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

I always understood it to mean "(are you going to give me a) trick or (a) treat"

but then, since, as an adult, I've been doling out the treets in a country that doesn't really *do* Halloween, it's mostly fun.

Last time I heard "Penny for the guy?", it was said rather aggressively by two pre-teen lads standing with their hands out at my front door a few years ago. I looked around them for the guy, thinking it must be on a bogie behind them but I couldn't see it.

"Where's the guy then?" I asked

"What the F are ye talking aboot mister, penny for the guy" and the outstretched hands were jabbed demandingly in my direction.

As I slammed the door, I wistfully bemoaned the fact that the two wee scallywags were mindlessly repeating a phrase they'd heard in return for money. Bit like X Factor really.

The going-door-to-door thing has been going on here for centuries. "Guising", as swl said, is one of the names it's had over the years. Rhyming is another. There are probably hundreds more names for what's basically the same ritual. But it's certainly been going on from long before the 1980s.

What bugs me are the teenagers who knock on your door at all hours of the evening wearing a cheap mask from Spar, and announce trick or treat, between the 15th & 30th October. I'm always slightly nervous when I apologise & say I have nothing in for them as it's not actually halloween yet. It's one day, people. Let's not drag it out like Christmas.

I'm not quite so annoyed by (possibly the same) teenagers knocking wearing cheap santa hats in December and sumbling (not quite singing, more mumbling) a verse of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I don't know if they know more than one verse - by then I'm so embarrassed for them I've given them some money & shut the door!

Deb

I usually ask carol singers if I can see their licence Not the bona fide ones that have previously informed us through the village newsletter when they will be out and about, and what they are collecting for. But random teenagers ... they get short shrift.

Mol

I've decided. I shall anagramise myself just for Wednesday. So don't blink..

~*~I don't do Halloween. It's just another imported US event to make us spend money at the supermarket.~*~

Dude, Halloween came to the U.S. from Irish immigrants, not the other way around. As far as Trick-or-Treating goes.... Apparently the phrase originates in America sometime in the 1920s, but the practice is recorded as taking place in Scotland in 1895, and Shakespeare made a reference to it in The Two Gentlemen of Verona in 1593.


About November the 5th, do you actually give pennies? Or something else?

The "Penny for the guy" thing is supposed to be where kids make an effigy of Guy Fawkes and people reward them with money if it's any good. Typically kids would put the "guy" on a bogie/cartie and wheel it round the street so more people could see it.

At the main bonfire a "guy" is put atop the blaze.

.....Although this year it will be a 'Jimmy' atop the bonfire on most council estates around here .

I used to love guising in Scotland (late 70's/early 80's) The whole of October would see us all practising our routine then out we would go to entertain the households of Dundee.

All dressed up - my best outfit was a Romany gypsy with my Granny's prized Caithness Glass paperweight as my crystal ball - we would chap on the doors of unsuspecting neighbours, wait to be invited in, then subject them to at least 10 minutes of half-forgotten jokes and out of tune Scottish ballads.

None of this on the doorstep trick or treating and given handfuls of sweeties - you had to work hard for the 10p and 4 penny chews (between 5 of you)!

As for anagrams, thinking of changing my name on here anyway so may look for a good anagram and keep it!

But how much money? Is it just a penny?

You were lucky if you got from each house. We only ever went to neighbours we knew were receptive (the same ones we went guising to on Halloween) and were happy with a bag of old newspapers or a broken chair for the bonfire!

When I were a lass....

The ancient British traditions of mummers
have been mostly lost in the UK today but
survive as an Xmas custom practiced in New-
foundland since its first settlements 400
years ago.

http://zero1magazine.com/2010/12/newfoundland-mummers/


~jwf~

Penny for the guy usually entailed a gang of kids making a guy for their bonfire and then going out to beg the money for fireworks for the bonfire but not door to door..usually in the local high street in daylight hours.

Tsch. It's all in , guys! A59097333

It's demanding with menaces. Give me something or I'll perform an act of criminal damage. It's a great lesson for the young.

KB!

That's a true story!

Bangers

Frogs

Rectum