>I was surprised to learn that Fireworks are a big deal out here on Hallowe'en. Not just sparklers but the whole 'works including community pyrotechnic displays. Is this a West Coast thing or just a British Columbia thing?
Maybe they are "cherry picking", rolling together bonfire night and halloween. Our bonfire night has bonfires from the tiny to the enormous (I think Shona put in some links last year), similarly the fireworks run from a few friends clubbing together to run a small display in the back garden for the tinies to huge pyrotechnic displays.
Last night we had friends round for halloween, one couple were from Philadelphia and another from Melbourne. The Australians took their children guising and found it very interesting as they had never celebrated halloween before, they particularly found it strange to be effectively, asking strangers for sweets. I hadn't realised that fireworks were banned in Australia and they had never celebrated bonfire night either. The Americans were suprised that the children were all dressed on a halloween theme (not as Disney characters, for example), we had some very spooky ghosts, especially the current fashion for a hood which makes you look as if you have no face (it is a one way gauze). Incidentally, I went into the local supermarket yesterday and the staff were dressed in a similar fashion but because they blended in and no-one really looked at them, it felt like this really was the land of Harry Potter, we were all muggles barely noticing them amongst us. The USns were also suprised that the children arrived with jokes (generally on a spooky theme) and songs to treat us before we treated them, we had some great entertainment. They said that in their part of the USA children all sing the same song.
I think that Edinburgh has had a long tradition of guising and seems to avoid the worst aspects of over-commercialisaion. I remember the little boy next door being far more excited about Halloween than Christmas.
