The Dink Network

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY

Happy halloween

Besides us Americans, who else among the DN celebrates this holiday?

I'm just wondering.

It's a thing over here in the UK, though really just an excuse for supermarkets to sell more cheap plastic tat

Most people (including me) don't care or do anything at all TBH.

I believe it originated in Scotland, or maybe Ireland.

It's become a bigger thing in Finland in the past ~20 years, you even have some kids going door-to-door these days. Which is funny, because kids already dress up as witches and go door-to-door at Easter. So now they do it twice a year. Dang greedy kids!

Depending on where in the USA you live, the holiday is treated quite differently.

There are still many places in American suburbia where kids in costumes go around the community asking for candy with the magic words that make adults give them sweets, "Trick or Treat".

In some places, where the religious (often fascist) christian right has taken hold, few children in a neighborhood go out and collect candy because "Halloween is the birthday of the Devil!" and other such nonsense.

Sometimes, due to neurotic parents in your neighborhood worrying about their kids getting poisoned or abducted or something, no door to door collection of candy is permitted, but kids attend some kind of costume, candy and fun filled (almost carnival like) evening, usually in a local church basement or school gymnasium.

In some urban areas, sometimes kids stick to just their apartment buildings, going door to door collecting candy among mostly folks that they know (at least by sight).

I'm hoping to hear from more of the "DN around the world" on this important topic.

It is somewhat followed in Sydney, although years ago when I took my kids around it was barely something people participated in. Nowadays houses that have themed decorations out the front are a sign that any kids knocking on doors will get treats, and ones without, like mine, are best avoided.

I don't celebrate Halloween. It is becoming more popular here though. Kind of annoys me that we're at the point that a holiday from America is becoming popular where it never existed historically. Oh well, there's nothing I can do about it, and it's not like I celerate most holidays on a deeper level (excluding my birthday and Christmas).

SK's experience in Australia is about the same as mine in New Zealand, though it's definitely ramped up significantly since I was young.

@scratcher:
Please explain how the "kids already dress up as witches and go door-to-door at Easter" thing works! That really surprised me. Were you serious or just joking?

I'm pretty sure it's a local tradition from Finland. You might not know, but there are all kinds of traditions and variations of holdays around the world. I'm sure you know there are also holdays that are only celebrated by a specific country or people. For example, here we have name days. They happen once in a year like birthdays, but they're tied to a person's name as it appears in the calender next to a specific day. People also recieve gifts that day, but of lesser value then a birthday. It's also far less significant then a birthday.

Yeah, it's a Finnish tradition - I think Sweden and probably Norway have roughly similar traditions, although I'm not sure if they go door to door. Kids dress up as witches and go asking for candy, and they're supposed to decorate twigs of kitty willow with feathers and give one in exchange for the candy, as well as reciting a short rhyme. However, it's common for some dang lazy kids to just say 'happy easter' and not even give twigs.

@scratcher:
Amazing! That sort of thing could get you in real trouble here in the USA (in certain parts of the country). That tradition (Kids dress up as witches and go asking for candy, and they're supposed to decorate twigs of kitty willow with feathers and give one in exchange for the candy, as well as reciting a short rhyme.) must (like several other easter tradtions including eggs and bunnies), date from a pagan pre-christian past.

@RangerLord:
You might not know, but there are all kinds of traditions and variations of holidays around the world. I'm sure you know there are also holidays that are only celebrated by a specific country or people.

Of course I know that other parts of the world celebrate different holidays and some of the same holidays we celebrate differently from our traditions. Although, in fairness, there are probably some (christo-fascist) Americans who don't know that. In recent years I have been quite unpleasantly surprised by how widespread ignorance is within my nation. Much of that comes from publicly funded anti-science and anti-history private christian schools in the south (and some other "flyover states") of course.

I just thought it would be fun to have some Dinkers from around the globe tell me about some of the different holiday traditions related to Halloween and/or kids dressing up.

Looking back at this, I have no idea I assumed someone wouldn't know something like this. I guess I was either tired or in a hurry and wrote the first thing that came into my mind. Unfortunately, if the second thing is the case, it wouldn't be a rarity. Plenty of the mistakes that I made were either by not properly understanding something at first, or not thinking through something, and seeing an incorrect picture.

Happy late Halloween This was my first Halloween as a parent, so definitely enjoyed seeing things from a different perspective.

I have heard the origins of dressing up was because Halloween was the night when all the witches & goblins etc were abroad, so dressing up as them let you safely move around in disguise!

"This was my first Halloween as a parent, so definitely enjoyed seeing things from a different perspective."

That kids rammed full of candy are nightmarish monsters?