Halloween pumpkins?

Guys, thanks for the sociological analysis … I really was only after suggestions about where to buy a pumpkin as a party prop for a homesick American.

I promise I will buy it from Woollies in Dickson … and won’t even look at McDonald’s on the way past

But then you would have been ‘forced’ to endure the holidays you are against.

Here’s my spin on it:

Halloween is originally a Celtic Holiday ‘Samhain’ that was first taken over by the Romans and then the Church.

So what if the Yanks bastardised it? Other cultures did WAY before they did.

I like Halloween. I hate Thanksgiving. I love Australia Day and I hate Easter.

It’s your own personal choice what you choose to celebrate.

If trick-or-treaters come to your door, you do have the choice to say “Sorry I don’t celebrate Halloween”.

Good grief! WMC, you celebrate what you like your way, and I’ll celebrate or not as I choose. Now is this ok with you?

I actually love Americans. I even went there once a long time ago. The men were very sexy. There were like the ‘yup and nope’ Texan cowboys and the more sophisticated ‘corfee’ New York Italians, and the clean cut yet beautiful Brady Bunch ‘can I carry your books?’ types from Orlando Florida, not to mention Bill the Biker, and the I’m Mr Cool California in my convertible types, and the hot Hispanic Latin types.

Also, I didn’t really want to come home.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

thanksgiving on the 4th of July too!

Thanksgiving isn’t in July.

If it’s good enough for the Yanks

And there it is. Blind, pig-ignorant but oh-so-popular anti-American sentiment. Never mind, the rest of you, with your coy and cryptic references to McDonalds and the “I’m don’t hate America, but…” stuff – tyler has the intellectual honesty to come right out and say what’s on all your minds.

You’re a bunch of hypocrites. You celebrate all the other holidays in the same way they’re celebrated in the US because you’ve grown up with them, gutsing yourself all year long on American television, American movies, American music and American food. But not Hallowe’en – that’s for the Yanks, and I only watch the ABC, and that McDonalds is simply dreadful. “Harvest festivals have no relevance here”, you cry, but you’ll sure as hell celebrate the Yule midwinter festival in the middle of summer, complete with a German pine tree, Chinese tinsel, Taiwanese lights shaped like icicles, American carols and a dead Turkish saint wearing an American soft drink company’s colours. Way to stem the red, white and blue tide. Sheeple.

WMC, halloween is not an america only festival. it was called all hallows eve by the british, and stems back to the celts. it is just another religious festival commercialised…

LOL dont stop there WMC

thanksgiving on the 4th of July too!

Thanksgiving isn’t in July.

If it’s good enough for the Yanks

And there it is. Blind, pig-ignorant but oh-so-popular anti-American sentiment. Never mind, the rest of you, with your coy and cryptic references to McDonalds and the “I’m don’t hate America, but…” stuff – tyler has the intellectual honesty to come right out and say what’s on all your minds.

You’re a bunch of hypocrites. You celebrate all the other holidays in the same way they’re celebrated in the US because you’ve grown up with them, gutsing yourself all year long on American television, American movies, American music and American food. But not Hallowe’en – that’s for the Yanks, and I only watch the ABC, and that McDonalds is simply dreadful. “Harvest festivals have no relevance here”, you cry, but you’ll sure as hell celebrate the Yule midwinter festival in the middle of summer, complete with a German pine tree, Chinese tinsel, Taiwanese lights shaped like icicles, American carols and a dead Turkish saint wearing an American soft drink company’s colours. Way to stem the red, white and blue tide. Sheeple.

mad_kiwi said :

try a duck inside a chicken inside a turkey the southern US states have at xmas, as seen on spicks and specks last night, ewww

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turducken

The bird in bird thing they do in the South is often deep-fried, from memory.

I quite enjoy Thanksgiving, it’s a tasteful, low-key version of our Xmas. One in Vemront, we had Turkey and some specific veggie accompanyments. Teh stuffing was cooked outside the bird until the last period of cooking, wherein it was put in side the bird.

