Talk:Halloween/Archive 7

Halloween in Australia
Halloween is not celebrated in Australia at all.

Hope this helps --60.241.115.57 08:49, 31 October 2006 (UTC)


 * That is incorrect.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/061030/23/118h2.html

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,20674730-421,00.html?from=public_rss

--James Bond 09:43, 31 October 2006 (UTC)


 * From the second link above: "Halloween is a modern version of a pagan celebration of the winter solstice but in Australia it is an excuse to party, and any costume will do." Winter solstice? Halloween is nowhere near either hemisphere's winter solstice. —Angr 09:49, 31 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Nice news articles. How about searching for ones about the impact of vandalism in Australia that comes with it? 202.72.187.152 10:06, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Haven't seen any so far. Will post them If I find any. Did this happen this year or in the past? --James Bond 10:45, 31 October 2006 (UTC)


 * OK the media tries to encourage it, but hardly anyone cares. There has been no increase in popularity more like a decrease. Don't tell me otherwise, since you don't actually live in

Australia. Haven't seen a 'trick or treater' for years because if they do try it 99% of people will have a go at them for following an American tradition that is completely irrelevant to Australia. Also "thousands of people" is something like 0.01% of the population, yeah it's huge. --60.241.115.57 10:09, 31 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Well, I just quoted a few sources. I'm not going to debate on whether it's popular on not in Australia. Just because you live in Australia doesn't make you more an expert than me on the subject, at least not in here. I'm quoting media sources, anything else is original research. --James Bond 10:45, 31 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Yeah and sources with The American International School and costume shops trying to hype up the event are incredibly reliable. --60.241.115.57 11:21, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Halloween is pretty no existent in Australia and it is definitely not on the increase, I live in Australia I know and I can guarantee every Australian will say the same thing. For example I got 0 trick or treaters come by my house this years nor did I see any trick or treaters.


 * I would like to confirm that Halloween is not practised to any significant extent in Australia. "James Bond", do you honestly imagine that costume ads masquerading as news reports constitute an objective source?  Do you really think that multiple residents in Australia stating that Halloween is really not practised is POV?
 * For a start, it's spring time here, so no pumpkins, the sun is brighter and the days are longer. Definitely NPOV.  Yes, the media tries to promote it, usually with stories of how much Americans enjoy it.  Those articles that were cited make the following points:
 * It is the biggest event in a costume sellers year.
 * There is no other event, and they do (really) want to talk up their trade


 * The only indication of participation was the American International school.


 * Only one other person was quoted as actually participating.


 * For myself, I saw no decorated houses, or any trick or treaters.
 * But I would say that if we are ever going to see any kind of momentum to Halloween in Australia, it would have to be in April. P.S. I live in Australia, but have lived in California for a few years with young kids.  There is no way you could imagine Halloween exists here based on participation. By the way, I'm in Melbourne, in an area full of kids.  Trishm 23:21, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Jack-o-lantern carving is not a Halloween tradition in Australia. Firstly, you couldn't even get the pumpkins to carve, because it is spring, not Autumn. Nor have I seen imported ones. Secondly, Halloween cannot, even optimistically, be reported as a tradition in Australia. St. Patricks day is observed in the Irish-Australian community, but not Halloween, unless they have recently taken it up, in which case it is still not traditional.Trishm 00:30, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Halloween is celebrated in Australia. Alternatively that might be because more kids kids know that if they knock on our door onthe evening of Oct 31, they will receive a bag of home made honey pop corn.

On the other hand, I am in my 50's and as a young child I went to the occassional Halloween Party. I am unable to comment on the source. The increasing intrustion of American culture into Australia may be a factor.

However, anyone who knows anything about Australian history will know that many people came to Australia from Ireland and Britian and could have easily brought the tradition, in whatever form they practised it, here. It was only in the very easly days of the colony, that other languages and cultures were suppressed, including the Roman Catholic Church. the various Irish diaspors, Highland (and lowland) Clearances and general poverty in Ireland and Britain and the continent, not to mention the various gold rushes, brought hundreds of ship loads (up to 500 immigrants) each year. So, an argument could be advanced that the increasing interest in Halloween is associated with a family cultural revival as well as the influx of USA culture.

