Imagine getting pissy over a holiday for kids with cos play and candy.
Bat shit insane 🤣.
The trick or treaters in our area were so cautious not to be a nuisance - had a skeleton in the front garden bed but many walked by unsure because we didn’t have a sign specifically inviting them to knock for lollies. Those that did were very polite and thankful.
Least of our worries when it comes to malign US influence. What really needs a smack in the mouth is our Google/Apple/etc. dependency.
This is what happens when you mainline internet politics and refuse to touch grass for 10 years
It’s so funny that Australia prides itself on being multicultural.
Just not american-type multicultural.
This is not an import by the vibrant American expat community though right? This is being pushed by huge chains to sell plastic and sugar, and they push it to kids. That’s what shits me.
On the other hand it was a cool community event to witness and we don’t really see too much of anymore that imho. I just resent the aggressive way it’s inculcated on us by greedy companies to suck our value.
Why can’t they sponsor existing local cultural festivals or something?
Yet, Christmas gets a pass lol.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, and I’m on board, just that a lot of it comes from “fuck america”, not “fuck capitalism”
100% agree with you but tbf the US accelerated capitalism to the extreme, faster than any other country could have, so I get why people see it that way.
Its beyond absurd though. I had people get angry because I called a ‘footpath’ a ‘sidewalk’, or dared to enjoy a peanut butter and jam sandwich.
Shit tastes good man, I don’t care where it’s from.
Nothing wrong with peanut butter and jam, as long as you don’t call it “jelly” haha
It’s cultural holiday shared by any group that traces its descent from the UK and Ireland. Everything else is just what traditions you think are cool, and kids love candy and costumes.
This!
Fun fact, it was actually a Canadian import to America, and before that came from Ireland and Scotland.
Damn now I feel stupid for getting mad at nothing
How it is now is uniquely American though, and has almost nothing to do with those older origins.
Are you from Ireland or from Scotland?
I’m a Celt from Scotland.
Rothe is correct; that’s not how we used to celebrate it. Our Hallowe’en involved carving a tumshie out of the vegetable we call a turnip, but which the rest of the UK calls a swede. A tumshie being a scary face - hollowing it for a candle is out of the question; a turnip is much too hard. Might involve reading some spooky stories and perhaps a fancy-dress party. Fireworks aren’t out of the question; we’ll have some ready for Nov 5.
No trick-or-treating, no pumpkins - those are Americanisms.
I’m from Ireland. Going door calling is absolutely part of it. Specifically saying “trick or treat” is not, because, y’know, English. But it doesn’t really matter what English phrase you use, it’s not going to be Irish. So?
I’m with you on pumpkins but there’s more interesting hills to die on.
and before that came from Ireland and Scotland
The American version of Hallowe’en (which is what supermarkets are trying to import into Australia) has only the most passing resemblance to its origins in Celtic tradition. And it’s certainly not being important because of its Celtic connections.
Halloween has been celebrated in the UK and Ireland for hundreds of years, and the Irish brought it to America.
There has been dressing up and going door to door for hundreds of years too, and even jack o lanterns have been around for ages.
The holiday is much more a UK thing than it is an American thing, it’s rather surprising actually that it’s not as much a thing in Australia…
Not round here it isn’t…
Oh please. Nobody of sound mind actually believes that the Hallowe’en celebrated in America, that some corporations are trying to make a thing here too, has anything more than a passing resemblance to the traditional Celtic practices it’s based upon.
The Halloween celebrated in the UK is literally just kids getting dressed up and going door to door for free candy. They have been doing that in the UK for hundreds of years before the US started doing it when Irish immigrants brought it over.
This isn’t some whacky theory dude, it’s fact.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trick-or-treating#Guising
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
No one is saying the modern Halloween is meant to be a Celtic tradition, it’s just a bit of fun.
It’s also probably the least commercialized holiday as well. You buy some candy and put the porch light on, or don’t and leave the porch light off.
