We already watched Hocus Pocus yesterday)
And of course any favourite Halloween books ?☺
Happy Hallowewn to all

How about what is the scariest book you have ever read?

I think Stephen King's IT is probably the best horror book I've read. Pennywise the Clown, can't get much worse than that.

I have a fear of Clowns so ì'll agree with that one.

You should give it a read Paul. At least the first chapter :)

As far as my plans for this year, the stereotypical drunken fancy dress party. I was Austin Powers last year, where on the night I met 4 other Austins and we had a drunken dance off to decide who had the best mojo. Seemed like a great idea at the time. Me and another lad shared first place :P

I've read It and watched the film . Tim Curry is excellent . I face fear head on.

We will have a party for the little fella as its the first year he'll really get a kick out if it. Trelawn gets to pick his costume this year

I'm a bit of a wuss so I don't read scary books or watch scary films. I always watch Hocus Pocus at Halloween and The Frighteners. When I was a kid I always watched Jack O'Lantern. So good :-)

The Frighteners is brilliant . Good simple fun. I love A Nightmare Before Christmas as Well.

Hocus Pocus is definitely a Halloween tradition in Ireland. I'm a fan of horror so I'm looking forward to watching the Blair Witch, Halloween and all the classics again. Doesn't seem as good watching them at any other time of the year :)

I used to watch them a lot but Trelawn is a wuss but i don't mind the family friendly ones either ☺

Don't forget both of you will have to dress up along with the little one :)

Well Paul chose a batman costume for our son last year and went along as robin :-) This year I got him a vampire costume although gis favourite thing to wear at the moment is Thomas the Tank Engine accompanied by a woolly hat so who knows?

* that should be Thomas the Tank Engine apron.

You can always go as a vampire family. Plus who says a vampire can't wear a Thomas the Tank Engine apron and a wolly hat :)

very true Kevin, modern vampires need to have a domestic side :-)

Are bob apple and the other traditional games still doing the rounds?

I think bob the apple is all but gone these days

Sounds good Emma

Paul wrote: "I have a fear of Clowns so ì'll agree with that one."

I have to say I intensely dislike clowns - after scores of horrible ones on La Rambla in Barcelona.

The movie Hocus Pocus is so much fun!

Last October I listened to the audiobook of Dracula which featured a host of actors including Tim Curry and Alan Cummings. It was excellent!

My most obscure Halloween costume was the year I decided to dress as Flora MacDonald the Highland heroine. She's on a Walker's shortbread tin. Got a plaid that was more or less the same and a red wig though she didn't have red hair. Of course no one had any idea who I was supposed to be so I carried around a copy of her portrait, or the biscuit tin.

http://www.rampantscotland.com/famous...

Cphe wrote: "We don't do Halloween over here - but we do already have Xmas decorations and food in some of the shops."

We have had Halloween in the UK since the 1980s and soon after we have Guy Fawkes night on 5th November. All the villages around here have huge bonfires and firework displays. Guy Fawkes is soon followed by Diwali (?spelling) in some areas so it's all fun in the run up to Christmas.

As I've said before, Halloween is my favourite holiday. I love it more than any other. My favourite costume (which I might recycle this year) is my Minnie Mouse costume, complete with big yellow shoes. I had wee ones following me around the year I wore it and took Conn trick 0r treating. Paul and Trelawn, I remember the year he was Thomas the Tank Engine, and also a sweet little vampire. My son is sixteen now and still afraid of clowns. He has never seen a circus. When he as about the age of your wee fella, his fave film was The Nightmare Before Christmas. That is still one of my favourites, along with The Littlest Vampire.

Kevin, I love IT and Stephen King as well. He is one of my favourite authors. Love him and his son, Joe Hill, as well.

Cphe, I can't believe you don't have Halloween. Here in the USA, it seems to grow in popularity every year.

We still do bob apple and the other halloween games around here. Probably the favourite is egg roulette :) even my 20 and 30 something year old brothers and sisters like to do it for the laugh every halloween.

