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31 Oct 07 - 09:00 PM (#2183901) Subject: BS: Holidays Aren't What They Used To Be From: Azizi Take Halloween. I bought a big bag of candy that's not good for anybody-including me. And nobody came trick or treating to my house. I shoulda known that was going to happened. After all, I haven't had any trick or treaters ring my doorbell or knock on my door for three years now. But each year I buy candy thinking that some children dressed up in customes I can ooh and ahh over will come to my house and I can give away all this candy rather than eat it myself. On Halloween night I wait. And I wait. And I wait-only to be disappointed once again. Poor Halloween. If ever a holiday probably suffers from an inferiority complex, it's Halloween. You've got church members saying that's it's celebrating the devil. And you've got a lot of other adults saying that with all those perverts out there, it's not safe for kids to go knocking on strangers doors. They're probably right about that. But I'm not a pervert, but how would anybody know that who doesn't really know me? After all, I don't look like a pervert, but then again, what do perverts look like? I have fond memories of Halloween. When I was in elementary school, my mother used to sew costumes for my sisters and me. Just about all the children in the school would wear a homemade costume {though I confess I envied the ones who had fancy store bought princess outfits}. On the school day closest to Halloween, we'd have a morning assembly. Students in each classroom would march across the stage showing off their costumes. It wasn't really a competition. No prizes were given. People clapped for every group that paraded up to and across that stage. I remember that being on stage was a big deal. It gave little kids an opportunity to shine, and to feel special, and that's a good thing. After that assembly, students in the primary grades {kindergarten through 3rd grade} would carry a paper bag that we'd made & decorated in our classroom, and we'd walk upstairs to each of the big people's classrooms {4th through 6th grade}. The teachers and students in those classrooms would give us candy, and cookies, and apples. And that custom gave bigger kids an opportunity to practice the habit of giving, and that's a good thing.. That was a looong time ago. I don't know of any school in my area that has Halloween parades or has the bigger kids giving treats to younger children. My daughter is a kindergarten teacher in a public school that doesn't even allow the teachers let alone the kids to wear costumes. {She cheated a little bit 'cause she wore a Diane Ross type wig and put on glittery eye shadow}. Instead of having a Halloween party, that school is having a Harvest festival. With a harvest festival, you can still use pumpkins, and corn stalks decorations. You can even carve real pumpkins and bob for apples. I believe that at my daughter's school they're even getting some real hay and putting it in the back of a truck so children can sit in it and pretend they're going on a real hay ride. I'm not sure what else you do at a harvest festival besides those things. I'm all for creating new holidays. But why can't children have both the Harvest festival and Halloween? I suppose I wouldn't have good memories of Halloween if it had been against my religion to dress up in costumes or otherwise celebrate that day. Now that I think about it, when I was in school, there were a few kids who either didn't come to school on Halloween, or who went to another room when we had our school wide Halloween assembly and parade. I can't imagine that made them feel good. So, maybe it's not such a bad idea that kids aren't allowed to dress up for Halloween. And besides, I suppose that there really are too many bad people out there for kids to go door to door to strangers homes. Maybe it's a good thing that Halloween doesn't appear to be celebrated the same way anymore. It seems like eventually the only ones who'll be celebrating Halloween are the adults who go to parties dressed up like movie characters or political figures. Poor Halloween. I'm sorry time hasn't been good to you. ** I'd love to read your memories of Halloween or other holidays, and how you think that celebrating those holidays have changed or stayed the same, and whether you think that's a good thing. Thanks in advance for your comments! |
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31 Oct 07 - 09:03 PM (#2183902) Subject: RE: BS: Holidays Aren't What They Used To Be From: Azizi Hmm. I really didn't mean for the font to be in bold. I just meant for the word "nobody" to be bolded. As you can see, I'm still learning that how-to-change-the-font process. [left out the backslash, Azizi] But I really did mean what I wrote. So there! |
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31 Oct 07 - 09:19 PM (#2183914) Subject: RE: BS: Holidays Aren't What They Used To Be From: catspaw49 Well Ziz, ya' see, I live in the tiny littel village in southeastern Ohio and its a kind of throwback place. Probably half the town doesn't lock their doors. Folks here decorate for damn near every holiday including Halloween. We have just over a dozen streets, most of them still brick, and tonight, just like every Halloween since we moved here 20 years ago, we had around 350 Trick-or-Treaters on those streets between 6 and 7. The kids are generally accompanied by a parent and almost all are polite to a fault with even the tiniest of tots saying "Thank You." The real world will catch up to this place pretty soon but it sure has been great while it's lasted........Kinda' like reliving my childhood........***sigh***............But if you want to sorta' relive yours, come on over from the 'Burgh next year and help pass out candy! Spaw |
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31 Oct 07 - 09:36 PM (#2183919) Subject: RE: BS: Holidays Aren't What They Used To Be From: Azizi Spaw, your town sounds great. I might just take you up on your offer. As long as I can dress up too! :o)) |
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31 Oct 07 - 09:51 PM (#2183930) Subject: RE: BS: Holidays Aren't What They Used To Be From: Rapparee We used to get apples, homemade popcorn balls, all sorts of homemade candy -- try giving it out today! We quit the treating business when teenagers -- and yound adults, folks in their 20s -- started coming 'round. Little kids, yeah, we had a parade at the Library today (something that's been going on for probably 50 years) and I gave out some M&Ms I have in my desk. Some of the staff dressed up (I didn't, this year) and the downtown merchants made a big deal of it. During daylight hours. Accompanied by parents. Too much paranoia, too many perverts, another fun thing ruined by a very few. |
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31 Oct 07 - 10:02 PM (#2183938) Subject: RE: BS: Holidays Aren't What They Used To Be From: Azizi Thanks to the moderator who corrected my font mistake. I really appreciate it! Black is beautiful and all that. But not in that context. ;o} |
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31 Oct 07 - 10:45 PM (#2183961) Subject: RE: BS: Holidays Aren't What They Used To Be From: Amos I lived on a long country road, so we got plenty of exercise walking our costumes to neighbors who were spaced apart, but we had a good time rounding up pounds of goodies and sorting them out in a big heap on our beds afterwards. By the time I was thirteen or fourteen, a buddy and I had developed a repertoire of songs -- he was a fine banjo player and I backed him up with rhythm guitar on an old nylon string. That Halloween we went up the same road, but we went from house to house playing and singing songs from the Kingston Trio, the Carter family, and Burl Ives, all very enthusiastically. It made everyone grin to have the usual tables turned. When I went to college I was in Chicago for Halloween evening, and we bought a couple of boxes of Vanilla Wafers and handed them out at random to adults on the street. They seemed to enjoy the reversal of expectation. But I agree, the celebration of Halloween has largely subsided,it seems, although the smaller numbers who do come are just as enthusiastic about it as ever. Is it cynicism? Disillusionment? MySpace? A more dangerous world? Who knows, really. A |
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31 Oct 07 - 10:57 PM (#2183970) Subject: RE: BS: Holidays Aren't What They Used To Be From: Rapparee Hallowe'en is now the single most profitable holiday for sales to adults, except for Christmas. Adults have taken it from the kids. |