Sunday, October 30, 2005

on the eve of all saints



i was going to grumble on and on - after stumbling, a few weeks ago, upon a garden
piled high with pumpkins, price-tagged every one - about the merchant mentality that turns other people's traditions into money-making enterprises.
but i'm tired (i know, i sound like a broken record), and tomorrow the orange streamers and the fake spiderwebs will be tucked away till next october, and i suppose i shouldn't begrudge anyone their fun and profit...
as long as they keep their hands off thanksgiving.
*
happy hallowe'en!

16 comments:

  1. Oh, I love the pumpkins that buck tradition. This one's nice and squatty and greenish. And nicely carved to boot. Lovely!
    Happy Halloween to you too!

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  2. And we ALL know how much you love the color Orange!
    Go Gators!

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  3. I know what you mean about the commercialism...in the US, I just read, that Halloween is now the second largest spending holiday here. But that's okay, you don't have to be sucked in by all of that. I like this pumpkin too, with its little bit of green. Happy Halloween.

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  4. I'm afraid the profiteers have already hijacked all of our holiday's, (here in the US, anyway) and are undoubtedly scheming up new ones at this very moment. I've stopped buying holiday related merchandise for the most part because of this and pursue more traditional celebrations instead.
    Halloween is certainly one of my favorites. Thanksgiving would be too if not for the dreaded highway travel (among the masses).
    happy halloween lynn!

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  5. Happy Halloween : )
    we were shocked when we went out last night to pick up halloween candy for the kidlets tonight and discovered shelves filled with santa gimmickery - starting christmas consumerism already : / sigh ...
    love this photo : )

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  6. We more or less decided, without meeting on the issue, not to do anything for Halloween. Sorry, but this seems like an American thing that commerce tries to feed us, as far as I am concerned.
    Just have a nice day, as far as I am concerned.

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  7. i used to enjoy the challenge of finding a pumpkin - more as a statement of my canadian-ness than as an icon of hallowe'en - but since the holiday has "caught on" here, i skip it entirely. so this isn't MY jack-o-lantern, though he is a particularly photogenic example, don't you think?

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  8. Regardless of the fact that it has "caught on" here, I -refuse- to allow the commercialism of any holiday to become something negative, especially if the holiday has some sort of meaning to me.
    It's all about what you make of it.

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  9. it's just the way things went for me.

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  10. Well, this U.K. gazer & reader knows one thing - pumpkins are easier to carve than turnips (alias swedes, alias rutabaga). & the children out hoping for treats last night were charming, every one.
    So as long as *I* can still eat turnips instead of pumpkin, & don't have to dress up, I'll forgive this holiday for having become Americanised/ commercialised. (It's hard, here, to discern the difference.)

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  11. I agree with the sentiment and love the photo. Anyone who has been jaded by the commercialism surrounding such a fine holiday should read The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury. My fondest memories of Halloween are not of brand-name candies or Hallmark products, they are of the autumn harvests in the golden fields, those first cold days with the smell of wood smoke in the air, and the houses with their windows decorated and doors open to the trick-or-treaters. Happy (belated) Halloween!

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  12. Mmm, the pumpkin and the lantern seem to be having a good time together, though. I know what you mean... Last thing I was expecting to see here in tropical Hawaii were pumpkins... but they are, even the plastic ones. Doesn't sound like an Hawaiian tradition, does it not?

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  13. But in the US or Canada, surely you must pay for your pumpkin? Or do you grow them yourself?
    I agree with Rachel, about ignoring the commercialism that may happen and let a holiday be what you want it to be. I've always loved Halloween, so I'm glad it's more visible here. I just hate all the Sinterklaas stuff that is sneaking into the end of October, fer chrissakes. And I always thought that Halloween was one holiday that was ok to commercialize, cuz it's mostly about candy and fun and being scared and dressing up. There's no cards, no presents, no religious undertones (not counting here any possible Wiccan backgrounds to the holiday; perhaps they are offended by modern Halloween?) I can see though the Dutch must be annoyed by the growing prominence of yet another American tradition, but I think the average Dutch person ignores it anyway.

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  14. the sinterklaas paraphernalia has always made its entrance at the start of november: the good saint arrives, after all, from spain in a couple of weeks. :-)
    i'm more upset by the christmas stuff already on the shelves. can't it wait until the good saint and the black peters have sailed back to iberia?

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  15. This is a wonderful jack o'lantern, Lynn. I love the way the eyes point out instead of up, and I love how so much is done so simply.
    The Christmas tinsel is already up on the shopping block around the corner here...

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  16. I don't think you have to worry about Thanksgiving... what, with Christmas in their sights...

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