Halloween is fast approaching and from what I believe (and this is my interpretation of what I've learnt), Halloween originated in the 1500's, around dear Henry VIII's time. In short, because there were to many holidays for all the saints for Henry so he consolidated them into one- "All Hallows Day" (cause he's the king of England- and that means he can do whatever he wants.). Then the pagans came in and fucked it up, turning it into a "festival of the dead" of sorts, and that is where the supernatural, scary element stems from.
But NOW it has mutated into a random day of dress up. Originally excited at the prospect of celebrating something new because Americans do halloween like nobody else I was debating costume ideas. Here is what I came up with:
-Lolita
-Abby from the Crucible
-Anna Karenina
-Cathy Earnshaw
-Anastasia
-Madonna from the 80's
-Sarah Palin.
I realise that my list is hardly 'scary' per say but I was sacrificing fright factor for witty literary or contemporary references. And they are actually all pretty scary if you ask me.
The point is, this holiday has progressed so much since we danced around celebrating various martyrdoms but so many costumes have no rhyme or reason, no connection whatsoever to the original conceit.
Sexy witch- a sluts take on a supernatural entity
Sexy vampire- "
Sexy black cat- "
etc etc but a sexy bee?! I have no objection to an excuse to party, but so many costumes are mindless and will help disconnect this holiday from any grounding. Whats more, we encourage our youth to traipse around the neighbourhood and demand confectionary from pseudo strangers for achieving what?! Even if their costume is commendable, should we really reward them with food? Hahahhaha, a bit like dogs. lol. Not only that but households are expected to spend hard earned moneys on this confectionary to throw at the children, and if not, be subjected to the possibility of getting "tricked".
"Tilly, don't be such a butt, have you actually heard of anybody actually being tricked?"
No, because even that tradition is slipping away. I aint giving shit to a fat kid in a bee costume demanding food from me. What is he going to do? "GOTT YOURR NOSSEE" ?? That would be an acceptable trick to deploy.
Ok I'll stop. Sorry for dicking on halloween and yes I'm still dressing up.
My thoughts exactly! When else in the year do we encourage kids to pester our neighbours, talk to strangers lest even take food from them! Complete contradiction in terms - though maybe I'm better as I was never allowed trick or treating because my mum believes it is begging
ReplyDeleteSame! I kinda wish there was a like button here or something. My mother called it "An american fallacy that we shouldn't impose on our children" or some such. It was a fun night in the end though, but I didn't go treat or treating...
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