Celebrations with origins from abroad

Considering the majority of us here on a2k are Americans, EVERY holiday was brought here from abroad (well, ok, not July 4th or Thanksgiving but most of them). And they were already pretty much a mishmush when they got here, and they've just gotten more mixed together, and most people are fine with that, except the fundamentalists. Easter after all was conflated with the Celtic Eostre (that's where the bunny comes from), Christmas has some Saturnalia thrown in, plus pagan Yule and midwinter celebrations. Halloween has gotten four or five times more important than it was when I was a kid, when it was mainly just an excuse to get very sick on huge quantities of candy. Now it's got a lot of elements of the Lord of Misrule in it, which was medieval European (and not at Halloween).

So everybody has always mixed their holidays up, and borrowed anything good they heard about from anywhere else and made it their own. Morris dancing in England was borrowed by English cruaders and soldiers from the Islamic Moors, after all.

If there's one thing that distinguishes humans from the animals, it's that we're all suckers for a good party. So, yeah, go for it. Halloween is our gift to you, commercialized though it's gotten. Just go for it, get an outrageous costume, let go, dance yourself silly, get pissed (it's like Carnivale but when it's cold, after all, and not to a samba beat), have a good time. Haven't you always wanted to be a pirate?

Most of the holidays you mentioned are indeed a mishmush. Christianity adopted pagan holidays and melt them with rituals of their own
faith. Like easter, x-mas.......

But that happened in Europe. The customs already had its character when they were brought to america. Sure, there were little or sometimes big changes in how the custom is practised, but indeed they weren't invented by commerce just over night. There is a difference to the situation in the US.



This is so right username.
However. In the future I will celebrate Halloween and try to tell people something about its origin. Most people just buy Halloween stuff and even don't know where it derives from. They just don't feel the customs "soul" like at easter or x-mas. That's something that has to be altered.

Probably the exchange of holidays could effect peace in the world.... :wink:
Quite illusionary,indeed a fine imagination, though.

Halloween used to be for children. Trick or Treat for candy. Nowadays it seems to have made a quantum leap to be for adults too. There's a Halloween parade in Greenwich Village, NYC that becomes more popular with adults each year. In my own opinion, it became popular in Greenwich Village because many of the participants enjoyed the "campy" ambiance. Then somehow the holiday completely crossed the age barrier for more of the adult population (with Halloween parties). I think adults should just start reducing stress with a good coloring book and a box of crayons. Let's just regress.

Halloween has always had special significance to my family. It was both my birthday (you can imagine the nicknames I had as a baby) and a chance to dress up in outlandish costume. I "Trick or Treated" until, oh, maybe fourteen. After that, I'd decorate the yard and pass out candy (in costume, of course).

So nuts to anyone who says Halloween is for kids.

Back on topic, with the exception of the less "marketable" religious holidays, I'd say it's a little late to worry about commercialization. For me, I just see it as a chance to see relatives, scare children, buy people gifts I'd like, ect.