Where I don't really understand Halloween

[alexandral]

I didn't want to spoil anyone's fun yesterday with grumpy entries, but I do not understand Halloween. Mostly likely because I grew up in USSR where we never had this holiday. It fact, round about this time of year USSR used to have one of their biggest holidays of the year, "The October revolution day", celebrating the anniversary of the revolution in 1917. This was one of the biggest holidays, but not one of the favourite ones. Usually the fun consisted of big parades and demonstrations (in mostly freezing weather you get in Russia at this season) and lots of Lenin films shown on TV. The favourite time of the year it was not, at least not mine.
Tangentially, when the similarity between the date of "The October revolution day" and "All Hallows' Eve" was discovered in 90s, this produced much speculation and conspiracy theories about the "demonic" nature of the October Revolution of 1917. Seriously. :D

The other aspect of Halloween-underappreciation for me is the fact that I don't see why my kid or I should get dressed as a skeleton or a zombie or any other evil thing. I am quite literal and for me evil things are .. well.. evil. As I understand, in the USA people get dressed in all manner of fun costumes and this sounds like something that can potentially be fun. But here in the UK the costumes we get seem to be witch/ghoul/zombie/pumpkin. I have no desire to dress as any of those.

Also I don't think it is at all that safe for kids to be wondering dark streets alone, demanding sweets from strangers. Usually the little ones are accompanied by an adult, but I have seen several groups of 9-10-11-12 year olds wondering the streets unattended. Yes, I am paranoid, but I still don't think this is safe at all.

And the last thing, although may be this is the main thing, is that I do not like ANY of commercial holidays. I have a sneaky suspicion that they all are invented by "evil multinational corporations" that want to sell more of cheap sweets, cheap zombie masks and other stuff that we don't really need.

Just for fun: the old card with the battleship Aurora literally translates: "Glory to the Great October!"

Comments

[jaltinka.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen any other costumes than witch, ghoul, zombie and pumpkin's in the US...

I don't understand this holiday either but it seems to be really big deal here.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I think this is one of those things you need to grow up with..

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

Mabe it's because I grew up with it, but I adore Halloween. I don't take any of the "evil" costumes literally, again I think because I grew up with everyone dressing up and so I just see the kids underneath, if that makes any sense. I really love opening the door and handing out the candy, and seeing how some kids are shy and some are giggly and some are so excited they can't contain themselves.

But I think it must be a very odd holiday to come to as an adult. And it's certainly gotten very commercialized (second only to Christmas in decorations and stuff). But I love all the lights and decorations of Christmas and always have, so I love everyone's Halloween displays, too.

It's totally not a right or wrong thing for me, though. The one thing I don't like - when anyone does it for any reason - is when people are pressured to "join in" and made to feel as if there's something wrong with them for not wanting to. So you've got every right to want to avoid Halloween, especially if the darker costumes upset you.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Oh, I can totally see how this could have appealed to me as a kid, especially the way it is celebrated in the USA where everyone seems to be involved.

but yes, I do not like the pressure, that is for sure. Every year my daughter wants to go trick-or-treating with her friends and we let her go sometimes but this year my husband said "no" and I think she had a bit of a pressure at school. Oh well, she needs to get used to the fact that she doesn't need to conform with what the other people want.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Well, we celebrated Halloween by having my son dress up as Winnie the Pooh, so definitely not evil there :P (And he wasn't wandering around alone - in fact, we just went in our building to various apartments that were on a list of people who said they welcomed people doing trick-or-treat. And he had a wonderful time running from apartment to apartment and saying "trick or healthy food" - his own amendment to the ritual :D)

So I don't know, yes, it is kind of a commercial thing, but it's also done in fun and the kids seem to like it. I never dress up myself except when I was in college and grad school and then it was more about having a costume party.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I must say the holiday sounds fun in the USA, but it is not as fun here in the UK. And I definitely get a number of people every year at my doorstep, unwelcomed, mostly groups of teens and pre-teens 9and they aren't always nice when you say "No"). :(

For me, it just feels like another thing that proves the USA influence of the rest of the world. In almost all European countries they have their own holidays this time of the year, but Halloween is becoming more and more popular..