Ok so I know it's on Monday night, so I am a little early in doing this. I just want to know if anyone has any plans for celebrating- that is, if they do indeed celebrate. I would also be interested to know of any people/cultures out there don't 'celebrate' Halloween. If not, are there other special days which have a variety of different customs like dressing up, bonfires, bobbing for apples, Halloween pies (basically apple tart/fruitbread with a coin (symbolizing wealth) a button (symbolizing spinster/ bachelor) and a ring (symbolizing marriage). At home we used to have a bunch of men who wore huge hand made masks from straw, and dressed in old clothes called ‘Mummers’ who used to go door to door on Halloween night playing music and signing songs- representative of ‘spirits’ I ask this because I know in England, some parts N.Ireland (and I presume Scotland and Wales) celebrate the 5th of November as Guy falkes night - bonfires fireworks and such as an alternative to Halloween. The past number of years have shown an increase in the number of kids who go ‘trick or treating’ many people still don’t really know about this phenomena as it’s taken from American culture, so invariably people don’t have ‘treat’s’ to give the kids!! Just to let you know I am going to a fancy dress party on Friday night dressed as a pirate- all I need is a 'beard' so I can fully try and be one of Rinsos mob.
[quote:41f3fba000="Perdita"] Just to let you know I am going to a fancy dress party on Friday night dressed as a pirate- all I need is a 'beard' so I can fully try and be one of Rinsos mob.[/quote:41f3fba000] Waits for inevitable Rinso's beard jokes
[quote:15afce0fb4="Perdita"]I ask this because I know in England, some parts N.Ireland (and I presume Scotland and Wales) celebrate the 5th of November as Guy falkes night - bonfires fireworks and such as an alternative to Halloween.[/quote:15afce0fb4] It's not an alternative to Halloween, it's to celebrate the death of Guy Fawkes who tried to blow up the govenment with gunpowder. See Here Personally, I think "Come back Guy Fawkes, all is forgiven", but thats just me I wish they would ban sale of fireworks until a week before, Chavs let them off as soon as they are for sale. Remember, Remember the 5th of November.. ~B:wink:B~
You could play [size=18:1765ab77e6]this[/size:1765ab77e6] to get you in the mood. Or just click on the link with the sound up in the dark if you have kids around you.
Every year my dad takes a bunch of people around the neighborhood on a hayride to go trick-or-treating. This year he may have to work late so we might not have a hay ride. I do not have a costume yet and my mom says my friends and I would look stupid if we went trick-or-treating at our age with no costumes.
I will be in Boston this Halloween, and though I am going to Boston U for a tour and info session in the afternoon, I will be dressing up as a pirate and going out with my father for a fun birthday dinner! I'm going to be 18 in four days! yay!!!!
[quote:b296021f71="Hex"]I'm going to be 18 in four days! yay!!!![/quote:b296021f71] I would say, I'd buy you a virtual alcoholic beverage now trhat your legal but alas, you are in a jurisdiction that you aren't legal yet so I'll have to drink it myself. sorry. I'm going to spend my halloween dressing up as someone in jeans and t-shirt who marks assignments and is evilly failing all her students... scary huh?
We are having a beerfest in town this weekend...Strange I know. But we do not really do anything for halloween- afrikaans people that is. I think there are still some Germans in the country who do something for Walpurgist nacht(almost same as Halloween i think but more a midsummer feast thing) but I'm not sure what.
I'm probably going to get dressed up and go round to a mate's place, eat lots of lollies and laugh at them getting scared by horror movies. Guess what I'm going as.
