Something very bizarre happened to me today.
I was walking home and I noticed two small children wandering the streets. One was dressed as a fairy, the other as a witch.
Most of you probably encountered something similar. Most of you probably don’t live west of the Aleutian Islands.
You see, in Australia, we don’t celebrate Hallowe’en. Well, so I thought. Sure, there was a very small display at the store I work at, but it was more about selling chocolate than ghosts, goblins or cherubic youngsters saying “trick-or-treeeet!”
However, I’m only nineteen. When I was at primary school, which wasn’t that long ago, we didn’t have parades, we didn’t go beg the neighbours for candy, we didn’t dress up in scary costumes. It was not part of us - it was an American thing. We didn’t do the Superbowl, either.
I can also pretty confidently say that there are no parades in schools or anything like that now.
But, for the first time, we had knocks on our door and small children saying to us “trick or treat!!!” like they’d been imported direct from Columbus, Ohio.
Like I said, we don’t do Hallowe’en in Australia. That was what the Simpsons did. It was what Ramona Quimby did when she dressed up as the baddest witch, and although it did sound fun, it sounded fun in Oregon, rather than the sort of fun you’d have in New South Wales.
So we had no candy to give them. We didn’t have any lollies either, which is what we call those little sugary things, but I’m feeling like I should be saying candy because that’s apparently what one gets on Hallowe’en.
But these kids hadn’t gone to much of an effort. The first pair who came to the door weren’t in costume. Which made me even more indignant (oh, so you can’t even dress up when imitating a foreign culture. nice. real nice). Some later were costumed, but I would have felt ever so stupid cooing ‘oh, don’t you look adorable!’ and besides, we still didn’t have any candy… lollies.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against Hallowe’en. If I’d been somewhere in America this year I would have been so excited at seeing it all. It would enhance the specialness considering it’s a cultural concept that I would have never experienced before. But in Australia it just makes me feel like I’d better start learning the pledge of allegiance and owning a gun. What’s next? Had I better start preparing for next Thanksgiving or President’s Day? Is my city going to have a 4th of July parade?
And really, Newcastle isn’t the sort of place for hallowe’en. Approaching the Australian summer, with the smell of barbeques in the air and flies buzzing around your head, nothing could be further from the spooky ambience of cold air, bare branches and early darkness I feel befits an American-style Hallowe’en.
So, I’ll admit it, this is a pretty low-key rant for the pit. But I’m not even sure how to feel about this. It’s not so much anger as a feeling of disappointment that something that is so obviously not a part of our culture is being forced onto it, through a combination of our high exposure to US media products and probably our savvy kids who noticed a good chance for lollies… er… candy and jumped at it.
It’s odd. I usually don’t mind so called ‘Americanisation,’ seeing it rather as the natural interactions between cultures. I’m more concerned about the food at McDonalds than its country of origin. But this rubs me the wrong way.
So what’s the story? Is my sense of sadness reasonable at my cultures imminent further ‘Americanisation’, or have I become a crotchety old grouch before I’ve reached my twenties?
Oh, and a quick question, when American kids are told not to take candy from strangers, do you add the rider ‘except on Hallowe’en?’
