BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?

Subject: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Once Famous
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 04:21 PM

Over the years, I have lost my childhood love for Halloween. I still like the candy, though!

Halloween has become the second most commercialized holiday behind Christmas. What is so cool about such things as death, graveyards, skeletins (face it , we're talking human remains here), monsters that smile and are happy, ghosts that seem happy to be dead, witches (had dates with a few who could be), and how wonderful and fun it is to be scared?

I don't see why it is fun to be frightened. If you have ever been in a seriously frightening situation, you understand what I mean.

Why do we "celebrate" this absolute morbid stuff?

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: GUEST,Buber
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 04:29 PM

Speak for yourself when you say "we."

Being Jewish, the "we" that I come from does not celebrate Halloween, a Pagan holiday later appropriated by Christians as a prelude to All Saints Day.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Peace
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 04:37 PM

I dislike Hallowe'en. I do not participate, and that's that. Another commercial venture with stupid plastic faces of Freddy Kruger and some damned ghost face from some stoopid movie. It has become an evening on which we will get three or four fire calls to extinguish campfires that idiots have left burning, or dumpster fires that idiots have lit on purpose. Bloody waste of time. Last year, while responding to a dumpster fire, we received a second page for a structure fire (house). Took an extra few minutes to turn vehicles around and get trucks and manpower rerouted and reassigned. The house fire was a tough one, and further delay could have resulted in a second building getting engulfed.

No, I don't at all care for hollowe'en.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Once Famous
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 04:39 PM

I'm speaking for you, also, Guest Buber or bubbie.

I'm Jewish, also. It's mot my holiday either.

I'm sick of it.

Keep in mind, that it is not the least bit marketed as a Christian event.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Fibula Mattock
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 04:46 PM

I celebrate Hallowe'en because it is a part of my tradition and custom. My childhood (and pretty much what there's been of my adult life) in Northern Ireland involved special customs and festivities on the 31st October. I still bake apple tart (with money and a ring in it), light bonfires and carve turnip lanterns (although I've been moving over to pumpkins as turnips are so bloody hard to carve, but I miss that singed turnip smell - and I'd like to start the N. Ireland no-such-thing-as-a-swede-it's-a-turnip argument if anyone wants to join in).

I love Hallowe'en, and I'll continue to celebrate it, even though I live in England at the minute where it loses out to some poxy effigy-burning on Nov 5th. Bring on the apples on a string, bobbing for apples, monkey nuts, sparklers, bonfires, dark clothes and an underlying hint of old traditions. It's my favourite time of the year, I think.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: dianavan
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 05:23 PM

Halloween is for kids and adults who enjoy the costumes.

Kids love it. Don't you remember how you loved that scary feeling when you were seven to ten years old? They LOVE scary things. The idea of monsters and ghosts and anything that moves in the night delights them. They really like the candy part! Kids from other countries can hardly believe that on one night of the year, all you have to do is walk up to someone's door and you will be given candy for free.

Its not as if you have to partake in the festivities. Just go out and play music with your friends or something.

Let the kids have their fun.

Vandals on the other hand...

d

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 05:24 PM

I'll stick with burning the Pope on November 5th.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 05:34 PM

As long as it's not associated with crimes like vandalism or arson, I don't see a problem with having fun and being happy. If it's not your cup, don't drink.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Peace
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 05:41 PM

Well, candy's different.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Peace
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 05:44 PM

I suppose what I don't like, as both D'van and Rap pointed out is the way halloween has changed. It seemed much more innocent years ago, and there seemed to be more creativity in it. I know kids have fun. Maybe it's just that feeling that it has become a corporate arm of the selling machine, and maybe that's what I don't care for. Point taken.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: GUEST,paddymac, cookieless again.
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 05:53 PM

"Halloween," with the ghostys and goblins and such of the commercial world, is for kids. Let them enjoy, say I. The are are ample things for adults to do around the more ancient themes. Besides, it's the first of about five different "New Years" I enjoy celebrating. Multi-culturalism can be great fun, but, sadly, there are folks so hung up on their "own thing," whatever it might be, that they seem to resent other folks having a bit of fun.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 06:14 PM

I don't much like the commercialism of Halloween. I haven't been to a Halloween party in ages, and I haven't even done candy twice since I lived here. My front porch light bit the dust, and I'm a bit afraid of some kid being eaten by a bear or falling down or something. Plus, we don't get that many kids here, and the ones we do get are driven around by parents because the road doesn't have a shoulder and maniacs drive way too fast on it.

