Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween

I like Halloween. Always have. It was an important holiday for me growing up in Carrickfergus in the 1970's. We bobbed for apples and for money, we ate chocolate and nuts and apple tarts, we wore masks and we went "Halloween Rhyming" - the Irish equivalent of trick or treat. There was always a lot of weird stuff going on up country that used to scare the bejesus out of us. October 31 is the last day of the Celtic year and the traditional fire ceremonies celebrating this event go back thousands of years. It always makes me laugh when I read some pompous idiot complaining in The Daily Telegraph about the growth of this "ghastly American holiday" in fair Albion. These people just don't know their history. They should read Frazer's Golden Bough. In fact everybody should read Frazer's Golden Bough.
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We had trick or treat in St Kilda this year and the kids loved it. Nobody got a rock.