Happy Halloween

Let's just say that Kiwi's just don't choose to not get into Halloween/Harvest Parties, they have a VERY strong opinion. The dressing up, the candy, the parties, the carving of pumpkins, the making of carmel apples, the fun of seeing kids creativity of who they "want" to be for a day is all just FUN!

In NZ it's a different story! No one really dresses up, not because they think it's silly (seeing they have dress up parties for any and all occasions). So you ask what is the cultural "beef" with Halloween? It isn't FAIR to expect to get dressed up, go to some one's house and get FREE candy for doing nothing!

I about laughed out loud the first time I heard Sam's Nana say that, but come to find out it's pretty much the cultural norm. As with any cultural norm that is the average and there are certainly some people that don't think that and some that think it even more strongly, like two people I heard about this week, a lady quoted in the paper and a radio host. There is a "man on the street" section of Sam's paper and the question was "Should kids dress up and go trick or treating?" One lady's answer: "Absolutely not, it is an American tradition that we should have nothing to do with and doesn't need to be here." REALLY?! Do you have to be that dramatic about it? Evidently she did. It just made me laugh. The other funny comment of the week: A radio host was ranting about Halloween and kids getting dressed up and going trick or treating getting candy for doing nothing. His metaphor to prove his point was "If you give a man a fish he eats for a day, if you teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime." SERIOUSLY?!?!?!? I about died! You have got to be kidding me, it's candy, it's dressing up (A Kiwi's favorite pass time), it's fun!

Oh the cultural differences sometimes just make me laugh. Now, to be clear I don't like the dark side and the celebration of a dark/evil holiday and love the ways that so many churches have created safe environments for kids with Harvest Parties and such. But I think that is the thing that makes me laugh so hard here, it isn't a war against the evil, but the unfairness of getting a tootsie roll for free.

Maximillian even got into Halloween this year. One of my websites said that he was the size of a pumpkin today. Little turkey was just waiting to be compared to a pumpkin on Halloween before he made his entrance into the world!