Carlton Supporters Club

Halloween pre-dates the Americans, so you can get that bee out of your bonnet too.

It's the Americans that have been the 'influencer' though.
We only know about it in our country because of American movies and television.
And that's funny thing.... the older ones of us, 60+, are more 'Americanised' than the young folks realise.
Off the top of  my head I can name about  half a dozen indigenous Australian tribes.
I can tell you over 30 native American groups.

Our heroes weren't Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth or Burke and Wills...they were Daniel Boone, Davey Crockett, Annie Oakley, Wyatt Earp (brave, courageous and bold), Bat Masterson and Casey Jones (old Redrock and  Fireman Wally too).
We played Cowboys and Indians, and there wasn't many of us who didn't have a toy set of those. (they sometimes came in the Corn Flakes.)
That's TV for you, when for most of our youth the shows came mostly from the States.

And now the Halloween push has been very much taken over and driven by the Woolworths, Coles, K Marts, Big W, and the $2 shops.
There has been Halloween stuff in the stores for over a month now.
Yep..the kids are embracing it and it will continue to grow and prosper...and by the time their kids are grown up it will be entrenched as part of the Australian celebratory season.
And the shops will make a lot of money with the scary stuff.

Marketing to kids is often a big earner, fallow ground for the influencers.

Listen kid, I don’t even do xmas.
As far as I’m concerned if you want to “celebrate” xmas you should need to show a card that you’ve been god bothering at least 20 maybe 30 times a year so if there’s no regular god bothering then there’s no xmas birthday cake !
Same for the ritual nailing some clown to a wooden cross.
I’m happy to respect those who think their invisible sky friend helps to make them better people but I have zero time for those who just want 4 days of paid holidays.

It's the Americans that have been the 'influencer' though.
We only know about it in our country because of American movies and television.
And that's the funny thing.... the older ones of us, 60+, are more 'Americanised' than the young folks realise.
Off the top of  my head I can name about  half a dozen indigenous Australian tribes.
I can tell you over 30 native American groups.

Our heroes weren't Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth or Burke and Wills...they were Daniel Boone, Davey Crockett, Annie Oakley, Wyatt Earp (brave, courageous and bold), Bat Masterson and Casey Jones (old Redrock and  Fireman Wally too).
We played Cowboys and Indians, and there wasn't many of us who didn't have a toy set of those. (they sometimes came in the Corn Flakes.)
That's TV for you, when for most of our youth the shows came mostly from the States.

And now the Halloween push has been very much taken over and driven by the Woolworths, Coles, K Marts, Big W, and the $2 shops.
There has been Halloween stuff in the stores for over a month now.
Yep..the kids are embracing it and it will continue to grow and prosper...and by the time their kids are grown up it will be entrenched as part of the Australian celebratory season.
And the shops will make a lot of money with the scary stuff.

I disagree.

For me a true Christian understands that the Church of God has nothing to do with priests, churches made of bricks and mortar, and showing others how good a Christian you can be.

Its about reconciling your own version of morality.  It also means that Christ being crucified and paying the ultimate price was for all of humanity's salvation irrespective of how they behave on this plane of existence.  The idea of hell and purgatory is a human one and not understanding the aforementioned, and actually causing yourself mental anguish.  That is the proverbial hell on earth.

Whether or not others agree with this viewpoint is up to them.  Christmas irrespective of why the holiday exists, is a time of bringing family and friends together so if it achieves nothing else, it is great for social and mental health.

The ruling powers that be would love nothing more than a society of slaves to the wage with no public holidays.

It's the Americans that have been the 'influencer' though.

It's the Americans that have been the 'influencer' though.

The point I'm making is this....the version of Halloween our young folk are embracing is the American model.
The characters the children dress up as come mostly from the American interpretation of them.
We know of these 'trick or treat' activities... the dressing up etc because our kids grow up watching American movies and TV shows.
We grew up watching our favourite American TV families celebrating Halloween.
That's why the yanks get the blame.

That US model  may come from old European and Pagan origins but it's the American interpretation of the Ghosts, Vampires, Zombies....and popular film and comic characters etc that the kids embrace.

Do you know what the most popular figure by my reckoning (in terms of numbers wearing that costume) was at the Wynnum parade.
It wasn't a ghost, goblin or mummy
It was DC movie/comics...Harley Quinn

( just as an aside....My favourite at the parade was a guy who had what looked like a body bag slung over his shoulder. He was carrying a shovel. There were a couple of guys walking behind me when this guy appeared and one said..."This is probably the one night of the year when you could get away with actually burying someone like that for real"