Wednesday, November 02, 2005
An atypical holiday
I’m an American and I like Halloween. Halloween is thought to have started out around 2,000 years ago in Europe (Celtic Britian and Northern France). However, The Economist recently reported that many Europeans are boycotting the holiday, and trying to convince others to do so. Several municipalities in Germany passed resolutions against Halloween on the basis that it’s a repugnant commercial holiday trumpeted and blown out of proportion by Americans. Did they ban trick-or-treat-ing? That wasn’t clear from the article.
How wrong can they be? Halloween is the most unusual of American holidays. In a country supposedly overrun by Christian Fundamentalists, it’s conceded to be an anti-Christian, pagan-based holiday when the goblins and ghouls get to take over for a night, God-willing or not. True, the holiday involves a $2-billion-in-one-night industry in candy give-aways. Give-aways might be typical of the American welfare state, but on this particular holiday, individuals voluntarily invite kids, teenagers and other strangers onto their private property to give them candy. Americans are stereotyped as greeting strangers at the door with double-barrelled shotguns – but not on halloween, when we’re more likely to sport a skull mask and wield nothing more dangerous than a large salad-bowl-turned-candy bin. Americans are often critised for our “lack of community” – but Halloween is the one holiday when we throw open our front doors and greet our neighbors, even if they are dressed as vampires and proceed to commit extortion by delivering the threat of unspecified property damage. We applaude these kids for looking truly horrible – sporting tatoos, piercings, blood and make-up (as long as it’s all rub-on, clip-on, or otherwise temporary). Any other day we’d call them antisocial and send them to counseling.
It’s baffling why Europeans are against Halloween, which is such an atypical American holiday. If they’re so anti-commercial, why not eschew Christmas? If they’re so secular, why not skip Easter? And don’t tell me Europeans are against overdosing on carbohydrates – if so, how can they condone Oktoberfest?
How wrong can they be? Halloween is the most unusual of American holidays. In a country supposedly overrun by Christian Fundamentalists, it’s conceded to be an anti-Christian, pagan-based holiday when the goblins and ghouls get to take over for a night, God-willing or not. True, the holiday involves a $2-billion-in-one-night industry in candy give-aways. Give-aways might be typical of the American welfare state, but on this particular holiday, individuals voluntarily invite kids, teenagers and other strangers onto their private property to give them candy. Americans are stereotyped as greeting strangers at the door with double-barrelled shotguns – but not on halloween, when we’re more likely to sport a skull mask and wield nothing more dangerous than a large salad-bowl-turned-candy bin. Americans are often critised for our “lack of community” – but Halloween is the one holiday when we throw open our front doors and greet our neighbors, even if they are dressed as vampires and proceed to commit extortion by delivering the threat of unspecified property damage. We applaude these kids for looking truly horrible – sporting tatoos, piercings, blood and make-up (as long as it’s all rub-on, clip-on, or otherwise temporary). Any other day we’d call them antisocial and send them to counseling.
It’s baffling why Europeans are against Halloween, which is such an atypical American holiday. If they’re so anti-commercial, why not eschew Christmas? If they’re so secular, why not skip Easter? And don’t tell me Europeans are against overdosing on carbohydrates – if so, how can they condone Oktoberfest?
# posted by stratovolcano @ 2:44 PM 
