Through the swirling mists emerged a figure, a friendly witch ready to welcome all the vampires and ghosts to her haunted home. Fearsome spiders and their webs dance over the ghoulish gate illuminated by the witches pumpkin.
Then THEY arrived!! (Lots of scary pics)
PARWICH.ORG 
Much more entertaining than X Factor.
It was a really fun and good spirited (no pun intended) evening, with lots more trickers and treaters this year, but just one question to the spiteful individuals who pinched a three year olds pumpkin and smashed it in the road……Why?
These photos are great, I would like to thank everyone who took part last night, my children really enjoyed themselves and are sat planning what to dress up as next year!
Lots of Trick or Treaters this year (nearly ran out of sweeties…whew!) and all SO POLITE and lovely. Kids and parents obviously went to a lot of trouble with costumes, and especially enjoyed the parents who had dressed up as well. One little girl wished me “A Happy Halloween” in such a cheerful voice it still has me smiling this morning.
One thing I would love to see…
In America, the kids don’t just dress up a scary characters. It can be their favourite book character, an animal – absolutely anything!
Something to think about for next year…
Thanks for the fab photos Jane!
Great pictures Jane, I now wished I had taken some more of some of the other groups. The costumes were fantastic this year, and like Debbie, my sweet supply only just held out.
Jane, thanks for the lovely pics – they show that Halloween in Parwich is a really special night where young children can really enter into the spirit of things safely.
The line between fun and silliness is sometimes hard to negotiate for kids but hopefully, most of the time, the children of this village and their parents get it right, respecting those who don’t want to take part and welcoming those who do.
Tracy is not alone. Our pumpkin was trashed too, as were others – late on – and some people had eggs thrown at their homes. Whoever you are, here’s the message – have fun but respect other people, their property and their right to not take part – then for years to come the children of this village – your children?? – can have a safe and fun Halloween in a community that cares.
If you or your parents read this then an apology would not go amiss. You know who you are. Pathetic. If you are too big to play, fine, go out somewhere else or don’t play. If you come out to play in our village, respect it and its ‘rules’.
If you can’t apologise to Tracy and I to our faces – well actually to our children, who cared about and planned and made their pumpkins, then you could do it on here….
Forgot to say thanks to Christine G for the fantastic house….excellent effort – thanks so much. I loved the spider’s web.
Later in the evening a group of 4 older children came round, they were not dressed up. Only one was from the village, the others said they were from Monsal Head. I had to ask one of them to stop walking on our garden walls. Let’s keep Trick or Treating for the youngesters – who all made a fantastic effort to dress up. Thank you parents for your hard work.
I understand that there is a fine line between fun and silliness, and that the pumpkins mean a lot to the younger children. However at the risk of making a controversial point, Mischief Night is a much older tradition in this part of the World than Trick or Treat.
As a Londoner, I’m fascinated by all this… and wouldn’t dream of making a comment – except to say that this kind of subject has obviously attracted people’s interest this weekend with more people submitting comments and reactions.
This was our first Parwich halloween and the kids had a fantastic time – it was lovely to see all the ghosts and ghouls dressed up and wandering round the village having fun. Thank you to all the houses we visited. Special mention has to go to Christine’s house which was beautifully decorated. And of course to Nia’s delicious Ferrero Rocher treats which we had for Sunday lunch today. And finally to Andy on Smithy Close who was really terrifying in his creepy mask with his hands slapping against the dark front door.
Well Guys may I firstly say a big thank you to all our neighbours who respected our situation with Gill being so heavily pregnant. We got home from a party just as the Ghouls were coming out to play.
Secondly the Ghouls were so scary they obviously had an effect on Gill as she went into labour around 10pm on the 31st with our son being born in Derby at 06:45 the next morning (1/11/09).
I thought that it would be nice to initially post onto this thread but I shall do it properly in a day or two with a few piccies.
Matt, Gill, Izzy and Sam
Congratulations – Fantastic news for all the family – Izzy could be one of our youngest to star on parwich.org, could she then become one of our youngest bloggers!
Congratulations to you all. We hope you have lots of happy hours together and not too many sleepless nights.
Is this our first blog birth announcement?
I think Sam’s older sister was the first birth announcement on the Blog: see https://parwich.org/2008/04/21/parwichs-youngest-resident/
Well remembered 🙂