by on 02-10-2014 in Entertainment
Halloween is a tradition that originated in the Northern Hemisphere. It marks the pre-Christian tradition in the Celtic year when all the crops had been harvested—a time to cull flocks and herds, to stockpile stores against the growing darkness. This traditional celebration of harvest plenty and spiritual beliefs fed by the shortening of the daylight—when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead thinned—was adopted and adapted by Christian missionaries and eventually became a fixture of the European calendar. Eventually it travelled across oceans during the age of colonization.
It’s important to note the cultural and spiritual origins of any holiday in order to gain a better understanding of why we celebrate it. However, it’s true that modern commercialisation has infiltrated many of these celebrations, and become an integral part of them. Halloween is the second largest consumer holiday in the United States—second only to Christmas. But how does this bear at all on how Australians celebrate the holiday? How are the traditional, autumnally bound symbols of the holiday expressed in the Southern Hemisphere?
True, Australian mainstream culture exhibits discernable European influences, but when the days are growing shorter in the Northern Hemisphere, beautiful flowers are blooming and springtime is in the air in Australia. How do the traditional Halloween activities and decorations fit into the season and the cultural tapestry of our island continent? Because the market for Halloween products, from costumes and decorations to foods and party favours is so enormous in the United States, celebrating Halloween has a decided commercial benefit to the national economy.
While it may be oddly placed in Australia’s seasonal round, Halloween activities can still be great fun for kids and adults alike. Here, we’ll look at how this country embraces this holiday with typical enthusiasm and love of fun. But we all know that Australians are their own people, not European or American. So how do various cities choose to celebrate Halloween? How are Australian themes and cultural ideas expressed to make it a uniquely observed seasonal holiday?
While Halloween isn’t a national public holiday, many businesses and venues may be especially busy prior to and on the day of Halloween. Also known as All Hallows Eve, this day is often spent in celebration of all things spooky and fun. Costume parties are especially popular during this time, and can be scheduled either on or around the actual day of Halloween. Decorations have become quite popular as an accompaniment to the children’s activity of trick-or-treating. This custom stems from European tradition of going en masque to fool the spirits and other supernatural entities said to inhabit the night, because they may be bent on mischief or outright harm.
Today, it’s a much more benign pastime, centred on fun, glee, and acquiring treats. Parties are also a popular activity, especially for adults. Charities and businesses often make use of the holiday to organize themed gatherings with entertainments and contests that benefit both clientele and company interests. They also provide a great venue for customer and employee interaction, thus strengthening the concept of community-business relationships. Wizards, witches, bats, spiders, and black cats are popular symbols for the day, and costumes for children and adults alike allow everyone to engage in the playful spirit of the festivities.
Many resorts throw special parties for Halloween, with organized trick-or-treating for kids, activities like apple-bobbing, costume contests, and dances for the grown ups. If you’re looking for something a little spookier than a big party with themed foods and decorations, try signing up for a ghost walk, tour or hunt. These have gained in popularity in the past few years, with explorations of some of Australia’s most haunting locations becoming favourites.
Adults can join in the creepy fun by taking a cemetery tour or visiting one of the many 19th century jails or asylums around the country. Every region has its own collection of spooky folk tales that range from the comparatively light-hearted to the macabre and spine chilling. You may even want to take the adventures into nature with a tour such as those offered in the Blue Mountains. Anywhere humans have lived boasts a host of local lore surrounding natural and built features of the landscape.
Haunted houses are also increasingly popular. Both specialty venues designed especially for the night, and houses with local or national repute of being haunted are excellent places to visit. Tour companies and local businesses often tie local history and fun together with special tours of creepy spots, places that hold the chill of abandonment, and important landmarks. In a way, these tours and walks are often most authentically in keeping with the original spirit of the holiday. It marks a day of welcoming the memory of what is past—friends, relatives, enemies, or distant ancestors. It is a of communal remembrance, and haunted tours or adventures provide a brand of fun suitable for mature guests.
If you’ve got little ones, you can blend the spooky fun with a trip to the zoo. The Adelaide Zoo hosts Boo at the Zoo. This year, the night will be celebrated in costume, and guests are encouraged to dress up and join the fun. Along with trick-or-treat fun for the young ones, the Zoo is enthusiastically including the animal denizens in the fun, with special treats designed by the expert handlers. Everyone is sure to have an excellent, spooky time, including the residents of the zoo—the animals.
Family crafts and block parties help make a community trick-or-treat a safe success. Websites like kidspot.com offer activity ideas, craft project outlines, and especially themed recipes designed around the idea of Halloween. You can make egg carton spiders, red back spider biscuits, nametags, and other spooky goodies. The importance of these parties isn’t just to help kids have fun and organize a social gathering for adults, too. It also serves as a central meeting spot for parents and kids, from which the trick-or-treat can begin. Groups can meet, eat, and go. Plans can be organized, reflective vests or flashlights double-checked, and safety measures reviewed. Especially in cities, this can be an important aspect of ensuring that everyone has the most fun on this special holiday.
No matter what you decide to do this Halloween, whether you’re keen on a nature hike in the Blue Mountains to see the Hanging Tree, take a spooky tour of one of the many shut down asylums or gaols remaining on the landscape from the 19th and early 20th centuries, or you get together with a group of local parents to organize a trip to a kid friendly venue, you’re sure to have a wonderful time. Halloween, at its core is about community togetherness, and over the centuries it has adopted a wonderful coat of fun, mischief, and licence for individuals of all ages.
Do you have or know about an Australian Halloween event coming up? Please add it in the comments below.
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