h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Why do the Americans, divided as they are by the fanatically religious and the fanatically anti-religious, celebrate All Hallows Eve with such gusto, when Christmas passes almost unnoticed and Easter is thought by most to have been invented by Hallmark?

Chocolate, candy & other sugar laden products

;^)#

In which case why isn't it called "terrorising the elderly day" or "demanding favours with menaces night?"

Marketing

;^)#

Ah, yes. marketing. Who was it said of Hewlett-Packard that if they were marketing Sushi they would call it "raw dead fish?"

I'm not sure - but my guess would be the Marketing Department at Hewlett-Packard

;^)#

The really worryng thing is that you could be right

As an adult, now living in Australia, the "American" idea of halloween (give me something for nothing or I'll do something bad to you) is at odds with the version I remember as a kid in Scotland.

Growing up in the sixties, we would knock on someones door and, in return for sweets, nuts or apples, "do a turn" (i.e. tell a joke, sing a song or make some attempt at entertainment). Few adults would decline to give you something and many would do so without the "pleasure" of being entertained. However if no prize was given, you simply moved on to the next door.

Perhaps the real meanies didn't answer the door, but I cannot recall many complaints on halloween and do remember coming home with lots of sweets to eat and fruit and other healthy stuff (what my mum did with that I don't know, probably disguised it as something tasty in the days to follow).

That's the way Halloween is in Ireland still. There's no questions of doing anything bad to people who don't produce the nuts. But children now say "Trick or Treat" - in my day we said "Help the Halloween Party".