We were in a bit of a quandary as I was unsure when you were allowed to start decorating for this holiday. It is not one that is widely celebrated in Australia so I did what all good bloggers do - contacted the lovely Whitney in America and asked her advice! Apparently, like Christmas, decorating starts as early as possible to eek out maximum enjoyment, hence this mornings pumpkin hanging.
When I was teaching I celebrated Halloween with my class as we had quite a few international students. I felt it was important to explain the origins of Halloween and spent quite a few sessions on it's history and cultural significance. I did not want it to be seen as just another American invention as it has such a wonderful, rich history and is a fascinating celebration.
(If I can lay my hands on my Grade 3 synopsis of Halloween I'll post it for anyone who's interested.)
This year, (or to be honest, yesterday!) I decided it might be fun for the kids to talk about Halloween and decorate a little. They loved the idea and having been brought up on Australian TV which has a scary amount of American programming, they knew heaps more about it than I thought they did. What they didn't know is the background to the celebration so today I'm going to put on my teaching hat again and fill them in. Surprisingly there is more to it than re-runs of scary Simpson's episodes!
And just because I'm in the mood - here are some Halloween decorations that I wish were at my house..... maybe next year!
Photos courtesy of Martha Stewart.com
One more thing - how can we make a fabulous Halloween tradition of our own here in Australia when our seasons are reversed and many of the traditions are related to Autumn?? I guess it's the same as our Christmas dilemma - snowmen, sleigh rides and hot turkey lunches in 40 degree heat!!
7 comments:
Can we come over for your Halloween class? I'd love to know the history of it. Perhaps you can start by telling me what date actual Halloween takes place? How vague am I not to even know that much? Maybe we should pick up a pumpkin at the supermarket.
I love those ricepaper pumpkins !!
I lived in the US for a while and Hallo'een is so much fun. I also wish they sold the special carving pumpkins here - you can't really carve a thinskinned Qld Blue ! )
Do you give out lollies for Halloween or just black cats????
Reminder Flash back friday!!!! I need a laugh :-)
Id love to know the history of halloween...i thought it was just to freak out small children and to eat as many lollies as possible! Let me know so i can share with my gang...they love the whole halloween thing but its hard to do here because it is so unrecognised. Although my girl is learning about it at school so maybe she can teach me!!
obviously you didn't teach MY year 3 class halloween, because I don't know anything about it! My family also lives in YARRAMBAT, and so there's no one around to trick-or-treat.
I'm very intrigued in the history xa
We bought a pumpkin today which the girls and I are going to attempt to mangle..erm, I mean carve...but having read H&B's comment above, I'm now a little nervous. I think what I got is a Qld Blue. Could be a pumpkin massacre?
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