Here I am, two days after Halloween and only now is it starting to sink in.
Hallmark is taking over the world.
BlogLily has been posting some wonderful pictures of 1950’s office equipment. I have been drawn back into thinking of my life in the ’50s. Well, late 50’s, early 60’s. As I was leaving school and moving into the workforce.
The big days were Christmas Day, Easter Friday because there were Hot Cross Buns, Easter Sunday beacuse that was when I developed my chocolate addiction, and Guy Fawkes Day. My birthday was too close to Christmas to be a seperate day as I only ever got one present for both days! I apparently had a birthday party when I was one year old and my next birthday party was when I turned 21.
Guy Fawkes Day was discontinued sometime during the ’60s because of the dangers of bushfires and the number of lost fingers and thumbs!
Suddenly I wake up in my six-umm – middle age and find that there are new celebrations. There is Valentine’s Day. Now I know that it is technically a European celebration yet it did not come into Australia directly from Europe. It arrived here via the Hallmark Corporation of America during the 80’s. Just another money-maker to support the invasion adventures of the Industo-Military complex which runs the Government of the USA.
Oops, sorry about that, a little bit of my 70’s persona suddenly surfaced.
Now I find I am subject to another, new to Australia, celebration. While my children were at school there was a sudden flurry of Halloween references. I refused to get involved because I was still totally anti-American because of the Vietnam War. Suddenly, it has emerged, fully grown, in remote Perth.
This European-origined, American promoted, Hallmark profit-maker called “Halloween”. Pardon me if I close my eyes again for another thirty years.
This has happened at a most inopportune time. Our national Government has spent the past decade trying to imitate a fully intergrated State of the US. Our TV’s have been taken over by American shows, our politics are those of the far right of America, our religious revival is based on the American Religious Right, our business ethics are based on American business practise and our media is controlled by an ex-Australian American.
No, I did not, and will not, be celebrating “Halloween”.
There is a ray of hope. At last we have been able to get back at America. The Cockroaches are touring there again.
Oh, you probably don’t know them by that name. They changed it when they got coloured T-Shirts.
Now they are The Wiggles – Australia’s revenge on the Americanisation of the world.
Wake up, Jeff! You have to help Captain Feathersword knock down a house of cards!
Filed under: Introspective, Political, anti-war, humour, lifestyle, reflective writings | Tagged: anti-war
Now now, Archie. Halloween does not have to be a commericialized Hallmark money maker. I love it because it gives me a chance to dress up and role play. And I promise you I do not BUY my costumes! I also do not hand out candy.
Halloween has its roots in the pagan holiday known as Samhain, which is considered to be the end of the Year (and also, of course, the beginning as the wheel turns). The veil between the worlds is thin on the night of Samhain, and it is believed that you are more likely to be able to contact your ancestors that night. This is the genesis of the ghosts and goblins aspect of the holiday.
This holiday was also the genesis of the Day of the Dead celebrations in the Phillipines, Mexico, Central America, Spain and other Catholic countries.
Just relax. You don’t have to buy into the commercial aspect of a holiday to have some fun with it.
Although there are certain responsibilities to being a curmudgeon that you should not take lightly.
Ooh, you touched on one of my pet rants – the way there are hardly any genuinely Australian programmes on Australian TV. It’s not just the American programmes that are taking over. You would be mistaken for thinking the ABC was the BBC half of the time. I’ve also noticed a trend for Australian TV shows to imitate American ones, for example the crime shows mimic American crime shows with “cop killers” and melodramatic events. There must be so many talented Australian script-writers, actors, comedians, etc who can’t get a look in. The only channel I see anything consistently original these days is SBS, but I hardly watch TV now because it’s just so boring.
Healingmagichands, I know where All Hallows originated but my gripe is at the gullibility of the Australian masses who unthinkingly adopt imports from America. Had Halloween been brought to Australia by immigrants who then added it to the mix of cultures which is Australia, then I would have no arguments. Same with Valentines Day. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr – hew, it is great to have a good curmudge!
Helen, I tend to agree with you about the lack of Australian content on TV. Once you have outgrown Neighbours, Home and Away and McLeod’s Daughters, there is not a lot left other than the Australian versions of American quiz shows. English comedy I do enjoy unlike the American version which seems to work on the basis of “If it is loud, it must be funny!” There has been good Aussie comedy and drama, Blue Heelers and Sea Change spring to mind and the long list of ABC comedies which culminated in Mother and Son. Hmm – This is going on too long – Maybe I need to do a full post on the subject where I can include comments about how the Free Trade Agreement will kill homegrown TV altogether.
Well you used to have Da Vinci’s Inquest from Canada, but now you must be deprived. Poor you; no wonder you have to drown your sorrows in foreign pagan festivals.
We are not in quest of anything, except a better beer. Australians are depraved, not deprived! Actually, we are suffering a major Wiccan problem. Our seasons are reversed! Should our festivals be reversed as well? Yule should be in June – - -
A friend living near Blackheath was bemused at the appearance in 2000 of three costumed tykes who shouted “trick or treat” at him from his doorstep.
In puzzlement (and in hangoverment, and mildly-stonedament) he asked “What’s all this then, eh?”
“You have to give us candy.” said one of the urchins, confirming the theory that the kids always grasp the salient points.
Scouring his kitchen, Steve managed to scare up an apple, a pack of pot noodles and a packet of chewing gum with one stick missing.
The grasping kiddies were reportedly disappointed.
Here I suspect the holiday will die out through aging population. Not so much the lack of kids as the teenage louts who knock on your door wearing a dollar-store mask and their hoodie-and-jeans.
This year I had planned to make such spoilers sing a song as the price of their greed. But by the time the evening ended I’d had eight visitors. Eight.
It was hardly worth the effort I’d put into my pirate costume …
Bah Humbug! The little pirates should all be made to walk the plank! Preferably into Clthulu infested waters. I’ll give them trick or treat!