Operation: Orange Balloons

Let’s not forget Father’s day, another ‘Merican tradition

Still, it’s confusing when you live in Queanbeyan …

maxblues said :

Folk like puppeteer Ronald Brown love Halloween…it’s like free home delivery.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

Trying to work out whether you are for or against Halloween, or going on an anti-US campaign.

Wow. You got me. I’m totally against the US, and I’m totally against Halloween, as my multi-paragraph rant against hypocrites who are against the US and against Halloween clearly demonstrates.

Puppeteer Ronald Brown is American. He likes Halloween and kiddies, usually with a condiment.

Oddsocks here’s a Canberran who agrees with you – but none of the comments do!

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4344272.html

Trying to work out whether you are for or against Halloween, or going on an anti-US campaign.

Wow. You got me. I’m totally against the US, and I’m totally against Halloween, as my multi-paragraph rant against hypocrites who are against the US and against Halloween clearly demonstrates.

Folk like puppeteer Ronald Brown love Halloween…it’s like free home delivery.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

Is it really already that magical time of year when Rioters engage in a ‘Oim heaps more Strayuhn’n’youse’ ritual by proclaiming that they’re against Halloween because it’s American, but they’ll:

– watch American movies, watch American TV, listen to American music, eat American food, and wear American clothes;
– happily participate in other foreign traditions, like Christmas trees, Easter, and Oktoberfest (and Irish and Scottish traditions in particular, like St Patrick’s Day); and
– ignore that Halloween is a well-established Christian holiday, with the word originating in Scotland, and is celebrated in Ireland and Scotland as well as around the world?

Onya, tough c***s! Your insecurities are completely obscured. (Quick, time to torrent whatever’s on HBO.)

Let’s not forget Fathers day, another ‘Merican tradition

Why are people so up tight about this? If you want to opt in, opt in. Otherwise, don’t. In earlier years, living in a street-facing 3rd floor apartment, I used to enjoy cutting out monster shapes from cardboard and sticking them to the window, so passers-by could enjoy the silhouettes. I’m hoping some of the kids around my current accommodation want to trick-or-treat, as I’ve got an automated Dalek I’d love to greet them with 🙂

This thread needs to have a competition with the Centenary ‘what do you like about Canberra?’ one for the funniest negativity expressed after a positive OP. Totally hilarious and quite heartening to see how people refuse to be pushed into meaningless happiness. (-:

http://the-riotact.com/the-centenary-wants-to-know-what-you-like-about-canberra/86586

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

Is it really already that magical time of year when Rioters engage in a ‘Oim heaps more Strayuhn’n’youse’ ritual by proclaiming that they’re against Halloween because it’s American, but they’ll:

– watch American movies, watch American TV, listen to American music, eat American food, and wear American clothes;
– happily participate in other foreign traditions, like Christmas trees, Easter, and Oktoberfest (and Irish and Scottish traditions in particular, like St Patrick’s Day); and
– ignore that Halloween is a well-established Christian holiday, with the word originating in Scotland, and is celebrated in Ireland and Scotland as well as around the world?

Onya, tough c***s! Your insecurities are completely obscured. (Quick, time to torrent whatever’s on HBO.)

Troubled by something?
Halloween is not a Christian holiday, it’s a pagan ritual influenced by Christian ideas. It only became a holiday in America when the Irish and Scottish migrated en mass.
If only there were more Aussie programs worthwhile watching. What makes food or clothing American anyway?
Trying to work out whether you are for or against Halloween, or going on an anti-US campaign.
To be honest, we Australians have no real traditions or holidays as our history is pretty plain and boring, so we just celebrate whatever we can to break up the year. Make Melbourne cup a national day off I say!

I’ll bet none of the Halloween decorations we see this year will be home-made.

How much do I get? All of our decorations are home made.

But *gasp* I think some of the paint was made in China! Does that make me a Communist as well as an American sympathiser-traitor?

Kim F said :

In this day and age, not good to encourage kiddies knocking on the door of “strange” houses.

