Nov 01 2007
I just can’t seem to get Halloween Right
I’ve never been an advocate of celebrating Halloween in Australia. I don’t like to think of myself as a killjoy, but
- it’s not “our” tradition and was never part of my culture growing up
- there’s something inside me that is inherently opposed to encouraging my children to approach “strangers” and ask for lollies (aka treats or candy)
- I’d hate to put people on the spot – make them feel awkward if they’re not prepared.
That said, we don’t want to be the ones not to play along if neighbours’ kids come knocking on the door. They have in the past, and we usually have to scrounge around to find some little goodies (um, left over Easter Eggs should still be o.k. in October, right?).
But this year we were PREPARED. Oh yes, mini Mars bars, little jelly lollies, Twix. All the individually wrapped stuff, that we’d prefer our kids to be given IF we allowed them to trick-or-treat.
So it gets to 8.00 pm and pretty much dark. Usually the trick-or-treaters would be around in the late afternoon. But, not one this year. Strange (hmm maybe chocolate left over from Easter isn’t o.k. in October, and they remember this).*
Then it occurs to me. We have a courtyard at the front of the house with a gate. The last person out the front had inadvertently locked the gate!
Funny, we were joking around with the older kids a few days ago about locking the gate, and putting a goody stash just out of reach….
My (14 yo) daughter didn’t seem to understand, she said “you seem awfully obsessed with Halloween, for someone who doesn’t believe in it, and won’t let her kids go trick-or-treating” (she’d asked to go with friends out of our neigbourhood and I said “no”).
I explained to her that we were actually PREPARED for once this year! She got the irony.
So now, we’re not only the lamest house (from previous years, totally forgetting all about it and having to scrounge) to now being the meanest house for locking the kids out!
* left over Easter eggs might have been a slight exaggeration
14 Responses to “I just can’t seem to get Halloween Right”
One thing that kids celebrating halloween in Australia tells me is that they watch far too many American TV shows.
Hehe, we’re much the same.
Because of the cooincidence in timing of the seasons, we have copious amounts of extremely realistic* cobwebs and spiders across the path to our front door the moment the sun heads behind the hills, which is usually 2-3 hours before it even begins to get dark. We’ve got lots of large trees, combined with smaller trees, shrubs, etc in the front garden. No lawn/etc. We also don’t have an overwhelming amount of street lighting either. So, we get the spooky-house effects free of charge.
Last year a few of the neighbours kids (4-5) came around trick-or-treating as a group, which kind of stunned us a little before someone (not me) decided to give them two blocks of chocolate to share between them. They looked at it, then at the prompting of the monitoring parental units said their thankyous and left. Obviously not terribly impressed.
I wasn’t terribly impressed either, after I found out what they got: really nice 80% cocoa chocolate. Not that I’d begrudge them it, but c’mon, it would’ve most likely been discarded with a “eww. yuck.” comment.
Needless to say, they didn’t come back this year.
* = And by realistic, I mean real**
** = Real big***
*** = Think Shelob. You’re advised to BYO vial of light of Eärendil.
I don’t celebrate it, and as a parent I just don’t understand how would other parents let their kids to go out, knock on strangers’ door and ask for treat in the evenings! They should be terrified by the idea if they watch enough news or read enough papers, instead of American TV.
Or maybe I am just living in the dodgy part of the Eastern suburbs, instead of the Shire
Ian – absolutely agree!
Will – ooh that would have been so wasted on them!
Scott – I’m with you, hence my “there’s something inside me that is inherently opposed to encouraging my children to approach “strangers” and ask for lollies (aka treats or candy)”. Often they do turn up with the “parental unit” hovering though….
Haha that’s so funny. I hate the idea of Halloween and I wasn’t surprised to discover when I returned home from work last night at 9:30pm that Phill hadn’t been home at all until only moments before I arrived. Chicken. 😛
Hehe – I saw your update that you’d be out. I agree (chicken)!
Hi, I’m also another Aussie killjoy when it comes to doing Halloween. Fortunately we didn’t get egged this year. (http://crazytrace.blogspot.com/2007/10/please-let-it-pour.html) Only one lot were incapable of reading the sign on the door, and the rain came through for me later (possibly putting off the teenage egg throwers).
I really wish we had a front gate that we could lock!
