I love Halloween. It's come as you aren't night. Myself, I'm going as Adrienne Barbeau. My fiance is going as Captain Murphy from Sealab 2021. (Captain Murphy always wants to build an Adrienne Barbeaubot.) My son is going as a cowboy, I'm going to have to put pictures in the scrapbook for all to see. So if anyone wants to send in pictures of themselves in costume, I'm going to start a Halloween page.

Sorry to be ignorant but.....when is Halloween?

Sunday, October 31st.

If we are invited to a party, I'll go as I usually dress and scare everyone!
My wife has built a "killer bee" outfit for her office party this Friday. She took a black, hooded pullover and added yellow duct tape stripes. Her 'antennae' are the plastic spirals from a old notebook attached to a head band with puffy red balls dangling on the end.
For the 'killer' part she borrowed a fake wooden rifle from her grandson.
I threatened to take pictures at the office party.

I almost always go as Sheriff Woody from Toy Story. My boys are both Ninja Turtles this year.

I will be at home with my bag of minature packs of Maltesers. I never know how many children will call, sometimes quite a few and sometimes none.

This year my daughter and I are going as a witch and her little black cat. We went to the anual "Boo at the Zoo", which is a trick-or-treat at the children's zoo. It was great fun. Kit is old enough this year to actually GO trick-or-treating. Last year she was barely walking. Not many parents in my town dress up to take their kids around, but I think that's no fun.

For the last few years I would dress in a midieval dress I bought to wear in a wedding. It was made as authentically as possible, and looks great. Normally I love Halloween and dress up to pass out candy, but this year I couldn't be bothered. Sad to say, but I just couldn't get into it. I think everyone was shocked, because Halloween is my holiday.

Anyone want some fun sized packs of Maltesers? I bought two bags and not one child came to the door.

Sounds like here - last year we had what felt like millions of knocks on the door, this year a mere three. Oh well, I'll just have to help my kids mill through the lollipops and stuff, won't I?

No offence to anyone but what is the point of Halloween? Is it just about trick-or-treating and dressing up or is there more to it than that? Does it have anything to do with celebrating witches?

What is the point? There isn't any point that I can see, for us it is just an American import. When I was a child we never dressed up nor did trick or treat.

What it is locally is an excuse for young vandals to throw eggs and generally commit acts of minor vandalism. Yes it is the minority again giving the majority a bad name. There is no other word for it other than vandalism, we had youngsters throwing eggs at moving cars, that isn't trick or treating. The parents of approximately 50 youngsters are going to be written to by the police. Fifty doesn't sound many but for such a small place it is a significant number.

Grump, grump.

Well, technically, Halloween is a Christian holiday, the eve of All Saints Day, also known as All Hallows Eve. Like many such holidays, the actual significance of the day has its roots in older traditions, primarily celtic. The costumes are a holdover from the celtic belief that the spirits of the year's dead came back on Oct 31 to possess a body, and wearing frightening costumes and making noise and general havoc would scare the spirits away. The tradition of trick-or-treating is also entrenched in long-ago Europe.

The holiday has become more and more ritualized and less and less religious over the years, as beliefs in the supernatural have diminished. Now, in the states at least, it is a time of fun for children. (And parents, and lots of other people, too.) Most people believe in clean fun, treats with no tricks, though as is illustrated in the movie Meet Me In St. Louis, children really did used to play tricks on those who did not give them treats... Dressing up is fun for children of ALL ages, from my 2 year old daughter to my 27 year old self. (She was so excited about her kitty outfit she walked around meowing for an hour before we went out.) Going trick-or-treating can produce a good yield of candy, but is really a formality; it is the justification for getting all dressed up, having fun with friends and having an opportunity to chat with neighbors who live just far enough away that you don't usually get a chance to get to know them. We had very few pranksters this year, and while we were trick-or-treating, we only had to chase away one would-be thug, and even that was highly unusual.

Really, the point of Halloween is, for most of us, fun, clean and simple.