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Comment by justinclift | Hacker News Reader

> 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?

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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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