My 14 year old daughter asked me if I would ‘do’ Halloween if we lived in the US. I said, well, yes, I guess I would, as it’s a tradition there. (Mind you, I’m not that good at getting all Christmassy and Eastery, so who knows! Maybe I’m just a Grumpy Old Mum.
Yea it just seems to be an american thing. To be honest I don’t even think about it (could be I live in a unit complex that kids can’t get too).
I also agree its not smart to let kids knock on strangers doors, I mean all year they are told ‘dont talk to strangers’ ‘dont accept candy from strangers’ and now its ok? :S
Meg,
Nice story, made me smile! I agree with all three of your anti-Halloween points as well. I’ve always been anti-Halloween for the first reason, but now that I’m a father I can really appreciate point 2. My kids* won’t be trick or treating.
Of course, living in China, I’m spared most of it. I did have one group of students burst in on one of my classes and throw lollies (sweets or candy) at my students. Then they ran away without asking for anything. I think they must have got the wrong idea about Halloween…
* I only have one so far, but you have to think ahead.
Hi Tracey
I have to say that my kids are enjoying the un-meted lollies
Hi Thomas – as you suggest, probably lucky you live in a unit!
Hey Stephen
LOL – It does sound like they got the wrong idea (though I’m sure your students were happy!
No doubt you’ll be faced with it next year back in Oz.*
* Maybe with two by then?
PS – you made the list! I’ll be doing my fortnightly update post tomorrow.
Hi Meg,
it is a very very old European festival that was taken to the US by ostensibly Christian folk – they got there in a boat called the Mayflower, go figure (Mayflower is Hawthorn, as Pagan a symbol for the height of Spring as ever there was, hmmm).
The commercialisation is American. The parading about of young folk after gifts is at least 300 years old in England (please read Professor Ronald Hutton’s “Stations of the Sun” for many examples) and is where we probably get “Boxing Day” for the day after Christmas.
Some people celebrate Halloween (AKA the festival of the dead) in late April here – it makes more sense in context – for then we are into the headlong rush into Winter).
And if a kid wants to come to my door after lollies – and it is appropriate to do so – I can see no reason to deny them. Using religion as an excuse to be miserable is a longterm irritant for me.
Best regards, Andrew
Hey Andrew – thanks for the history.
Would you (did you) encourage/allow your children to trick-or-treat?
What’s wrong with something being American? Over on this side of the pond, we often borrow festivals/holidays from other parts of the world. Of course, many of the people here are from other parts of the planet so we are in essence simply sharing the traditions of everyone else. I even have a boomerang in my garage somewhere thanks to a cousin’s kid who married an Aussie (and, thankfully, moved over to your side).
I like Halloween. So does nearly everyone else in the neighborhood. Tons of kids in a whole range of costumes – many home made. And I got to clean out a year’s supply of candy.
Egging was a problem here 2 years ago. Took a bit to identify the miscreants but the teenager at one house (the mailbox’s inside got egged) did a retaliation (something about a burning bag of cat galore hung on the front door) and the word got out.
The big thing going around now is “booing” or “ghosting.” Kids from one house put together a small bag of treats, ring the doorbell and run. Inside the bag are instructions for the recipient to find two targets of his/her own. Once done, the target is supposed to put a boo or ghost sheet on the front door. I didn’t understand it last year, annoyed actually, but this year I thought I’d not put the boo sheet on the door and see what would happen. I got boo’d 8 times. That was great. 8 times the treats! All of which disappeared last night during Tricker Treat time.
This year, my custome was a woopie cusion. I carried 2 self-inflators on the mid-section so that when neighbor’s hugged me, a noise came out. Great fun. I dunno but… I never pictured Aussies as a people who didn’t enjoy some fun.
meow.
sauerkraut
It’s not so much that it’s because the tradition originated in America, but more about the “stranger” issue, and potential for danger. It seems hypocritical to tell the kids one thing the other 364 days a year, and then endorse it on that one day.
Also, it didn’t play a part in my youth, so it is not part of my “cultural experience”. As time goes by, I daresay the tradition will infiltrate our culture to the extent that my grandkids will probably fully embrace the celebration.
I wasn’t even aware of the significance of the day, other than the dressing up and trick or treating.
Aussie’s do enjoy fun! We love our bbq’s and getting together with the neighbours from time to time having “street parties”.
But adopting something that is not part of our culture would probably be a bit like Americans celebrating Australia Day or Anzac Day.
It was interesting to learn about “booing” and “ghosting” and the other shenanigans that go on! Thanks for stopping by