Halloween - It is consumerism gone mad

**David48atTD** · 30-10-2019, 06:00 PM

.
Americans spend twice as much on Halloween as on their national parks.

Halloween spending is out of control.

Americans are expected to spend $US8.8 billion on lollies (candy), costumes and decorations this year — or $86 for every person who plans to celebrate.

That includes half a billion dollars[/URL] on costumes that Americans are buying for their pets, which is double the amount they spent a decade ago.

Pumpkins and hot dogs are the favourites.

How did a holiday that began as a way to honour the dead morph into just another ritual of over-the-top American consumption?

To put the $US8.8 billion being spent on Halloween in context, the budget for the entire National Park Service is only $4 billion. The US spends less than $2 billion on flu vaccines.

Here

Halloween ... pfttt ... bah humbug

**HuangLao** · 30-10-2019, 06:12 PM

Almost there, Dave.

But still missing the larger picture, if any picture at all.

Not surprised.

**bsnub** · 30-10-2019, 06:14 PM

FOJ you twat.

**harrybarracuda** · 30-10-2019, 06:49 PM

Of course it is, we never had that "trick or treat" shit in England until kids started to realise they could get free sweets out of it, or throw eggs at houses.

**Luigi** · 30-10-2019, 07:06 PM

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

throw eggs at houses.

Started with 1/4 and 1/2 sticks of dynamite that were smuggled in from France in the early/mid 90's.

Quite good fun.

**Chittychangchang** · 31-10-2019, 02:18 AM

Supermarkets around here ban the sale of eggs and flour at Halloween.
Ruddy extortion it is, they don't want sweets anymore.
It's cold hard cash or your house gets it!

**David48atTD** · 31-10-2019, 03:57 AM

The reason I bought this up is that I say Bah HumBug to Halloween but ...

We had Asian Kindy Teachers and they always look for 'themes' and it was done to death there.

One of the local houses does a great display for every major celebration and has it's Halloween gear out.

My partners friends kids are going Trick n Treating and invited the Boys along and, why I won't participate,
have said yes to them going.

**David48atTD** · 31-10-2019, 03:59 AM

Luigi ... is your lovely Lassie going out and knocking on doors?

Chitty ... what's with the eggs and flour? It's not a 'thing' where I live.
What's also with the money? Do they ask directly for it?

Anyone else celebrating it?

How? Why?

**Chittychangchang** · 31-10-2019, 06:03 AM

I used to go out dressed as Dracula with the kids and scare the fook outa the natives,all good fun.

Some kids prefer the trick part of the night, reaping misery on the miserable fookers who don't participate

**baldrick** · 31-10-2019, 06:22 AM

there is an upside dave

So I relented to my kids wishes and took them trick or treating.

They wore their costumes and skipped down the street while I tagged along behind. And then a funny thing happened.

I started to speak to a lot of the neighbours on my street who I had never spoken to before. We met parents from my son's preschool.

We met a number of my daughter's classmates. We chatted about the neighbourhood and promised to arrange playdates. My neighbourhood suddenly started to feel a lot friendlier.

I began to realise the great things about Halloween is it's one of the few celebrations where you get to meet the people living around you.

In fact, name me another celebration where you are encouraged to knock on your neighbour's door and actually talk to them.

Even if the only thing you say is trick or treat, it is more than many say to the people living next door to them all year.

http://ab.co/2pu4dCN

**Pragmatic** · 31-10-2019, 06:40 AM

My kids went back to school yesterday after the holidays. Today the missus gets them to skip school so's they can take part in a Halloween fancy dress competition in Korat, over a 100km away. They left the house just before 6am and won't be home again until about 8pm tonight. Back to school on Friday. Entrance fee for comp about 300 Baht. Costumes, wife made most, about 300 Baht. Make up artist about 250 Baht. Incidentals about the same. times this by 3 kids. And for what? A 5,000 Baht first prize. The organizers must be making a fortune.

**Backspin** · 31-10-2019, 07:05 AM

Halloween is fine for kids even if theres some consumerism.

