[HPFGU-OTChatter] Halloween in England and stitching news

[Mary Jennings]

David, in regards to trick-or-treating in Britain, said:

>I'd say it's become quite common, but it is recent, so if your fic is
>set, say in the MWPP era it might not have happened.

To which K replied:
>I wonder if it's a regional thing? I never get trick or treaters but I live
>in a flat over a shop so I'm pretty inaccessible but I know my parents 
>don't
>get them either.
>
>My parents live in Stevenage nr London which is a reasonable sized town,
>what about other UK members - do you get trick or treaters and if so where
>do you live?

I live in Weston-super-Mare (no giggling in the back row, please), and I had 
two lots of trick-or-treaters come by the house last October.  One lot 
didn't count anyway, because they were our Young Guide Leaders who dropped 
by to say hello and sponge some candy ;)  The other group of kids were 
preteen boys who didn't even have bags with them to hold their candy, so 
they didn't actually know what they were doing.  I'd say it's catching on, 
but *very* slowly.

One thing to keep in mind is that many Christians here link Halloween with 
Paganism and, in extreme cases, Satanism.  And I'm not talking just the "HP 
is Evil" brigade; I'm talking Church of England (some of their vicars 
anyway).  While only 15% or so of the population are practicing Christians 
several people I know are uncomfortable with the whole idea of Halloween 
because for them it still holds spiritual significance of some non-Christian 
sort.  It will be a long while, I think, before it's seen as a fun, secular 
reason for dressing up in ridiculous costumes and consuming your own body 
weight in mini Mars bars.

Now on to the second topic of my post...

:::::bounces up and down with glee:::::  This morning my lovely postman 
brought me the latest cross stitch pattern book I ordered.  And yes, it's 
Harry himself, along with loads of other patterns, including alphabet 
samplers, the Sorting Hat, Snape (looking decidedly vampirish) and even 
several poses of Norbert.  The book is WB and DMC approved so it's nice 
quality stuff.  The book is French but that's no worry as the charts are 
very clear and are colour rather than symbol.  If anyone wants more info 
about this email me privately and I'll gladly give you any info you need to 
order it for yourself.

Mary Ann
(happily deciding what she's going to stitch first)


_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com