Halloween Is In The Air

Halloween is fast gaining popularity in Australia, and each year we see more and more Halloween decorations and costumes creep into the stores and on the shelves. Admittedly I love to look at the houses decorated in their spooky themes, tombstones, witches and all.

Trick-or-treating is become quite the norm in many Australian suburbs and streets, and watching horror movies and bobbing for apples (also called dunking) are fast becoming a holiday tradition. While Halloween has its firm fixtures in Christianity and mythology, trick-or-treating never really took root until the 1930s in the USA. And it took many more years for it to become popular over here. We are familiar with the event due to the American television programs and movies which aired on our little and big screens but up until recently it was always something which we acknowledged was done "over there". But now times they are a-changin'!

If you plan to get into the spirit of the holiday, how do you know which houses to knock on? It is best, of course, to stick to houses which look like they are decorated in celebration of the holiday, have a bowl of lollies left out for you to sample, or at the very least, have an orange (or other coloured) balloon out the front. Sticking to people you know is also a common tactic as Australians, as a rule, still frown on the idea of knocking on stranger's doors to ask for lollies (and quite rightly so!) As it is still quite new in this part of the world, not everyone appreciates getting disturbed in the middle of their favourite tv program either if they aren't expecting it.

Do you think Australians should be celebrating Halloween?