I was talking to my best friend Anoni (who is from Australia) and she told me they didn't celebrate Halloween! As a naive American, I had no idea they didn't celebrate!

This brought me to the question, who DOES celebrate? I of course then googled it because Google is the all knowing force of DOOM, and I found this article:

If some continental European countries adopted Halloween, this has not been without difficulty. Indeed, we consider this celebration being too "American Marketing" style. European people give more value to their culture and traditions than to commercial events.

Belgian people celebrate Halloween since more than ten years but Gouy-Lez-Pieton refuses to adopt it, preferring to celebrate their own Samhain-style holiday. Even if Belgian people organize a Day Before Christmas dinner, they still offer gifts to children on December 6th and not on December 25th. So, I doubt that my country will replace All Saints Day by Halloween.

On the other hand, Belgian people do not open their doors to unknown persons - including children - and we are not welcomed to ask for candies. By the way, many children are fighting in the streets to steal candy from others.

French people think that this holiday is too commercial and while this country finally adopted Halloween in the late 1990s, it is now less appreciated. There are very few children ringing at the doors and asking for sweets.

English people celebrate the Guy Fawkes Day on November 5th and adopted many customs from Samhain. These festivities are marked by torchlight parades where children use masks made from beets and pumpkins.

Scottish people practice their ancient pagan rites. Children wear costumes and cut scary faces into large rutabagas and place a candle inside them. They receive candy when they provide a nice entertainment to their neighbors.

Trick or treating originated in Ireland, so as usual, Irish children in disguise will enjoy the Halloween festivities, they will carry lanterns cut into large rutabagas. Children will be received by their neighbors with sweets and Irish houses will be decorated with Halloween lights.

Spanish people enjoy each kind of holidays and parties. Their kids will then enjoy receiving candies from their neighbors and adults will have the opportunity to have a Halloween party in each and every club. Spanish people also organize many Halloween parades.

Portugal does not celebrate Halloween; Portuguese people celebrate the Day of the Dead by organizing feasts at the cemetery.

Some regions of Italy organize Halloween Events and it seems that the Italian children enjoy this holiday.

Other European cities and clubs organize commercial events for Halloween (mainly for tourists), newspapers publish articles dedicated to Halloween, but I am unsure that people really practice Halloween. There are very few information about Halloween festivities in Europe; especially Central and eastern Europe. They stick to their own All Saints Day and Day Of The Dead.

Australia and New Zealand begin to enjoy Halloween. (Is this a lie? Zomg)

USA, Canada, and Quebec: Halloween is very much appreciated and I think that only some worldwide disaster should prevent these people to celebrate Halloween.

Since some years, there is a growing interest on the part of the Chinese population for western events: Chinese people enjoy Halloween parties.

Taken from here:
http://www.chinatownconnection.com/h...-worldwide.htm

This article made me wonder about which countries don't celebrate other holidays, like Christmas or Easter.

Where are you guys from, and do you celebrate these holidays? What do you think of the various countries that do or don't celebrate?

I'm from Germany, but I never remember going to Halloween.

I don't mind the whole Halloween thingy.
It's pretty fun!
Those countries are just missing out.

I am from Norway, and we (traditionally speaking) do not celebrate Halloween (or Thanksgiving)

However, Norwegians love anything coming from the US, and a lot of stores heavily promote the celebration of Halloween, and we therefore (in later years) have some people who do it, even though they are quite alone on it... And no matter how you twist it, it's only the young ones....

We celebrate Christmas and Easter, and our national day, May 17th... The last one is quite extraordinary, with children parading through the streets in national outfits (or their best clothing) waving flags and singing... They have these parades in every county, and even a small county as the one I live in (2401 inhabitants) have several parades to fit all the people... No-one stays in on this day ^^

After the parade, we play games, and gather at the schools, and it's like a bit fair thing with loads of fun for the kids and everyone else (but mostly the kids)

I've heard it's a very unique way of celebrating the national day... At least the part with the children's parade... It's like the 4th of July (I think)

Much fun!

I love halloween. but then again I am an American who grew up on the stuff...

*snorts @ the English people blurb*
How old is that? o_O
I've yet to see any parades like that LOL

Nov 5th is generally celebrated more then Hallowe'en over here, where I live it's rare to see a house decorated for Hallowe'en, and last night we had not one trick or treater..

Satan, you've never celebrated? How about parties? :o <3<3

Dearest, that's interesting that you guys do it out of love for the US. XD;; Do the young ones trick or treat? Traditionally, here in America the older people just have parties to dress up and stuff. ^^ <3

Longcat, I know! It's crazy.. I've always felt there has ALWAYS been Halloween! It's our own native naivety! XD

Sayuri, Really? hahah this article LIES! XD But I got it off google! I've only heard about the Fifth of November from V for Vendetta! I never heard of it before then D:

Yeah I think I might notice kids walking around with masks made of beets 'n' pumpkins, kind of something that would catch your eye XD

Well, I never remember celebrating it in my 7 years in Germany, but yeah.
We kinda went to parties and outing on the date of Halloween. But i never really understood why.

You know, English celebrate halloween too...And I agree with Sayuri...I have never seen a parade like that on bonfire night *freaks out* that's comming up soon and I NEED to buy birthday presents...

Bonfire night is celebrated with a bonfire (duh) fireworks and games. No parage and no beet masks...Some people may wear pumpkin masks, indeed they are strange enough, but it's not common...

Some of the young ones trick or treat, but it's more the spoilt ones... O_O I dunno how to say it in a better way... It's mostly the ones whose parents don't really care, or can't deny their kids anything... Usually when we get kids trick or treating, mum says in a very strict voice that "we don't support/approve of that" and the kids leave, not tricking us... (My mother is a teacher, and one of the mean ones at their school, so I can understand)

I read some abhorring stories of people in the cities around Norway who had been thrown rocks and eggs at on Halloween, even when driving. A lot of windows were smashed, and the police referred to it as vandalism... I guess when the tradition is "taken" from somewhere else, and you don't really know too much about it, just trying to be the same, things can end up really bad... I honestly believe those kids thought that that was the way to do things on Halloween... Makes me so angry!

And Norwegians are WAY to fond of the US.... Music, TV, Movies, "Traditions", taboos, anything! It's absurd!

England also has mischeif night! That's October 1st and more related to Halloween than Bonfire night (which is political in it's roots) Miggy Night is hilarious! Basically the chains come off.

Kids are given free reign to do pranks and cause mischeif. No dressing up, but still it's all the trickery that Dearest associates with halloween.

I would NOT give my kids free reign to do pranks and cause mischief! Event or not.... It's total corruption of any kind of upbringing...

And trickery is a nice word... ^^

I don't really like Halloween... I have no relationship to it other than the occasional dressed-up, soon to be scared-off by my mum pack of kids timidly ringing our door asking for sweets, and of course all the commercials..... I think of it as yet another unnecessary holiday-thing, unthoughtfully imported from overseas. We don't need it, we were doing fine without, and smashed windows cost, and is no way for a kid to have fun.

Miggy night seems very fun! :O

Halloween is new to Finland (where I live), but we don't have any traditions here yet. There are only a few cities that come up with a halloween party (for adults) and some schools make halloween parties for kids.. but yeah, no trick or treating :3


actually - on easter we have this kind of activity.. children dress up as witches and go door to door asking for candy :3 hehe. I love easter <3

hehe Miggy night is...odd...See it's apparently a well celebrated event, especially in South Yorkshire, BUT, you will find it's...um...sectional.

Basically if you come from a good background like I do you will never have celebrated it. My mum didn't even know what it was when we rented a DVD by the same title set in Sheffield. She got really confused, but if you come from a bad area, like where the film's set and Englands worst pub is, you're mums a prostitute, can scare men with a single glance and you're likely to get your head knocked off if you swear at her one more time... (painting a good picture here as you won't get yer mams a scrubba off cross)... Basically the bad area where you don't go alone...for a good reason...Mischeif night runs rampant there.

So it's sectional because in Sheffield you can be on the cross and celebrate it, go down the road and turn a corner onto...say Southy green and they won't know what you're on about.

So it's not a coruption of their up bringing, it's more of an affirmation of it.

Sectional makes sense... There are a lot of things that are sectional... Thank you for clearing that up



(And I was somewhat more referring to my own children (which I will have some time in the future)... ^^)

Yeah, I won't be having mischeif night either when I have kids. My cousens do it. Their mum IS a stripper off cross and on un-employment, so they do mischeif night every year. It's good in a way because...Man this is hard to explain using non colloqial slang....

The families that do it are really poor. Usually un-employed. Living off of benefits. More children than they can deal with sanely. Bad backgrounds. Rough areas...You get the picture?

Well Their idea of punishment is...My cousen Martin got pissed at me, so he picked up a plank of wood and ran at me. Well this wood had a protruding nail at the end he was trying to wack me with so I ran to his mum who sent him to the floor, wacked him with the plank...not the nail and wrapped her legs around his neck so tight that he couldn't move!

So come mischeif night, the parents have a day off. Let the kids pull pranks and cause mayhem. They're not going to be bothered to punish the brats. No punishment, the kids let off steam over how crap life is.

Anyone from a better background doesn't know mischeif night. So if you're letting your kids celebrate it it says something about you as a parent. So I'm pretty glad that you wouldn't let them.

It is hella fun, but there's a lot more to it than kids causing mischeif. It's got strong sectional society roots.

Wow. The worst I've ever done to a family member is put Epoxy resin in their shoes before they go to work.
Funny, because their feet get glued to the socks and shoes! xD

It still sounds fun, the whole Miggy night thing.

Originally Posted by Jayms_fallen_angel

Yeah, I won't be having mischeif night either when I have kids. My cousens do it. Their mum IS a stripper off cross and on un-employment, so they do mischeif night every year. It's good in a way because...Man this is hard to explain using non colloqial slang....

The families that do it are really poor. Usually un-employed. Living off of benefits. More children than they can deal with sanely. Bad backgrounds. Rough areas...You get the picture?