Having said that, I lived in the US for 3 years as a kid and Halloween was brilliant fun

We had an exchange student or an embassy kid at my primary school and he had a back pack with the word ” Yield” inside a triangle on it. I had absolutely no idea what it meant…

shirty_bear said :

If you must import a seppo tradition, please make it Thanksgiving.

Halloween is vapid and clearly being driven by the retail sector. And kids hoping for free junk/food. It represents all the crappiest aspects of xmas.

Thanksgiving is the other side of the coin, much like we think xmas should be; family & friends, happiness & gratitude. A far more worthy addition to the calendar.

I’m happy to import but you get fcuk all for free. In return, can we export two words/phrases so that we never ever have to use or hear them in this country?
They are “straightaway”, referring to the straight part of a motor racing circuit. Darryl Beattie, you are a cock.
The second is a phrase “from the get go” referring to “from the beginning”. Makes me want to stick knitting needles in my ear so I don’t have to hear it ever…

Nor will they likely be US made. Cheap plastic crap from a Chinese sweatshop that Fair Trading will end up recalling a good portion of.

On the hercanberra website it advises people that they should “plan and purchase what they need” for Halloween. Says it all really: an American holiday, imported to be another expensive occasion that is about spending money, not about a spontaneous matter of neighbourliness. I’ll bet none of the Halloween decorations we see this year will be home-made.

wildturkeycanoe said :

Also, we have latex allergies in our house so balloons are out of the question anyway.

Not to mention peanut allergies; gluten intollerance; reactions to artificial colours, flavours & preservatives; non-GMO preferences; and anti-multinational stances – about the only safe thing to hand out to strangers these days are blocks of ice (flouride free of course).

Is it really already that magical time of year when Rioters engage in a ‘Oim heaps more Strayuhn’n’youse’ ritual by proclaiming that they’re against Halloween because it’s American, but they’ll:

– watch American movies, watch American TV, listen to American music, eat American food, and wear American clothes;
– happily participate in other foreign traditions, like Christmas trees, Easter, and Oktoberfest (and Irish and Scottish traditions in particular, like St Patrick’s Day); and
– ignore that Halloween is a well-established Christian holiday, with the word originating in Scotland, and is celebrated in Ireland and Scotland as well as around the world?

Onya, tough c***s! Your insecurities are completely obscured. (Quick, time to torrent whatever’s on HBO.)

Maybe we need a Do Not Knock Register as well as a Do Not Call Register.

Now Dia de Los Muertos, there’s a halloween type celebration I could get into

neanderthalsis said :

Onceler said :

Halloween is an autumn festival; hence the pumpkins. Orange balloons are probably an easier option if you’d rather celebrate it in the spring. Just like Easter celebrates to coming of spring: renewal of life after the long, dormant winter. Every time these festivals come around I’m reminded of how disconnected we are from nature’s cycles. It depresses me.

I celebrated the start of spring a few weekends ago by planting basil, dill and coriander and weeding, fertilising and mulching the rest of the herbatory (it’s like purgatory for plants). To celebrate autumn, I went the the Collector Pumpkin Festival and de-mothballed my winter clothes. At no stage did I feel the need to ask my neighbours for sugary treats.

Nice! I went to the pumpkin fest too. It was pretty good, though would have been even better with a Smashing Pumpkins tribute band, I thought. And strangely enough, it was in autumn, not spring!

Happy Halloween? Halloween celebrated? Celebrate what? That you’ve fallen for yet another retail driven shop-fest of no substance and no relevance to Australian culture that just pisses off your neighbours.

devils_advocate said :

shirty_bear said :

.

Also: Kim Kardashian’s 2012 halloween costume. In fact that alone could justify universal adoption of halloween.

No-one, not even KK should wear leopard print tights. Her donning that costume will lead to a resurgence of leopard print and outer-western suburbs rotund single mothers thinking that it is purrfectly acceptable garb in which to take little Dakota and Maddison off to the local Westfield for babycinos.

