Halloween - someone's been lying to the Taiwanese

Why do you think I used nails?

OK, enough, before this gets really sick.

Salon ran a review a couple years ago of two books that argue that Halloween as we know it is in fact an American invention.

archive.salon.com/books/feature/ … index.html

I think it’s great that Taiwanese are getting into Halloween in their own inimicable way. It’s fun pure and simple.
So what if they slavishly follow American culture and believe that every nation on the planet does too? It’s their own choosing.

I think it’s all down to the costumes - has to be. Afterall, they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here, but if there were costimes and gifts involved they surely would.

I had a student whose English teacher had asked them to ask a foreigner about Thanksgiving - what ‘they’ eat, and what gifts they send each other! Wahahaha!
The student was surprised to learn that we don’t have Thanksgiving in England.
I told him deadpan that Americans send each other sex toys on Thxgiving. :laughing:

Then you, and not the student, are the cultural ignoramus because that’s exactly what happens at Thanksgiving. What do you think turkey basters are for?

You are one sick finger lickin’ chikkin.

Really? Then I guess I better not explain what’s meant by “stuffing the turkey.”

I wore my complete costume to work, during work, and even when I went out to lunch. I got some “Hao ke ai!” and “So cute” and two people even gave me a “Happy Halloween”. I pledged instead of giving candy to kids (and panicking parents with my generosity) that I’d give candy to anyone who smiled or said something positive to me. On the way to work, for once, I wasn’t stared at until after I walked by. And I realized that not many people are smiling at 8 am. At lunch, the masses were much more receptive and that’s when I got the cute comments (bet I wouldn’t have if I had brought my rubber cockroach instead of the spider) and loads of smiles. Malheureusement, I left my candy at school. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get this black nail polish off my fingernails.

Halloween ? Always seemed to happen during “Half-term”… I just remember bonfires… hardly surprising in N. Ireland in the late 70s early 80s (!) Some sort of Pagan festival wasn’t it ? All Hallows’ Eve ? Didn’t the Church hijack it ? Anyway, all excuses to light a bonfire and get plastered gratefully received… Closely followed by Guy Fawkes Night, which was always a good scam: “five pound note for the guy, sir ?” (sack of potatoes in a wheelbarrow with your dad’s old hat on it) You couldn’t buy fireworks in N. Ireland (oh the irony!) so everyone went to see official fireworks displays. Good they were too. (I think I remember we could get indoor fireworks across the border though - would that be right?)

Trick or Treating was done in towns where I grew up, and my Dad remembers it in Ireland in his youth, so perhaps the Yanks nicked it from us ? (Mind you, there were a lot of US servicemen in N. Ireland during the Second World War, so maybe we nicked it from them? I dunno. They gave us flapjacks, hashbrowns, chewing gum, and doughnuts, for which I’m eternally thankful, but they could have spared us the bloody turkey).

The picture headhoncho paints is familiar to me, but I lived in the sticks, so didn’t get a chance to get up to much shenannigans. However, I don’t remember all this dressing up nonsense, or the wanton consumption of sweets. The news the next day was always fun. After an evening of sombre warnings from the Fire Brigade, there would always be several kids and some adults in Casualty from throwing things onto bonfires. Favourites included, aerosols, shotgun cartidges, paint tins filled with gas from someone’s oxyacetelene kit and then sealed, petrol bombs (of course), and the tin of WD40 in a pipe (wheeeeee!). Makes mincing around dressed up as a hobgoblin sound a bit dull and sad by comparison (this is what happens when the Establishment interferes with a good old pagan festival!)

I note my school wouldn’t let me do Los Dias de Los Muertos for a show on “holidays” but dressed us all up like a shower of trannies at a Cure concert today for “Halloween”.

My university made a big deal out of Halloween although for most of the coolest part of the history of its celebration, it was random and student-initiated. You cruise up and down Court Street in your costume and take pictures of really cool ones. Sometimes bands would play, lots of food vendors, and, oh yeah, the 10,000 people that showed up for it. If you were of age (21 years), you went to the good bars where they had contests and all sorts of fun. If you weren’t, you went to the Cheese (actually called the Greenery, but for the cheese-y smell of freshmen vomit I suspect it earned the other name) and got your drink on there. Or you knew people who had houses where there were parties going on. The school has taken it over, though, and took away that element of chaotic, youthful fun (one Halloween started when two guys dressed as the Pope spotted each other from across the street, met in the middle and hugged as people began to throng around them). Damn, I miss being an undergraduate.

Well, it’s not just in Taiwan. The Balinese and Aussies are sure dressing up and partying here tonite. :laughing:

[quote=“plasmatron”]now I realise Taiwan just adores all things American, and halloween being one of those stereotypically “American” holidays, one can hardly be surprised that they took to celebrating it with such enthusiasm, now before somebody gets histrionic about halloween not being “American”, I know that the roots of halloween lie in a European notion of “all hallows eve” etc. etc. but that’s beside the point…

there seems to be some quite astounding ignorance amongst the Taiwanese people I’ve spoken to about the whole idea… the common opinion amongst the locals seems to be that halloween is an international holiday, celebrated the world over… when I point out that halloween is some arbitrary slap up binge, that anyone outside North America & Canada couldn’t really care less about, the reactions range from surprise, to complete refusal to accept the fact…

but I’m interested… those forumosans who hail from areas outside North America & Canada… do you now, or have you ever given a damn about halloween?..[/quote]

I was gonna get all up in your face about laying claim to Halloween for Amerika…but then I decided…ehhh…why bother…

But then you had to go and exclude Canada from North America…not once, but twice…you yanks crack me up with your egocentricity…

nuf said…

The Taiwanese HAVE been misled. They translate “Halloween” as the equivalent of “All Saints Day” (wan sheng jie) when it should obviously be the day before–“All Saints [or Hallows] Eve,” whence “Halloween”.

Somebody alert the media.

[quote=“Toe Save”]I was gonna get all up in your face about laying claim to Halloween for Amerika…but then I decided…ehhh…why bother…

But then you had to go and exclude Canada from North America…not once, but twice…you yanks crack me up with your egocentricity…

nuf said…[/quote]

Sounds like somebody got dried squid in his bag while out Trick or Treating last nite. :laughing:

[quote=“Toe Save to plasmatron”]I was gonna get all up in your face about laying claim to Halloween for Amerika…but then I decided…ehhh…why bother…

But then you had to go and exclude Canada from North America…not once, but twice…you yanks crack me up with your egocentricity…

nuf said…[/quote]

Toe,

I don’t think plasmatron is a Yank.

[quote=“tigerman”]
I don’t think plasmatron is a Yank.[/quote]

Or is so only in the sense of what he does to people’s chains.

[quote=“tigerman”][quote=“Toe Save to plasmatron”]I was gonna get all up in your face about laying claim to Halloween for Amerika…but then I decided…ehhh…why bother…

But then you had to go and exclude Canada from North America…not once, but twice…you yanks crack me up with your egocentricity…

nuf said…[/quote]

Toe,

I don’t think plasmatron is a Yank.[/quote]

I gotta stop posting so late at night when I am grumpy and have no special bedtime meds…

Very interesting and recent article on Butlins. Barry Lewis’ vintage photos show British vacationers gone wild - CNN Style

Have to say—don’t see the attraction at all. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: