What was a typical Halloween like in the Wagner household when you were kids?

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Jung!

Sorry that I didn’t reply to this question much earlier. Halloween has long come and gone now but I’d still like to answer your questions. Thanks for your patience! 😉

When we were kids, Halloween was just beginning to catch on in Europe. Prior to the 90’s it wasn’t really celebrated in Austria but with the influence of American culture rising, “Trick or Treating” and Halloween parties started popping up when we were in primary school.

I presume people were simply adopting what they saw on television so that’s what we did – we dressed up as witches or ghosts and would walk around our village asking for candy and then return to whoever was hosting the party and eat it all! How we didn’t get sick is a miracle to me, but 8-year olds have surprisingly strong stomachs when it comes to sugar 😀

Personally, I’ve always loved Halloween simply for the fact that I really enjoy dressing up and putting on crazy makeup 😉 Both of us have only ever dressed as something scary. It’s only recently that I’ve found out that in America, the UK (and maybe Canada too?) people don’t necessarily stick to just “spooky” costumes anymore. Apparently it can be anything these days?

We actually have a separate holiday in Austria when we dress up, which has a much longer tradition. It’s called Fasching (carnival) and we celebrated it every year in our village when we were kids. I think the “Fasching Season” starts on the 11.11. (November) at 11.11am and ends the night before Ash Wednesday in February (I think). To be honest, I’ve never completely understood the origins and exact rituals and I think they vary greatly from region to region.

But I remember that the village would organise a get together every year where all the kids would dress up in different costumes. We’d play musical chairs, cops and robbers, hide and seek … all the classics.

I dug out a picture of when I went as a parrot and Lisa went as a cat (2002)!

 

🙂

[Jung Roe]

Hi Mona,

No worries at all, and thanks so much for taking the time to reply.  I know things get kind of crazy with holidays approaching.  You two look just absolutely adorable in that parrot and cat costume, and thanks for sharing about the Austrian Fasching holiday, sounds like fun.  The other day on one of the Canadian news programs, they featured “Krampus” night festivities, and thanks to you I knew exactly what that was about.  It’s so wonderful to learn of all the different traditions from around the world that we all grew up with and gave us so much fond memories.

Thank you both for this years daily Advent Calendar fun, Christmas spirit, and all your music and joy!

Jung

[Jacki Hopper]

Yep, in Canada, the costume ideas were varied from scary, to funny, in between… Mind you the stupid plastic  masks we had with some costumes, back in my childhood days, 1970s, should of deemed health /safety hazzards, you couldn’t hardly breath properly through the tiny hole for mouth area and as for eye holes,, practically couldn’t see out of them, and I tripped a few times going trick or treating with friends in their neighborhoods, as where I lived, there were hardly any houses around so I had to go to friends’ neighborhoods or my parents drove to neighborhoods with whom they had friends they knew lived in…. For my Halloween needs…

I was terrified as a child of scene from Disney classic cartoon movie, Legends of Slerpy Hallow, where the flaming jack o lantern is thrown by headless horseman… Of course living across 3 cemeteries to which one containing remains of ancestors/family members was kind of creepy come Halloween… ???

[Howard]

I see you were into blonde and Lisa red, even as cute little eight year olds!

[Jung Roe]

I remember those plastic masks Jacki back in those days in the 70’s, and I hated them too. 🙂  I would sweat so much wearing them running around trick or treating.  Just putting on face painting was much better.  Me and my friends would go all over the neighborhood, and even other neighborhoods trick or treating sometimes coming home to empty our pillow cases full of candy so we could get more.  My older brother and sister I remember the next day would come around to coax me into giving them some of my stash of candy.  Yep Mona, it was a miracle we had strong stomachs at 8 years old eating all that candy.  🙂  It might have been just a Pacific Northwest regional tradition, but Halloween celebration also meant, the older kids would play with fireworks and firecrackers.  They would let off firecrackers all over the place and by the end of the evening there would be smoke all over the place.  It was also a very busy time for the fire departments too.  About 20 years ago they passed a bylaw and firecrackers became illegal because of all the injuries, and now in many municipalities they allow private fireworks at certain designated locations.  In the area I live there are a lot of kids so we get some years over a hundred kids coming around to trick or treat, so we have to have lot of candy ready.  Nowadays I just go to Costco and get a couple boxes of natural fruit/jelly packets and give those out which I think is healthier than those mini chocolate bars.

[Howard]

Cracker night was a big thing for us in the sixties. Strange that this tradition developed out of the idea of blowing up the British Parliament. Guy Fawkes night became our cracker night and a good time was had by all. Well not quite all. Animals all over the place were frightened, cowering under beds, hospital casualty wards were full and the local fire brigade had their busiest day of the year.

Every local park had a bonfire and as well as all the crackers, from tomb thumbs to twopenny bungers, (which could blow a child’s finger off), Catherine wheels and jumping jacks, we had expensive skyrockets and it was considered a family tragedy if one was a fizzer.

It doesn’t bear thinking about how some delinquents tortured animals with crackers and frightened little old ladies.

Fortunately, in the 1970s, society came to its senses and cracker night was banned.

However, there are still many festivals during the year where public fireworks displays happen, like Riverfire in my home state and of course, New Years Eve.

[Jung Roe]

We use to be able to get red “Lady Finger” firecrackers in Canada, so we had a lot of fun whenever Halloween came around setting them off as a teenager.  All the kids had them.  My brother use to go down to the US and buy some bigger/louder “Adams” firecrackers and bring them up, so we had those too.  I still occasionally hear firecrackers going off around the neighborhood when Halloween comes around although they are all banned now in Canada.  In eastern Canada and other places they never heard of doing firecrackers and fireworks at Halloween, so it seemed to be a regional thing.

[Robert Jackson]

I wonder if Fasching had to do with the WW I armistice. It was signed on the 11th day of the 11th month at 11 A.M. and celebrated as a holiday here in the U.S.  Some time in the late 60’s or early 70’s it was changed Armistice Day to Veteran’s Day.

[Howard]

Well I certainly got that one back to front! So it was Mona red and Lisa blonde.