In the Past 3 years
or more I had discovered that Australians are now starting to
celebrate Halloween in Australia especially the children. Some people
are against it. I am Australian myself and I am completely confused!
Before I get into
detail this is what Halloween is. It is a Celtic tradition that marks
the start of a new season. Americans believe that doing it wards off
all kinds evil. As we all know that the tradition involves
dressing up into a costume, have parties and decorate your homes, the kids go trick or
treating and knock on people doors for candy.
When I was
growing up:
I was a child of the
80s/90s I had absolutely no idea what Halloween was nor had any
understanding of what it entailed. Then I started seeing some
American TV shows that had their Halloween specials being aired. I
had a talk with my mother and she agreed to make me my first costume.
I decided to go as a Ghost for a few hours. I never went trick or
treating to decorated our house. It was very rare that we had trick
or treaters knocking on our door at night and if we did we had no
candy for them! I was raised that is was more of an American
tradition.
So this is where
my confusion sets in.
Why don’t we
celebrate it? I was once told that they never would of thought to
have witches in Australia. Now we have more media on board with it
alongside having more and more trick or treaters knocking on our door
every year. But there are so many mixed opinions now. Some people
here still don’t celebrate it and treat Oct 31st just
like an ordinary day. Some have kids who fear missing out of having a
bit of extra fun and want to be included, which is fair enough. Some
people are undecided like myself.
Choice or Burden?
I am personally not
against the tradition because I love to dress up, but most of the
time I do it anyway because I am a bit of a goth. But sometimes it
just doesn’t feel right when that date comes along all because of
how I was raised. I have a lot of American friends and they can’t
believe that most of us originally never celebrated it. No offence to
them. But the Americans and the media love to go all out when it
comes to traditions. It is definitely a cultural thing. But At the
end of the day the Celtic started it. Then everybody else just
followed through. There have been debates on Wether to ban it in
Australia. But Australians are becoming more multicultural and more
fluid because we have people from all over the world starting a new
life here including Americans, Irish etc. We can’t ban a tradition
because of our values and when everyone is having fun. That would be
cruel. So if you can’t beat them why not join them? In my opinion
Celebrating Halloween in Australia is a choice. Not a burden.
