Do you have Halloween in your country?

[brocktonblockbust]

I don't even know where this celebration began or why but I think it has something to do with raising the dead and maybe have something to do with the Day of the Dead ... El Dia de los Muertos in Mexico

what is your opinion on this stuff? Quite a lot of the parents of some of my younger students object to them participating in Halloween parades and wearing costumes dressed as the devil or demons for Monsters or things of this nature. I kind of understand that to a certain extent as it is kind of a celebration for promotion of evil and violence and murder and frightfulness. the simple thing that they say Trick or Treat is proof that if a treat is not given then Mischief will ensue.

When we were kids the Night Before Halloween was called Goosey night or some kids like to call it cabbage night or Mischief Night and kids would go around the neighborhood throwing eggs at houses and spraying shaving cream on cars and dangling toilet paper from the electrical wires and from the tree branches then sometimes lighting it on fire. Some other things they would do on the night of October 30th would be to go around and grab the pumpkins and the jack-o'-lanterns on everybody's front steps and smash them either they're in the yard or in the middle of the street

not too sure about this so-called holiday very much it is somehow it to associated with witches and goblins and Ghouls and monsters and Dracula and werewolves and things of that nature although the more harmless costumes for example I saw a kid today who was inside of a cardboard box constructed to look like a TV set was rather comical. Actually a small Halloween parade passed right in front of my house this afternoon of about five or six hundred youngsters which I took a good short video of it I will post here in this thread the minute I get the chance

So do you have Halloween in your country? I think it is spreading more and more around the world as kids just love to dress up in costumes and get free candy

[brocktonblockbust]

This holiday has already cost me $13 as I had to buy several 2 lb bags of Kit Kats and Snickers as the kids won't stop knocking on the door and the evening has not even come yet. That's when it gets a lot worse

[X]

it started in Britain in the Middle Ages. 'Halloween' is a corruption of All Hallows' Eve, when kids would go out 'guising'. It was a celebration of dead relatives. They dressed as ghosts, carried a hollowed out turnip with a candle in it and knocked on people's doors. They asked to do a service for the owner, for which they received a small treat.

Istarted in the US in the 1930's. Obviously now, the Americans got into it big time and introduced loads of other customs and made their own inputs with monsters and stuff. It's probably more of a US thing nowadays (culturally). It gets bigger every year here.

I only know all this because I was researching for a pub quiz I am running.

[X]

It's just a shame that people are so vacuous and shallow that they no longer realise why we celebrate certain things and dates.

We wouldn't even be here if Jesus hadn't slain that fucking giant pumpkin with his slingshot.

[X]

So, anyway, I spent ages doing this year's pumpkin for the church fete

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[brocktonblockbust]

Yes I am a big enemy of rampant, gobbling consumerism and the superficiality of it all.

I have not owned a TV since the mid-1990s and cannot bear to listen to advertisements on the TV or the radio. It is the most revolting stuff imaginable all been done getting people to gobble gobble gobble up all of the trash starting with hula hoops and then going to pet rocks and then going to Magic 8 Balls, all the way to things like iPhones at Smartphones at all sorts of sneakers Penn tennis shoes and nonsense Galore

[Gandalf]

Yes I am a big enemy of rampant, gobbling consumerism and the superficiality of it all.

I have not owned a TV since the mid-1990s and cannot bear to listen to advertisements on the TV or the radio. It is the most revolting stuff imaginable all been done getting people to gobble gobble gobble up all of the trash starting with hula hoops and then going to pet rocks and then going to Magic 8 Balls, all the way to things like iPhones at Smartphones at all sorts of sneakers Penn tennis shoes and nonsense Galore

I am quite the same. I won't watch TV or listen to the radio. I have my curiosities and I will research them and give them time, but I will never spend my days being told what to buy. The trouble with the radio is it is just so laborious. For every good song you have hours of bad songs and meaningless chatter. It's better to just listen to a good podcast or something.

I look at 'special' days like Christmas and things like this and it has become a real perversion in the West. Families get into debt buying things that they cannot afford when a) There is no evidence to suggest that Jesus was born on that day and b) Jesus would no doubt have been against mass consumerism and sheer greed that only benefits the money lenders. Surely Christmas is about families having a meal together and maybe a few gifts here and there. Why all the song and dance? Out here Christmas is basically a day off to take your girlfriend to a coffee shop. I like that simplicity.

Halloween is something I have never really understood. I find it a bit creepy and in this day and age you don't want your kids knocking on the doors of strangers begging for sweets. Just give them some sweets yourself or even better a multi vitamin drink and tell them that it is better than getting cancer. Halloween is not good nutrition. A kid should be grateful for a handful of walnuts, but they would probably throw them at you saying 'Oi Mister, what's this shit?' 'It is called a walnut, it is full of healthy fats and is better for your teeth'. 'You are a weirdo'. 'You will learn in time, you little shit'. Door closed.

No, I don't really do Halloween.

[Gandalf]

But I didn't answer the question. Yes, they do it here, but it is mainly just Kindy kids drawing pumpkins and making masks and things. Nobody knocks on doors or anything like that though. Like Christmas it is not really a big deal.

[Master]

Took my kids out yesterday for Halloween. Youngest one made a mask and had a costume on. They got a lot sweets and had some fun.

[goti71]

Over here there were local versions of it accross the country, all going back to pagan times probably. Then they were eventually absorbed by the Christian religion, and finally absorbed by the American version of Halloween in the last 40 years or so.

The local one in my area, Samain (revived in the 90's by intellectuals and the like), is often called "Sama-ween" in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way.
But it could be worse though, if the whole original thing was forgotten altogether.

There's no escaping globalisation, which isn't necessarily bad.

Another thing is that nowadays these things are mainly an excuse for kids to have some fun, which explains why the american version is "kickin' ass" so thoroughly.

I mean most adult people don't really celebrate anything because religious beliefs are fading away. So you're left with the fun bit, which is much easier to replace without the profound stuff that used to support it.

[goti71]

So, anyway, I spent ages doing this year's pumpkin for the church fete

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Now that's a winner.

[TitoFan]

Over here there were local versions of it accross the country, all going back to pagan times probably. Then they were eventually absorbed by the Christian religion, and finally absorbed by the American version of Halloween in the last 40 years or so.

The local one in my area, Samain (revived in the 90's by intellectuals and the like), is often called "Sama-ween" in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way.
But it could be worse though, if the whole original thing was forgotten altogether.

There's no escaping globalisation, which isn't necessarily bad.

Another thing is that nowadays these things are mainly an excuse for kids to have some fun, which explains why the american version is "kickin' ass" so thoroughly.

I mean most adult people don't really celebrate anything because religious beliefs are fading away. So you're left with the fun bit, which is much easier to replace without the profound stuff that used to support it.

We have it over here too, probably due to the American influence over our culture. Trick-or-treating still happens, though not as much as before. Many religions do frown on it... but I like to think of it as a harmless event with kids getting to dress in their favorite costumes and going out to get candy. Grownups have their cool dress-up parties, and it's all in fun. It's all in what you make of it, I guess.

[X]