I used to love Halloween, and it was second only to Christmas, and sometimes I felt Halloween beat even Christmas. Getting to go out in the mysterious, but friendly night and running wild was great. I used to love having the crap scared out of me too. I think when we can lighten up or poke fun of truly frightening things like death, they aren't that frightening anymore. I don't like being scared much these days. The more real fears a person has, whether they're traumatic ones or the little, everyday fears of losing a job, not being able to afford certain things, or finding out one has a medical condition, and the less one goes out and looks for scary things. Kids think of ghosts and imagine one thing. As an adult, I'm more likely to the human story leading up to ghosthood, and it really isn't a pleasantly frightening fantasy anymore. It's more sad than scary.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 06:33 PM

I enjoyed it a lot when I was a kid. Now I find it an annoying nuisance, but I do still like pumkin pies. I suspect that this says more about me than it does about Hallowe'en.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: mg
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 07:39 PM

It ties into all sorts of ancient things....see another thread about a great Halloween song. If it is too Catholic in origin for anyone, they don't need to celebrate it. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: kendall
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 07:42 PM

Accepted extortion. It bugs me to see teen agers going around expecting candy just as they did when they were little kids.
There is one good thing, I always buy too much Reeses peanutbutter cups and wind up eating them myself.
As long as there is no valdalism, I can live with it, but it's not one of my favorite nights.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Sam L
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 08:21 PM

I still love Halloween, but Thanksgiving has nosed ahead as my favorite holiday.

Martin I'd think you might appreciate the fun of wearing a mask sometimes, playing around a bit.

   It's not all skeletons and the dead and monsters, it's costumes, but I forgive a little kid for identifying with a monster. I think it's perceptive of them. I've heard that in St. Louis kids have to tell a joke for candy, and many are improvised and absurd. Wish I could start that here. I'm going as an existentialist, I'm going to BE for Halloween.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 08:33 PM

Wow... hope I never grow up to ba as sad and pathetic as you folks!

Halloween is a HELL of a lot of fun!

And like every other special occasion, it's only as commercial as YOU let it be... So pull the stick outa yer backside, and have a good time...

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 08:36 PM

Little kids identify with monsters because THEY would like to be big and powerful for a change and scare somebody ELSE! (I remember feeling that way.) Also, because they long to confront their own fears in an entirely safe way. It's perfectly understandable.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Once Famous
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 08:37 PM

Well, it's been good for the dental industry.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 08:56 PM

I don't mind when little kids go trick or treating under the watchful eyes of their parents. However when older kids and particularly teens use the occasion as an excuse to damage other people's property or in certain cases to inflict bodily harm upon innocent bystanders, it ceases to be an innocent holiday. When I used to live in Staten Island, Jewish families in particular were targets for eggs and shaving cream attacks. All supermarkets were completely sold out of eggs for 2 whole days. SOL ZELLER

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 09:19 PM

I understand that Hallowe'en was originally celebrated (if that's the word) in fear, because it was the time of the year (pre-Gregorian calendar, in fact probably lunar) when the boundaries between the world of the spirits and the dead and the world of the living were shaky at best. Dead folks and nasty spirits would roam around seeking living souls to conquer and bodies to inhabit. Thus, folks stayed home and cowered in corners.

Eventually, living people decided that the dead/evil ones could be fooled if they, the living, disguised themselves (I guess they figured that if you were evil or dead you were also stupid). So they disguised themselves when they went out.

Couple this to the traditions in Celtic countries (and this was a Celtic custom, by and large) of putting out milk, food, etc. "for the Good Folk." Doesn't take a lot of thinking to make the leap to begging for treats and, since you're disguised, playing tricks.

Prior to pumpkins coming from the so-called New World, turnips (swedes) were carved as Jack-o-lanterns (and I've read that they were also used a lanterns year 'round, in some areas).

Y'all probably knew all this.

