AX–All SOUL’s Day. They are back to back on the Catholic Calendar.
I have been to a haloween party once… In Taiwan.
The little ones got dolled up as fairies last night. Must have cost a fortune, but no 1 wants to be a fairy every year and no2 wants to do what her elder does.
Wonder if they get any candy.
ah… the sweet smell of vindication, i just had to get confirmation on the fact that 90% of the world couldn’t give a flying vernacular about halloween…
i’m not a teacher personally, but i recently had the opportunity to put it to a taiwanese acquaintance of mine who is a teacher of some sort, that the modern idea of halloween is mindless north american drivel based loosely on the central themes of black mail and gluttony, and the only reason it’s so popular in Taiwan is because it is 1.) “american” and 2.) a good excuse to waste at least 3 weeks of the school year, re-hashing the same halloween related trivialities as last year for a bunch of dumbed down kids and parents who don’t know better…
she was horrified to hear that she too had been duped by the halloween hype, but eventually was unable to process the notion, put on her red, white and blue intellectual blinkers and proclaimed “no, you’re mistaken… halloween is an international holiday which the whole world celebrates.” and this seems to be the popular misconception here in taiwan… now since canada and the u.s. are actually 2 separate countries i’m prepared to give her “international” only on a technicality, but celebrated the world over?.. not bloody likely…
Halloween keeps Toys r Us in business in the same way Bloody Valentines Day keeps Hallmark in business and the way Christmas keeps that ageing old Polish geezer in Rome and his thieving business in business.
N.Americans only got into it lately. Halloween or variations on the theme have been huge in Ireland , UK and Celtic areas for 1000s of years as the Samhain. It was to scare away the souls of the dead who would return for one night only (all souls day was a corruption of this). But basically Halloween is a festival for people when they start to enter the depths of winter.
In Ireland Halloween is ‘mental’. Some areas of cities resemble Beirut on that night (I’m not kidding). Police and the fire brigade regularly have to deal with riots in poor neighbourhoods when they try to put out fires.
We would collect wood and tires for months before for our neighbourhood bonfire which of course was completely illegal (and still is and they still they build bonfires). Rival gangs had daring raids where we would steal the other gangs bonfire material, having the biggest bonfire of course resulting in the most prestige. When we lit the fire all the kids and a whole lot of parents would come down to to let off more fireworks, sometimes organised, sometimes not.
Then there were the various explosive fireworks whizzing around and fired at houses and people! Considering fireworks are supposed to be completely illegal it is quite a funny situation.
Playing tricks is ‘de riguer’ during Halloween which is of course why it’s so popular with children. One of the most diabolical is the old ‘shit in the burning paper through the mailbox’. The owner comes to stamp out the paper and gets shit all over their feet . Crude but effective. Another variation is sticking a ‘banger’=exploding firework, into the middle of this and putting it through a postbox. This one entails giving the house a wide berth afterwards. Other variations involved blowing up milk bottles etc or making make shift bazookas from combinations of hollow paper rolls, rockets and bangers. If you were really hard you could of course hold the rocket by it’s end like they do in Taiwan or hold onto the banger until the fuse hits the gunpowder.
Bangers of course move up in firepower to ‘air bombs’ and ‘1/4 sticks of dynamite’ . Now I’m not very clear about whether it was real dynamite or not and I never actually saw one but you could certainly buy it from black market traders whatever it was.
In Ireland there is ‘Halloween brack’ which is a traditional fruit cake which
contains a ring for good luck. Who ever eats the part with the ring (or coin) will have good luck for the next year if they don’t choke to death first. We always have lots of that and peanuts. Don’t ask me peanuts are big!
Trick or treating is more of an re-import from the US. When we were young we would go unaccompanied but now of course the parents go with them. I’d wear a dodgy mask and put on a black plastic bag, instant ghost. You wouldn’t get money like sandman, just bags of peanuts, sweets and fruit, chocolate, chocolate apples etc.
The pumpkin with a lantern is also import from the US since we don’t actually have pumpkins in Ireland. Interestingly it was irish and Scottish emigrants who brought the tradition there, originally using a turnip.
