Yes it’s that time again when an ancient pagan sacrificial ritual is again resurrected, morphed into a quasi-Christian ‘festival’… only to be morphed once more by children into an excuse to get free goodies!!
Indeed… Halloween is once more upon us.
As a ‘festival’ it means little in the UK outside the religious significance, as far as I’m aware, but in the USA it is *huge* excuse to indulge in all sorts of weird and horrific displays of death and torture… all rather strange for a country that seems to see itself as a Christian enclave, but again I digress.
In Australia it’s never been much of a ‘festival, nor has it reached the proportions of ‘horror’ inflicted on the public by those same US worthies. Here, it is just an excuse for kids to dress up a little… or not… and meander around the local streets hassling people for candy, lollies and other goodies.
They turn up saying ‘trick or treat’ as the US kids do, but I’ve never heard of any of the adults ‘patronised’ by being ‘tricked’… no toilet papering houses here as far as I’m aware! However, I *do* know lots of *kids* are tricked by being given onions or tins of beans as a ‘reward’ instead of the goodies they are looking for.
That’s a bit unfair I think, but the kids seem to take it all in good part – so far. Who knows when they might start to learn the retaliatory escapades of their US counterparts!!
We’ve already prepared for Friday night… well a little anyway… by buying a couple of boxes of sweets and mixing the new ones in with some we’ve had here for two years or more. Hee hee…!!
Why (you ask) would we keep sweets that long? Simple really… the kids have birthday parties and most times we knock up more ‘party bags’ than people invited because often the guests will bring siblings along… and we’re suckers. Still, those bags left over were usually consigned to the ‘party box’ for another day… and guess who’s been tidying… and found them… and decided to put them to ‘good use’ (sorta)? Right – moi!!
Some of these kids might find their ‘goodies’ a little chewier than normal! š
My kids will be out on the streets as usual – come rain or shine. This year they invited a few friends over to trawl the estates with them, tho the eldest might yet go out with the group organised for Guides – she’s not decided. Regardless how many eventually set off, I will, as usual, be sitting in the car following them at a reasonable distance to let them do their thing, under a watchful eye. After an hour or so they’ll be shattered… or possibly on a sugar high… and probably sick… and we’ll bring them home to share out the booty.
So, maybe it’ll be Hello-ian again from me again this time Saturday… if we survive tomorrow night!!
The Eclectic Interweb 