Halloween and american culture - AUS-CITY Message Forums

ok this narcs me,the young daughter brought all her recent school project stuff home last week.all this stuff and costume material about Halloween,from end of October school class celebration!what rubbish are they teaching them in school these days?what has this got to do with Australian Culture?She explained to me it was ok they celebrate this in America so its alright.Dont worry I tuned her up!no more Halloween rubbish its only a Pagan festival and American Commercialism.not to be adoped here and not Australian common culture.What next?we start celebrating the 4th July or what?

Yep I'm on your side here, what a lot of crap!, We are becoming like the yanks more and more as every day passes and its no on . We are Australians and thats the bottom line.

Then dont come to Canada, it gets worse....

But all in fairness to our local dudes to the south, they are only quilty of making it an excuse to have a fun time. The real dudes that started it, you will have to look at what is now England, then the Romans, then the Catholic Church.. See below: Halloween, Samhain, El Día de Los Muertos, All Saints' Eve. Call it what you like, it's still the last day of October and always a good excuse for a party - but why? Samhain (pronounced 'sow-in') was the end of the Celtic year, and like all good new-years-eves a good excuse for a party and get-together. However this was more than just a good time together. It was of major importance to the Celts. Samhain marked the end of summer and the start of the cold, dark winter and was a day when the druidic priests of the Celts belived that the dead could come back to the earth and cause trouble for the living. To counter this, the druids built large, sacred bonfires to chase away the dead and for the people to sacrifice possessions and food to the Celtic gods. It was also believed that if you lit a new fire in your house, from the embers of the sacred bonfire, that no evil could enter your house, whilst the fire stayed lit. Roman additions When the Romans invaded the British Isles they added their own customs and traditions to those of the Celts. Two of the most notable were the celebration of Feralia - the Roman comemoration of the dead and the day of honour for Pomona, goddess of fruit and trees. Feralia was held on a day in late October or early November, so tied in with the existing Samhain festivities and beliefs. Whilst Pomona celembrated the harvest with her fruit - the apple. A possible reason for 'bobbing for apples'. Church connection As Christianity took hold of the Celtic world, the church took many of the existing pagan festivals and re-invented them as Christian holidays and celebrations. In the 7th Century, Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to the Virgin Mary on 13 May. This holiday was then changed to 1 November by Pope Gregory III and the Pantheon rededicated to the honour of 'All Saints in the Vatican Basilica', as an attempt to remove the Samhain festivals from the Celtic calender. Later, in the 11th Century, 2 November was made 'All Souls' Day' - a day of honouring the dead. Celebrated in the same manner as Samhain, with bonfires, parades, costumes and feasts. The whole celebration now lasted three days, from 31 October to 2 November and was known as Hallowmas. ---more--- The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates. The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven. The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree. According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer. The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember. So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite "holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.

But at least you guys are neighbours, we are thousands of miles away. Actually my daughter had a Debate on this today. I will tell her so she can ad her bit, as most of our teachers in Public schools are female (Males have been scared away)and a few of these teachers are very anti US and I have told my daughter that they should not try to put there anti US views across to the kids as thats not on and if they do I will complain and find themselves on this forum.

Yeah our class had a debate on it. It was protecting the Australian Content on Tv. Most shows as our debating team said are all American and were taking in to much of their slang when we should be saying less of that and more of the Australian stuff. On Tv out of 10 shows i'd say 8 of them are American. It think it is wrong because if Australia makes a Tv show it shows in Australia but doesn't get distributed to the rest of the world but if it's American then it does get distributed to the rest of the world. As for doing the halloween stuff i think it is good to have fun and try something new but like i said we are taking to much of the American culture and everything they do. I totally think it's wrong because we are turning into Americans more and more eveyday. Where is your dignity??? Where is your pride???

Yanks!!! Whats Australia now the 54th State.??

Ask our beloved Aus.Prime minister,sure he has the answer?Sure he will just pick up the phone to mate Bush,and its all done !just like That!a new State of the USA.Heaven help us,How long till the next elections?we need a fresh new direction for our nation Now!

Haaaa!!

Like i said before we are turning into Americans. What will we be next? The next state?