Halloween in Australia, how do you feel about it?

According to Roy Morgan research, one in four Australians now celebrate Halloween. With more of us getting involved in the spooky season, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the occasion, and any tips or advice you can share with the CHOICE Community for surviving the event.

Halloween isn’t the only holiday we’ve adopted - think Chinese New Year, St Patrick’s Day, Oktoberfest, Festival of Eid and Diwali just to name a few. However, for some, Halloween inspires a fervent distaste. If we consider the event’s Celtic origins under Samhain, which was a festival to mark the beginning of dark times and winter, it could be considered a little funny that we’ve ended up doing things in reverse Downunder. In any case, if it’s altogether something you’d rather avoid, there’s some tips and advice on this too.

On the other hand, we’ve also heard that the event has been great for community building in some neighbourhoods, and a chance for people to dress up and have some light-hearted fun. With that in mind, here’s a guide to help ensure your smooth sailing this Halloween. Make sure to leave your comments below so we can add to the guide as we go!

Halloween Survival Guide Downunder

Avoiding the tricks, avoiding the treats
No Halloween? No hassles. Avoid the event by taking the following steps:

  • Don’t decorate your house, as this can be a signal to neighbours that you’re participating.
  • Put up a polite sign if door-knockers are an issue, and if you need quiet for a particular reason (such as a sleeping baby), including this info can help you keep the peace.
  • Since its early origins over a 1000 years ago, Halloween was a time from pranks and tricks, normally to cajole food from someone. However, if it goes too far and you’ve experienced any harassment or property damage, then it becomes a matter for the authorities.

Getting spooky around the neighbourhood
Enjoying Halloween with family, friends and neighbours can be a great experience. Here’s some ways to get started:

  • Depending on where you live, there may be particular streets or designated areas for Halloween celebrations and trick or treating. Lots of neighbourhoods have groups online (such as Facebook groups, or on apps like Nextdoor), or you can ask around at your local stores, cafes or community groups for advice.

  • Halloween decorations can be a sign of involvement, although not a guarantee. Some houses will also leave treats in an accessible area outside the house or on the street. Take care when entering when entering someone else’s property and generally don’t wander into private spaces, such as backyards.

  • If you’re going trick or treating with children, it’s a good idea to provide supervision and to reiterate safety precautions, such as taking care when crossing the road and washing hands regularly.

  • Whether you’re handing out treats or receiving them, it’s a good idea to stick to pre-packaged and less perishable items. Having something healthier options in the mix will avoid sugar overload, and of course remember to take care of dental hygiene whenever there are sugary lollies in the mix.

  • Take a hand sanitiser and practice sensible social distancing where possible.

  • Don’t forget to take away any rubbish with you.

Getting spooky around the home
Part of the fun of Halloween is in the theme, so if you’re planning to dress up or decorate the home, follow these tips to stay safe and keep all your scares ghost and ghoul related:

  • For any powered novelty decorations, take care to avoid items with unsecured button batteries, which can be a health hazard. These are often found in ‘Dollar Store’ products or items purchased online, where standards can be compromised.

  • Take care to use powered or battery devices under supervision only and pay attention to any usage instructions. Leaving devices running over long periods can present a fire or safety hazard.

  • Make sure costumes are age-range appropriate with no choking hazards. Particular care is needed with costume contact lenses, which have been known to cause eye injury. Testing novelty make up before use for skin reaction is also a good idea.

  • If pumpkins are expensive in your area, carve a pineapple or turnip instead.

Pumpkin carving, best value for money treats, costume design ideas… What are your tips for a good Halloween in Australia? Leave a comment below!

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Thanks for reminding me.

Lock up the garage, turn off the loungeroom lights, and pretend I am not home if pesky kids come looking for free goodies. :roll_eyes:

But then we can look forward to retailers gearing up for Black Friday and Cyber Monday in November, having had a bit of selling for Fathers Day in September.

Is there no end to US imported, marketing inspired, events that mean nothing?

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Don’t celebrate and if neighbours/friends ask if it is okay for their kids to drop in to trick or treat, we say they are more than welcome if they like garlic and onions. Don’t know why we don’t get any visitors.

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Is there no end to market inspired events that take out the real meaning of every festive event, celebration, holy day, reducing all to a shop fest?

