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?