Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Reformation Day!

the practice of extorting money or other property... by the use of threats
extortion (Wiktionary)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't get it.

Out of interest, what do you do if you get trick-or-treaters?

John said...

My comment on extortion was a reference to the idea of "trick or treat". I'm not sure what I would do if I got them. In my last house, I tended to arrange to be out or to appear out. In my current one, there aren't many families in the area.

Anonymous said...

So is trick or treat in your view any different from Carol singing or "Penny for the Guy"?

John said...

The times I've been carol singing, we've made it very very clear we aren't collecting money (to the point of refusing to accept it), and we are giving out invites to carol services.

My issue with trick or treaters is largely the implied threat (and not being a big fan of celebrating pagan festivals - I'm much keener to celebrate All Saints or Reformation Day).

Anonymous said...

Happy Reformation Day to you too! I didn't get any trick or treaters this year, which was useful since I'd forgotten to print out some copies of the 95 theses to give them. The best way to avoid them is to be out at a halloween party, though go dressed as a Reformer of course.