All Comments on 'Not English'

Fine work, Ogg. It makes me recall my years on both sides of the Atlantic and the attendant festivities of both holidays.

...the graphic novel V for Vendetta by Alan Moore which (hopefully) should be coming to theaters next year

Why do I always seem to learn things in the oddest of places? Maybe that's because we learn more by not being forced to or having it shoved down our throats...

Americans should take note and remember, remember the 11th of September

and good luck with the contest....

Halloween is actually a Christian holiday with its roots in ancient Celtic traditions.

Love it! Had the same history teacher for 10th and 12th grade, he was a Brit and such a character, one of our extra credit assignments was to make an effigy and trundle it through the halls, calling out "A penny for the guy!" it was a BLAST! We never got permission to burn it or have a bonfire, BUT a group of us did get together later and do it. <grin> Thanks for the memories, Og :))

Wow! I certainly feel like I have learned something by reading your tale. Thank you for sharing this and please, do so again soon.

The UK is getting better with the halloween festivities, you should see my pumpkins <grinning wildly>!! As for firework night, its a shame that restrictions are stopping us buying fireworks over the counter... me and my brothers enjoy blowing up our parents best flower pots with a mother of thunder multi shot cake!! Informative oggbashan! xxx

Beltane is a spring festival dedicated to the returning warmth of summer--April 30th-May 1st. Where as All Hollows Eve is the gift to the spirits who have trodden the dark path before us, ie Holloween, which is followed by All Saints Day. JimDinMN

Very well-written. If my history teachers had been as entertaining, maybe I would have attended class more often.

I meant the night of the spirits, not Beltane. Thank you to those who pointed out the error.

The 31st October is a significant date for witchcraft and satanists. Their versions are far removed from the innocence of Halloween.

Thanks to all those who have commented and voted.

I seem to recall that Halloween US-style started in the UK with the release of ET.

Well written, Og. An interesting and informative read.

Rumple

and be sure to read pages 41-53 in your textbook before next lesson.

...like so many other things - for example, "football", as it's known in America (derived from rugby football) and baseball (from cricket and rounders, the latter being a game played in England by little girls since at least the 17th century, before America was 'discovered', whatever that means - ask a native American) - these, like so much else in American "culture", were imported and "crassified" [don't say there's no such word - I invented it], just as Halloween was. It is an old Celtic and Gaelic event [i.e., Welsh and Irish, as they are now, before there was any such thing as England, as has already been pointed out. But "crassification" for commercial purposes involved the invention of pumpkins and that most obnoxious practice of "trick or treat". British commercial interests have unfortunately siezed on this opportunity and cashed in on it - just as they did with other money-spinning abominations such as "Mothers' Day", which from the early Middle Ages used to be the charming Mothering Sunday, when [even when I was a child] kids went out and picked a posy of wild flowers to present to their mothers; now, where I live in Brazil, double beds and deep freezers are touted as ideal "Mothers' Day" presents. Worst of all is Christmas, which at the beginning of October is already applying pressure on people who can't afford it, but are made to feel mean if they don't buy it. Thank you, USA, for inventing and spreading the commercialisation that destroys the charm of so many formerly lovely things of our life. Crassificfation. Stick to your Big Macs and watery beer, neither of which you invented, but both of which - like so much else - you took from elsewhere and "crassified" to fit in with your own total lack of taste. Brit in Brazil.

I'd heard of him, of course, but not what the tradition had entailed. Thank you. (apparently the "Brit in Brazil" doesn't realize who he's leaving a comment for - poor sod)

Ya know, I thought Lit would be that last place I'd learn something. Good read !

And I never forget November 5th as one of my favorite people was born on that day in the UK. (lol I rhymed ... I'm a poet and I don'tknow it) Ooppsss wasn't what you meant was it? *wink* Good luck!

Great piece, Og, and thanks for solving a small problem for me. The US term 'guy' used to mean a strangely or scruffily dressed person. Thank you effigy of Guy Fawkes.

BTW, Bonfire Night used to be celebrated by settlers in the north of the US as 'Pope's Day', when effigies of the Pope would be burnt. The practice was suppressed by the army on orders from George Washington. 18th C political correctness?

Good luck.

for sharing. I loved reading a bit of history. I had heard of Guy Fawkes, but had forgotten what it was all about.

Good luck.

Black Tulip

It's always good to learn something where you're not expecting it. With regard to Guy Fawke's Day becoming a communal event, and the fireworks losing their oomph, I am sad to say that July 4 in my country is undergoing the same transformation.

Where do you think the Americans got the idea from? All Hallows Eve was the Christian Churches' response to Beltaine and combined traditional beliefs with newer Christian ideas. The only thing America added was trick or treat, a more materialistic version of traditional guising.Guy Fawkes might easily be seen as a freedom fighter rather than a traitor. If you plan to give people a history lesson then get your facts right first.

but I'm not sure it's completely accurate. I have always heard that "Halloween" is a pre-Christian festival that was celebrated in Europe, including England by Celts and that some of the symbols, such as the Jack-o-lantern, were part of the celebration. I had heard of Guy Fawkes and The Gunpowder Plot but I was not aware of the closeness to Halloween.

Sorry Oggs. I have to disagree with your definiton of Halloween being a modern ceremony. It dates back to the fires of Beltane, when Celts would dress up to scare away the evil spirits. The veil between those living and dead are at their thinnest at this time. As with christianity, they couldn't conqueor the beliefs so folded All Saints Day to Nov. 1st into the book religion to gain control of the Celts. It was only practical for christianity to absorb the old religions into their own. That way they could continue to conqueor and slaughter.

Has it escaped people's notice that Beltane was celebrated in the spring? The celebration that was equivalent to Halloween was known as Samhain.

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(Though it IS interesting that Beltane and Samhain were held exactly 6 months apart. Make of that what you will.

Was Beltane an English tradition, or was it a Celtic/British tradition?

Celts were the original inhabitants of the British Isles of course, including England, but moved northward/westward to Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Cumbria, Cornwall etc., leaving most of what is now England ('the land of the angles') to the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Romans.

As for Hallowe'en that's celebrated not only in England, but the whole of the UK of course. Though if you used England incorrectly, when you meant the UK, you wouldn't be the first english person to do so, by any means !

The English don't have the proper sense of humor required to understand, celebrate or enjoy Halloween.

Nice job. How did I miss this when I went through most of your things?

Thank you for writing it. I was familiar with most of the historical stuff on Guy Fawkes, but you gave it amusingly, and it's no trouble to be reminded.

Thank you!

We're doing it in style this year, imploding Europe. What happens in Parliament is likely to make 1605 look like kiddy time. The Scots dancing widdershuns, Labour having a Feast of Fools with everything politically topsy-turvey, asking for the Tories to stand down without wanting them to, and Quasimodo in the chair, all we really need now is for a builder's blowtorch to emulate Notre Dame.

Halloween is not an American tradition but an Irish/Celtic one, going back thousands of years.