Sydenham Halloween - Wednesday 31 October

[Chris Best]

Get ready to be scared by ghouls and ghosts, witches and wizards, skeletons and monsters on Wednesday 31 October. Sydenham Halloween starts at 4pm with a high street trail outside the Coop - over 20 shops are participating in our annual trick or treat. At 5.15pm there will be a fancy dress competition at the Naborhood Centre with three prizes for the best under 7 years, over 7 years and home made costume.

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[Eagle]

Councillor
So called Halloween is an unnecessary import from out friends across the pond.#
Further excuse for business to make money selling cheap items made in China. Also encourages some children to terrorise older people.

Shame on you.

[yummymummy]

Actually Eagle, this is a lovely, safe family event that takes place every year. The children of Sydenham have a great time and get to take over the high street collecting sweets and goodies from their local shops, bringing the community together!

[Eagle]

This event may be and I trust it does not include the infamous trick or treat.
I cannot believe how full the shops are with tat made in China which we can ill afford to import in our financial state.

[Annie.]

Last year Eagle the youths didnt even knock on our door and give us an option! They just threw the eggs at my window anyway!

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[Eagle]

I thought eggs were about 50p each. Must be rich yobs round your way.

[Annie.]

I thought eggs were about 50p each. Must be rich yobs round your way.

50p is cheap for a couple minutes of fun, no doubt watching me almost have a heart attack running outside thinking my window had been broken!

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[leenewham]

I fully support this Halloween initiative by the traders and Cllr Best.

For supermarkets, it's the second most important season fo the year behind Christmas, even more than Easter and Valentines day. It's important that our local traders capitalize on it too.

For Eagles point about it being a North American import, actually, you are wrong. It was not until the mass Irish and Scottish immigration during the 19th century that the holiday was brought to North America. All saints/all hallows goes back over 1000 years in the UK. Even trick or treating or 'guising' was imported to the US from Scotland.

So I welcome this revival of an ancient British tradition and the support that local people can give to our local shops. I hope everyone else does too. I don't support throwing eggs at peoples windows, clearly, that is wrong. But that has nothing to do with the high street initiative.

So Eagle, shame on you instead. no sweeties for you, apart form Humbugs of course!

…And well done Chris. This forum should be a place of praise when it's due.

[Rachael]

When I was a child in Ireland we always celebrated Halloween. Toffee apples are definitely not American. I hope at the littlies (and their parents!) enjoy the fun on Sydenham Road.

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[Robin Orton]

For Eagles point about it being a North American import, actually, you are wrong. It was not until the mass Irish and Scottish immigration during the 19th century that the holiday was brought to North America. All saints/all hallows goes back over 1000 years in the UK. Even trick or treating or 'guising' was imported to the US from Scotland. So I welcome this revival of an ancient British tradition.

Hallowe'en does of course have Scots and Irish roots. But in its present form in this country it is certainly an American import - I'd barely heard of it when I was a boy in the fifties in the English midlands. Bonfire Night was the big event of the autumn and I feel rather sad that the good old English 'penny for the Guy' has been driven to extinction by the exotic and faintly nasty 'trick or treat' - particularly when it seems obvious that it has been commercial interests which have been the main driver for this particular bit of environmental degradation.

[leenewham]

Not in Scotland Robin:
http://caledonianmercury.com/2010/10/15 ... ng/0011286

[Chris Best]

Just letting you know that I have had a fantastic response from the shops this year - those that are participating are:

Kirkdale
Sugahill - 250
Robinson Jackson - 256
Kirkdale Bookshop - 272
Sydenham DIY - 274

Sydenham Road even numbers
Property World - 4
Pedder - 14
ALD - 26
Costcutters – 38 - 40
PFC - 42
Angie's Flowers – outside Post Office
RSPCA - 46
Acorn - 54
Stationery Box - 66
New hairdressers - 70
Over The Top - 72
Whites Pet Care Centre - 80
Master Cutters - 84

Station Approach
London Cars
Gymophobics
Geriola Key Cutting and Shoe Repairs
Outback Hair Salon

Sydenham Road odd numbers
Palace Dry Cleaners - 9
Sema's Café - 11
Hunters -13
Fresh and Fruity – 39
Billings - 45
Manns – 63
Cash & Cheque Centre - 79
Mustis Pound Plus - 87
Bargain World - 103
Party Daze - 109
The Cake Store - 111 

Many of the shop windows have been dressed and I am told that there will be several of our traders in costume!