When I was a child, the only people round here who celebrated Hallowe'en were pagans celebrating the Celtic festival of Samhain. (I think - is that the right one?) But we are increasingly importing American customs, and it's not unexpected to get trick-or-treaters at the door now; however, they're just as likely to be met with "Sorry, we don't do Hallowe'en" as a bag of sweets. I've also not heard much in the way of actual tricks to punish those who don't give out sweets, thank goodness. We have Guy Fawkes Night, of course, and Sussex (where Garner and I live) is famous for bonfire celebrations, but that's nothing to do with Hallowe'en. We don't generally have mummers at this time of year (although the Bonfire Societies have their bonfire boyes, who are pretty similar), but we do sometimes have them around Christmas and New Year. I think they are more of a northern thing though. When my dad was a boy in Lancashire, the mummers used to come into the house, and he remembers being terrified of them.
This year i have no plans for haloween night though I am helping out at a grade 5 haloween party/disco on the 5th...it's a pitty cause I'll miss guy fawkes. Though i know bonfires are banned in sing and I'm sure fireworks will be too without government permission :roll: so I shall be running after a bunch of 10 year olds as a witch judging the best costume and stuff like that
yeah I think in England because bonfire night (alternative name for guy fawkes) and halloween are so close together, it's difficult to celebrate both. Halloween has basically become a theme for parties these days, but every town has a big fireworks display for bonfire night. In the village I used to live in, we all used to go out into a field above and have a HUGE fire. Standing around watching a great big fire with about 100 other people is a surprisingly exciting experience, especially when you're 7. Not sure what I'll do this year - not sure where I'll be for bonfire night. I'm a choral singer, so I get to sing the Mozart Requiem on Sunday for the Requiem Mass for All Saints, which should be incredible (anyone in Cambridge: Robinson College Chapel, 6pm...joint choirs of Robinson, Girton, Fitzwilliam and Churchill - will be epic). I'm not Christian myself, but the music will be amazing... Hopefully I'll be able to avoid getting sucked into cheesy parties, but hopefully there'll be fireworks for bonfire night...
In areas where Halloween has no tradition, I'd consider that as an excuse... It may be a tad humorless, but I wouldn't want to participate, neither actively nor by giving something, and would consider Graffittis or damaged tires or whatever as vandalism as I would do on any other day. Anyway, they have St. Martin's day only two weeks later! It has a tradition, at least in the Catholic areas of Germany.* And so does carnival, with Rosemonday in February and, in those areas where it's traditional, several other festivities tied to it.** I suppose, though, it takes some discipline to keep boycotting it when your own children want to participate and their friends are allowed to. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *That's 11th of November, the Saint Martin was, historically speaking, a German bishop who is said to have been generous to the poor and to children. Kids make lanterns, and do parades with them, singing. At the end of the tour, they are given sweets. Also, they tour the neighbourhood in small groups with their lanterns, sing a song in front of every door and are being given sweets in return. Two of the most popular legends about St. Martin tell of how he cut his wide cape into two halves and gave one half two a half naked beggar in a freezing night, and the other tells how he hid in a stall when they wanted to make him a bishop, because he wanted to stay a simple priest, and was betrayed by the herd of geese residing there. I liked his pragmatic attitude when I was a kid - most saints my various religion teachers favoured would have given their whole cape away, freezing to death heroically and needlessly. Also, he is said to have been a knight in the first place, which I thought was cool. Traditionally, "his" day is also celebrated with roast goose, by the way. **Carnival developed, in Germany, in 18th century, as a crossover of old, pagan end-of-the-winter-festivals and mock parades, satirizing the Prussian occupation troupes in Rhineland and other areas (thus all the traditional fantasy uniforms in German carnival). Everyone dresses up, children especially, and during the parades, sweets, candies and small items are being thrown down the wagons into the crowd.