Get a costume, or throw something together, grab a pillowcase and off you go.
It’s a far cry from Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day, etc. which are far more commercialized worldwide.
Christmas and Valentine’s Day both have sincere secular associations to them, and Christmas and Easter both have a pretty hefty religious component for a sizeable minority of the population. Hallowe’en is literally nothing but commercialism. Buy a plastic shitty costume. Buy lots of lollies (sorry: “candy”, for the Americans lecturing the rest of the world about how it’s totally not American cultural imperialism) at marked-up prices, and decorate your house with yet more plastic crap. But without themes of family and connectiveness to act as a redeeming factor.
Except kids can make their own costumes and decorations. The best ones tend to be home made.
For many its just a fun time to embrace the macabre.
Halloween’s sincere, secular association is FUN. It’s also about community; it’s the only holiday that actually involves getting together and participating with your neighbors rather than just your family. Under capitalism, all holidays involve a deluge of cheap plastic crap, but at least Halloween sticks to its season.
Stop having fun! Everyone stop having fun immediately! You, child, put down that candy! You - what are you supposed to be? A sexy witch? Try a sexy kangaroo next time, trollop. No, everyone, stop! Stop laughing! Stop drinking! Stop meeting new people! Can’t you see what the American capitalist imperialists are doing to you? Can’t you see this is just a normal day in Australia? Be normal! Be bored! It’s just another day! Stop it! Stop it stop it stop it!!!
- You
It’s also one of the few nights of the year where entire neighbourhoods get together, meet each other. Families get dressed, make costumes, go door to door.
We set up tables and chairs on our front porch here in Brisbane, and have tacos or pizza while we watch Halloween movies and wait for trick or treaters.
We hang out with parents, hand out bottles of water, some candy, and I prefer giving out some useful treats like themed pencils, erasers, this year we gave out stickers for potion bottles, so when kids get home they can clean out an old jar and make cool potions to decorate for next year.
It is the only time a year when we see all of our neighbours and I would say it is the one holiday we all feel most connected.
We just gotta change it to " Oi, fuckin, give us some
candylollies cunt or we’ll fuck your house up!" instead of trick or treat.*Lollies.
Fuck.
Shouldn’t they be bumming darts not hunting candy
Nah they do that down at the shops.
Fun fact, if someone’s coming on your property and stealing your bumpers from your ashtray, what you do is collect a few ashtrays worth of them, piss on them, let them dry and repeat for a week, then you put an ashtray of the fermented piss infused bumpers out and let them steal it, do this for a few days and they will stop.
I don’t care that Halloween’s an American import, it’s still the best day of the year.
Disclaimer: I think I got lost in the wrong community; what is written below has nothing to do with Australia of course, but maybe you also have similar traditions.
I guess you never experienced full on Walpurgisnacht celebrations (incl. Waldmeisterbowle and females with scissors trying to maim males) then, or Dark Carnival.
So’s that kfc you chow down after netball, karen but I don’t see you memeing that shit.
(And it’s a celtic tradition, a large chunk of which makes up the Australian population.)
And it’s a celtic tradition
Even the buying of candy, handing it out, and dressing up?
Yeah, all the people trying to defend it by saying it’s Celtic/from the British Isles are just clowns. At least the argument of “it’s just kids having fun” is possible to take seriously, because it’s engaging with the discussion in an honest manner.
Well fuck off to you too.
If you hate it that much practice what you preach and go back to England, colonizer.
I have no idea where this idea came from, that if you are an immigrant you can have no say on how the country is run.
Colonizers aren’t just immigrants, piss off with that false equivalence. People committing attempted genocides (or successful in some cases) aren’t the same as people just moving somewhere.
Its been over 200 years since the English first landed in Australia (none of them are alive)
People born in Australia are native Australians, I know this bothers you (because you’re racist) but feel free to take your own advice and leave :)
Well, this got me thinking…
I assume holidays are not established worldwide at the moment they are created. At least not instantaneously.
Which in turn would mean all of the holidays are being established in a limited area, and then being spread.
Would it be possible to calculate an average propagation speed of each given holiday in earth surface conditions (atmospheric air, 1g gravity etc.)?
I suddenly have an idea for a themed version of Risk…
I think the internet broke that possibility. Things and ideas don’t spread “naturally” anymore.
It’s probably a little overly simplistic to think of it as being “established” like that. Instead, multiple different elements of the holiday, which might originate in different places at different times and radiate out in different ways.
Then by your own logic, why are you blaming this entirely on the US?
I’m not. I’m blaming capitalism and cultural imperialism, for the forced import of a piece of American culture.
Who’s ‘forcing’ it? It’s spreading because people have fun with it.
Shops and media which profit from increased sales and viewership. Same as the recent “black Friday sales” nonsense despite the fact that we don’t have Thanksgiving.
Incidentally, I wouldn’t mind Thanksgiving. It’d need adapting to the Australian context, but it feels a hell of a lot less commercial than Hallowe’en…which is probably why there hasn’t been any attempt to bring it here.
Dude Thanksgiving is like the most imperialist holiday, it’s pretty much American propaganda about how the native Americans were totally cool with colonialism and in the modern context is about buying lots of excessive food. Christmas is the capitalist day but Thanksgiving is not much better
American or Canadian propaganda that was slapped on 1/12 or 1/13 of the entire Native American harvest festivals. I don’t remember if there were 12 or 13, but their version of Thanksgiving happened that many times per year.
We just took one of those days and slapped a coat of Union Jack paint all over it. That’s also why Canada celebrates their Thanksgiving earlier than we do.
Thanksgiving is not celebrated correctly anywhere it is celebrated. It originally was a set of 12 or 13 harvest festivals, celebrated by the six nations, that the English settlers appropriated a single one each. That is literally a celebration of imperialism. Watch Addams Family Values if you want to see an appropriate representation of what thanksgiving should look like.
The shops aren’t the ones going around saying ‘trick or treat!’. The kids / families are doing it because they enjoy it. And you’re determined to be a killjoy for some weird reason.
I mean i get that they dislike the whole crass commercialisation, the shops gleefully diving in and whoring for MONEEYYYY but to bitch and whine about “americaaa” when the first recorded Australian celebration was in like 1856 by a bunch of scottish immigrants is just asinine.
Incidentally, I wouldn’t mind Thanksgiving. It’d need adapting to the Australian context
You mean Australia Day. You’re describing Australia Day.
Also thanksgiving is like THE most american fucking thing outside of superbowl and genocidal to boot…but you wanna bring that in while having big problems with an organic creep of hallowe’en. Which has been celebrated in Australia for two hundred freaking years.
Fuck’s sake
Is this meme depicting a kangaroo decking a child supposed to portray the kangaroo as the one in the right?
It’s a remake of the Batman meme where he’s slapping Robin. That one is just as bad.
Instead of “trick or treat” say “Give us some sweets ya fuckin drongo, or we’ll egg your house! Gettin this outfit together was hard yakka.”
See I can tell you aren’t Australian because you didn’t say cunt once. But I respect the effort.
Haha bonza, old mate’s dressed up as a boxing roo! Ripper costume, might wear something like it same time next year!
(Waiting until all youse weirdoes with a hate-boner for this one particular cultural tradition to chuck a wobbly when you find out that christmas, easter and new year’s as defined by the gregorian calendar are also foreign imports)
Well, most of them kinda work. Northern Hemisphere has deadly dark cold, we just have our own deadly bright heat that also forces us inside when we’re not having fun with seasonal activities.
Halloween is a Celtic holiday that was changed by the Catholics and brought to America via Irish immigrants, then further corrupted.
As an American in NZ I did not expect any trick or treaters this year as we didn’t have any last year. But we got a few dozen Indian kids.
M o n o c u l t u r e
That might be the scariest American thing I see all year.
