On 10/29/2011 1:45 AM, Warp wrote:
>    Apparently Halloween has its roots in Samhain, which was a Gaelic harvest
> festival originally practiced mostly in Ireland and Scotland. It's strongly
> associated with the celtic culture and its paganistic religious practices.
>
>    Finland has never been a celtic cultural area, not before nor after
> Christianity, and there are very little to no celtic historical customs here.
> Finland has its own pre-Christian rich mythologic and folkloric history and
> customs. Of course modern Finnish culture is mostly filled with Christian
> customs, none of which are celtic in origin (AFAIK).
>
>    Ten years ago Halloween was completely inexistent in Finland. We knew
> about Halloween only from movies and TV series. It has never been a part
> of Finnish culture, and it has always been a holiday of distant lands.
>
>    Something like five years ago somebody, I don't know who exactly, seemingly
> wanted to change this and forcibly introduce Halloween to Finland. Suddenly
> all kinds of Halloween parafernalia started appearing on shops in October.
> I was like "WTF? Are they kidding?"
>
>    Since then every year such parafernalia appears on shops in October. And
> apparently at least *some* people are buying it (and not only in the literal
> sense of the word). What grinds my gears about this is that this is such a
> blatant attempt at cashing in on a foreign custom, for no other reason
> whatsoever, and some people are buying it. As if Finland didn't have its
> own culture and its own holidays and festivals already.
>
What ever it may have *once been*, its no longer based on that at all. 
Its more like Christmas, with candy, instead of presents, and celebrated 
by nearly everyone. Mind, some wackos in the US "celebrate" it by 
blaring religious propaganda over loud speakers against witchcraft (or 
did a few years back in my city), and running "haunted houses" dedicated 
to telling little kids all of the sinful things, including Halloween, 
which will send them to hell, if they do them. And, its had paranoia, 
lies, and "captive audience" BS shoveled over it so much that, in most 
places, its rare to see people going door to door with their kids any 
more, like they used to. But, yeah, its pretty much not a "holy day" for 
anyone any more.

Interestingly, its changed over time. At one time it was only the adults 
that wore costumes, and partied, then it changed to a kids festival, and 
now.. its still mostly kids, but you see some adult stuff happening too 
again. In any case, other than a few kooks, and a few neo-pagans and new 
agers (same thing in this day), who don't follow a damn thing like what 
they "imagine" the past was, or people did, or believed, its just 
something for fun.

All said, Finland isn't going to be the first or last to "complain" 
about the "commercialization", and promotion in new markets, of it. 
There is a long standing assertion that certain "holidays" are nothing 
more than marketing for people selling candy and card, etc. No doubt, if 
Christianity hadn't gotten *started* in Europe, someone would be trying 
to sell Santa Claus suits, Yule logs and greeting cards there now too. 
For someone not "into" the "holiday", what ever much of it exists, it 
seems to me to be a bit like complaining that Star Wars merchandise was 
showing up on the shelves, one day out of the year, as the result of the 
creation of a new "George Lucas day", or something.

Maybe a valid point, but.. a bit silly, and this is coming from someone 
that lives in the most idiot friendly country on the planet, the good 
old USA.

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