Halloween (???)

Ya know, I think I have to agree with you on this one. I guess to me it just is a normal holiday because it's something that we've always done here. I love seeing the little ones all dressed up in their costumes. Still, if it isn't a traditional holiday in your area then you really do have to wonder why they would start it up if not for the commercialism of it all. How long have they been doing Halloween in Australia? I am willing to bet the kids might be exposed to a lot of unsupervised stuff in the media. Here, we have "Cartoon Network". My kids are grown now. One night I was flipping through the channels and paused on this Cartoon Network. I was having the grandkids over for a couple of days and decided to check it out. Glad I did....really bad stuff.

Hi again sid556, The Halloween thing has been gaining traction here in Oz for a few years now. But it's only in the last year or so that the shops have been openly promoting it, as well as some of the schools - even though it's not actually a holiday here. I don't have a problem with the little kiddies getting dressed up and having some fun, but the whole thing seems a bit colonial to me. A gradual surrendering of national identity, if you will, apparently with the full consent of the schools and parents involved. As for the cartoons on TV, some of them are more suited to an older audience than they used to be. But I think more than that, we're now seeing the impact of a generation of people raised with foreign sourced TV entertainment - to the extent that they're now a little culturally confused, and their kiddies perhaps more so. To some extent that may be a good thing - it would be good to have a single, cohesive global culture, but it's still a little odd to see children taking their cultural cues from TV shows rather than from the local culture around them.

I think that learning about other cultures and all is great. Adapting some of them is just a bit weird to me. I mean, I have friends of various religions. If visiting them, I would adapt to their ways out of respect for the time I was visiting but take them on as my own?? NO! I think Hanukka is a beautiful holiday. If invited to join in their festivities, I would. I would not celebrate it other than sharing the happiness of a friend. Not sure I'm wording this right but hope you get my drift. On a smaller scale, if I go into a home of a friend, I go by their ways and rules. I don't change up my ways in rules in my own home to match theirs.

Hi dragonlady, The pleasure's all mine! I think it's mostly about the money over here - that and the fact that the Simpsons always have their special Halloween episodes around Halloween time (and who doesn't watch the Simpsons???). I've been tempted to adopt the "Trick or Treat" protocol of throwing a bucket of fish guts out the front door and yelling "Surprise!"... not that I'd ever do something so wickedly naughty (heheheh).