Halloween in Australia (Commercialisation and Americanisation?!)
Channel: Daily Insight
Date: 2018-10-31

Many Australians don’t like Halloween. They see it as a commercialised American tradition. And I agree to some extent — it is highly commercialised. If you walk into any Australian supermarket today, you’ll see aisles of tacky Halloween merchandise — Chinese made witches hats, brooms, masks, and buckets; Half-price packets of German-owned, Chinese-made lollies (read: Trolli); Chocolates, face-paint, pumpkins — bloody well everything! Any major shop would be foolish not to participate. It’s a cash cow!

As many of you might already know, Halloween is actually based on an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain (sow-in), which celebrated the end of the lighter half of the year and the beginning of the darker half. About 10 years ago, I actually had to give a presentation in a Chinese Kindergarten about the origins of Halloween. I went into glorious detail about the ancient Pagan rituals and so on, but after running the script past the deputy principal, she said, “No, no, no, no, no! Halloween is American holiday. You must tell children about candy and costume!”. Obviously my interpretations of history were very different from hers.

So anyway, in Australia, Halloween — or at least, the trick-or-treating part of Halloween — is becoming very popular with young families. Within a short couple of years in my city, Halloween is beginning to boom. More and more houses are putting their addresses up on Facebook indicating that they will be offering free lollies this year. More and more kids at my son’s school are talking about what they’ll be doing tonight and how many treats they’ll be collecting. There’s a real buzz around the schoolyard.

However, a lot of my friends don’t like it. A guy I know even hammered in a sign out the front of his yard reading, “We are CHRISTIANS — We DON’T celebrate Halloween!”. I have seen some debate about whether Christians should celebrate it or not, but ultimately my friend just didn’t want to participate in a commercialised American custom. It didn’t really have anything to do with him being a Christian.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of Halloween, but I can understand why it’s popular. Ten years ago, I would have sided with all the sourpusses and agree that we shouldn’t be celebrating it — mainly because of its commercialisation. But now that I have children, and those children are being influenced by their peers and an endless streaming of Halloween-related videos on YouTube, I can hardly say no to them. My feeling is that as long as nobody is getting hurt, and that everyone is having fun, then we may as well participate.

As all good parents should do, I have tried to stress the importance of sharing to my children. Halloween isn’t just a time to rob everyone of their lollies. Next year, against my better judgement, I’m planning to list my address on the Halloween house’s list — not because I like Halloween — but because I want to teach my children that some years, we should be the ones handing out the lollies.

I’ve noticed now that Halloween is becoming more popular, the lists of rules being posted online are becoming more and more comprehensive. Things like, “Children only”, and “All children must be wearing a costume”. I guess some people didn’t like un-costumed adults coming to their doors requesting lollies. Personally, as an adult, if I want to eat some chocolate, I can go and buy a whole box of them from the supermarket for half-price. Why would I bother going and knocking on a stranger’s door and embarrassing myself?

One guy I know is completely against Halloween. He calls it a “bloody American tradition that doesn’t belong here”. But yet, the very next week, he’s munching down on a McDonald's Big Mac, and guzzling down a Pepsi Max — ah, the hypocrisy!

I actually just read a news article out of America where a boy from Galion, Ohio, tested positive for methamphetamine after going trick-or-treating. It just goes to show you that you still have to keep your guard up even with something that’s fairly innocuous like trick-or-treating.

If you do head out tonight, stay safe, stay warm, and make sure to take a drug-testing kit with you! Cheers!

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SOURCES
Down with the sourpuss Aussies who hate Halloween
https://www.smh.com.au/national/down-with-the-sourpuss-aussies-who-hate-halloween-20181030-p50cuu.html
Halloween horror: Boy hospitalised after eating lollies laced with meth while trick-or-treating
https://www.9news.com.au/2018/10/31/10/03/boy-tests-positive-for-meth-after-trick-or-treating
History of Halloween
https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween
Why Halloween is becoming so popular in Australia
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/why-halloween-is-becoming-so-popular-in-australia/news-story/b32e62d9f13c7d1c5dc27133a1af48d6

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