I too resent the American trick or treat juvenile blackmail here in England. However Ratty's usual Islamophobia is a sickening as usual, and Lizzie's sentimentality is pretty sickly too.

All Hallows' eve was regarded as a time of fear, when the barrier between the spirit world and its dangers (consider Anne Briggs' version of Tam Lin) was at its thinnest, and that as a tradition I can respect (even if I don't really believe in ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night).

The shop next door to me suggested I should hand out boxes of Ferrero Rocher to any pretty witches, and the other English customers and I had a good chortle at the likely neighbourhood reaction if anyone were to offer to show children a dungeon and bribe them with expensive chocs!