Anyway, the Catholic church co-opted this and slammed All Saints Day (a Holy Day of Obligation in the US, so go to Mass) down on November 1. Day before was celebrated as "All Hallows (as in "hallowed ground") Eve. November 2 is "All Souls Day," if you're interested.

Anyway, I OBJECT to parents busing their kids outside their own neighborhoods. I OBJECT to greedheads of any age at Hallowe'en. No vandalism. I don't care if you're an adult and want to dress up, but I do care if you come to my door expecting candy. Trick-or-treating should be limited to those under 10 -- and I hate to say it, but they should be accompanied by their parents (although we weren't, but it was a different time).

Rabbi, I was raised Roman Catholic (and roamed). Perhaps it was because I was raised in a small Midwestern city, but we wouldn't have considered vandalizing the home of a Jew -- or anyone else, for that matter. (Soaping windows, well...but no egg throwing or stuff like that.) For one this, It Just Wasn't Done, and besides, if you're parents found out (and they would) you would find it very unpleasant.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 09:39 PM

I've said elsewhere, and I'll say it here again:

"Trick or Treat" is ritualized extortion. There is an implicit but clear threat to do some vandalism if the tricker is not bought off. I don't regard this as an appropriate activity to encourage in kids.

Now, someone will point out that "these are little kiddies!" and that the threat is not real.

Some of them are "little kiddies", granted, and the likelihood of harm from a disappointed little treat-seeker is small, indeed. But the little ones get big over time, and in the process have been taught a wrong way of thinking, sez I.

And some of the treat-seekers are definitely older, and are both able and willing to do some retaliatory harm.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: dianavan
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 10:13 PM

I think vandals will damage your property whether they get a treat of not. I never heard of throwing eggs at Halloween before now. When did this start?

Yes, the candy and commercialism is a bit too much. The trend here is toward Halloween activities for children. Parties, haunted houses, bonfires and even fireworks. Costume parties for adults are also very popular.

Rapaire's take on the origins of Halloween are similar to mine. Definitely pre-Christian and I think its wonderful that its still around but changing to meet the times. If you don't like whats going on in your neighborhood, provide an alternative but don't take it away from the kids.

d

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: GUEST,Clint Keller
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 10:44 PM

It's as commercial, greedy & vandalistic as you want to make it; the holiday doesn't require it. Like Christmas.

We didn't trick or treat when I was a kid; we bobbed for apples & carved jack o'lanterns, and wore masks-- all those good things Dianavan and Jeri talked about, and I wish we'd known about the apple tart with the ring and money Fibula talked about.

I hear that some of the New Pagan groups use it as an occasion to commemorate the dead, or maybe those who've died this year, with candles and stories, and that sounds like a nice thing to do. I think i'd feel self-conscious about it now but It could be a good tradition to grow up with.

clint
They're turnips; of course they're turnips.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 11:34 PM

The Pagan ceremonials can be very neat. They have a much better notion about the sacredness of Hallowe'en, an ancient harvest festival and a festival that marked the changing seasons and honored the spirit world too.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 02:15 AM

When I grew up in Scotland, that dastardly threat "trick or treat" just did not exist! in later years, when it finally did cross the Atlantic, the "trick or treaters" were unceremoniously turned away. Hallowe'en was a time when the kids [and often the grownups too]became "guisers" and visited around the district knocking doors and asking "are ye haudin Halleen"? If you were "haudin" hallowe'en, then the guisers were invited into your living room. There, some of the fun was in trying to fathom just who you were looking at. There were rewards too--candy, sweets, fruit, the usual. BUT they had to be earned. Each guiser had his/her/their party piece, whether it be a song, a poem, a dance or a story. No veiled threat was ever heard--or tolerated-- and many are the pleasant memories we Scots hold dear of singing, dancing children and their innocent glee at the goodies presented to them. This trick or treat abomination seems, sadly, to have taken hold of some people. I hope it dies.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Fibula Mattock
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 06:43 AM

Same in Norn Iron, Boab - no trick or treating, but we were sometimes given sweets (toffee apples usually) and monkey nuts if we showed up in fancy dress at friends' houses or in the local shop. There was definitely no trick or threat involved.

