Halloween

For the longest time I've been stalwartly against the celebration of Halloween in Australian society. It's an American holiday and the only reason why we would adopt it is because of the heavy influx of their television. Originally I also thought the holiday was stupid - it was all about eating sweets and I've been been terribly keen on them. The "trick" part of trick-or-treat always seemed too mean spirited as well; they would inevitably involve the vandalism of some poor sap's house or mail box.

But the more I think about it the more I'm coming around to the idea - an evening of well-intentioned frivolity. It just seems like it would be good for communities on the whole if they were able to trust their neighbours enough to send their children unescorted around to meet everyone without fear of abduction, molestation or circumcision. It's always good to be able to trust the people around, even if they are strangers.

For adults - it's late October and we're out of holidays until Christmas. Australia should have more holidays than any other industrialised nation. It's our culture to be laid back and relaxed, so we should have a laissez-faire attitude to adopting new holidays and pick up all the ones we think are cool or at least would get us out of work for a few hours - just look at the Melbourne Cup.

We don't have to worry about becoming completely Americanized by the inclusion of a few of their holidays in our calendar. The first sign of real trouble will be when some Aussie decides to celebrate Thanksgiving.