Is nothing sacred, not even a celebration of the souls of the dead returning to their homes on that night and finding that their loved ones had lit fires to keep them away?:laughing:

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Around here pumpkins are too expensive to waste as candle or tea light holders. The locals farms are noted for several crops. One offers a great alternative the area is well known for.

Not a world first though?

For those not into the ‘American Way’, a less commercial celebration that has a more genuine connection to the origins.

It sounds like a fun night.
Not so sure about the couples nut burning tradition, or how that might turn out.

Halloween in our street. There are no street lights, it’s a rural road. The tall trees cast moving shadows on the few who might brave the startled roadside feasting flying foxes. No need to plan ahead to trick. We expect a quiet evening.

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I come from a very Celtic family . I was told a guy called Stingy Jack did a deal with the devil to keep him out of hell. He was handed a hot coal from hell and carved a turnip out (now replaced by a pumpkin ) to carry it about .

When he died he went upstairs to heaven and they would not let him in . He came back to earth to roam around on All Saints Day , November 1 st .People would hang lanterns and such to scare him away on the evening before Nov 1 st .

Irish and Scottish migrants took these traditions to America and it developed into Halloween .

AS a Catholic on November the first I go to the Church and light a candle for my Mum and Dad and one for my recently departed brother .

To me it is a very solemn time and I hate the way the Yanks have bastardised it .

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I have nothing against taking up customs and culture from other countries eclectically if it is a reflection of those people and the way they live.

I have worked with people from many races who brought their customs to Oz with them. So when the Indians were going around wishing everybody “happy Diwali” we all said this to each other and when the Chinese gave us little red packets with a ‘gold’ coin in it for new year we all ran about saying “yung hay fat choy”. The Hindus and Buddhists and a few other miscellaneous all wished the Christians “merry Christmas”. We need to have a designated holiday season and having it at the northern hemisphere winter solstice has been popular since well before Christ and mid summer here is a good time for holiday, so even as a mainly secular society may as well stick to that.

When children are sent out to extort lollies from their neighbours and none of their last five family generations did so and they have no idea why, except that they saw it on TV or in the supermarket (and they lust for sweeties) I am not interested. It is just another commercially generated festival motivated by the desire to shift more product. I now live over the hills and far away and little dears don’t appear at the door so the question is now a bit abstract. As it is there are plenty of opportunities for them to play dress-up if they want to.

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Most children nowadays have no idea of the real meaning of the festivities being celebrated. For example Father Xmas is at the centre of the Christmas celebrations: it’s not the birth of baby Jesus which is awaited at midnight but it is the expectancy of Santa’s coming to bring toys.

The majority of children going Treats or Tricks would not be aware that they are impersonating the souls of the dead asking for offerings.

It is therefore a ‘blessed ignorance’ which leads to dress-up, have fun, play with ancient rituals, never having learned the true meaning and not really caring.

As adults, how much of the blame falls on us?

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Possibly not all? Some also lies with the adults in marketing and sales who see the opportunity. It’s made all the more successful by their harnessing of the pester power of young minds and sugar addiction. It appeals to a young mind that life offers something desirable for free. Although it’s not really when one looks to the time, energy and costs to those supporting the whole event.

It’s far from suitable that Halloween falls on the evening of 31st Oct, a regular school day. If it is truely a day deserving of special significance and celebration to Australia, surely it deserves a public holiday in recognition, IMO! :wink:

P.S.
The last Friday or Saturday in Oct might be a better choice for all. One way to also avoid the inevitable clash with the greatest horse race of the Victorian calendar.

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Hallowe’en (All Hallows’ Eve) leads to All Hallow’s Day (All Saints Day) on the 1st of November, which is a public holiday in some countries of the world. It is a solemn holy day for Catholics and some Protestants.
This year in Vic All Saints Day falls on the first Tuesday in November and it’s Cup Day and it will be a public holiday.:laughing:

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Interestingly enough, my offer of treats as being a bowl of Fisherman’s Friend minty ‘lollies’ usually spread the word that THAT house on 1313 Mockingbird lane was to be avoided.

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Five million of us will celebrate Halloween tomorrow, delivering a $430 million boost to retailers

I was thinking that times are tough as grocery bills are leaping. There is plenty of whinging everywhere you look about rising prices. But fleeting goodies like sweets and costumes are still affordable. Naturally this includes suitable costumes for your fur baby.


Good grief Charlie Brown.

