We live in Australia, and we don't harvest at this time of the year, well, not where I live anyway and certainly not pumpkins! We have a bastardised, multicultural history that somehow cleaves itself to Britain and America. We've somehow adopted a festivity entirely inappropriate for the season (we can't have Bonfire Night, because of fires, and we aren't allowed to have fireworks here). Whilst I did have fun listening to Halloween histories and ghost stories, a recitation of the Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, and discussions on the thin veil between the worlds and whether those born on October 31st can see the dead, I'm still terribly uncomfortable with Australian's need to celebrate it in that some do.
Sure, if it's a cultural thing - if you're homesick for your old country and you want to educate your kids on it too, or want to connect to home, I don't have a problem with it. There's no real reason you can't have a bit of fun with your kids, or have an excuse for a party (any excuse, right?) but I'm not sure people know how much they are manipulated in celebrating Halloween in a particular way.
It does seem a bit like being sucked into a marketing scheme and entertaining the kids without thinking of how it might affect others - and the earth.
My biggest bugbear (and no, a bugbear is not a ghoul or a monster, just a pet peeve or annoyance - but I could be a bugbear at Halloween with fangs and dripping blood, and a little bit grouchier than a normal bugbear) is that it's just a hook to hang consumer culture on. Buy buy buy folks - buy capes and plastic masks, buy out of season pumpkins and plastic lanterns, buy spider webs and witches costumes, buy orange muffins with orange icing painted with pumpkins, buy orange fanta and orange and black balloons and buy lollies and treats for the kids that come a-knocking dressed as bloodied zombies and mini witches.
People say that it's great for community, but come on folk, if you're so worried about community, why aren't you doing it for the rest of the year? Why just now? Do you pop past at Christmas to wish us a good one? Do you celebrate other cultural festivities in the name of community or is just this one?
My folks got a letter in their letter box with a balloon, saying if they want to participate, put the balloon out. That's quite thoughtful, I thought - they can opt out of an event they don't really care about.
Except ... the balloons.
Balloons are basically latex death traps released into the environment. They mimic the appearance of food and thus are eaten by wildlife, as are the plastic strings and ribbons attached to them. Along with plastic bags and bottles they are one of the most three most harmful pollutants threatening wildlife. And if you've bought balloons, you've probably bought plastic cobweb stuff to hang on your fence, and plastic cups and plastic plates and plastic spiders and plastic ghosts and plastic bats.
A plastic nightmare fantastica.
And sure, it makes it pretty Halloween-y, doesn't it? Seagulls choking on shreds of plastic. Turtles bound up in plastic cobwebs. A duck wearing a halloween cape, stuck on a fence. Fits with the theme. But I'm sure that's not really what you want your kiddies to see.
So yeah, I'm a Halloween grinch.