Kevin, what in the world is egg roulette???!

I love Halloween too. I loved taking the kids to the Pumpkin Patch and now the grandkids go. My youngest son's birthday is Oct. 22 so I used to have his parties at the Patch. They'd have apple cider and ride the hay wagon and go through the Haunted House. Everyone took a pumpkin home as a party treat.

Halloween was invented in Ireland so my friend and I visited there one Halloween. We stayed at Fitgerald's on St. Stephens Green. We took these human pedicure (that's not the right word. I've had a brain freeze) cabs down to Grafton St. and had so much fun. People were buying us drinks right and left. I went back to the room but my friend never made it back. She had a better time than I did. :)

Theresa, I was reading about it goes from Guy Hawkes Day to Christmas and I thought "What about Thanksgiving?" and then I stupidly realized. I think everyone should have a Thanksgiving. It's a day devoted to eating, family, giving thanks and, of course, football. Great Holiday. :)

Probably. We have Christmas Day and then we have the sales on the 26th. For us it is one long orgy of eating from Thanksgiving to Christmas. I get so much fudge and I am not even a big fudge fan. Do you have a Boxing Day like the English. I am not quite sure what Boxing Day is. Someone explained to me that it was a day when you gave your servants presents. I don't know what they do now on those days. Dingle has something called Wren Day. I am not sure if that is celebrated all over Ireland or not.

Celebrating Halloween isn't universal here but is still gaining in popularity. I have been surprised to find that it is so important in Ireland as over here the churches discourage it on religious grounds and some hold 'rainbow' evenings for kids to go to instead. My hunch is that it flourishes in smaller communities. For years I got caught out and had nothing, but you'd have thought I would remember as it's my birthday the next day. Now I stock up on sweets looking like dentures etc!

Here in Wensleydale on the same night as Guy Fawkes we have our traditional Mischief Night when kids play practical jokes on their neighbours.

Emma, now I know why my father insisted on another turkey on New Years Day. We used to humour him of course but we'd quite happily done without more leftover turkey to carry us into the New Year.

We never quite had the cleaning out of pagan traditions England went through so still have festivals like Halloween and Bealtaine with varying popularity. Catholicism for its other strictnesses always allowed a huge chunk of superstutions

Paul wrote: "We never quite had the cleaning out of pagan traditions England went through so still have festivals like Halloween and Bealtaine with varying popularity. Catholicism for its other strictnesses alw..."

Bealtaine?

Thanks. Do you have children dancing around the maypole like we do here?

Halloween is the modern form of the Celtic feast day of Samhain which was a liminal time where the border between the spirit world and the physical world would blur, hence where the dressing up came from. Many powers came with interaction with the otherworld, chief among them being divination. As for traditions like the báirín breac ( breac = speckled and bairin meaning loaf) there were different items placed in the loaf like a ring, a rag, a pea etc. the idea being that whichever item you got in your slice would determine what kind of year lay ahead of you, the ring obviously meaning marriage.

Halloween is the modern form of the Celtic feast day of Samhain which was a liminal time where the border between the spirit world and the physical world would blur, hence where the dressing up came from. Many powers came with interaction with the otherworld, chief among them being divination. As for traditions like the báirín breac ( breac = speckled and bairin meaning loaf) there were different items placed in the loaf like a ring, a rag, a pea etc. the idea being that whichever item you got in your slice would determine what kind of year lay ahead of you, the ring obviously meaning marriage.

I've done a lot of reading on the celtic feast days, plus I really like the topic. So I can talk about this all day :)

Boxing Day came about because the gentry would feast on Christmas and all the servants had to work but the following day they would get all the leftover goodies boxed up. Hence Boxing Day.

Susan, love your comment on Thanksgiving. It reminds me of seeing John Cleese on one of the late night talk shows and the host asked him did he have a good Fourth of July. Cleese responded that the British tend not to celebrate the day the colonists rebelled against the Empire to gain their freedom. It was hilarious.

Still trying to wrap my head round Australia not celebrating Halloween. That amazes me. I wonder where else it is not observed.

I must admit that I'm not a huge fan of Halloween and tend to see it as an import from the other side of the pond. Now I've learned its Celtic roots I'll try and be more supportive ;)

As for bits and pieces in the báirín, we do something similar with Christmas pudding. I remember the year my godson got the wedding ring and he smiled to himself and a few months later announced his engagement.

Just *love* that comment of John Cleese's, Donna. LOL

Kevin, still waiting on the answer to egg roulette... :)

Whoops, sorry Donna :) . So take a dozen eggs and boil half of them. Then take the tray they came in and get your "independent adjudicator" to place both and boiled and unboiled eggs into the tray. You've to pick on of the eggs and smash it on top of your head. It's usually between 2 or 3 people. You each have 2 lives. Pick a raw egg and you lose a life as well as your clean hair.

Eek! That's one game I'll be happy to skip!

Emma wrote: "Theresa wrote: "Celebrating Halloween isn't universal here but is still gaining in popularity. I have been surprised to find that it is so important in Ireland as over here the churches discourage ..."

In the U.S. schools have to balance their teaching around holidays such as Halloween, Christmas and anything with a religious connection. Some Christians object to Halloween because of the Pagan origins so schools might do "Fall Festivals". There are many school districts that have "winter festivals" instead of Christmas. It's all tricky but I encourage balance and am not sure outright banning is the best approach. This all goes back to the 1962 Supreme Court prohibition of prayer in public schools. Please, I do not want to start a debate on the topic. I just want to point out that in a US public school, a family could never be asked to keep their child out of school for a year.

Barbara, it was actually a week that the child would have been out for. Did you really mean a whole year?

I thought All Souls Day was 2nd November.

Donna wrote: "Barbara, it was actually a week that the child would have been out for. Did you really mean a whole year?"

Sorry I meant a week!

Emma - the "religious" aspect of Halloween is its origin in Pre-Christian times. Some object to devils and witches. In many Catholic countries, the church "tolerated" these old celebrations and they coincided with holy days of the church such as All Souls and All Saints. In the American Southwest and Latin America this is very visible. The Day of the Dead - Oct. 31-Nov. 2nd is a Mexican holiday also celebrated in the US. While it coincides with Catholic holy days, its origins go back 4000 years.
http://www.celebrate-day-of-the-dead....

I love this stuff!

I think it's a tad hypocritical to ban the teaching of "pagan" feast days, seeing as the Church adapted many of these feast days and themes into their own teachings. It's no coincidence that Samhain was a time where you could communicate with the dead, and now the Church use it as a time to remember the Dead.

I'm sure Celtic is a more accurate description rather than pagan anyway. If we were to ban it's teachings then I think you will have to include the teachings about the Roman and Greek pantheons.

Emma, there does seem to be a glitch with my iPhone app that duplicates the post. I don't have the option of deleting posts on my iPhone either, otherwise I would rectify it.

Mary, for a while my sister, who is a devout Christian, asked me not to let her girls watch the Harry Potter dvds when they were at my house. She had never read one of the books but I respected her opinion and years later, she changed her mind and read the books with her daughters.

I would love to get a Day of the Dead costume. They are really cool looking.

Emma, All Hallows'/Saints Day is Nov 1st as you say but All Souls is a different and is 2nd November. The reason I'm confident is that I know my birthday is All Saints Day and that All Souls is the day after. :)

BTW We've just got rid of your storm. Yeah!

As so many of us are currently obsessed with Halloween here's a quiz on it in books:

http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-...

I got 4 but didn't know any of the books :(

9/10 for that one, far better than my usual scores on these quizzes!

I got 8 which I can live with :-)

Theresa I got a screaming 10 out of 10 ☺Even the Twilight one

6/10 for me, which was an average score, according to the Guardian. I wanted to see the correct answers!

you can if you click the "show answers" button on the results page Donna