-- I guess it's a matter of degree. To say that Halloween is never celebrated in Australia is clearly not true, but you can truthfully and objectively say that it is not part of Australian culture. For example, you could not say that yodelling does not occur in Australia. Personally, I have seen more yodellers from the Austrian/Swiss/Bavarian community in taking part in cultural activities in Australia than I have seen trick-or-treaters. But I would never presume to say that "Yodelling is part of Austrian, Swiss, German and Australian culture". That would infer that yodelling is more widespread than it really is, and could possibly be insulting to the German-speaking countries.

I thoroughly enjoyed Halloween when we were in the US, and when my friends ask if Australia participates in Halloween, the answer has to be "not really". Can you imagine what they would think if they came to Australia, expecting to experience an "Australian halloween", based on "Halloween is celebrated in the US, ireland, Australia and New Zealand"? They would be almost nothing to see. The image presented in wikipedia needs to reflect that. I think we can say, without stepping on each other's toes, that
 * "Halloween in Australia is celebrated only to a very small degree. Participation levels are currently at levels too low to consider Halloween an Australian cultural tradition"

— Trishm 05:34, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Féile na Marbh
I have no idea what Samhain Eve is. October 31st is Féile na Marbh in Ireland. November 1st is the Celtic New Year's Day. Corrections please. Jm butler 10:05, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Strange because I thought Beltaine was the Celtic New Year's day and that Samhain was the agricultural year-end. I'm sure I read that somewhere on Wiki earlier today. 195.153.45.54 10:30, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Brittany
I'm removing the claim that Halloween originated in Brittany, which was supported by the following quote:
 * Kelley, Ruth Edna (1919). The Book of Hallowe'en, Chapter XI: In Brittany and France:
 * Gaul, as we have seen from Caesar's account, had been one of the chief seats of Druidical belief. The religious center was Carnutes, now Chartrain. The rites of sacrifice survived in the same forms as in the British Isles. In the fields of Deux-Sevres fires were built of stubble, ferns, leaves, and thorns, and the people danced about them and burned nuts in them. On St. John's Day animals were burned in the fires to secure the cattle from disease. This was continued down into the seventeenth century.
 * The pagan belief that lasted the longest in Brittany, and is by no means dead yet, was the cult of the dead. Caesar said that the Celts of Gaul traced their ancestry from the god of death, whom he called Dispater. Now figures of l'Ankou, a skeleton armed with a spear, can be seen in most villages of Brittany.

since this quote says nothing at all about Halloween or Samhain. St. John's Day is in late June, not the end of October. —Angr 11:26, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Mischief night Yorkshire: change doors to gates
I have changed the word door for garden gate/gate and marked it (incorrectly) as a minor edit. Doors were impossible to get at for removal but garden gates could be lifted off the pivots and removed in a trice. They were usually swapped with a neighbours gate as it was the easiest thing to do. The favourite trick was to tie string to the door knocker and hide in the bushes. This is from personal observation (and participation) in the mid 1950s. Petersheeran 12:59, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Australia and New Zealand
Although it is reasonable to question the level of celebration in these two countries, its stretching it a bit to claim its because it wasn't celebrated in England, both were colonised by all the inhabitants of GB & I.

NZ immigrants data http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/homeawayfromhome-fromwhere

Why did the Celts not continue with it? Did it initially continue then cease later on?

Are there any southern hemisphere nations at all that celebrate it in the 'traditional' way? (Maybe a surviving legacy amongst the pockets of celtic immigrants?). Is there a rational for an 'End of Summer' festival to survive in the south? 83.67.8.162 14:42, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Hi, I live in Australia. Halloween isn't celebrated very much in Australia. I'm not sure why. Most Australians are of anglo-celtic ie British and Irish descent (as with most New Zealanders), but for some reason halloween isn't popular. Most Australians think Halloween is an american tradition, and resist it so as not to be americanised. This halloween i bought treats for trick or treaters and put a jack-o-lantern outside, and no trick or treaters knocked on my door. Some Kids do trick or treat, but are often told that it is 'un-australian'. I don't care about such talk (particularly because it's untrue), and I still like Halloween personally ;-)

Uhh
Does this article even explain what halloween is? This article really needs improvement.

