10/31/2006

Trick or Treat ? yes, lets teach our children to demand things and make threats !


I hate Halloween. Not because it is halloween, but becaus what was all hallows eve, a terribly British tradition from ancient times has become the American "Trick or Treat" festival of greed.


In the same was as card manufacturers push "Fathers day", "Mothers day" and in America, "Grandparents day", in order to sell more cards and gifts, so we are being pushed, and worse, our kids are being pushed by marketing and parents in to thinking that Halloween is something we should all be spending money on.


I heard a shopkeeper on the radio earlier today who said she now takes more money at halloween than she does at new year ! Crazy


And what are we doing to out children, tomorrow's adults. We are telling them that it is okay to knock on people's doors and demand things from them, and should they no hand things over, you will make threats which you have rights to carry out. This used to be called money with menaces. The odd thing is the same parents who dress their kids up and go around with them door to door in some cases are the very same ones who moan that kids want everything now, they have no patience and they cannot accept no for an answer !


Today at school as I arrived, a boy came up to me all excited and said "It's halloween today - I'm, so excited". I felt genuinely sorry for him !

7 comments:

Joe Otten said...

I took my kids trick or treating this evening. We visited nearby school friends of theirs and any houses we passed displaying pumpkins or whatever.

One was a ghost and the other a Roman legionary.

Visiting children desirous of sweets had to fish them out from a lucky dip tub infested with giant killer slugs (which vaguely resembled damp socks).

I think this is the proper spirit to approach halloween in. I met briefly a handful of neighbours I would be unlikely to speak to otherwise. The kids enjoyed it. This is a Good Thing, and I object to the racist overtones of calling it an "American" festival of greed.

Nich Starling said...

Joe, you can make out that I am a racist as much as you like, but I tihnk 1000 people could read this post and not see it that way. This posting was clearly about halloween and nothing to do with race.

I called it that because it is clearly NOT a celebration any more of all hallows eve, and for people to make out that it is, is not true.

It is a shame that some people see racism in everything !

Joe Otten said...

Nicholas,

I'm not suggesting the intention was racist, and I apologise if anybody got that impression. Clearly you don't like the idea of a festival of greed, and you don't like adopting American customs in place of more traditional British ones. What could be wrong with combining those two complaints in one phrase.

Unfortunately, that is generally how racist epithets are put together. Combine a racial or national designation with an insult. Welsh sheep shagger, black bastard, American festival of greed. Your meaning is therefore ambiguous and your wording one that racists will applaud.

Frankly, Christmas is the festival of greed without equal. American Halloween, at least the way we do it round here, is fun, charming, and harmless. Thank you USA.

Tristan said...

Of course, demanding something with menaces on holidays is a grand old British tradition- for example, Plough Monday in East Anglia - Men from villages would disguise themselves, blacken their faces and perform molly dances (themselves versions of the feast dances) whilst taking a plough around the countryside. When they came to a rich persons house they would demand money or they would plough up the lawn.

This did degenerate into violence over the years, culminating in a grand brawl of all the villages in Cambridge market square.

Nich Starling said...

Joe, thanks for clarifiying this. I like plenty of American things (x-box and coke being just two).

Actually, the true spirit of Christmas is about giving, not taking. It is the very antithesis of halloween. We'll have to disagree.

Antony said...

I couldn't agree with you more Nich. Well said.

Joe Otten said...

Nicholas, no problem, it was clumsy of me.

Anyway, of course I wasn't commenting on the "true" spirit of Christmas. But if we compare children's expectations: lots of expensive presents, or a few sweets. Which is the "greedier", then?

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