Posts matching tags 'halloween'
2004/10/21
Parts of the US are up in arms over Halloween falling on a Sunday; in the Bible Belt states of the South, some literal-minded Christians (presumably the same ones who called for the Harry Potter books to be banned; it appears that distinguishing between form and content isn't very popular in parts of Alabama and such) are so upset about children dressed as demons and witches being out on the Sabbath that various communities have officially moved Halloween to October 30, a Saturday.
"You just don't do it on Sunday," said Sandra Hulsey of Greenville, Ga. "That's Christ's day. You go to church on Sunday, you don't go out and celebrate the devil. That'll confuse a child."
(via FmH)
2002/11/3
All this evening, fireworks have been going off all around (well, all around Ealing and thereabouts, anyway). It seems that, this being the weekend between Halloween and Guy Fawkes' Day, it's a doubly good reason for fireworks.
Some of these look like organised displays, but others probably aren't. Unlike in Australia, anyone can buy fireworks here and set them off, which is why you get bottle rockets whizzing horizontally across parks and almost knocking people over and such; and apparently the casualty departments of hospitals are doing a roaring trade as well.
One thing that I found slightly surprising: the English really get into Halloween (which I thought was an American thing, at least in its modern incarnation). There were carved pumpkins everywhere, and I saw a number of people dressed up for the occasion. (And not just little children in pumpkin suits either; there was one woman walking down Oxford St., attired in green face paint and a witch's hat. Not the sort of thing you see in Australia much.)