Later, in post-ceasefire "peace", fireworks were once again available to the general public and we had the joy of the sweet, angelic children of Belfast trying to put them through the letterbox if you told them to wise up and stop throwing them at each other.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 08:10 AM

It was always Guy Fawkes night when I was a lad - Didn't hear anything about Haloween until much later! Some of the traditions seem to be interchangeable - Fires and 'cadging' for instance. Anyone know when GF night realy took off? Did the powers that be decide All Saints and All Souls were no substitute for a good bonfire and used GF to take the heat off? (Pun intended)

Best Haloween do's I have seen recently have been at Whitby - Particularly, as happens this year, when the 31st is during the Goth Weekend. I wouldn't mind being scared out of my trousers by some of them Goth lasses...;-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 10:22 AM

I think I'll celebrate it in my usual way -- shivering in the corner, hiding from the ghosties and ghoulies.

Actually, the TrT is usually limited now to the hours of dusk, when it might still be light enough to see the kids traipsing around the streets. The city lists the hours when it is permitted; I usually forget about the whole thing and end up with lots of candy.

Give out something like tofu bars or eggplant some year and see if they ever come back!

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: GUEST,Donuel
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 11:52 AM

I put a lot of skeletons and such outside, including a 10 foot tall Frankenstein complete with top hat and cane.
I may play the theme to Young Frankenstein on the violin behind the fence on Halloween.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Once Famous
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 12:08 PM

Many have missed the point of my original post.

I'm not really looking for nostalgia stories or origins.

I really wanted to discuss how sick this "holiday" is today and all the symbolism that makes it such a morbidly twisted commercial event today.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 01:01 PM

There is a similar sick side to just about all the holidays now, I think. Why is the morbid stuff you mentioned done, Martin? Because it sells. That's why people deal crack cocaine and run casinos too. It's profitable. There's clearly some kind of breakdown of culture occurring around all of us, and you can plainly see it.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: akenaton
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 02:58 PM

Dead right Little Hawk....There's no sicker holiday than Christmas.
Theres a great song about all the commercialism, "Thank Christ for Christmas" by Enoch Kent.

I agree with Boab, Halloween was a great celebration before our stinking society saw there was money to be made from it.
Its one of the last links to our old pagan past,the rest have been hijacked by the fuckin Christians ...Ake

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: GUEST,Clint Keller
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 02:59 PM

Damn near everything is a morbidly twisted commercial event today if the hucksters can manage it. And they can.

You can try to not partcfipate.

clint

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: GUEST,Clint Keller
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 03:01 PM

-- But doing that old nostalgic stuff isn't ridiculous.

clint

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 03:08 PM

Halloween is like every other occasion... It's whatever YOU want to make of it...

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Raedwulf
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 03:35 PM

Speaking as a Yook, Halloween is another bloody Yooser (Yoosless?!) import. It's not a British tradition. Like Father's Day, it's now an excuse for the greetings card/nick-nack/cheap-tacky-garbage industry to make a quick buck (how appropriate!).

As, additionally, a steenkin' heathen, I don't regard it as a festival either. A night to be respected, perhaps, but it's not party time! The Wild Hunt is... particularly active... shall we say, & it ain't a night to be runnin' around outside! ;-)

MartinG - I'll half agree, half disagree. Yes, like anything else that someone sees an excuse to make money out of, it's now been commercialized & over-commercialized. No doubt about it!

On the other hand, I don't see why it is fun to be frightened. If you have ever been in a seriously frightening situation, you understand what I mean. Why do we "celebrate" this absolute morbid stuff?

But it IS fun to be frightened! Provided that the "fright" is in a controlled, non-threatening, we-know-it-isn't-real-really environment. No-one loves a ghost story like a kid (of any age)! Personally, I don't get off on it (my reaction to 'fright' tends to be to try & belt the fright. Only if I can't connect will I really start worrying! ;-) ), but I can understand the thrill & the sensation. And candy is a big incentive for a kid, be fair!

The point being that a seriously frightening situation is, as you say, seriously frightening. However, Halloween is supposed to not be a seriously frightening situation. It's a pleasantly frightening situation. That's the difference (if you see what I mean). Like Christmas, it's largely for the kids. I'd also rather it stayed over in America, but I don't get what I wish for often either! ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 03:47 PM

Clinton Hammond, you are quite right about that. Even a casino is what I choose to make of it, and I don't go into them at all if I can manage it. If the vast majority of people made the same choice in regards to casinos as I do, then they would cease to be paying operations and would all get shut down.

