Hey, it’s a Canadian thing too.
I pity any country that doesn’t have Hallowe’en. It’s fun.
Seaweed crackers??? Okay somebody go around to the back to throw the toilet paper back to this side, everybody else run home to get eggs. 
My kids, being entrepreneurial opportunists, did the ‘Trick or Treat’ stuff a few years back. We lived in an ethnically diverse area at the time, and so there was always some goodies to be gleaned by donning some face-paint and knocking on doors. They often recieved small amounts of money instead of lollies or biscuits, so figured it was a good scam for minimal effort!
I don’t think there is any great harm in it, and I feel assured it will not become the ‘big thing’ that it is in the US. Think of it as the kiddie consolation prize for the very adult (and equally silly) festival the following week…The Melbourne Cup.
(for those not in the horse-racing know, it is a race that shuts down the entire state of Victoria on the first Tuesday in November. Actually, it shuts down on Monday too, 'cos everyone gets an RDO, a curriculum day or similar so that we can have a loooong weekend. All for 3 minutes to watch some gee-gees running around a big circle) Now THAT’S crazy. 
Yeah, as soon as we finish annexing Canada, you Aussies are next. (Or maybe you’re right after Great Britain, I may have missed a meeting.)
I agree to a certain extent that the US does not force Australia (or anywhere else) to adopt its culture at gunpoint. With this in mind, I don’t complain about the McDonalds on every corner, or the crappy sitcoms on TV.
Festivals and holidays are another kettle of fish, though. My parents remember a time when it was only Christmas, New Year, and Easter. Yes, this was even before Fathers’ and Mothers Days. Of course, the retailers (Aussie ones too, usually, so can’t blame the Yanks) have an interest in everything from Secretarys’ Day to Grandparents’ Day, but these fake celebrations are merely annoying.
But Halloween? Nothing against the US, but you guys are welcome to keep it. Simply put, it’s the twenty-first century, I live in a rough part of a big city, and no kid of mine is going knocking on strangers’ doors for sweets.
We like handing out those airplane mini-whiskeys to the kids.
Not really.
Nobody knocked on my door here in scary inner suburbville but I was on the phone to a friend who lives in what was once a sleepy little township but is now a far, far, far away suburb of Melbourne at the very end of the railway line where land is cheap, house builders shonky and small children roam the streets at will. I swear in the hour we were talking her doorbell went 7 times with groups of costumed sprogs demanding lollies. She really seemed to be enjoying this sign of community. I laughed and asked her whether she was having Thanksgiving, she asked what that was, I explained the origins and the menu and she is searching for a pumpkin pie recipe and has invited me for turkey. Yikes. Any excuse for a party will do it seems.
Mind you, I have to say I think it is all worth it for the repeats of The Simpsons Halloween Dolphin bit. I love that.
I’m not particularly fond of American culture being force down my throat either, and I’m an american, so, we’re all in the same boat.
I don’t think anything’s being forced anywhere. Kids are just seeing an opportunity to get junk food… I can’t say I blame them.
We only had one group. Mr Goo answered the door and responded to “Trick or Treat” with a polite and friendly “Oh, no thankyou!” That confused them a little.
The less goodies they get, the less likely it is that they’ll bother the following year. I’ve heard some stories about the damage that some kids do to houses that don’t give out treats (in America) and I’m not interested in encouraging that sort of thing. And that sort of thing is exactly what the locals around here would do.
If this country adopts Halloween as a whole, then my views might change, but in the meantime I’m not encouraging it.
It’s a matter of economics, largely. We have a population of 20 million or so. The cost per head of population of making movies and TV for an audience of 20m is very high compared to the cost of making the same for an audience of a few hundred million people in the States. So TV stations here buy up US shows cheap rather than make their own. If it weren’t for regulations that require a certain percentage of local content, we’d barely hear an Australian accent on Australian TV. As it is, commercial TV is like travelling to another country.
Gives me the shits. But that’s just the way the world works, I recognise that the US is not at fault.
