Halloween is a tough KETO holiday

(Doug) #21

Good story in the housing allotment where my brother-in-law and his family live. One house has a custom of not giving out sugary stuff, but rather BACON. They get thick-cut bacon strips and make a pile of it - most popular house in the area.

(Bressain Dinkelman) #22

you can make some keto-friendly gummies. Found this on reddit and was fairly convincing (after a few trial and error) https://www.reddit.com/r/ketorecipes/comments/5ybmxl/have_a_sweet_tooth_like_me_try_this_simple_no/

#23

Was I the only one thinking ‘poor kids’ over halloween - all these adults thrusting the poison that is sugar upon them, encouraging them to overinduldge on things that are harmful to their poor little bodies? Teaching them to associate sweets (yes, I’m UK) with festivities, setting them all up to crave sweets through their lives?! Personally I kept my kids home, decorated the house spookily, put on some spooky music and we carved pumpkins and played fun halloween games through the evening. My kids were so busy enjoying themselves they didn’t even realise they hadn’t eaten a single sweet, despite so many school friends going on about trick or treating so much throughout the day. Hand out glowsticks or pencils, bouncy balls, glow in the dark stickers instead. There are many more preferable options instead of sweets/candy.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #24

Is carving pumpkins popular now in the U.K.? I spent a year in West London in the early eighties, and the kids didn’t seem to know what to make of my Jack o’lantern back then, although I gathered from the neighbors that they were fascinated.

#25

Halloween has been really taking off here but only really for the last few years. Certainly it wasn’t a ‘thing’ when I was growing up ‘up north’ but in the various southern counties I have lived in over the past few years it seems to be increasing year on year. Sadly though the more British traditions of ‘penny for the Guy’ and big village bonfire events seem to have dwindled (probably due in part to health and safety) and bonfire night now is all about the fireworks instead.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #26

I notice that the American influence has grown much stronger over the past forty years. A lot of the linguistic markers have been obliterated. On the British shows I watch on YouTube everyone now uses the word “guy,” instead of “chap” or “bloke.” And everyone “calls” people instead of “ringing” them.

Guy Fawkes is a bit of English history that never caught on in the colonies, but Hallowe’en is an ancient pagan custom. The Jack o’lantern is obviously an American innovation, because the pumpkin is a New World plant. (It was either popularized or invented by the writer Washington Irving, in his short story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”)

I really regret the homogenization of culture caused by the inordinate influence of the American media. My father comes from New Hampshire and his people used to have a noticeable accent. Now I visit, and my family there sounds just like everyone else in the rest of the country.