If I chose to think of a casino as "a great time", then that's what I would experience there, and I would go there.

So the subjective experience is up to me. I can readily see how a casino could be fun, and Hallowe'en can be fun. As you indicated, it's a matter of choice what you make of any situation.

What do you make of Mudcat? And does it vary from day to day?

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: GUEST,Amazed
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 04:01 PM

Martin gibson, who takes great pleasure in criticizing anyone who misspells a word, writes:

"...cool about such things as death, graveyards, skeletins..."

Did you ever notice how often A..holes quite often hang themselves by their own petard?????

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Once Famous
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 04:09 PM

There is a difference between a mispelled word and and typo, Guest, Amazed.

But there is no difference between your brain and your anus, Guest Amazed.

There is also no difference between this name you just used and your regular posting name to know that you have a real bug up your ass and a problem with Americans and Jews.

It's so obvious to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: GUEST,Outraged
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 05:13 PM

How dare you assert that there is no difference between "Amazed's" brain and her anus???? That is very insulting. They are at opposite ends of her body, for a start, and there are a few other differences too. At least a couple. I think you need a lesson in basic anatomy, you rotten squid-imbiber!

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Once Famous
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 05:51 PM

I went to Guest anatomy class and this particular species does have it's brains in it's anus.

They take Preparation H when they have a headache.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: akenaton
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 06:19 PM

Thats very funny Martin....
Are you sure your the real Martin?
You know... the one whos always making a fuss?

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: SINSULL
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 06:27 PM

I love Halloween. As a child we celebrated with a huge family gathering, a special cake with "Fortune Telling Charms" baked into it, apples on strings and in tubs of water, a Scavenger Hunt, and best of all being allowed to go out in the dark and run and scream and be kids.

For years I carried over my traditions to the neighborhood kids in Jackson Heights. Don't read the rest Martin. It will make you sick.

A friend had identical twin daughters. They used to dress up and come to a Halloween Party at the local church where I always had a House Of Horrors. They were led in blindfolded and told a horrible tale about brains and eyeballs accompanied by peeled grapes and cabbage heads. Lots of squeals and fun.

One of the girls had minor scoliosis and it was decided that she would have surgery to correct it. It went wrong. She was in a coma for months and when she came out of it had no memory of her previous life. At sixteen she had to be taught to speak, conrol her bowels, dress herself. She never got out of the wheelchair. And her mother had the added of pain of the healthy mirror image growing up in the same house. One day I saw her and her mother on the street and stopped to say "Hi". She knew me and started childishly chattering about the House of the Horrors and how much fun she had and how much she loved me for it. A memory out of nowhere.

The Halloween tradition I started in 1979 lives on in the Towers Co-op with a nighttime party and treasure hunt, a costume parade, hot apple cider. It makes me happy to see the children, whom I introduced to my Halloween over 20 years ago, carrying on the party with their children.

Is it too commercial? Of course it is. So is Easter and Passover and Christmas and New Year's and Valentine's Day and Mothers' Day... But beyond the commercialism is a wonderful tradition.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: brid widder
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 07:02 PM

I don't remember halloween being very important when I was a child... although Bonfire night was massive!... I can understand being scared for fun though...and as Raedwulf said these situations are not 'real' and that makes the 'fear' safe.... maybe even a learning experience!

For me the worst thing about Halloween ( and I hate all of it) is the fact that it seems to last so long!! the eve of all hallows is October 31st... so why are shops... and even the staff canteen where I work... decorated with bats spiders webs and other ridiculous tat now?

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 08:27 PM

Halloween has also come to China. There are shops full of masks etc, fake blood capsules. But like Christmas in China it is truly not understood, just another method f separating money from people.

