Things that piss you off that shouldn't

[Chindie]

22 minutes ago, Jon said:

All released prisoners should be collected in reliant robins.  

With a slow puncture. And a blown exhaust. And broken springs.

[bickster]

35 minutes ago, Mic09 said:

Old man yelling at clouds territory, but I can't stand Halloween. 

The only really objectionable thing about Halloween is the name Halloween. It's a Celtic pagan family of festivals (location dependent) so why call it after the Christian made up bollocks name for the day

[Mic09]

1 minute ago, bickster said:

The only really objectionable thing about Halloween is the name Halloween. It's a Celtic pagan family of festivals (location dependent) so why call it after the Christian made up bollocks name for the day

Well, a lot of cultures celebrate some sort of a 'day of the dead' around this time.

My issue is 'normalizing' dressing your son as a zombie and sticking him in a coffin while your daughter carries around a fake decapitated head. It's a stupid Americanisation of otherwise an important event for many cultures.

And teenagers (who should know better) knocking on doors to pick up a snickers bar. 

Again, I appreciate I'm very conservative with this particular event. But it's simply stupid.

I have no issues with 5 year olds dressing as fairies or funny animals or harry potter or whatever and walking around with their parents. But coffins and fake blood all over the estate is just stupid. 

[bickster]

Just now, Mic09 said:

It's a stupid Americanisation

It's not. Trick or Treat isn't an American tradition. Dressing up and going door to door is very much in the Celtic tradition

[Mic09]

5 minutes ago, bickster said:

It's not. Trick or Treat isn't an American tradition. Dressing up and going door to door is very much in the Celtic tradition

Trick or treat may very well be, I am not arguing it. The thing is Celtic tradition was taken across the ocean and since 1600/1700 it's very much a separate thing as Americans adapted their traditions for the new world.

But that's not my point.

I have no issues with trick or treating. I also celebrate the 1st November as a day of remembrance for the dead. All the kids collecting seets, have fun. 

I have a problem with a plastic skeleton covered in blood and gravestones all over the estate. 

But again, I fully appreciate it's an old man yelling at clouds problem.  

Edited 23 hours ago by Mic09

[bickster]

1 minute ago, Mic09 said:

Trick or treat may very well be, I am not arguing it. The thing is Celtic tradition was taken across the ocean and since 1600/1700 it's very much a separate thing as Americans adapted their traditions for the new world.

But that's not my point.

I have no issues with trick or treating. I also celebrate the 1st November as a day of remembrance for the dead. All the kids collecting seets, have fun. 

I have a problem with a plastic skeleton covered in blood and gravestones all over the estate. 

But again, I fully appreciate it's an old man yelling at clouds problem.  

My only point is that it isn't American. All America has done is commercialise it, what they've commercialised is very much Celtic, the dressing up, the skeletons, the going door to door, the whole lot, Celtic.

Decorating houses is just an extension of it

[Mic09]

Just now, bickster said:

My only point is that it isn't American. All America has done is commercialise it, what they've commercialised is very much Celtic, the dressing up, the skeletons, the going door to door, the whole lot, Celtic.

Decorating houses is just an extension of it

You might be right, but it's a chicken and the egg sort of a thing at this stage;

Does my estate look like a zombie filled graveyard because;

a) We are following an ancient celtic tradition (which I assume parents explain to their kids while they stuff face with Haribo)

b) Because Americans covered the world with plastic fake crap that kids love and they saw it on their favourite TV show 

[bickster]

1 minute ago, Mic09 said:

Because Americans covered the world with plastic fake crap

That wasn't the Americans, we don't import that stuff from America, that was us, we did that to ourselves.

 

2 minutes ago, Mic09 said:

a) We are following an ancient celtic tradition (which I assume parents explain to their kids while they stuff face with Haribo)

Nope and just like they don't explain the giving of gifts around the time of the Winter Solstice being Pagan either

 

This is no chicken and egg situation. The Celtic tradition is clearly much older than Europeans colonising America

[Mic09]

Just now, bickster said:

That wasn't the Americans, we don't import that stuff from America, that was us, we did that to ourselves.

 

Nope and just like they don't explain the giving of gifts around the time of the Winter Solstice being Pagan either

 

This is no chicken and egg situation. The Celtic tradition is clearly much older than Europeans colonising America

I think you are correct, but you are missing my point.