And the giblets were used in making the gravy (not into offal so found that a bit strong). We also had a cooked green bean thing with processed fried onion in (you buy it in a container, calle dFrench Friend Onion flakes or something), and something with Celeriac.

tylersmayhem said :

I still laugh how a guy I used to know who lives in America, would always wish me Happy Thanksgiving each year.

I was astonished to realise that many Americans assume that the whole world celebrates Thanksgiving. They don’t really think about it, they jsut assume that because it’s so big over there (biggest of the big), it’s a worldwide thing.

I used to ask them to explain what was behind Thanksgiving, and after they’d explained about the founding fathers and whatnot, I’d ask what relevance that had to anyone who wasn’t american. It really floored them… they’d never stopped to ask themselves that.

Danman said :

You said thrush.

Interesting to note that they would all have to be boned (or is that de-boned) before they could be of any use being nested – otherwise you would spend the whole time cutting through bones.

I think there is an australian butcher in the southern highlands that makes turducken – but bugger cooking it – would be like 140 degrees for 36 bazillion hours otherwise th eoutside would be cooked and the inside would be raw……

I think the seppos like to cook turkey around thanksgiving, outside, in huge improvised drums of fat as well….Ill be in Florida for thanksgiving this year so Ill let “Y’all” know.

the birds are now mostly protected species. considering that this was considered a delicacy in the 19th century, this was probably a reason for the bird numbers falling…

You said thrush.

Interesting to note that they would all have to be boned (or is that de-boned) before they could be of any use being nested – otherwise you would spend the whole time cutting through bones.

I think there is an australian butcher in the southern highlands that makes turducken – but bugger cooking it – would be like 140 degrees for 36 bazillion hours otherwise th eoutside would be cooked and the inside would be raw……

I think the seppos like to cook turkey around thanksgiving, outside, in huge improvised drums of fat as well….Ill be in Florida for thanksgiving this year so Ill let “Y’all” know.

and the record for a nested bird roast is from the 19th century –
a bustard stuffed with a turkey, a goose, a pheasant, a chicken, a duck, a guinea fowl, a teal, a woodcock, a partridge, a plover, a lapwing, a quail, a thrush, a lark, an Ortolan Bunting and a Garden Warbler. The final bird is small enough that it can be stuffed with a single olive…

just shift the festival to autumn here. call it quasi all hallows eve.

Gosh! Well, that actually looks quite yummy, but I’m not selling out for any old turducken.

try a duck inside a chicken inside a turkey the southern US states have at xmas, as seen on spicks and specks last night, ewww

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turducken

Good excuse to cop a feel though 🙂

Danman @ #15 – not sure you need halloween for that.

ohhhhhhh ….

Those round paper sheets you sometimes find in airplanes in Aussie – but in the majority of public toilets in the USA.

Eeeeeww, peterh, that is gross!

Granny said :

Goodness! What is a toilet seat cover?

always thought it was cling wrap for the ultimate “trick”…

Granny said :

Goodness! What is a toilet seat cover?

Basically a car seat cover with a hole in it.

Goodness! What is a toilet seat cover?

I still laugh how a guy I used to know who lives in America, would always wish me Happy Thanksgiving each year. Mind you, this IS the same guy who can’t believe we don’t use toilet seat covers here in Australia. “Haven’t you guys ever heard of AIDS”, was the response when I told him! No word of a lie. My wife and I still laugh about his idiocy.

Yeah, like a thanksgiving turkey is just never going to do it for me. It’s nice over there, but ….

Same with Valentine’s Day. We never bother. I feel sorry for any poor kids like Ralph’s “I choo-choo-choose you” in the Simpsons.

Just hand out little single serves of weetbix and vegimite. Pretty soon they’ll stop coming to your door…

Or as a trick, you can ask them to scoff and entire dry Weetbix with no liquids within 60 seconds. Trust me, harmless, but very entertaining fun every time. 🙂

They have to start somewhere. As for commercialisation, the same is true of every other holiday Australians have no trouble celebrating.