While we’re celebrating, lets have a huge bonfire and pray for the spirits of the dead to return to our world. Do we teach our kids this is the real roots of halloween?
Why not celebrate all of the foreign, pagan and made up rituals too, just to show how multicultural we are? Not that roasting a pig on a spit would offend the Jews and Islamists, or barbecuing steaks would offend the Hindus, or eating just about anything would offend the vegetarians.
Celebrate all the festivities you want but don’t ask everyone in your neighborhood to join in, you might find some unwelcome responses to the suggestion.
Also, we have latex allergies in our house so balloons are out of the question anyway.

Kim F said :

In this day and age, not good to encourage kiddies knocking on the door of “strange” houses.

Having said that, I lived in the US for 3 years as a kid and Halloween was brilliant fun

Interestingly the only ever discovered cases of poisoned candy were parents poisoning their own.

In this day and age, not good to encourage kiddies knocking on the door of “strange” houses.

Having said that, I lived in the US for 3 years as a kid and Halloween was brilliant fun

shirty_bear said :

Thanksgiving is the other side of the coin, much like we think xmas should be; family & friends, happiness & gratitude. A far more worthy addition to the calendar.

I thought thanksgiving was a celebration of genocide and dispossessing indigenous peoples of their land. I don’t think either of halloween or thanksgiving is particularly worthy, but if forced to choose between the two I would probably go for halloween because it’s relatively inoffensive to my beliefs.

Also: Kim Kardashian’s 2012 halloween costume. In fact that alone could justify universal adoption of halloween.

Zan said :

I do not like balloons. they fly through the air and you don’t know the havoc they create. Land in streams, ponds, lakes, seas and fish tries to eat it and it kills. Not only that whatever is tied to the balloon to stop it deflating gets tangled in trees, bushes and gets caught around birds and because they are made by poly somethings it is hard to untangle and get off the bird. Bird now dead. So sad. Stick to pumpkins as they are biodegradable.

Rant over

An aspect I hadnt even considered.

Onceler said :

Halloween is an autumn festival; hence the pumpkins. Orange balloons are probably an easier option if you’d rather celebrate it in the spring. Just like Easter celebrates to coming of spring: renewal of life after the long, dormant winter. Every time these festivals come around I’m reminded of how disconnected we are from nature’s cycles. It depresses me.

I celebrated the start of spring a few weekends ago by planting basil, dill and coriander and weeding, fertilising and mulching the rest of the herbatory (it’s like purgatory for plants). To celebrate autumn, I went the the Collector Pumpkin Festival and de-mothballed my winter clothes. At no stage did I feel the need to ask my neighbours for sugary treats.

Somehow I think that JB did the tags to this article…

bd84 said :

Fair enough if you wish to do something to “celebrate”, but keep it to yourself and any of your willing friends by having a halloween party or something. That way you don’t harass the neighbours and waste your time going from door to door to have people tell you to get lost.. Politely..

bd84, why don’t you read and understand the OP before ranting? The idea is that only those who fit the description of ‘willing’ would put these balloons outside their house, so that you don’t go harassing the neighbours unless you’re invited. So the OP is supporting an idea that is a little more advanced than yours but still addresses your underlying concern that you’ll have little brats knocking on your door that you’ll have to go to the unreasonable bother of telling to get lost.

Seems like a good idea to me.

Of course I won’t bother with it, but if my kids earnestly desire to go and seek lollies from someone else, I’m not going to keep them at home to bother me about it! Bring on the orange balloons!

It’s not American in origin, but has been developed into an American tradition.

The older members of my family in Scouseland celebrate Samhain with traditions that are similar to those used for Halloween, including the carving of root vegetables.

My Gran told stories of going around the village in Wiltshire, collecting soul cakes.

That said, I don’t celebrate Halloween in the American tradition, and could do without the local kids knocking on the door.

I do not like balloons. they fly through the air and you don’t know the havoc they create. Land in streams, ponds, lakes, seas and fish tries to eat it and it kills. Not only that whatever is tied to the balloon to stop it deflating gets tangled in trees, bushes and gets caught around birds and because they are made by poly somethings it is hard to untangle and get off the bird. Bird now dead. So sad. Stick to pumpkins as they are biodegradable.