Well Their idea of punishment is...My cousen Martin got pissed at me, so he picked up a plank of wood and ran at me. Well this wood had a protruding nail at the end he was trying to wack me with so I ran to his mum who sent him to the floor, wacked him with the plank...not the nail and wrapped her legs around his neck so tight that he couldn't move!

So come mischeif night, the parents have a day off. Let the kids pull pranks and cause mayhem. They're not going to be bothered to punish the brats. No punishment, the kids let off steam over how crap life is.

Anyone from a better background doesn't know mischeif night. So if you're letting your kids celebrate it it says something about you as a parent. So I'm pretty glad that you wouldn't let them.

It is hella fun, but there's a lot more to it than kids causing mischeif. It's got strong sectional society roots.

Very enlightening... That was about what I had made it out to be from your previous posts... ^^ Nice to hear it wasn't completely off...



(*yawns* I must be going to bed now....)

woot I'm good at getting the message across :)

If you watch the film it's funny. It tells it exactly how it is and is actually set in one of the places that do it and is very acurate! British films tend to show it how it is. But if you had it done to you or saw it really being done it's terrible! One day though, one day probably a mischeif night, they'll set fire to themselves and die out. I've yet to meet anyone from those areas I would feel comfortable with without my sisters attack dog...or my sister...

But yeah, Miggy night is a lot like halloween in the trickery without repercussions. For tha vandals, hooligans, murderers and rapist children of Yorkshire.

• Icelanders don't celebrate Halloween, although you'll se people going to Halloween parties just for the heck of it. A friend of mine is.. either a part of or the sole member of Halloween Iceland, she throws a Halloween party every year now at a pub downtown. I went this year, and it wasn't too much fun actually. No dancey music. But really nice costumes. Next year I might just throw my own Halloween party at home. o.o
  
  We also celebrate Christmas a bit different (cause I saw you mentioned Christmas in there somewhere, I'm sure). The 23rd is called Þorláksmessa (Mass of Þorlákur, who was.. either a saint or a bishop, or both, I honestly can't remember) and then it's traditional to eat foul-smelling skate. The 24th is the main day, then we have a big dinner and we open our presents after dinner. Which is, I think, the main difference? Mneh. :]
  
  We do have Ashes Wednesday though, around Easter sometime. On the Monday before that we have Sprengidagur (translated roughly as.. oh my.. exploding day?) where we eat salt meat and as much of it as we can. Because that's the day the fast should begin, but noone fasts anymore. It's still a tradition. On the day after that, Tuesday, we have Bolludagur (bun day) where the kids wake their parents up by spanking them with a special wand thing. Whoever you manage to spank must give you a bun. Buns are delicious with cream and chocolate and jelly, yummm.
  Anyway, on Ashes Wednesday, kids dress up in costumes and instead of going to people's houses, they go to stores and companies and sing for candy. (See, they have to work for it!) Old tradition has it that you should make small bags from (preferrably colourful) leftover material, put ashes into it and try to hang them onto people's clothes without them noticing. An incredibly fun custom, but everyone seems to have forgotten all about it. I should probably try to make some bags for next Ashes Wednesday..
  It's gotten pretty bad though, cause kids'll just sing four line songs really badly and demand bucketfuls of candy. I occasionally go around with my friends and we sing something awesome and fun (last year we sung loads of Beatles' songs and Space Queen by 10 Speed and more, it was lots of fun!) and even though we're not doing it for the candy at all (we can buy candy if we want to), the people working always force it on us, just because they're so glad to hear something else than horrible sounding little kids whining. xP
  
  Uhm, yeah, that's Icelandic customs for those days. Sorry it got so long. xP

In suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne children are beginning to trick-or-treat. Only small numbers and they don't venture that far from their homes.

And more people are having Halloween parties. But then again we as a nation love parties, if there isn't a reason to party we make one up.

Since Australia is a Christan country we celebrate the Christan holidays, although the larger cities hold celebrations for other cultures holidays.

And again Thanksgiving is American holiday, even if we did celebrate it in this country, my family probably wouldn't because my grandmother despises turkeys.

Other important days in Australia are;
Australia Day - Jan 25
Queen's Birthday Long Weekend
Melbourne Cup
Mother's Day
Father's Day

I never understood much of the Christian holidays.

I grew up Catholic, then converted to Baptist (ULTRA ULTRA ULTRA orthodox. -A- plus I was forced... mother) so Easter was off limits. So was Halloween, and I didn't start until I was 13. (Around the time I converted to Satanism [nondenominal])

Originally Posted by Jayms_fallen_angel

You know, English celebrate halloween too...And I agree with Sayuri...I have never seen a parade like that on bonfire night *freaks out* that's comming up soon and I NEED to buy birthday presents...

Bonfire night is celebrated with a bonfire (duh) fireworks and games. No parage and no beet masks...Some people may wear pumpkin masks, indeed they are strange enough, but it's not common...

Yes but it says made from pumpkins..I'm sure there have been kids in shop bought pumpkin masks but not one made from the actual squash lol XD
Unless I'm just not seeing the really odd kids hehe

I remember before we got a gate that there were a couple of kids who'd come around trick or treating, and usually because I'd not figure out it was halloween until that point in time, I'd end up only giving them some fruit from a fruit tree we have.