If you didn’t get something well there might be aforementioned items flying around their house later.
There was of course some games like apple bobbing which is trying to eat an apple on a string or in the water.
Nov.5th, Guy Fawkes day is celebration of stopping the so called ‘Papist Plot’ to blow up parliament when a group of English and Irish dissidents buried a load of gunpowder under the english parliament. It was conveniently and spuriously linked to the Pope and used for anti-catholic suppression.
It’s got to be said that Halloween works better when it is dark and cold the clouds are low in the sky and the moon is coming in and out of view! around!
[quote=“plasmatron”]ah… the sweet smell of vindication, I just had to get confirmation on the fact that 90% of the world couldn’t give a flying vernacular about halloween…
I’m not a teacher personally, but i recently had the opportunity to put it to a Taiwanese acquaintance of mine who is a teacher of some sort, that the modern idea of halloween is mindless north American drivel based loosely on the central themes of black mail and gluttony, and the only reason it’s so popular in Taiwan is because it is 1.) “American” and 2.) a good excuse to waste at least 3 weeks of the school year, re-hashing the same halloween related trivialities as last year for a bunch of dumbed down kids and parents who don’t know better…
she was horrified to hear that she too had been duped by the halloween hype, but eventually was unable to process the notion, put on her red, white and blue intellectual blinkers and proclaimed “no, you’re mistaken… halloween is an international holiday which the whole world celebrates.” and this seems to be the popular misconception here in Taiwan… now since Canada and the u.s. are actually 2 separate countries I’m prepared to give her “international” only on a technicality, but celebrated the world over?.. not bloody likely…[/quote]
Oh, go stuff yourself. It’s fun! No doubt you won’t even give poor Marley an extra lump of coal to warm his hands at Christmas.
Christ on a crutch, is your hatred of America so deep that you can’t even let little kids dress up as fairies and pirates one day a year in peace??
[quote=“MaPoDoFu”][quote=“plasmatron”]ah… the sweet smell of vindication, I just had to get confirmation on the fact that 90% of the world couldn’t give a flying vernacular about halloween…
I’m not a teacher personally, but i recently had the opportunity to put it to a Taiwanese acquaintance of mine who is a teacher of some sort, that the modern idea of halloween is mindless north American drivel based loosely on the central themes of black mail and gluttony, and the only reason it’s so popular in Taiwan is because it is 1.) “American” and 2.) a good excuse to waste at least 3 weeks of the school year, re-hashing the same halloween related trivialities as last year for a bunch of dumbed down kids and parents who don’t know better…
she was horrified to hear that she too had been duped by the halloween hype, but eventually was unable to process the notion, put on her red, white and blue intellectual blinkers and proclaimed “no, you’re mistaken… halloween is an international holiday which the whole world celebrates.” and this seems to be the popular misconception here in Taiwan… now since Canada and the u.s. are actually 2 separate countries I’m prepared to give her “international” only on a technicality, but celebrated the world over?.. not bloody likely…[/quote]
Oh, go stuff yourself. It’s fun! No doubt you won’t even give poor Marley an extra lump of coal to warm his hands at Christmas.
Christ on a crutch, is your hatred of America so deep that you can’t even let little kids dress up as fairies and pirates one day a year in peace??[/quote]
Mapo, I think you’ve misread the post. Don’t you get it? Plasmatron is already in costume and playing the role. I have to admit that I’m quite impressed. I’ve never seen a dingleberry costume before, he he. Plas, you drop by for some of my Halloween scotch and sodas and you will learn to love October 31 (but not November 1).
the only western holidays anyone in asia care about are the ones popularized by americans anyway. 
hell, the japanese took valentine’s day and decided to create 2 holidays from it. 
If I ever have any kids and I’m living in a place that’s been Americanized to the extent that they clamour to do all of this Halloween stuff, I certainly won’t let them go out begging for gobfuls of tooth-rotting, artery-clogging, cell-poisoning sweets (or what our colonial cousins refer to as “candies”). If there are neighbours I can trust to proffer only the most wholesome pesticide-free fruits, organic veggies, or nut-and-honey health bars for them to munch on, then I might let them dress up and head over there, under strict parental supervision, for some of these trick-or-treat shenanigans, provided that the neighbours in question have consented in advance and have assured me that they won’t be bothered by it. But anything else will be absolutely out of the question.
