 |
| October 31st is "All Hallows Eve" |
Well, funnily enough Halloween is NOT "just an American holiday". Halloween is celebrated in many countries, including the U.K and Canada. In fact, Halloween has quite the history, dating back to the 16th century. Here's a wikipedia article for those interested in the history in a bit more detail: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween The name "Halloween" is actually a shortened version of it's actual name "All Hallows Eve" and for my first time since being here, I was told that the 1st and 2nd November, the days following "All Hallow's Eve" are actually referred to by many as the "Day of the Dead", a Mexican holiday. See here for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead
Halloween this year on my FB home page showed a whole gamut of emotions and opinions. There were of course the American's getting totally into it (talking about decorations, haunted houses, what candy to give out), some Aussie's getting into it (parties, dress-up and trick or treating) and some Aussie's venting about other Aussie's getting into it. I had people talking about how they had trick-or-treaters and how some actually slammed doors in kids faces, would tell them "We're not Yanks" or "This is an American holiday and we're not in America". Some got into the spirit though and would hand out candy/lollies to kids that came by. There are also some people who get very upset at people in Australia NOT celebrating it. Calling those people "party poopers" and those people use the excuse of celebrating it (without knowing it's actual meaning) because it "gets people out into the community". I should also mention there were some Aussie (now) friends of mine who experienced their first Halloween this year having immigrated to the U.S! One comment from such friend was "Halloween was super fun and cute! loved it!" :)
I think some of the problems stem from the misconception that this is an American only celebration (which is also all I knew it as growing up), but also that from what I could see, due to Australia not typically celebrating it, a lot of Aussie's seemed to not be aware of Halloween etiquette that if your porch light is on, you're "open for business", otherwise you're not... and people don't just go around whenever knocking on people's doors, there's a community/neighbourhood set time for trick-or-treaters. This is sometimes the night of, the night before, the weekend before etc. Different areas have different times. In my little Iowa town it was 6-8pm on the night of Halloween (Oct 31st). This gives people the "choice" to be involved or not. That choice makes a huge difference to how people would feel about it I think.
I've had a few people ask questions about what it's really like to celebrate "proper" Halloween so lets hope I cover some of your questions with some of my facts/observations below :)
1. Prior to Halloween you can find pumpkin farms that will be open for business for families to pop by and search for the perfect pumpkin to turn into a jack-o-lantern. You can also buy pumpkins at the supermarket (the big orange ones.. and decent prices too) but the farms have hay-bale rides, and hay-bale mazes and stuff like that. Great for the kiddies :)
 |
| Jack-O-Lanterns |
 |
| Trick or Treaters |
4. Some people hand out things other than candy. I had a kid come by with an apple that someone had given him. Some people hand out pencils and other office/school supplies. Most kids (understandably) hate that people hand out something other than candy on "candy day" but I'm sure some parents appreciate it!
5. People decorate their houses (inside and out) and front yards with all sorts of things. Tombstones, spider webs, ghosts, motion activated scary things, inflatable things as well! We're still only "new" at decorating so we just one or two little things. We have bags of leaves in the orange trash/garbage bags with faces on them for outside, and a few little things inside. Here's a picture of an inflatable yard decoration I saw around town :)
 |
| Yard Decoration |
 |
| Russell Stover Chocolate |
 |
| Panera Bread Sugar Cookies |
7. Haunted houses! I still haven't been to one because I'm a big wimp but there are a LOT of haunted houses around prior to (and just following) Halloween. Most charge an admittance fee and the kids love getting scared! An acquaintance of mine works at a hauted house during the season. His make-up is usually amazing (and gross) and his aim each night is to make people throw up. Sad to say, he often succeeds!
So there you go. A little bit about Halloween :) If you have any questions please post in the comments section :)
Its sad really because I remember when I was little and we lived in Wangaratta, our little neighbourhood used to celebrate and we went around and collected candy from places. So when I grew up and realised that it wasn't really practiced I got a little sad. I quite like the whole idea as to me its about "safe communities" as well. Children wondering around just before dark knocking on neighbours doors. Nobody knows their neighbours anymore. Though I must say, we did see some Trick or Treater's walking around at about 5pm on Halloween this year, but no one came to our place. Also when we lived in Yackandandah they community organised a trick or treat night for Halloween and a week beforehand went around and posted a little note in everyone's letterbox saying that the children would be out and to make sure that you had chocolate or candy to give to them. I thought that was nice.
ReplyDelete