Halloween = Bah

Or so say the English, at least. I was really interested to read a story in last weekend's Globe (new link) about the growing popularity of Halloween in England over the past decade. It's a surprising phenomenon - certainly when I lived in England in the mid-1990s, Halloween was a non-event. In some schools, you might find kids having little Halloween parties in class, but that was about it. All the autumnal hijinks were reserved for Bonfire Night on November 5th.

It's all changing now though, it seems - and there's plenty of grumbling in Blighty about what is viewed as a distasteful, over-commercialised North American import. I did a little Googling out of interest and found that consumer spending on sweets, decorations and other Halloween-themed items has boomed over the past decade, since retailers figured out that plugging a new holiday to children (who in turn harass their parents to buy stuff) was a potential goldmine.

I don't think it would be such a great stretch for the English to celebrate Halloween - the holiday originates from their Irish and Scottish neighbours, after all. But it would be a great shame if the rise of Halloween in England meant the eclipse of traditional Guy Fawkes/bonfire celebrations. What a boring world this would be if everyone adopted the same practices.