The judging panel are looking forward to the parade at 5.15pm at the Naborhood Centre - they have a system ready to decide the best under and over 7 years plus best home made costume. Steve Bullock, the Mayor of Lewisham will be presenting the prizes at 5.30pm. The Coop have provided the 3 prizes for the best costumes and we will have our top three medals courtesy of Classic Trophies. The South London Press joining us from 4pm. This is a great community event so please come and join us.

[EmmaM]

Sounds like a lot of fun - we will be there!

[Eagle]

Inside Moon and Stars Penge youngsters about 6 to, 8 collecting money for Halloween.

Not sure where money would be going.

They did not take NO very well.

Very sad.

[Rachael]

Sydenham Halloween sounds like a lot of fun - if my children were younger, they would be there. We lived in New York when they were younger and they really miss a 'proper' Halloween - it's actually a lovely family-focused day and very good spirited. Organising events like those on Sydenham Road today will help reclaim Halloween from those who think it is just an opportunity to cause trouble.

The younger generations really enjoy Halloween (and not just the children, but people in their 20s and 30s), and I think we have to accept that the 5th November, with its political background, is just not as appealing. Growing up in Northern Ireland we didn't celebrate 5th November, for obvious reasons. But it didn't matter, because we had Halloween, with even longer traditions to enjoy - such as trick-or-treating which I did as a child some forty years ago. It is not an American import. The Americans inherited it and made it even better.

So there.

[mysti77]

I'm so sad. This is my first year away from Sydenham after being there for 4 years. I finally have a little boy to participate (he's 2) as previous years I dutifully put out my decorations to welcome children to my home for sweets.

Well done for organizing this for the children again this year. Ignore the negativity. Clearly these negative people do not get the excitement and missed out on a lovely part of childhood.

Egg throwing is not done by the little children, rather the older ones who's negligent parents do not know where they are or what they are doing so sorry it's happening but it's hardly the fault of those supporting a fun community event.

[Robin Orton]

The younger generations really enjoy Halloween (and not just the children, but people in their 20s and 30s) [...]

Really? Are these the 'kidults' I read about?

It is not an American import.

Not to Ireland and Scotland, as I keep agreeing.

[NSid]

Hi, we took our 'nearly four' year old along and he loved it!
It was great to see so many families out and about and I hope it leads to more business for the traders.
Everyone was really welcoming and the atmosphere was good.
Finally I'd like to really thank whoever organised it- more events like this, for the kids would be great- they are after all the future, and the sooner they learn to shop local the better!

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[CaptainCarCrash]

Eagle

When I was a kid we were told by one household that "This is not America" which was a green light to rip up the plants in the garden and slash the tyres of the car on the drive and brick the windows

It has Celtic and Irish roots and was imported to America in the late 18th century and is more akin to paganism than being an American Import.

[Robin Orton]

I think we must have had at least eight groups of trick-or-treaters call last night, a record number, so we ran out of the delicious buns my wife always bakes for the occasion. All our callers were young, all were polite and most if not all had an adult with them who lurked discreetly at our front gate.

I have been reflecting on Rachael and Lee's comments.The trick-or-treat ritual is unproblematic when the whole of society is signed up to it, as in Ireland, Scotland and the US. But English people of my generation and older did not celebrate Hallowe'en as children, and certainly would not have been allowed to go round to strangers' houses making what sound to the uninitiated (and, by all accounts, sometimes really are) menacing demands. People like Rachael on the other hand were brought up in a society where the old people would themselves have gone trick-or-treating when they were young and so wouldn't feel so threatened by it when they became householders, and therefore trick-or-treat victims, themselves.

There is of course also a generational issue. English people of a younger generation than mine, like (and I'm guessing here) Lee, who would also have gone trick-or-treating themselves when they were children, are just as relaxed about it as those with Celtic or American backgrounds. But fortunately that issue will eventually resolve itself. My mother was totally terrified by Hallowe'en and used to turn all the lights of the house off and cower in the back room. But she's dead now. My own generation, I guess, finds it irritating rather than menacing. But in any case the Grim Reaper will in due course do his job, and all us old Hallowe'enophobes will have been purged away.Then you will all be able to enjoy your annual celebration of the Powers of Darkness without being carped at by grumpy old people.