As the CCP say here they have 'Socialism with Chinese characteristics'.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: frogprince
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 09:03 PM

Of course Halloween is ridiculous. My wife and I once sat in a mudhole with a number of other people and got completely covered with it. There was no possible rational defence for sane adult people to do that; it was utterly ridiculous. But damn, it was fun at the time.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: GUEST,tarheel
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 09:45 PM

i loved halloween,when i was a kid...we wore homemade costumes(from old sheets) and met at someones house and roasted hotdogs over an open pit fire and drank hot chocolate!if we scared anyone,i don't remember it,but other kids would come over and we all had a really good time !(and no one got hurt,burned or anything)anyway,as my kids grew old enough to do the halloween thingy,we had to inspect their candy,fruit,everything they brought home,before they could eat it!now,with terrorist lerking around every corner,who knows what may be in the next batch of stuff kids bring home these trying days/nights!god forbid the terrorist or some sick soul,use this event for a chemical attack of some sorts in the "goodies"the kids bring home now!

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 10:20 PM

A great man once said: "we have nothing to fear but fear itself"

And that was well said.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 10:50 PM

I think the question is ridiculous.
I love Hallowe'en. It is the night I can go out and be something or someone completly different than who I am.
I can scare or I can humor or I can...wait a minute, I guess I do that all the time anyway! I Really do enjoy the night though. It is a favorite time of mine to hide from the spirits or trick them. And by the way, you folks that call the tricks vandalism. I call tricks.
Trick or Treat.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: SINSULL
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 11:59 PM

Rustic Rebel is right. The thrill of Halloween is to be able to do in real life what we do in cyberspace every day - hide behind a mask and do or say whatever we please. We can be whoever we want to be.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 12 Oct 04 - 01:23 AM

Raedwolf" I cannot state for certain that Hallowe'en is a "British" tradition; but Rab Burns certainly wrote a poem about it in Scotland. I reckon that puts it in the traditional category!

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Oct 04 - 01:27 AM

Samhain (Summer's End) is my favourite time. We love to see the little kids all dressed up in their favourite characters and we also ask for a "trick" in exchange for the treat..simple things, really, a question about the alphabet, or their costume's character, or some song or something which they must answer. We will decorate with fake cobwebs and bats, hang a hand-made "sheet" ghost from a tree with its arms spread wide, and line the top of the picket fence with jack o'lanterns. No, we do NOT like the commercialism of this or any other special day of the year. The decorations we use are old and/or homemade.

Later, when the lights are out and all is quiet, I will light some candles and incense, give thanks for a good year's harvest (metaphorically, mostly), and send special thoughts to loved ones who've passed on. The next day, I may even go to the Episcopal church for All Saints Day, even though I am not a Christian. I went when I was a child and I love the ritual..it brings comfort.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 Oct 04 - 04:17 PM

I really wanted to discuss how sick this "holiday" is today and all the symbolism that makes it such a morbidly twisted commercial event today.

I know what you are getting at, Martin, but don't really agree. I am not sure if anything is that much different today than when we were kids - apart from us:-) I am sure the kids who go around dressed up don't really notice the commercialism any more than we noticed anything but the sweets and gifts of all occasions when we were young.

I have always promised myself that if I ever find myself saying things that my Dad said when I was a lad I would do the decent thing, trade in my sandals and splifs for slippers and a pipe and slip out of the scene unoticed! Even that's changed though - Things that Dad's say aren't what they used to be either;-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: Sam L
Date: 13 Oct 04 - 09:39 AM

I think the difference between something that's spoiled by commercialism and something that isn't may be a fine line--if you try to run too far in the other direction you hit it again. The anti-commercial commercial. Like the over-priced back-to-basics trends. Maybe if commercialism can pervert things, you can also pervert commercialism into something healthy, if you just face it down, sort and pick. Lots of good things could be commercial if you weren't taking them right.
   Kids I grew up with used to call music they didn't like "commercial" although all the music we bought was commercial, strictly speaking. I'm not sure about the pot we called "commercial Colombian"--what the hell did that mean? Not Colombian but we call it that and you pay more for it and we tell you we're ripping you off because of... um, truth-in-advertising laws? It was the weed version of "fresh-frozen" I guess.

There's a man on our street who gives out books every year--pretty cool. The only halloween vandalism I did was on some older jackass kids. They almost caught me. And I had a lot of masks and stuff, so sometimes I'd go back again to houses with the best candy. And I sometimes claim I was involved in lifting and turning a VW sideways inside a garage. Alas, I only heard about it.

Subject: RE: BS: Is Halloween ridiculous?
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 13 Oct 04 - 11:28 AM

Halloween was once an English tradition but got replaced by Bonfire Night.