Did anyone find anything about Hallowe'en celebrated in the scottish village of Beattock (Dumfries and Galloway) I think they celebrate it on a different day to everyone else...11th of November I believe...it's probably just a wierd local thing as I couldn't find anything about it on the Internet anywhere...just thought it might be of interest to someone :)

SparklyFaery 17:05, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

I have heard of this. If I remember it was to do with switching from Julian to Georgian calendars - there was a 12 day difference. Probably the same reason that Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate Christmas on 6th Jan...195.153.45.54 10:33, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Halloween traditions
I removed the "Halloween traditions" section since none of it was sourced. Here's the full text if anyone wants to reference it.


 * Halloween traditions survive most accurately on the island of Ireland, where the last Monday of October is a public holiday. All schools close for the following week for mid-term, commonly called the Halloween Break. As a result Ireland and Northern Ireland are the only jurisdictions where children never have school on Halloween and are therefore free to celebrate it in the ancient and time-honored fashion.


 * The custom of trick-or-treating resembles the European custom called "souling", similar to the wassailing customs associated with Yule. On November 2, All Souls' Day, beggars would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes" — square pieces of bread with currants. Christians would promise to say prayers on behalf of dead relatives helping the soul's passage to heaven. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits at the Samhain.


 * Souling died out in most areas of England by the mid-17th century, during the English Reformation. There is no evidence that souling was ever practiced in North America, and trick-or-treating seems to have evolved there independently: the earliest report of ritual begging on Halloween is from 1915, and it did not become a widespread practice until the 1930s. Ritual begging on Halloween did not appear in Great Britain until the late 20th century, and imitates the American custom.


 * In Celtic parts of western Brittany, Samhain is still heralded by the baking of kornigou. Kornigou are cakes baked in the shape of antlers to commemorate the god of winter shedding his "cuckold" horns as he returns to his kingdom in the Otherworld.


 * In the Isle of Man where Halloween is known as Hop-tu-Naa children carry turnips instead of pumpkins, and sing a song called Jinnie the Witch.

Voretus talk  19:16, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Candy that has been tampered with
Hospitals were offering to xray kid's candy? Ok... that's just plain extremely paranoid. Fools. All they need to do is check the darn candy and throw out anything that isn't in a wrapper before tossing it in kid's mouths. Even someone with a lump of peanut butter for a brain could know that... pfff. I hate stupidity... SilentWind 20:07, 31 October 2006 (UTC)SilentWind
 * Well, what do you expect of people who reproduce? —Angr 20:28, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Over Americanised
The whole article seems to revolve around American Halloween a lot, then kind of as a side note mentions that other countries do it too. I'm not concerned about bits like "Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture" since thats probably true. However, parts like "The American tradition of "trick-or-treating" dates back to the All Souls' Day parades in England" confuses me a bit, surely it's an English tradition then? Americans aren't the only ones who trick or treat. I just think the word "American" seems to pop up a lot, and maybe the article should focus more on treating the holiday as an international event.--Santahul 20:14, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
 * On the contrary, the article already shows quite nicely how the holiday's origins are in the British Isles and how it's continued to be observed there. There's not really much to say about the holiday outside the Anglosphere. —Angr 20:24, 31 October 2006 (UTC)


 * i agree, there are traditional followers of the celtic new year, and there are people who enjoy samhain/halloween, but the marketing, advetising and blatant comercialism of halloween today is of american origin, so they have a seperate day, removed from the origional idea of a day for rememberance, and its more popular.

Eight sources in one sentence?

 * Other Christians, including those in Church leadership positions, consider Halloween as incompatible and conflicting with the Christian faith, due to its preoccupation with the occult in symbols, masks and costumes, its origin as pagan festival of the dead, and the fact that it is considered by satanists and other occult groups as a festival celebrated with certain rituals. 

Does a simple statement like that need that much proof?

Not to mention citing some poorly designed offshoot source like the watchman. Sounds like someone's preaching.
 * It has to do more with the paranoia wise editors learn to have when saying something about a particular group of people. Without an obsurd amount of citations, someone will come along and remove the statement no matter how basic it is. --  T H  L  05:30, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Looks more like a desperate attempt to get Wiki to keep their edit, regardless of accuracy 195.153.45.54 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.153.45.54 (talk) 10:43, August 29, 2007 (UTC)