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Happy Halloween!
Here’s some history about the meaning and significance of the night.
Has anyone got any plans? Exciting Halloween themed parties? Going trick or treating? Spooky stories to tell?
Funny you should ask!
I’ve been invited to the Prom Queen Halloween Party – a fundraiser for cancer research.
But I don’t have a frock to wear!
I’ve also been invited to Karaoke. That might be scary.
I bought a huge bag of black cats in case the neighbourhood kids still haven’t got the message after three years of refusal.
That’s tops Gilmae!
I’m inspired… I think it’ll be Clinkers for me.
My plans involve telling any children that come by expecting any treats to go away because we’re not in the US.
Whatever its origins may be, Halloween for mine will always be a predominately US (and possibly Canadian and UK) tradition … not something marked here.
Has anyone got any plans? Exciting Halloween themed parties? Going trick or treating? Spooky stories to tell?
Nope, but I did get a Halloween Caramello Koala at work today!
My Halloween plans involve dressing up in green and pulling scary faces in support of the amateurs atthe G.
Boo!
Jesus Phil, you scared the shit out of me. And I was going to give you a Clinker.
Good to see you’re blogging again Rob C.
Funny you should say that. I was trying to convince one of my friends that the next time we heard someone say something like that we should kill them and put them on display with one of those small candles in their propped open mouth. He wasn’t convinced that it would be worth the potential backlash.
Sure the date may have pagan significance, but the way it is “celebrated” is just another piece of US culture we have taken on…sigh…
As opposed to all those home-grown Aussie traditional holidays I hear so very much about.
*crickets*
You’re forgetting ANZAC Day, FDB (which resonates nicely with the earlier Keating thread).
There’s discussion about a traditional Australian holiday here:
Boozy Holiday
FDB – the sickie is our proper, home grown national holiday and don’t you forget it.
Yairs, I noze. But it ain’t exactly a fun party for the kids, is it?
Sorry, that was for 12 & 13.
Ute man has spoken. I sit now in humble silence and reflect on my foolish and hasty remarks.
ANZAC Day’s great for the kiddies, FDB. They get to watch a nice parade and then, if they hang about in town for long enough, they can roll some drunks.
…and swap the medals like tazos or pogs, or whatever the kidz are into these days. I like it.
Oooh somebody said clinkers.
As per chris at #4 I have already prepared my line, to be delivered to all unaccompanied minors: If you’re old enough to be out at night on your own, you’re too old to be begging strangers for chocolate.
Any pre-pubescent child who turns up (one year I had three brothers between about three and nine, accompanied by a full-grown witch who hovered discreetly in the background and looked an awful lot like the boys) will be given a mini Mars bar or Flake or something out of one of those big bags, depending on what catches my eye first at the supermarket when I go there in a minute.
(One of those three boys looked at the choices on offer and said plaintively ‘I don’t like Cherry Ripes,’ whereupon his older brother smacked him upside the head and said ‘You’ll get what you’re given, Gavin.’)
I,m Sorry I just dont see why we are so quick to adopt US culture,I am 62 and I never heard of Halloween till I came back to Sydney in the 80s.
haven’t we got enough crap US culture now,I just tell em to find a yank.
“You’ll get what you’re given, Gavin”
Oooh, that’s harsh big bro.
I hope that’s become a family saying for you now, like “Muuu-uummm, Adam faaarted” for my family. [overheard by entire tent area of camping ground while trying to get to sleep circa 1985]
John @ 20,
It’s actually an ancient Irish tradition although a tad Americanised these days.
Forgot my link for #22
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
Although farting in tents is probably an ancient Irish tradition too – at least judging by some of the older pictures from part of my ancestry.
You can always tell the kids to do a trick if they can’t have a treat. It’s supposed to be a kind of protection racket against having your house toilet papered, windows soaped or whatever kids on “leave it to beaver” actually used to do in fantasy 1950′s land.
I remember guising (never trick-or-treating) as a child in Ireland. The best bet was the pub, where people didn’t have sweets, but did have money. Quite a profitable enterprise, although most of it never left the building — it went straight into the pinball machines and pool tables.
The other Halloween traditions were fun, too: bobbing for apples; and trying to eat donuts dangling on strings, while blindfolded.
Oh yes.
John Ryan, Halloween is the post-Christian version of Celtic Samhain, though it’s true that the US ‘invented’ the version we’re familiar with in much the same way that the kind of Christmas we’re familiar with derives from Victorian England, mostly through the influence of Queen Victoria and the German Christmas traditions imported by her beloved Albert, via Dickens.
I’ll just use it as an excuse to be vile to any kid who knocks on my door.
We used to go “guising” in Scotland too, Robert, and also for money in pubs and on the buses. Didn’t get spent on the pool tables though – went towards buying fireworks for November 5th (Guy Fawkes and bonfires for those who might not know). Dooking for apples in Scotland (not bobbing) and eating treacle scones, not donuts, dangling from string were also common(and messy)events. Not into the “trick or treat” crap here but maybe I’m just too old! It was around 50 years ago after all!
