If you ask me

If you ask me, the rise of the American celebration of Halloween, in Australia, is unwanted and totally out of place for the Australian community. This is simply a push by the big retailers who see Halloween as another way to fleece the Australian public and I believe it is time for Australians to say NO to the big retailers and say NO to Halloween. Let us preserve and develop our own culture, instead of simply adopting the culture of another country.

This post isn’t about banning or legislating against Halloween, or any other event for that matter, but simply about encouraging Australians to chose, for themselves, what celebrations we want to follow and how we want our national identity to develop. We should not simply follow the advertising of the big retailers in order to fatten their wallets – we need to decide for ourselves what we want our country to look like in the future.

Indeed, I believe that very few Australians would even know what Halloween is about. I certainly didn’t understand it till I did some research and that research only convinced me, even more, that I do not want to see Halloween in this country.

It is thought that Halloween has its origins in an ancient Celtic festive called Samhain, a time when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to scare off ghosts. Later, Pope Gregory III decided to make November the 1^st a day to honour all saints and martyrs. This Catholic celebration evolved to include some aspects of Samhain and the night before All Saints Day became known as All Hallows’ Eve, and later it became known as Halloween. Halloween then evolved into a spiritual, community-based event with some child-friendly activities such as trick-or-treating. Today, in a handful of countries, people continue to usher in the WINTER season with gatherings, costumes and sweet treats.

The Halloween, which is slowly seeping into Australia, is purely an American, and an extremely commercial, version of this ancient celebration. While it may have some relevance for people living in the Northern Hemisphere, where winter is about to descend on the land, it is totally out of place and inappropriate for Australians.  Australians do not share the cultural origins of this event, most don’t believe in ghosts (I certainly don’t) and almost all Australians are keenly looking forward to another fabulous summer and not winter.

In addition, I believe that there are some serious child safety issues to be considered with Halloween, too. Do we really want our children wandering the streets, going door to door, asking for lollies and treats? I even know Americans who are now very worried about the door to door ‘trick or treat’ aspects of Halloween. I know one particular American gentleman who refuses to hand out treats to the children but, instead, buys ice-cream vouchers from fast food outlets and hands those out. His rationale is that, by doing so, he cannot be accused of drugging or poisoning any children nor can he be accused of trying to lure children to his home. Yes, those concerns reflect a frightening concern about the dangers of paedophilia and also a worrying lack of neighbourhood cohesion and trust, but that is the way society is going these days.

On the rare occasion that children have arrived on my doorstep to do the trick or treat ‘thing’, they do not get any lollies from me, nor any other form of treat, but what they do get is a short and polite lesson on the fact that they live in Australia and not America. Some people might call me an old scrooge for adopting that attitude but I think that I am just a proud Australian who wants to see my country remain Australia and not become a Little America.

Instead of adopting Halloween from the Americans, perhaps it is time to develop a uniquely Australian celebration? Perhaps ‘Mateship Day’ which could be a celebration of the unique Australian culture that has evolved here and how our culture developed from a wide range of cultures and nationalities and how it is still evolving to include our all multicultural Australians. Yes, Mateship Day is a pretty ordinary name but I am sure that a better name could be found for such a celebration. Perhaps Mateship Day would help to make our communities even stronger and more neighbourly which, in a world seemingly full of hate, violence and terrorism, is something all countries need. Let’s choose a beneficial and constructive celebration, instead of one with no relevance to our country, instead of one that most of us do not understand, instead of an alien celebration that is based upon antiquated views and let’s choose a celebration that doesn’t just make the big retailers richer!