Its the adults who get all into it that makes me wonder

**Loy Toy** · 31-10-2019, 07:09 AM

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

The organizers must be making a fortune.

I think all these events including Christmas have lost all original meaning and are only commercially contrived rip-off scams.

I have nothing to do any of this bullshit.

**Pragmatic** · 31-10-2019, 08:05 AM

Originally Posted by Loy Toy

I think all these events including Christmas have lost all original meaning and are only commercially contrived rip-off scams.

I agree. Unfortunately my missus doesn't see it. My kids get entered into any children's competitions that my missus can find. Going to Bangkok 350km away isn't even a deterrent. Is it just me that thinks Thai women are dreamers?

**Seekingasylum** · 31-10-2019, 10:32 AM

One must never underestimate the Thai capacity for immaturity which in truth is firmly rooted in their predilection for utter stupidity.

I shall never forget the time when I walked into a pub in Bangkok and was greeted by the bar staff who bade me a " Happy Halloween " as if it was fucking New Year or my birthday. I did try to explain that one could not have a "happy" Halloween but I soon realised my folly which was akin to discussing a Cartesian coordinate system with the cook in Esperanto.

Of course, this commercialisation of the 31st October is all because of an American exploitation lapped up by their own bovinely stupid population and so one shouldn't be too hard on the natives here for following suit. The lower end and vacuous in Britain are no different and I see that Coon Friday is imminent again.

As Einstein said, only stupidity is truly infinite.

**Backspin** · 01-11-2019, 12:04 AM

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

One must never underestimate the Thai capacity for immaturity which in truth is firmly rooted in their predilection for utter stupidity.

I shall never forget the time when I walked into a pub in Bangkok and was greeted by the bar staff who bade me a " Happy Halloween " as if it was fucking New Year or my birthday. I did try to explain that one could not have a "happy" Halloween but I soon realised my folly which was akin to discussing a Cartesian coordinate system with the cook in Esperanto.

Of course, this commercialisation of the 31st October is all because of an American exploitation lapped up by their own bovinely stupid population and so one shouldn't be too hard on the natives here for following suit. The lower end and vacuous in Britain are no different and I see that Coon Friday is imminent again.

As Einstein said, only stupidity is truly infinite.

That's one of the 1st things I noticed when I first started traveling anywhere. How much American cultural sludge has washed up onto the shores of the rest of the world. You can hear it reeking in almost any night on the town in any spot around the world. Thankfully this seems to have peaked and is on a downward slope.

**snakeeyes** · 01-11-2019, 12:37 AM

How Derry became the best Halloween
destination in the world

Fireworks king preparing to light up the sky at Europe’s biggest Halloween party

The man responsible for lighting up the sky at Europe’s biggest Halloween party is putting the finishing touches to 25 separate fireworks displays across Northern Ireland at the end of this month.

My home town is the biggest Holloween party the city's eight-day long Halloween festival , the street food and beer is fantastic

The man responsible for lighting up the sky at Europe’s biggest Halloween party is putting the finishing touches to 25 separate fireworks displays across Northern Ireland at the end of this month.
Donal Neill is the Irish franchisee of Pain Fireworks - the longest established and largest fireworks provider in the UK and has won the tender to provide the fireworks on the River Foyle for Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Halloween celebrations for the last four years.
Derry will play host to over 100,000 revellers during its week long Halloween celebrations that climax in a parade and fireworks display on the night of 31 October .
Donal operates out of Eglinton close to the city and his company is the fireworks service provider for eight of Northern Ireland’s 11 Councils’ Halloween celebrations this year.
“Logistically, it’s a major challenge,” he admitted. ”It’s useful to be part of a bigger company as operators can cross over during busy periods.
“At Halloween some of the English-based staff come over to us and some of the Irish operators will then go to England to cover Guy Fawkes night the week after.
“The UK operation is much larger, they are serving 60 million people while we are serving just six million but on Halloween night we will be performing nine other shows and we are involved with eight out of the 11 Councils in Northern Ireland on the night so we will need all the support we can get.”
Despite the magnitude of the event, the Derry display is logistically one of the less challenging as Foyle Port, the marine gateway to the North West of Ireland for both commerce and tourism, is next door to their Eglinton base.