You showed those dirty betraying Geese! They can't give people away in the oven! I never really celebraited either Holloween or guy Fawks night. But my family are amazingly crap at these things, we can barely manage christmas. :roll:
I don't think it's really a question of celebration, unless you're heading down a religious road, but it's an excuse for a party of some sort. Nobody really recalls the reasons for these things anymore...it's hard to know what you're celebrating really - I mean, we don't celebrate the fact that James I didn't get blown up, and we don't believe that witches and wizards own the earth on Halloween night, though we might recall that it's a night to remember all souls who have died if we are so moved to. At least with Christmas, even if you don't believe in God or whatever, it's a celebration of family, or the turning of the year, or something. In many ways, Halloween and bonfire night are just a reason to have fun, which is why we don't need to be celebrating in the same way, since we can find other events that mean more to us to do the same things on; celebrating some how seems the wrong word.
[quote:6acd4b795c="Jazz"] Nobody really recalls the reasons for these things anymore...it's hard to know what you're celebrating really - I mean, we don't celebrate the fact that James I didn't get blown up, and we don't believe that witches and wizards own the earth on Halloween night, though we might recall that it's a night to remember all souls who have died if we are so moved to. [/quote:6acd4b795c] Who do you mean by 'we'? Where I live, we certainly recall the reason for Guy Fawkes night, especially this year, the 400th anniversary. Battle, a local town, is said to have the oldest effigy of Guy in the country, a pearwood head that gets taken off the bonfire before burning every year. (Don't worry, it's not sapient - I know, because it doesn't bite.) I have also known people who believe that witches own the earth at Hallowe'en. But they were mainly teenage neopagans who had attached themselves to a largely made-up belief system that they insisted was ancient in order to rebel against their parents.
[quote:755fd7a9a5="Buzzfloyd"] I have also known people who believe that witches own the earth at Hallowe'en. [/quote:755fd7a9a5] The meek will be pissed off by that.
[quote:5343856540="Buzzfloyd"][quote:5343856540="Jazz"] Nobody really recalls the reasons for these things anymore...it's hard to know what you're celebrating really - I mean, we don't celebrate the fact that James I didn't get blown up, and we don't believe that witches and wizards own the earth on Halloween night, though we might recall that it's a night to remember all souls who have died if we are so moved to. [/quote:5343856540] Who do you mean by 'we'? Where I live, we certainly recall the reason for Guy Fawkes night, especially this year, the 400th anniversary. Battle, a local town, is said to have the oldest effigy of Guy in the country, a pearwood head that gets taken off the bonfire before burning every year. (Don't worry, it's not sapient - I know, because it doesn't bite.) I have also known people who believe that witches own the earth at Hallowe'en. But they were mainly teenage neopagans who had attached themselves to a largely made-up belief system that they insisted was ancient in order to rebel against their parents.[/quote:5343856540] Guy Fawkes is generally only celebrated by people of the Protestant faith in Northern Ireland- Halloween is generally 'for everyone' Bonfires, Fireworks and lots of little customs, that strangely enough for a country that excels in religous biggotry adopts Pagan culture totally for one night every year! I like your little bit of history about Guy Fawkes Buzz- when was the effigy made?
I was generalising, Buzz, sorry. I know there are exceptions, and perhaps there are more exceptions with regard to Guy Fawkes than I took account of. I guess every kid knows the story, but it some how seems weird to say 'celebrate' still. I can definitely imagine why Guy Fawkes would be a Protestant thing in Ireland, considering when it happened (ie, just after or probably during Plantation...my Irish history isn't all that stunning, so sorry if that's wrong...) and that it was a big triumph for the English monarchy... *also giggles at Rincewind* Good one mate...
The other thing is that the group who sought to blow up the King and Parliament were Catholic conspirators who sought redress for Catholic disenfranchisement. Those were not happy times to be a Catholic in England. However, the reason most people round here still remember it for is that it was considered an attempt to thwart the process of democracy. It was the only public celebration that was still allowed under Cromwell's republic for that reason. Perdita, opinions vary on the age of the pearwood head; some say about 200 years, others 300. The Battle Bonfire Society themselves have gone for the more conservative estimate. [u:c92c655711]This page[/u:c92c655711] gives a good overview and summary of bonfire festivities in Sussex. [u:c92c655711]This[/u:c92c655711] is the webpage of the Battle Bonfire Boyes, who claim that Battle is the "true home of bonfire"!
