I think of Halloween as a distinctly American tradition. Over sold, and over consumed. I'm not a fan. I pull my old persons hat down, mumble about the Americanization of Australia, and try to ignore it.
I also ponder the silence on the mountains of plastic ornaments consumed each year. Once they would have been hand made, or kept and treasured for years. But now, each celebration event has its own plastic merchandise that is manufactored, shipped, purchased, displayed, and then junked after the day is over. All in the space of a few days or weeks. Landfill or the ocean its out of sight, out of mind.
Usually the first hint of Halloween is in the shops. Stocks of fake pumpkins, spider webs, witches, ghouls, bats, cats, and treats trickle in, and then explode into end of aisle displays as the final days count down. The plastic migrates via shopping carts and motor vehicles to the yards and footpaths of suburbia. As the day approachs the amount increases. Fake plastic cobwebs multiply, hanging in the shrubs, and spilling across the ground.
On the day, groups of children herd from house to house crying "trick or treat" over and over. I wonder if anyone chooses 'trick'? And what the trick is these days. They soon grab their allocation of sweets and scamper off to mob the next house.
Over the next few weeks, the decorations slowly decay and are blown about the street by the wind. Actually, the responsible clean up their display. I only notice the few that don't. But they rest longer on my mind as I see them time and time again getting more tatty and weathered.
Regardless of my feelings on Halloween, I had to stop and admire the effort put into this one:
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| Well done. |
I was equally pleased to note the next time I passed that it had all been cleaned away. The graves, feeding the lawn.
