Happy Halloween

[MotherBear]

Hope you have a good one, wherever you're celebrating it.

NZ prepares .

[selchie]

I'm getting so excited! It's my favorite holiday. I've got some pumpkins carved, and made witches' boots (kinda like Xmas stockings), a Halloween tree and bat & ghost ornaments. Friends are coming over to Trick-or-Drink, so I'll make tombstone cookies and witches' fingers cheese crackers.
Happy haunting, everyone!

[Glenda]

I'm still not sure just how enthusiastically people in NZ celebrate Halloween. Sure enough there was a stand in The Warehouse selling the paraphernalia, and the is a little excitement about tricking and treating in my 8year old's class, but generally there seems to be a mistrust of the occasion.

I wonder whether there is a growing resistance to what is deemed to be an American import (regardless of age-old pagan origins, which are topsy turvy here in the Southern Hemisphere anyhow).

I would like to see NZ sort itself out a bit with Guy Fawkes, Halloween and even Easter which seems to celebrate the Northern spring rather than any religious events.

Just my view.

[MotherBear]

Originally Posted by selchie

It's my favorite holiday. ]

You get an actual holiday in the US for Halloween?

It sounds like there could be some good photo opportunities in your house, Selchie, but maybe I'm too late in my request?

[Dawn]

Originally Posted by Glenda

I would like to see NZ sort itself out a bit with Guy Fawkes, Halloween and even Easter which seems to celebrate the Northern spring rather than any religious events.

Just my view.

You know Glenda I agree. All of those things seem a little pointless here don't they. As you say the Christian calendar is upside down and very few religious celebrations have anything whatsoever left to do with religion.

[Burgundy21]

The nicest thing about Halloween in France is the religious bit when nearly all the graves are tended by the relatives and huge chrysanthemums or cyclamen are placed on the tombs. It is a Bank Holiday on the 1st November and families get together for a meal to celebrate All Saints. The sight of a small rural graveyard bursting with autumnal colour does wonders for us lot who are living, and it is often a time when we visit to see who got most plants!!

[Glenda]

That is such a lovely tradition, Burgundy. Of course, a Catholic country would be expected to celebrate All Saints Day with a public holiday and family meal - seems close in date to the American Thanksgiving. Nothing like that in the UK or NZ.

Well, my youngest went out trick or treating, with his brothers keeping a watchful eye on him. People were generally unenthusiastic as expected - only a couple were prepared for the kids with chocolate and lollies. Others gave potato chips, cereal bars and fruit; one dentist living up the road gave toothpaste and brushes!!!

[MotherBear]

Whole neighbourhood in the Halloween spirit
5:00AM Thursday November 01, 2007
By Alanah May Eriksen


Nicola Burton tries to scare kids who are out trick or treating. Photo / Dean Purcell

Burnley Tce was the place to be for trick-or-treating in Auckland last night.

The Mt Eden street was speckled with Halloween decorations - jack-o'-lanterns, pictures of ghosts and fake cobwebs. Ghouls, witches, wizards, zombies, pirates, fairies - even Snow Whites - were out to play.

At one house halfway down the street, Alison Laurent could almost pass for a real witch. The grey-haired woman served lollies from a cauldron with her 16-year-old daughter Kassie. At their house, three cats run about and an old clock chimes in the background.

"I've heard a few comments that this is the house to go to on Halloween," Ms Laurent said.

It's 6.30pm and the mother-and-daughter pair have already gone through 12 bags of lollies.

The US tradition of Halloween seems to be getting more popular, Ms Laurent said.

More here .

[nolasmom]

Mother Bear,

Halloween is not a public holiday in the US, like Christmas or Easter where most people have the day off. Although I'm sure many would be in favor of that.

We weren't sure what to do last night. Our 10-month-old is too young to trick-or-treat. I briefly considered drawing a mustache on her with my eyeliner pencil for kicks and photos, but ennui set in. We live in Sumner (Christchurch) on top of one of the Port Hills. You'd have to be a billy goat to trick-or-treat here. Needless to say, we saw no children.

Hopefully, next year we can get together with some other families and dress up.

[KiwiHopeful]

We didn't have any trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood either. They had a little dress-up day at Connor's daycare, but nothing at Evan's school.

I don't know how they did things back in Indiana, but in the East we've somehow separated trick-or-treating from Halloween. For some reason, the towns always have it a day or two before the 31st. The past couple of years it's been on Sunday night.