For us, Halloween is really just a time to get dressed up and get free candy. There are the good spots to go, and the bad spots, and how many houses can you fit in an hour, and long debates over whether you should go up one side of the street and down the other or do both sides in a zigzag pattern. Its a good time. The biggest thing in my town, however, is Goosey night (the other side of town calls it Mischief Night, but whatever. what do they know) The night before Halloween, all the cool people take some rolls of toilet paper and that spray foam stuff and if they're feeling really daring, some eggs and go to town. It makes walking around on Halloween very interesting when all the trees look like it snowed early. I guess people go to so many houses when they're trick-or-treating theres no way they could remember which people didn't give them candy, so they get everyone the night before just to make sure.
Not really celebrating halloween here... some kids get dressed up and go around looking for candy, but because no-one else makes the effort often these children are confronted with perplexed looks, a lack of candy in all houses and the amonishment that we don't celebrate halloween in Asutralia. Poor tykes. On the flip side we do have Melbourne Cup Day 2 days later in which small children are taught how to bet on horses and the adults bunk off from work to spend the afternoon quaffing champagne and practicing those important lessons from childhood on how to bet on horse racing
[quote:aa5fad845b="spiky"]Not really celebrating halloween here... some kids get dressed up and go around looking for candy, but because no-one else makes the effort often these children are confronted with perplexed looks, a lack of candy in all houses and the amonishment that we don't celebrate halloween in Asutralia. Poor tykes. On the flip side we do have Melbourne Cup Day 2 days later in which small children are taught how to bet on horses and the adults bunk off from work to spend the afternoon quaffing champagne and practicing those important lessons from childhood on how to bet on horse racing [/quote:aa5fad845b] Huzzah Melbourne cup Day - now there's a celebration! I worked at the Melbourne cup a few years ago- I was a litter picker upper in the posh encloser - I sae Jessica Rowe (newsreader) and I even walked past Heath Ledger (actually this is not a big deal as for some reason I used to see him in Sydney all the time just walking down the street. I even saw Alf Roberts from Home and Away once... Anyway the party was a success on friday night and my pirate costume worked out pretty well- I just had the eye patch and headscarf and put the rest of it together!
Well aren't you the lar-di-dah a-list shoulder rubber... All its all about Alfie strewth for cryin out loud mate... I'm going to a lunchy thing at a place on campus with 2 courses and champagne... I will have to find somewhere to place a bet and find out which horses are racing.
[quote:ed34d886f4="spiky"] On the flip side we do have Melbourne Cup Day 2 days later in which small children are taught how to bet on horses and the adults bunk off from work to spend the afternoon quaffing champagne and practicing those important lessons from childhood on how to bet on horse racing [/quote:ed34d886f4] I think I should emigrate.... Aussies and South Africans are not that different in tempremant I think. and by this I mean sometimes anything is a excuse for a party or to drink. And we like it. I think we are all "jovial" people. But maybe there is enough South Africans in Aus now. I'll come as a Namibian then... But we also don't do much for halloween
[quote:ea8d90928f="Cynth"] But we also don't do much for halloween[/quote:ea8d90928f] Erm.. I don't think we do anything for Halloween, cynth. that is, the normal SA culture and all. But as you said we'd do anything to drink, or more apropriate, for a "lekker bring en braai" (note to non south africans/ namibians/ect and other aliens: this is where you bring your own meat/salad/bread/alchol (lots of) and you bbq as a big group, getting wey drunk and enjoying yourself immensly in the process, much like a year end office party only much more frequent and much better). Ahhhh.... for a nice piece of rib in one hand an a smirnoff in the other... UNFORTUNATELY, it is exam time. IE no time to do those things if you want to continue studying next year. Sorry for the rant....