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Exactly!! All Hallows Eve is a day not of celebration, but of preparation of All Saint’s Day, which is a fixed feast [as distinct from moveable feasts, eg Easter], on 1 November, followed by All Souls Day on 2 November.
If you enquire of those dressed up wandering the streets, or pan-handling for sweets and treats, what they are going to do about All Saints Day - are they going to church? etc, one is greeted by totally blank stares and silence! They have absolutely NO idea of the origins and meaning of the days at all!
BTW, there are also strong Irish traditions associated with Halloween, which were doubtless taken to the US by the immigrants in the mid C19, both before, during and after The Great Famine, and in Mexico there are also many traditions associated with it. From Wikipedia: The Day of the Dead is a holiday traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2, though other days, such as October 31 or November 6, may be included depending on the locality. It largely originated in Mexico where it is mostly observed, but also in other places, especially by people of Mexican heritage elsewhere. Although associated with the [Western Christian] Allhallowtide observances of All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, it has a much less solemn tone and is portrayed as a holiday of joyful celebration rather than mourning. (Day of the Dead - Wikipedia) The multi-day holiday involves family and friends gathering to pay respects and to remember friends and family members who have died. These celebrations can take a humorous tone, as celebrants remember funny events and anecdotes about the departed.
This is likely to have arisen from Spanish Catholicism taken to Mexico by the Spanish Conquistadors, so there are now observances in a number of countries of Halloween, or All Hallows Eve, basically arising from Roman Catholic observances from the 1500s onwards, and which may or may not have been, over the centuries, conflated with other observances followed by the original inhabitants of those countries prior to the arrival of RC religious and proselytizers.
That it has been woefully commercialised by the US is no surprise - anything to make a buck - but that’s no excuse for such commercialisation to be imported to other countries who don’t have the religious traditions of predominantly RC countries.
Like the commercialisation of other Christian festivals such as Easter and Christmas, I find it meaningless, as most of those who fall for the spending sprees advocated by floggers of tatty decorations, dress-ups, ‘‘gifts’’, and so on, have absolutely no idea of what these things are all about, let alone why they are celebrated or observed. This is one of the reasons it would be a good idea for school students to get a little bit of grounding in not only history, but also comparative religion, in school!

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Welcome to the community @KarenS!

Agree completely with you, thank you for setting out some of the history of Halloween as clearly as you did.

As a Protestant I don’t celebrate All Saints Day but respect those who do, and am appalled to see the eve of a day which is a day of religious importance for many, reduced to having fun with occult symbols.

Yes to educating children in comparative religion, but I think many adults would benefit from it too :laughing:

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Great discussion

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:-1:

I have two responses to Halloween - no and no. Firstly because I am a grumpy curmudgeon, I just don’t like halloween - and the theme colours are ugly. This first objection is personal, so anyone else wanting to celebrate has no argument from me.

The second objection is far more important. The decorations people put up and the accessories they buy are nearly always plastic and destined for the bin on 1st November. Our planet just cannot afford all this meaningless consumption and single use plastic, masquerading as an essential thing to do. We have taken old festivals (not just halloween) and turned them into opportunities to make money (ok, I guess) but making money by damaging our already struggling environment is not ok with me. I wish we would all be more thoughtful about what we buy, and where we put it when we are finished with it.

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While halloween is based on ancient Celtic origins, the commercialisation by the US and the importation of that into Australia without the understanding of the background, such as does happen with many other events/festivals from diverse cultures of the world such as Chinese New Year or Diwali, to me is just more American commercialised ‘culture’ being imported and corrupting our unique identity without adding meaningfully to our culture.

The products that are sold so people can celebrate halloween are mostly cheap, throwaway, plastic products that probably go to landfill when finished with. The treats children are given are bad for their health. The imitation cobwebs are a serious danger to birds, animals and insects that can and do get caught up in them, so should be banned from sale.

You might have guessed I don’t encourage children to come to my door for halloween.

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Whilst I have no affinity to Halloween, I have no objection if it give people enjoyment without harming themselves or others.

However, there are likely to be overlaps in the group of people who spent the reported $430 million and those who are adamant that somebody should be doing something about the cost of living, the environment and/or the obesity epidemic.

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Oh I do agree that there seems no end of “sales promoting inspirations” imported from the US which I just ignore.
However it is such a harmless way for kids to have some fun that I cannot not answer the door - I gave them toffee apples to make me feel better. :slightly_smiling_face:

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