Rant over

laneoneform said :

Plus you’ll still have plenty of opportunity to shake your fist out the window at other people having fun.

Turning the hose on them is more fun.

Halloween is SO pointless here, the bloody thing is a harvest festival for one thing… it’s spring here, no harvest. We have no tradition of halloween, we’re not a bunch of ex-devil-worshipping loons.

I enjoy Halloween and Thanksgiving in the US, but they’re very US-specific. Especially thanksgiving. You’d be amazed the number of yanks who are susprised that Thanksgiving isn’t a world celebration, like Xmas. Given what thanksgiving is giving thanks FOR, you really have to wonder.

edit: “THE coming of spring”. Sorry.

Halloween is an autumn festival; hence the pumpkins. Orange balloons are probably an easier option if you’d rather celebrate it in the spring. Just like Easter celebrates to coming of spring: renewal of life after the long, dormant winter. Every time these festivals come around I’m reminded of how disconnected we are from nature’s cycles. It depresses me.

“With so many of us Canberrans hailing from countries where Halloween is celebrated”

What other countries celebrate halloween apart from the US and US wannabes?

HerCanberra? Ye Gods, that looks stupid. I was about to complain about women only forums being a breeding ground of vacuous, shallow nonsense but I don’t think it’s limited to their gender, male-only forums tend to be just as heinous, if for different reasons.

But I guess you can’t blame people for wanting to get together and blather on about crap. RA has its fair share of blathering too, but I like the think the subject matter usually has a bit more substance.

With so many of us Canberrans hailing from countries where Halloween is celebrated,

The 2006 census showed that 21.7% were born overseas. The largest group of people born overseas came from English-speaking countries, led by the United Kingdom and then New Zealand. Significant numbers of immigrants have also come from China, India and Vietnam.

Yes, there are so many Yanks over here that they don’t even rank in the top 5 countries of origin but they still want to enforce their cultural crap on us. Even those from the UK, where Halloween originated, consider it to be a minor event.

laneoneform said :

I like it. Surely if this catches on it will result in less neighbours getting harassed…

Great, and then we can introduce legislation prohibiting unwrapped lollies because we don’t trust strangers handing lollies to our kids.

Me? I’ll be finishing my tax return – anyone knocking at my front door won’t be in for a treat.

If you must import a seppo tradition, please make it Thanksgiving.

Halloween is vapid and clearly being driven by the retail sector. And kids hoping for free junk/food. It represents all the crappiest aspects of xmas.

Thanksgiving is the other side of the coin, much like we think xmas should be; family & friends, happiness & gratitude. A far more worthy addition to the calendar.

What bd84 said.

Scuse me if I don’t want to waste my time and money on an American holiday. I’ve done a few costume parties for halloween in the past, but that’s all it’s gone to. I find it a pointless holiday, very americanised, and I’m just not interested. Never have been. Just recently moved to a neighbourhood with a lot of kids in the street, most of them squatty little fatties with ugg-boot wearing beer-in-hand slurring drunken yells down the street parents. Of course renting you can’t really complain that much, but they definitely don’t need more sugar.

bd84 said :

Fair enough if you wish to do something to “celebrate”, but keep it to yourself and any of your willing friends by having a halloween party or something. That way you don’t harass the neighbours and waste your time going from door to door to have people tell you to get lost.. Politely..

I like it. Surely if this catches on it will result in less neighbours getting harassed… if you want to take part stick a balloon up, if you don’t then don’t. Requires zero effort on your part if you don’t want to join in.

Plus you’ll still have plenty of opportunity to shake your fist out the window at other people having fun.

Why not name it operation: annoy your neighbours begging for a tradition that has no point and is not celebrated in this country.

Fair enough if you wish to do something to “celebrate”, but keep it to yourself and any of your willing friends by having a halloween party or something. That way you don’t harass the neighbours and waste your time going from door to door to have people tell you to get lost.. Politely..

Orange Balloons? I don’t want to be snarky, but I thought that was Snooky.