Why do shops in Britain restrict the sale of flour and eggs at this time of year ( the end of October) ?

I would imagine it would be to limit the damage done by halloween pranksters. The really diabolical ones would have their eggs stashed and rotting by now.

Well, I do know that tonight, October 30, is Devil's Night in this part of Canada.
Sale of eggs, locally, to teens is banned. Eggs are thrown at cars, and the windows of houses.
Reading Wikipedia, it seems there is a similar tradition in parts of the UK.
Whatever happened to good old Guy Fawke's Night?

Wikipedia

quote:

Originally posted by Peteeo:
I would imagine it would be to limit the damage done by halloween pranksters. The really diabolical ones would have their eggs stashed and rotting by now.

Yes, indeed, though 'pranksters' is a kind term Supermarkets and shops refuse to sell eggs, flour or paint to any youngster. The police issue signs for shopkeepers to use to help explain the refusal and to warn the public.What we get here is closer to Detroit [see dg's link] than to hallowee'en as described to us by Americans.We are not talking here of children aged 3 to 11, usually accompanied by a parent, visiting neighbours who show pumpkins in their windows, the treat being a few sweets [candies].No,we have older children indulging in blackmail.

We blame the Americans ! We see Hallowe'en practices as an American import. That has resulted in newspaper articles and letters from ex-pat Americans and American correspondents who patiently explain that what we get is not 'American' but British. Hallowe'en was never celebrated here. In so far as there was any tradition it was local and the rest of us only read of it in books of folklore.

The police in this county (Cambridgeshire) have threatened that they will arrest anyone found carrying flour and eggs in a public place, if that person does not provide a reasonable excuse.Me? I'm saying that I'm off to make Yorkshire puddings (but the roasting beef is some miles away)

Hallowe'en warning

The BYC , in the link above, is a charity for encouraging young people to be active and take interest in civic matters.Its membership, by definition, is young. Its trustees are not older than 26 Methinks that, well-meaning as they are, they are not yet wholly aware of the realities of life

Guy Fawkes' night? Ah, well that has been made a little safer by laws which have banned the sale of 'bangers' (tiny bombs) and firecrackers. People still have bonfire night parties, complete with fireworks, though the trend is towards taking the family to the big public displays

Dear me; I leave the country for twenty-eight years and look what happens! It wasn't like that in the UK when I was a lad.

The small village just outside Paris where I live now is/was full of children this evening, all dressed up as witches or skeletons or whatever, and the youngest were accomapanied by smiling parents, which is exactly as it should be these days. My wife and I always buy sweets and small chocalate bars so we've things to dish out. Some of the make-up and costumes are almost professional.

Halloween never was an event that was much celebrated in France years ago, but then the commercial powers took it over, and four or five years ago the shops were suddenly awash with costumes and pumpkins, Halloween parties were being advertised in restaurants for the adults, and it was all big business. And yet the enthusiasm for it all seems to have abated as quickly as it rose. This year (and last) it's all been extremely low-key, but the myriad groups of little ones tonight (and a group of about 20 mid-teens heading for a local party seems to be proving my own prognosis that it's already died out totally wrong. No flour though, and no eggs - or paint. That's not to say that such isn't the case elsewhere in France, but my own little village just now is Halloween pretty much how I think it should be.

Colin, Cambridge Police's control room took 369 calls in the five hours from 5 pm to 10pm on the 31st, more than one a minute .These calls were mostly from worried residents complaining about annoying behaviour and noise.There were no 'major incidents' but plenty of nuisances.These new practices , eh?

On the other hand,some behaviour is old and traditional, if the date for it may not be. A student climbed the clock tower of Magdalene College and stuck a giant pumpkin on the steeple. Isn't good to hear that undergraduates don't change over the centuries?