How true Woody. Let’s start celebrating thanksgiving on the 4th of July too! If it’s good enough for the Yanks, it seems it’s good enough for us too!

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

They have to start somewhere. As for commercialisation, the same is true of every other holiday Australians have no trouble celebrating.

Halloween is based on folk traditions, superstition, and the end of the harvest. None of these apply in Australia. These folk traditions have sprung up in response to the end of harvest in Europe and later in America, with some old folk-religion thrown in.. some pagan stuff. There’s some fertility stuff in there too.

All we are getting here is the commercialised end of it, not the full deal. It’s a bit like the way they celebrate easter in Japan, easter is chocolate festival there, which is a weird adoption of the very end of the commercialisation of a spring festival and religious festival from Europe.

The way the yanks do Halloween, it actually does mean something. It’s quite exciting, and the parties they hold, and trick or treating is traditional, they all did it as kids.

Here, we are imitating a tiny bit of it without the full tradition behind it. It’s not even the right season… pumpkins and corn (which feature largely in the US festivities) aren’t even in season now! We’re just planting out the seedlings.

Woody, feel free to like it if you want. Read posts #8 and #9. Feel free to like McDonalds also.

I really hate and despise the franchising of this holiday.

Could I ask why? The reasons you’ve given so far seem quite circular: I don’t like it because I don’t like it and can’t get my head around it.

Here in Australia though, it has no tradition

They have to start somewhere. As for commercialisation, the same is true of every other holiday Australians have no trouble celebrating.

I was in Hawaii last year for halloween, and can say that it was lots of fun for us there – a certain barmaid was dressed up as a twister board – spin the arrow, left hand right butt cheek, right hand left boobie 😛

Here in Australia though, it has no tradition and is only a bastardisation of a tradition that is pretty much wholly commercialised through time.

I’ll be waiting with my pitchfork dressed as an ogre ….

*heh heh heh*

Just wait until the urchins figure out the “Trick” part of the deal and toilet paper your house for giving them the browned weetbix.

They’re here ….

That said, I’ve seen them in Coles and Woolies over here on the northside.

I really hate and despise the franchising of this holiday. It’s so McDonalds. I want my happy little vegemites to stay that way.

Word Granny, Word!

Not to mention egging the neighbourhood houses and toilet-papering the cars!

I like a lot of American stuff (e.g. my apple iMac, my Nike trainers, my occasional cheeseburger or dose of Bourbon Whiskey).. and I think that the other two holidays they invented – Mothers Day and Fathers Day – are great, especially when I get breakfast in bed, but imagine, actually encouraging your kids to roam the streets asking for lollies from strangers.. and all that ghoulish dressing-up, far from being scary – it’s just plumb ugly. Now if I wanted to celebrate ugliness, I’d buy an apartment with exclusive views of Sydney’s Cahill Expressway.

That is brilliant, p1!

: )

I agree. In the US it’s kind of cool, and would be part of the whole experience of being there. But over here I just kind of can’t get my head around little Aussie Weet-bix kids trick or treating at my door.

Just hand out little single serves of weetbix and vegimite. Pretty soon they’ll stop coming to your door…

I agree. In the US it’s kind of cool, and would be part of the whole experience of being there. But over here I just kind of can’t get my head around little Aussie Weet-bix kids trick or treating at my door.

I’m with you Granny!

It works in the US, where they have the history and traditions. I was in northern Vermont just after Halloween and it was fascinaing to see all the leftover stuff, straw dolls on peoples’ porches, rotting carved pumpkins, bunting that hadn’t been taken down, remains of bonfires etc.
It means something there, as it’s the end of autumn harvest, the first snows are happening in some parts, summer is dead and winter is on the brink.

Here, it’s just silly, as it’s spring!

I really hate and despise the franchising of this holiday. It’s so McDonalds. I want my happy little vegemites to stay that way.

they were at fyshwick markets last sunday..