It's 7:20 pm...

[Brue]

T1K is right that many adults really get in to.
However, my kids (I mean all my kids - the hundreds I have taught as well as my own 2 and their friends) talk about what to wear and who they will hang out with. They crowd the street and nearly every house is welcoming.

The thing is for trick or treating it has become a party in it self. It is more alive on streets / in neighborhoods that have more kids, closer houses, skip main car thoroughfares, etc. My house is in a college area. No -one trick or treats on my street. My 2 kids are the only visitors at my next door neighbor's house every year (it is our last stop of the night). My 5 yr old has friends that live a mile north of use in an area populated with young families. For the past 4 years we have gone there. I trick or treat with the kids while my wife brings our candy and passes it out with the mom's at Lily's friend's house.

As far as the change in how it goes - there is a natural cycle. As people don't put there light on and pass out candy, kids don't want to TorT in the area. As there are less kids, people don't want to sit around for 2 hours with a bowl full of candy. Which comes first? either - the result is the same. neighborhoods with declining TorT continue to decline. ones with good TorT get better.

[Gorn Captain]

I think most Holidays are slowly losing their original meaning.
Halloween was basically not about "scary stuff", getting candy, etc. It has a spiritual meaning, that slowly succumbed to "commercialism".

I think Christmas is not far behind, as a lot of "Catholic" people that I know don't go to Mass or actively experience their beliefs. Again, commercialism is taking over. For many kids, all they see is presents.
Who still knows the origins of Santa Claus?
Based on mixture of the Dutch figure of Sinterklaas (dressed as a Bisshop), who protected children, and a pagan figure of a demon dressed in furs who gets in houses through the chimney.

Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of people who follow the religious aspect of Christmas, but many see just the holiday, and not the Holy Day.

People, through the blessing and the curse of civilisation, seem to be losing touch with their culture and all that it entails. We get so hung up on phones, TVs, the internet, that we lose sight of what made us a specific culture.

So all of you, log off from this forum, and go dance naked around some trees. It will do you a world of good!
Don't forget to wear your Doctor Who scarf, because it's pretty cold outside here...

[toys2cool]

I don't think it's dying, Last year I had mad trick or treaters

[Goblin19]

My mom said she had over 200 kids come to our house.

[Meule]

This was the second year in a row that we had a very low turnout for Halloween. The last few kids who showed up got a buttload of candy from me just so I could get rid of it. I kinda miss having lots of kids coming out in costume for the holiday.
I did get a chuckle out of a few of the kids. I have my Dracula blowmold set up inside so he's looking out my front window. There was more than one younger kid who was hesitant to come to my door because they were creeped out by Bela

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3287/2966274027_32dffb28e2_b.jpg

George

That Bela is friggin awesome, if I saw that here, I'd buy it in a heartbeat

[Meule]

Halloween isn't much of a tradition here yet, so no trick or treaters. And since we are the only ones in the neighbourhood that have Halloween decorations up I didn't expect any either.
Some cities in Belgium have something similar tho, called Sint-Maarten (Saint Martin in English I guess), where kids go from door to door dressed up with a hollowed out beet and singing Sint-Maarten songs in return for candy on November 11th. The town I lived in as a kid had this tradition, so I did it a lot. Wasn't till much later I learned that not every city has this traditio, some Belgians never even heard of it. But basically it's the same as trick or treating on Halloween.

This Halloween I spent by myself, as usual, watching Jason goes to hell (cr*p movie, stopped halfway through), and the Omen remake.
My wife hates horror movies...

Sigh.

Next time, let's get together and make it a fun evening, OK?

Let's do that, Dafne and I both love horror movies