PC:
“Oh yes.”
Well naturally anyone of a literary bent like yourself couldn’t resist the lyricism – so easy to time the three ‘g’ sounds with an even meter.
Actually, it’d make a pretty good field holler if your kids ever find themselves on a chain gang:
> > >
But I don’t like cherry ripe [pick strikes rock for fourth beat in bar]
> > >
You’ll get what you’re given, Gavin [ditto]
Well, those accent symbols were meant to hover over the correct syllable, but I’m sure you get the drift. Stupid automatic reformatting.
May the fires of Beltane burn bright for you all.
Finally did Sarkozy (hat tip to Pav’s Cat) at poligoths.
Thought i’d leave the caption open to y’all.
The Demon ………….?
(click my name – i cant post links on here)
How long are plonkers going to be moaning on and on about Halloween and US culture? Predictable as salivating dogs. Can someone please ram a packet of Anzac biscuits up their arses. Moan, moan, whinge whinge. Grumble grumble. Us culture. Kids love it. Just shut up.
No kids came round last night. Sometimes they turn up, sometrimes they don’t. I was quite surprised the first time it happened a few years ago. And I did buy some chocalate biscuits. About 8.30 pm ate the whole lot.
We live opposite a primary school, and the local mothers decided to do something about the grumpies who don’t believe in
imported american traditions that were in turn imported celtic oneshalloween. They sent around a note to all the letter boxes in the street with a balloon, and instructions to tie the balloon to your door or front gate if you wanted to participate and therefore not upset the little ones. So there were houses the little ones could safely approach and not be grumped at/upset (and all groups had adults on the footpath supervising).We handed out the tiny fun-sized chocolate bars. One 3 to 4 year old boy, right at the end as we were going out and taking down the balloon, didn’t look too impressed so I handed him the now superfluous balloon. His face lit up and he bounced down our front path happily yelling: “mummy, mummy, look – the man gave me a balloon.”
Made my night.
So to all the anti-halloween grumps out there: bah humbug! may all your toffee apples have razor-blades.
Quog, that is a lovely story about the balloon. Reminds me of the time I made biscuits to take to an afternoon tea party and used star-shaped cookie cutters, plus some special kangaroo-shaped ones for the kids I knew were coming. Sure enough, when I put both plates down on the table, the kids, totally ignoring the marsupials, all said ‘Ooooh look, STARS’ and scoffed the lot, and I spent the rest of the afternoon watching my middle-aged academic colleagues zestfully biting the tails off the kangas.
The balloon is a great idea, both as intended and as repurposed.
Ireland smashing the Aussies made my night.
What costume would Jesus have worn while trick’n'treating?
Oh, for heaven’s sake, why can’t kids learn to handle a bit of rejection? Why does the way have to be smoother over for them so easily? Someone saying ‘no’ might be good lesson.
Fine is right, we’re raising generations of children with attitudes approaching personality disorders. As the DSM IV says of those classified as suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder:
(5) has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
Sound familiar to anyone? This attitude is a plague in our society. It’s no coincidence that this particular disorder is being discussed so widely now, when the focus used to be on psycho/socio/anti-social category.
I wasn’t going that far, A Cat is Fine Too.
A Cat Is Fine Too:
why does that disorder remind me of my parental units, I wonder?
Pav, I will remember star bix.
Our neighbours’ kids came by and got a packet of Doritos from my husband because he couldn’t spot the forgotten lolly packets from my recent birthday – it was cute to see them pause on the footpath just past our house when they saw me turning into the driveway…
Felt like taking over the lollies today. But I think I’ll make star bix next year instead.
Genevieve, the other excellent thing about star bix is that their points, unlike kangaroos’ tails, do not tend to break off as you remove them from the baking tray.
A Cat is Fine Too (and I should think so), I wouldn’t go that far either, but I do know what you’re talking about. The worst of it is that it’s usually the children raised with a sense of entitlement and unreasonable expectations who grow up to be the worst-adjusted, least flexible, most discontented and often unhappiest adults, as a quick look around one’s nearest and/or dearest will confirm.
I was soooo jealous of the kids I saw on TV and the movies back in the 70s going trick or treating. Don’t like American traditions? Feh! I’m from Brisbane and the modern history of this town starts when the US forces began arriving in 1941.
For Halloween this year we thought we’d do something a bit different and go to North America. I’m typing this in Oaxaca, Mexico and it’s Dias de Muetros (day of the dead). Last night, Oct 31, we went to the city cemetary which was packed with thousands of (living) people and to the old and new cemetaries in the village of Xoxocotlan. It’s a scene, believe you me. Brass bands, toffee apples, hotcakes with cheese and chocolate, people holding up bottles of mezcal and selling it by the shot. It’s great.
And last week we went trick or treating at ‘Mickey’s Halloween party’ in Disney California Adventure. Also a scene, but somewhat different. I’ll post a link to the pictures when I get somewhere with a suitable internet connection. Which will probably be New York, where we arrive Tuesday afternoon. That’ll also be a big night I expect.
d
@Darryl Rosin:
Master of understatement there, Darryl. Are you planning to join the crowds watching big screens in Times Square?
The Dias de Muetros celebrations sound extraordinary. What a great trip!
“Are you planning to join the crowds watching big screens in Times Square?”
No, I’ll be with two friends, watching TV in their apartment in Washington Heights and looking at the intynet. They absolutely will not go anywhere in NY with crowds since that unpleasantness in 2001. Plus we’ll have been travelling since 4am with two kids under 11, so Times Square is just about the least appealling place I can imagine being.
d
Anyone who is upset at US-style Halloween traditions should just go back to more Scottish roots where children are expected to perform a little song or poem at each house in order to get their treat.
Damn, looks like I committed the cardinal sin of Trolling; too subtle.
Whoops, see guising has been covered above. should read all of thread before commenting.
[Waves] Hi Daz!
Great trip Daz – Mexico is my favourite country on earth! I was in Guatemala once for Semana Santa (all saints week). They sure know how to put on a syncretic religious street festival in that part of the world.
I got “tricked-or-treated” for the first time – a young girl (with entire family in tow) came knocking, dressed like a witch (I assume – she had green face paint on). Luckily I had some lollies and an apple handy.
It felt a bit weird, to be honest. I’ve studied the origins of the festival (the Mexican Day of the Dead is a lot closer to the original feel of the thing than the US version) no end, but I’ve never had the American version in my face before.
I think I may have scared the family a little, though, by explaining the pagan origins, and talk of carving turnips… Go n-ithe an cat thú is go n-ithe an diabhal an cat!
Pavlov’s cat (#26) has already made the point about Samhain, but I think the points go to Vee at #31, for noting (if obtusely) that it’s actually a seasonal festival, and people should *actually* be dancing around may poles, not dressing up for Dracula’s dinner party. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltane
I have to agree with Robert at #37, however. The Irish win was a highlight (of the year, actually).
Well there you go. I just thought you sounded a bit mad. But I still maintain that you would have had a real point if you’d been serious. I see an awful lot of spoiled-rotten children and I fear for their adult happiness and health, because some of them are in for a nasty shock.
Also, they should get off my lawn.
Yep, way to subtle to me. Sorry to disappoint.
The comment by Pavlov’s Cat# 52, has me in mind of the famous WC Field comment, that a person who “hates children and animals can’t be all bad”.
Actually I was quoting the popular image of John McCain.
Dick Cheney.
Had one group come around on the night – the cold/rain in Melbourne must’ve kept them at home.
They looked about 15ish and didn’t even go to the trouble of dressing up. I was polite and said we actually didn’t celebrate Halloween in our houses and they were OK with it(my mail box was still standing after they left).
As for Worst of Perth @ comment 33, top notch arguement: “If the kids enjoy it, well that’s OK, we shouldn’t whinge about it”.
Sorry mate, there’s plenty of things that kids enjoy that we should not only whinge about, but endeavour to educate them as to why we have a problem with it.
In this case, the williness to adopt US culture with open arms, but a reluctance or inability (sometimes not entirely their own) to learn about Australian culture. Many people do have a problem with that and have the right to express it.
I’ll gratefully accept the packet of ANZAC bikkies though Worst of Perth, but delivered to my hand rather than your rather unsubtle suggestion.
Next year I might just buy some cheap copies of Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and distribute it to trick or treaters. If they’re going to embrace US culture, they may as well read a damn good book (look, flaming pumpkins!!!) while they’re at it.
If I’d meant Dick Cheney, that’s what I would have said.
How’s the bug?
Note you mentioned that you “had it in perspective”, but must be one of those new -fangled digital cameras.
When are you going to comment on the ABC?
Whoops, nearly missed it.
Must be a toss up between “The Real Debate” and Sarah Palin-Nursing America back to Health”.
Amazing what they can do with imaging these days…
I got to be a little rude to two bunches of Year 6 & 7 girls who turned in make-up and too tight fairy costumes.. “It ain’t Princess Day girls – it’s Halloween, so unless you’ve got an axe coming out of the back of your head or half your face missing then you ain’t getting any lollies. Come back next year as blood sucking freaks, ok?” One of the girls got a single lolly cause she had an eye-liner scar drawn on her cheek – and I heard one of them saying as they walked off – “I told you so”. The blonde mother hovering in the background of one group looked a little pissed or shocked, it’s hard to decipher sometimes.
But apparently at some stage you stop dressing up in spooky costumes and start dressing like you’re going to the races – Spring Carnival for tweenies. Well, I’m agin it!
I didn’t do the trudge up to the really popular streets with my zombie child – she went off and joined some friends. I also have carrots to give out just to include a bit of trickery into the proceedings – they look a little stunned as they walk off holding a carrot but they mostly start chewing on them within 10 yards or so – sort of like a palate cleanser to soak up more sugar, m’sure.
Doing his bit for the American alliance.