We have five or six operators on the night who load up the boat and bring it down to the city centre, the part the public see is easy where we push a button to start the display and let the programme run.
“Normally, there are no problems, it’s a bit like radio where you don’t want dead air so we have a back-up box to let off more fireworks if any of them fail.
“There is always an atmosphere of celebration on the quay for Halloween and the Foyle Maritime Festival in the summer and the fireworks reflect that well.
“We had two boats releasing fireworks simultaneously for the Voyages Showcase at the Maritime Festival which worked particularly well and was well received.”
The Derry Halloween festival was voted Best International Experience at the Northern Ireland Tourism Awards and will run from Saturday October 26th until Friday November 1st.
This year’s theme is The Other World Awakens.
Highlights include the Awakening the Walls trail around the city centre, a Carnival Parade, the Legenderry Halloween food event and, of course, Donal's spectacular fireworks finale on the River Foyle.

This Irish city is the capital of Halloween

Derry Halloween Festival transforms the city into a spooktacular, nightmarish, spectacle of horrors every year.
There are many spooky, haunted places throughout Ireland that will make a perfectly terrifying retreat for those looking for shivers to be sent racing up their spines with fright this Halloween but none will offer a more spooktacular venue than the capital of Halloween itself, Derry.
This walled Northern Ireland city, the last walled city in Europe, has been celebrating the modern equivalent of the ancient Celtic festival Samhain in a big way since 1986, spiraling year after year over the last three decades into truly unnerving underworld each time the festival rolls around.

Long named the “City of Bones” because of the skeleton in the city’s coat of arms, the Boston Globe visited Derry from the second day onward of the festival in 2016 and were completely won over by the darkly magical setting of the city for an absolute howler of a Halloween festival.

“It was hard to guess what spectacle would appear around each corner or on the streets and sidewalks below on the roughly 1-mile circumference. Acrobats, actors, and mimes staged impromptu shows. Flames from bonfires set in gigantic braziers rose into the night,” they wrote of watching the acts below as the walked along the city walls.
“We’ve seen some pretty scary parades over the years, but nothing like stilt-walking Grim Reapers, a marching band of zombie bagpipers in full skirl, or the helter-skelter throng of hundreds of step-dancing banshees

https://www.irishcentral.com/travel/...city-halloween

Holloween Derry 2018

**snakeeyes** · 01-11-2019, 01:13 AM

**snakeeyes** · 01-11-2019, 01:14 AM

**baldrick** · 01-11-2019, 04:10 AM

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

I shall never forget the time when I walked into a pub in Bangkok and was greeted by the bar staff who bade me a " Happy Halloween "

better than being told - " you and your sausages can just fcuk off "

but being the traditionalist your life will be made up of fun - " darlink - today is the day we flagellate and cut the head off the cat , can you beat the children this time "

**David48atTD** · 01-11-2019, 04:52 AM

Originally Posted by snakeeyes

How Derry became the best Halloween destination in the world

Great couple of posts there Snakey ... appreciated.

**baldrick** · 01-11-2019, 06:26 AM

it was a fcukin clown show

**naptownmike** · 01-11-2019, 07:37 AM

Just spent the last two hours doling out candy bars to the neighborhood kids with their parents in tow.

Back in my day we left the parents at home.

**David48atTD** · 01-11-2019, 09:03 AM

Originally Posted by naptownmike

Just spent the last two hours doling out candy bars to the neighborhood kids with their parents in tow.

Back in my day we left the parents at home.

Why two days?

I thought it was All Saints Day and typically from Twilight till about 8pm (kid's bedtime)

Thai variation?

**kmart** · 01-11-2019, 09:33 AM

Originally Posted by Backspin

Halloween is fine for kids even if theres some consumerism.

Its the adults who get all into it that makes me wonder

Used to be "Mischief Night" on 4th November for English kids when I was a nipper. Halloween wasn't on the map at all.

My boy and all his friends here (and his school) made a big event out of it yesterday. A lot of the parents seem to enjoy the dressing up role-play part of it much more than the kids.

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