I always wondered why people went around denigrating Guy Fawkes’ valiant attempt to save the world from the ills of the tyranny of the mob.
actually, when i was a kid, the scariest thing you could get was an apple. urban legend about freaks hiding razors in apples. i remember on the news when they would tell you where to take your treats to be x-rayed.
[quote=“MaPoDoFu”][quote=“plasmatron”]ah… the sweet smell of vindication, I just had to get confirmation on the fact that 90% of the world couldn’t give a flying vernacular about halloween…
I’m not a teacher personally, but i recently had the opportunity to put it to a Taiwanese acquaintance of mine who is a teacher of some sort, that the modern idea of halloween is mindless north American drivel based loosely on the central themes of black mail and gluttony, and the only reason it’s so popular in Taiwan is because it is 1.) “American” and 2.) a good excuse to waste at least 3 weeks of the school year, re-hashing the same halloween related trivialities as last year for a bunch of dumbed down kids and parents who don’t know better…
she was horrified to hear that she too had been duped by the halloween hype, but eventually was unable to process the notion, put on her red, white and blue intellectual blinkers and proclaimed “no, you’re mistaken… halloween is an international holiday which the whole world celebrates.” and this seems to be the popular misconception here in Taiwan… now since Canada and the u.s. are actually 2 separate countries I’m prepared to give her “international” only on a technicality, but celebrated the world over?.. not bloody likely…[/quote]
Oh, go stuff yourself. It’s fun! No doubt you won’t even give poor Marley an extra lump of coal to warm his hands at Christmas.
Christ on a crutch, is your hatred of America so deep that you can’t even let little kids dress up as fairies and pirates one day a year in peace??[/quote]
oh christ, i knew there’d be histrionics sooner or later…
mapodofu, i don’t mind halloween at all, in fact if i were still a kid and these were more innocent and peaceful times we all lived in, i would think halloween was the best bloody thing this side of x-mas… so you can put away your “i am the ghost of x-mas past…” rendition
and i don’t have any deep hatred for america, (how come yanks are so uppity about perceived “threats” to their national pride or whatever the hell it is that they feel threatened about all the time) the point of my post was how the taiwanese misconstrue the scope and nature of the holiday, that’s it… and it contained no “deep hatred” of america as you put it…
Hakkasonic is offering halloween whisky and sodas, so lighten up, bring your favourite sinisterly carved vegetable and you can enlighten us as to the supposed joys of “dressing up as a fairy pirate” as you mentioned in your post… 
That’s probably the root of the matter. Its not a holiday in most places. Although we used to get a week off school at that time of year for the tattie howking.
The what?
The what?[/quote]
Potato harvest. I think they still get the week off, but now its just called the October week.
Do all the Scots still flock down to Blackpool and spend the week getting wasted and puking off the piers? Used to piss the donkeys off big time, let me tell you.
Oh, I see. I did a fair bit of spud-picking during my nipperage – and it’s bloody hard, back-breaking work. But hardest of all was a week I spent working on a spud-harvesting machine, picking out the rocks and clods of earth from the conveyor belt that delivered the spuds into the trailer behind us. It tore my hands to shreds, and was the hardest week’s wages I’ve ever earned.
But we never got any time off school for things like that.
Blackpool was supplanted by the Costa del Sol in the early 70s. Now they all go to places like Thailand, but they still spend the time getting wasted and puking.
I remember at primary school, I used to be SOOOO jealous of Sandra Graham because she got taken to Butlin’s at Blackpool or Skegness or wherever, while me and my sisters got dragged off hiking in the Cairngorms or Torridon or somewhere else wet, cold, windy and midge-infested.
Pity. It was the only time Blackpool was ever interesting. Except for that time I nailed Sandra Graham behind the ghost train.
But … but … Sandra Graham had the dee-dees! Everybody knew that! :shock: