Sunday 1 November 2009

Happy Eve of All Saints ....

In Australia, we celebrated Halloween yesterday by attending a lovely party. A friend from Sydney took a quick snap of the hubby and I which turned out reasonably good, so I thought I would share.



In the area where we live, trick or treating is welcomed. There are rules though. We like the kids to have an adult with them and if you are participating in festivities you are meant to pop something on the front of your house or gate to show that you are celebrating Halloween. Last year there was a note that went around saying these things, but probably due to busyness the note never appeared this year. There was however, a healthy amount of kids roaming the streets who had gone to great lengths to look the part.

There are lots of people in Australia that cringe at the thought of Halloween and claim that we are just taking on another countries traditions or just encouraging another hallmark holiday. Mind you, these complaints are often heard from similar people who openly celebrate Christmas and Easter but have never set foot in a church.

As Halloween often happens around the time of Melbourne Cup, many radio shock jocks complain about the fact that the "race that stops the nation" is in the shadow of Halloween and that we should be celebrating the cup rather than this "American holiday". They would rather we celebrate gambling, getting drunk and living excessively than dressing up and paying respects to the dead ...

Reading up on the origins of Halloween is an interesting exercise and there are many web sites with lots of information. Understanding that it is a two day celebration ending with a dinner to celebrate those who have died in the past year is important, and a tradition that I would love to incorporate into our yearly celebration calendar. Unfortunately, just like Christmas and Easter, most people will celebrate the entertainment aspect of this date in our calendar. In our household, we subconsciously ended up eating a meal which reminded us of our very dear Boris who passed away last year.

But for the crafter in me, Halloween is important because it gives me yet another opportunity to craft away and also buy up all the lovely gothic style fabrics in the post Halloween sales (*giggles*). If you haven't worked out by now, I tend to lean towards the quirky fabrics for my creations.

So what does Halloween mean to you, do you celebrate it or frown upon it?
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6 comments:

Nikki said...

Ahhh... thanks for solving the mystery of the trick-or-treating kids who nearly knocked at my (open) front door and then retreated. I was wondering what that was about. Since I'm new to this end of the hood I had no idea I of local halloween customs!!

Oh - and lovely pic of you and hubby!

Karen said...

and a tradition that I would love to incorporate into our yearly celebration calendar.

What an excellent idea!! I might try that as well. It gives more meaning to the celebration if there is something behind it other than parties and costumes.

And I'm off to Lincraft today anyway so will have to keep my eye out for halloween sale fabric ;)

Beky said...

That was a lovely post. Thanks for giving more insight. On the Today Show they interviewed Andrew Bolton from the Herald Sun. He said we adopt other countries celebrations, why cant we adopt this one. I totally agree with you and him. I must admit I prefer Halloween to Christmas there is less stress and to me Christmas feels forced every year, people feel they HAVE to be together etc. Anyway great pic.

Cathie said...

thanks for the post Margaret, hadn't really looked into Halloween tradition at all so it was good to read a little bit about it.
fantastic pic of you & hubby, looks like you had a great time.

Finki said...

i love that pic of you guys. you look so happy. Halloween is a bit of fun and we live in a society that celebrates a huge diversity of special occasions, no matter what your religion. It all adds to the spice of life.

Jennie said...

You scrub up well! You both look totally glamourous.