My cousin told me a funny story about Halloween a while ago. I’m an American, and so are my cousin’s parents, my aunt and uncle. But they lived in London for twelve years, and their kids were born there, and my cousin, who’s the eldest of three, lived there until she was 12. Anyway, apparently when she was very young, my aunt and uncle dressed her and her younger brother in costumes on Halloween, and took them trick-or-treating! People were extremely confused and they didn’t get any candy.
I haven’t asked my aunt and uncle about this, but I think I’ll have to. They must have lived in Britain for a few years at this point and known perfectly well that no one trick-or-treats there. I have no idea what they could have been thinking.
ANOTHER ONE!!! What is wrong with you people? At least put “FICTION: DIDN’T HAPPEN” in the title. I’m surprised you all believe these absurd stories. Aren’t you supposed to ask for cites and stuff at this message board? If I wanted to read “stories” about “stuff”, I’d go to LiveJournal.
Why isn’t anyone else calling bullshit on these threads?
King Nifty are you sure you’re in the right thread because your response does not seem to correlate to the OP or any of the subsequent posts.
Oh, I get it now. After reading King Nifty’s post above, I did a quick search to find which forum he may have been intending to post in.
Turns out he has found our board quite unsatisfactory, and is behaving like a bit of an ass by accusing people of lying!!
Hey ‘Potsy’ how long do you reckon you’ll last?
King Asshat… I live in Australia and I witnessed behaviour described in the OP. No, wait, no I didn’t. I am, in fact, lying. The lie obviously serves me a great and as yet unknown purpose, but there must be a reason for my lying otherwise it wouldn’t happen, right? Maybe this account is just fictional too, and I don’t really exist. WHOA HEADFUCK
Come to us, Australia. You love Americanism. You want Americanism. You need Americanism. Big Macs… Baywatch… Britney Spears… Come to us, Australia… eat, watch, listen… sleep… [sub]sleep…[/sub]
I’ve never seen a Trick or Treater on this side of Australia. Been to quite a few Hallowe’en parties though.
I don’t seem the harm with it. Just an excuse to have a bit of fun. I don’t believes it’s right to turn our noses up at it simply because “it’s an American custom”. I’m as comfortable with Hallowe’en as I am with Chinese New Year and St Patrick’s Day.
A dangerous commercial innovation, is how I regard Halloween here in New Zealand. In Auckland, they were chucking fireworks around at parked cars pedestrians. Part of the “trick”, I suppose. Those who profit from the globalisation of such celebrations have much to answer for.
Silly to be out alone at night at that age, halloween or not. My parents took me trick or treating until I was ten or so and then after that I went with a large crowd of my friends mostly to watch my younger sister and her friends.
Actually having lived past the time where I had 5-15 year olds in my life Halloween has, for me, become primarily an adult event. It involves either dressing up and going to a party with music and alcohol or dressing up and going down to Kalakaua Blvd. and hanging out with the huge crowd of dressed up people and observers there and occasionaly heading into Duke’s or some other drinking establishment for drinks. Although I should say that I’m a fuddy-duddy and don’t celebrate any holidays.
Yet I must say that I highly recommend this holiday for the eye candy. Tonight I saw a woman dressed up as not just a french maid, but a fairy french maid. And genies sexy devils galore. With the occasional tarzan or caveman for the ladies.
P.S. How do you pronounce it if you spell it hallowe’en. Do you ignore the mark or treat it as a glottal stop?
Hey, we participated in Halloween trick-or-treat last night.
I wouldn’t ket the kids (10 years old) do any of the ‘trick’ things like egg houses or flor bomb their doors as people wouldn’t be accepting of that.
But the kids had a great time. They dressed up at witches and I followed them in the car for about an hour.
In that hour I probably saw about 100 kids going around the neighbourhood and most of the doors they knocked on, they got something.
I saw witches, pirates, a spiderman, some ghouls, a devil or two. It was kind of fun to watch.
Next year, I’m going for the pumpkin thing too (my SO thinks I’m mad).
I don’t believe I am being forced to do this, it’s just kind of fun.