We went ‘trick or treating’ for the first time this year and damn it was fun. Fancy dress and sweets; what’s not to love about it? Plenty if you let the haters get in your way.
Halloween and the costume/trick or treating phenomenen have been reasonably slow traditions to come to Australia. I’m 37 and we never did anything to do with it as kids. What little I knew of Halloween came from spooky books and movies. It wasn’t until I actually had an American best friend that I realised that you could dress up as anything you wanted for Halloween, it didn’t HAVE to be something scary. At this point I was 30 but despite this I started to embrace the idea. One is never too old for dress ups and the idea of being able to dress up as anything seemed waaaaay more fun.
Anyway, we have come a long way since I was a whipper snapper and there are now little glimpses of Halloween about the place for all of us to see. The $2 shop is literally bursting at the seams with monsters masks , ridgy didge vampire blood and orange pumpkin shaped plastic toys that flash and glow and fall apart as soon as you buy them, so capitalist Australia is well and truly on board. And to be honest, most people with kids are having a crack. But damn there are some haters out there and they say crap like this:
“Halloween is Un-Australian”
‘We don’t celebrate Halloween. It is American” (my personal favorite and the one you hear the most)
Yes, yes. Just like the devil himself I’m sure.
Now I was going to get on here and lecture you twats (not all of you, just the hater ones) about the history of Halloween and trick or treating (because SURPRISE, it’s not even from America) but you know what? It’s not important. You’ll just say that the tradition is something that has mostly been popular in America despite its origins and you’d be right. We have flat out copied this holiday in the current from from the States. What a disgrace, Australia!
Let me tell you something for nothing, peeps, just because I love you even though you’re doing all the hating. Australia (in its current form – and please, I mean no respect to the native land owners) is a very young country and pretty much NONE of the traditions we celebrate here, come from here.
Christmas? Nope. Easter? Nope. New Years celebrations? Nope. Almost any other damn day or holiday season you choose will be a nope too. Except for if we bothered to hold on to and celebrate any Aboriginal holidays or traditions but nope, we don’t do that either. Can’t see the “it’s un-Australian” whiners getting into that either somehow. Funny that. Anyway, I digress. My point is, we celebrate plenty of holidays that did not originate in Australia and we don’t seem to have a problem with any of them.
So what’s the freaking big deal about Halloween? Why are we getting ants in our pants for taking it on when it’s “not our tradition”? It makes no sense people. Makes no sense.
So, by all means, don’t celebrate the holiday if you don’t wish to. It’s a free country after all. You get the joy of choosing how you want to spend your time. Just don’t spit your little hate balls on my little Spiderman if he wanders past you in the street and says “trick or treat”. Because Halloween is now OUR tradition. We have taken it on. It has LOLLIES for crying out loud. Lollies. And dress ups. Enough said.
Man, you haters are crazy. No disrespect but you should totally untwist your knickers. Totally.
That’s all.
Happy Halloween folks.
