Halloween vs All Saints' Day in Poland

We have always celebrated Halloween in Scotland by going out guising (similar to trick or treating). The only difference seems to be that in Scotland you are expected to do something (sing a song, say a poem or tell a few jokes) before you get any sweets (or a lot of houses round my way gave out home baking which was awesome!). It was often a case when I was much younger to make costumes and that was often brought through to the more adult parties where there were prizes for the best costume. Now it would appear most people buy their costumes and we have taken the more american approach of just getting sweets for turning up at the door. I have seen a few pre-WW1 comic strips from Scotland where children went out guising so it's hardly a new thing.

I like the Polish All Saints Day and love wandering about the graveyards with my bag of candles and seeing it all lit up at night. I think it's a shame that Halloween is creeping in and people are being encouraged to dress up and go out and party on Halloween, meaning people will be out with hangovers for wandering the graveyards. However, you have to think of it from their point of view. You watch lots of TV, mostly from the US, where people are all having awesome Halloween parties and going out trick or treating. Then you compare that to walking around a graveyard in the cold for hours feeling solemn. I know which I would have preferred when I was younger! Now though, I prefer the tradition and solemnety that goes with All Saints day.

As for commercialism, you can't criticise Halloween for being commercial and not All Saints Day. Go to any shop in Poland in October and you will see candles and flowers and other tacky memorials on sale. Halloween costimes are just another facet to shops making a profit...which, at the end of the day, is what they are there for.

Again a good point. These days it is difficult to find anything that is not commercialized or in some way exploited for money. Basically, the rule is, if it's popular, someone is going to want to try and make money of it. In fact as I write this I struggle to think of anything popular that has not been commercialized, unless it's some charity related stuff.

I just wanted to add that I see costumes around here that take a lot of thought and work. It's almost like an art that only lasts one night. This year I noticed elaborate face paintings. My friends are thinking about their next year's costumes already. I wish I could post pictures here..

Upload them to imgur/flickr/picasa and then post a link


Hahah, I know man, I know.

I am from America and would agree Halloween is commercialized. Many holidays and traditions are now a days thanks to marketing and ad targeting. I don't think that's a reflection on the American spirit of the event. Halloween is at it's core just fine. If you're a kid, it's the day to dress up as something you like or make- believe to be and get and trade candy with friends. As an adult, it's about scaring each other, being creative, making each other laugh and having a good time together. Yeah, we all might have plastic black cats in the yard but I would bet there's good stories from those here that enjoy the tradition of light-hearted fun. Don't look at it as a religious slam or a marketing event. Simply experience something new, be smart about it, and enjoy the company.

Supermarkets here in Poland carried a few bits of Halloween rubbish, but it didn't exactly fly off the shelves. The cemeteries, however, were full last night. A beautiful sight.

Halloween is still frowned upon by the Church in Poland.
Here, a poster advertising a propitiative mass service for Halloween in Krakow:

Amasing. They still have a problem with a silly holiday......... :):):):)

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It seems to be a bigger thing here than almost anywhere except the US.

Certainly bigger in PL than in the UK where Bonfire Night, 5 days later, is still going strong.

I was out in town on 31 Nov, for a friend's birthday rather than Halloween, and town was full (even on a Tuesday) with people in costumes.


Better to fight poverty than parties, especially when those parties are named after and held on a religious holiday.

Hmmmmm............ 30 years ago kids followed the custom of going from home to home with trick or treat. Today I don`t hear about it anymore.

Now, it seems to be a going out thing for adults.

Yes, amasing how customs are born, evolve or disappear over the years of our lives......

Halloween was quite big in the UK a few years ago but has died down now, to almost nothing....about ten years ago Trick or Treaters rang at our doorbell and when we ignored them they pelted our front windows with mud.......thankfully this vile tradition has now died here.

Sounds like Mischievous Night in Yorkshire.

Thats because the children are too afraid to go to your creepy house.


Thats it? LOL No mailboxes blown up or soap and shaving cream? What about ding dong ditch?


Its still for kids as well.

Do you know what to know what the Chicago ghetto chile does? Since their neighborhood sucks and they dont have any good candy. They load the kids into vans and drive them into the white neighborhoods then spring open the doors and let them all run out. Obviously everyone knows they arent from the area.You cant keep any candy on the porch either or they will steal the whole thing. Just turn your lights off when you see the vans coming.

It's not really that in PL.

Trick or treating appeared in England as a parentally-approved and slightly downmarket alternative to Mischievous Night since people had seen it in films, however it's not that popular and the main things for kids at that time of year are Mischievous Night and Bonfire night.

Halloween used to be a very rowdy and dangerous event (look up 'gate night' or modern 'devil's night') after one especially bad year, "Black Halloween" in the mid 1930s, people looked for calmer, safer alternatives.

The phrase 'trick or treat' first appears in the late 1930s and it was one of the safer alternatives, giving children treats if they behave (also things like costume parties with adult supervision began in the 1930s).

When I was a child, trick or treat was a lot of fun, you waited until after dark and plunged into the night by yourself (or other kids you met along the way). The best treats were homemade things like candy apples or popcorn balls or rice krispie squares.

Various events (and urban legends) and corporate actions removed the homemade items and the time for trick or treat became earlier and earlier as helicopter parents appeared and now it's almost entirely in the day time (often on a specified day, not Halloween and adults tag along the entire time) and it seems dreary and lame.....


Where I grew up the town was segregated and so was trick or treating. But black kids always had the best hauls (you brought candy to school to trade) because they had a community behind them while we just went to random houses of people who didn't know us. Any time there was a fund raising competition the black kids always won for the same reason -- they had strong social networks.

All that's lost now....

Yes.I remember after one incident when they threw eggs in the 24hr store and all the cashiers had to put glasses and a sign out side that no body with mask will be served.Even the local Police departments would give out instructions to businesses to do that.

Eggs almost blinded a cashier.

I looked up Mischievous Night on Wikipedia and was delighted to see that similar things happen in the US and Canada. Like the UK, it's regional too.


One of the few things I miss from Northern England are bonfire toffee (black, shiny and translucent, a drag to make so only a thing at this time of year) and toffee apples covered in thin red toffee..


Same in the UK, however there it's all about pound shops becoming full of plastic pumpkins from China. Cheap and shiny, the lowest common denominator but easy to buy.

Where I was, it was monocultural (people with -ski or -czuk in their names didn't really count) and there was a limit to the naughtiness kids could get away with since everyone knew your parents and the stern schoolteachers with their canes all lived locally and were watching.