Fun?
By Rhiannonw
- 3065 reads
Why make light of evil dark?
and laugh at fright
parodying leer and fear
mocking menace spooky, shocking
provoking shaking, quaking, shrieking
to tease, poke fun, embarrass.
Children coerce, bully –
threats for treats
intimidate – retaliate?
really jolly?
but may be really scared –
fears buried
should be shared.
All bad taste,
and plastic waste.
[IP: Halloween]
[last year I put on https://www.abctales.com/story/rhiannonw/light-parties-oct-31 as the IP was ‘what not to do on Halloween’. This year there probably wont be parties of any sort, and probably Trick and Treating discouraged]
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Comments
The waste upsets me more as a
The waste upsets me more as a grown up than any of the images. The wrongness of wasting money on one use, ugly stuff that will never rot down. I can see why children love it, since it feels like their celebration, but I wish it could be centred round misrule rather environmental horror. Plastic is the real nightmare
Also, your internal rhymes are brilliant!
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yes, agree completely. is
yes, agree completely. is also about trying to be grown up, not seen as a baby/sissy, isn't it? Boys wanting to look tough have to go for the most horrific grotesque thing they can get. Which is not really about fun
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dangerous
In SA we don't do this Halloween at all, it looks and sounds stupid if you ask me. Only once dogs in our street were poisoned but our dogs made it.
Didn't it originate as the witches sabbath? Hope I'm wrong. Also of course it is dangerous to go outstide at night especially for children.
Keep well &
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I used to love to get my
I used to love to get my turnip hollowed out and lit by a candle, unlike the pumpkin of today. Somehow it is the smells of childhood that linger, not thoughts of bad taste or threats, but yes if things get out of hand it is very bad indeed!
Nicely expressed,
Hilary
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All Hallows day is for honouring the saints and the dead.
It's been around for eons, long before the USA existed. Mexicans honour their dead with skeleton images. Belgian, France and Holland honour their dead with Crysanthemums on November 1st. Which is a national holiday in many Catholic countries.
Selling Chrysants is big business in Europe, but at least they aren't plastic.
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That's very interesting, Ed,
That's very interesting, Ed, didn't know about the chrysanthemum day, it sounds wonderful, completely different sort of celebration, gentle and beautiful
what a lot of information has come from your poem, Rhiannon! I bet you are right about the triangle shapes of pumpkin faces, too. And, as pumpkins are from America, guess before they became available here people would have had to carve faces in big turnips, which are aweful even to cut up for stew!
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I think you might find this interesting, Rhia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trick-or-treating#:~:text=Rhodian%20lawgiv...(link is external).
Sometimes I think we Brits blame too much on the Americans
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hmmmm
Trick or Treat, Bob a Job, Penny for the Guy, Carol singing at people's doors
pretty much the same thing in different guises
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no!
Most certainly not. They are all completely different, in nature and in spirit.
There is no free lunch.
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My point is, it's kids out on the streets trying to get rewards
in the dark (except maybe for B-a-J but they often go into stranger's houses)
Harmless enough once, but if people these days worry about trick and treaters they should worry about the others also. Sadly the world has changed.
I don't see how trick of treat is a threat. It's supposed to be fun.
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