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Comment by Affric | Hacker News Reader

Halloween is interesting in that I never really felt like I owned Xmas, Easter, or New Years as a kid. But Halloween (and also the nearby Bonfire Night, and at the end of winter Beltane) was just so hugely part of our world. Harvest in the build up. Guising.

It was always kind of interesting to see how America did it but from afar it lacked a lot of important features ours had. Then coming to Australia it was like diet America which I found, and perhaps still do find, a little offensive.

I know that there are other costume festivals (like carnival and related festivals) but I wonder what makes Halloween so potent that everyone wants a piece. Is it just the freedom of wearing a costume?

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my 0.2 cents :

as a kid I had a lot of sovereignty during halloween. I got to pick the costume, get done-up, and then perform. I got to walk around my neighborhood nearly unattended, which was a rarity. I got to hang out with friends, and then I got to eat the candy that I solicited for.

Christmas , well, kids have little money. They don't generally cook the dinner, they don't get a tree, even if they're involved. The adults do everything. The presents are great, and as a kid I loved them -- but the job for me was mostly just to go to bed early on Christmas Eve.

New Years / Fourth of July / Thanksgiving / Easter -- same thing. The kids are spectators that get to enjoy the fireworks and messing about with that stuff after dinner -- but it's largely hands off.

Halloween felt like my holiday growing up because it was the single example where the decision making was essentially in my hands, and it wasn't just as an excuse for the adults to get together and drink like the rest of them.

Not a kids event but kids at the centre of it

Disclaimer: I am not Finnish.

Every year Hallowe'en seems to get bigger and bigger here, and Finnish culture's own "kekri" seems to fade into the background. However my perception may be warped by the avalanche of cheap Hallowe'en merch in the shops. This crapalanche is really out of control. It reeks of cultural imperialism.

FWIW the Khan academy app reinforces the whole Hallowe'en thang. So now my kid is into skeletons and jack-o'-lanterns. And in a crime against art, they have bastardized the song "Dem Bones".

And which countries enable the cheap merch?

I would assume it's the Chimerica(TM) Axis of Interdependent Economic Evil. Supply meets demand. Other countries get a scattershot assortment.

> Then coming to Australia it was like diet America which I found, and perhaps still do find, a little offensive.

Haven't heard it Australia described that way before. Mostly the descriptions have been a mixture of US and UK/EU cultural pieces.

What's the "offensive" stuff?

I don't necessarily know if it is diet America but a lot of the Australian holidays and celebrations do feel to me (as an Australian) as slightly odd. I suspect it is because Australia is a relatively young country so there isn't a long existing history of traditional celebrations so we have kind of appropriated existing traditions.

Christmas is best example I can think of there are decorations depicting things like Snowmen and Snowflakes etc. We sing songs about "dashing through the snow" all whilst it is oppressively hot outside, its hard not to notice a bit of dissonance.

ANZAC Day is really the only holiday celebration I can think of off the top of my head that has a uniquely Australian flavor, with things like marches, Two-Up etc.

Maybe we should invent a Ned Kelly day and all dress in mock armour? :)

Halloween in Australia is a fairly recent occurence - of course a few people in some suburbs followed it for years - but recently the shops have pushed it to add another revenue raising holiday - so it has no organic feel. There is no pumpkin carving or bonfires and costumes are mostly $5 ghosts or fairies bought from BigW.

Halloween is deeply rooted in the shortening days, the harvest, the spookiness of the transition, the otheworldliness.

In Australia it’s considered fine to go out during the day. It’s really centred on the lollies/candy/sweets. Don’t see carved turnips.

Like, I realise I don’t hold the cultural values of my fore area with regards to Halloween but what goes on here involves a lot of cheap tat and not much more.

I honestly don’t see any of Scottish Halloween here.

No worries. :)

> It’s really centred on the lollies/candy/sweets.

Yeah, that's not at all surprising to me.

My impression is that Halloween is something that was big enough in the US (even if not originating there), that companies are now trying to push it on us here in Australia now too. Purely to sell their crap.

It gets the No vote from me for that reason. ;)

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