Yes, the day of the dead is an ancient Celtic tradition (also celebrated by other traditions around this time, start of winter, end of harvest etc). Christmas is a Christian holiday, but based on ancient pagan winter solstice and 'birth of new life' tradition. 

My issue is what we have today is not that; traditions change. I am not arguing for going back to ancient traditions. But what annoys me is a decapitated head on the neighbours drive. That's my only point. 

I am not sure our great great great grandparents would stick their kids in blood covered zombie outfits and made them carry fake decapitated heads around. What they might have done is lit candles, remembered the dead, visited relatives and close ones etc.

So what we have today is an 'off-shoot' of previous traditions. But just like with Christmas (which is no longer winter solstice/birth of jesus) but mostly coca cola red fat man through the chimney. In the same way, the old traditions of 'start of winter' have been taken over by this new American creation of cheap gore; not the start of winter, not remembering the dead, but of haribo, mummies, fake blood and general tackiness.

In my opinion, 2024 Halloween is so far detached from it's foundations it's pretty much a whole new thing.

[chrisp65]

Around here, it’s Mari Lwyd

 

luckily for Celtic tradition and or church and state, the translation depending on spelling and pronunciation, can either be ‘Holy Mary’ or ‘Grey Mare’. 

more widely, it’s a tradition similar to wassailing, just get your horses head bury it, and once a year dig it up and parade it around the village trying to get in to people’s houses, then bury it again for next year

absolutely normal

 

 

 

[bickster]

5 minutes ago, Mic09 said:

In my opinion, 2024 Halloween is so far detached from it's foundations it's pretty much a whole new thing.

You're obviously entitled to that opinion, no matter how demonstrably wrong it is  

[Mic09]

Just now, bickster said:

You're obviously entitled to that opinion, no matter how demonstrably wrong it is  

Let's settle it here then

[The Fun Factory]

1 hour ago, Mic09 said:

Well, a lot of cultures celebrate some sort of a 'day of the dead' around this time.

My issue is 'normalizing' dressing your son as a zombie and sticking him in a coffin while your daughter carries around a fake decapitated head. It's a stupid Americanisation of otherwise an important event for many cultures.

And teenagers (who should know better) knocking on doors to pick up a snickers bar. 

Again, I appreciate I'm very conservative with this particular event. But it's simply stupid.

I have no issues with 5 year olds dressing as fairies or funny animals or harry potter or whatever and walking around with their parents. But coffins and fake blood all over the estate is just stupid. 

Well its as equally stupid as putting trees in your house to celebrate a person who may or may not have been crucified in the Middle East two thousand years ago whilst waiting for a fat bloke to come down the chimney to give presents to kids.

[chrisp65]

I’m sat in the office and suddenly become aware it’s hot, hot to a point I’ve actually got a slight bead of sweat forming on the forehead eyebrow region.

A quick bit of investigation reveals ‘the girls’ have turned the heating up to 27c ‘in case it gets cold later’.

**** me the **** silly season has **** started where people think **** 27c is a normal **** temperature how the merry **** do these people survive when they go outside and it’s a death inducing 16?

**** sake

 

[Mic09]

12 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

Well its as equally stupid as putting trees in your house to celebrate a person who may or may not have been crucified in the Middle East two thousand years ago whilst waiting for a fat bloke to come down the chimney to give presents to kids.

Well, yes, but I don't particularly like the unnecessary over the top gore of the current Halloween celebration. That's my only issue with it. I don't think kids running around plastic gravestones with plastic knives is particularly fun. I appreciate it's based on a certain tradition, but currently it's a caricature of it.

A little less tackiness, a little more tradition please. Have fun, celebrate, but kids walking around with decapitated heads is not my sort of a party.

(Again, I am an old man in a relatively young-ish body.) 

I think (grand-dad hat on again!) we could explain why these traditions are here. You know, start of new year, winter solstice, day of remembrance of the dead, end of harvest, etc. Not just 'Let's hang a plastic dead body out of the window and get some sweets kids!' 

Yes, I am detached. But that's my take. 

 

[Mic09]

13 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

I’m sat in the office and suddenly become aware it’s hot, hot to a point I’ve actually got a slight bead of sweat forming on the forehead eyebrow region.

A quick bit of investigation reveals ‘the girls’ have turned the heating up to 27c ‘in case it gets cold later’.

**** me the **** silly season has **** started where people think **** 27c is a normal **** temperature how the merry **** do these people survive when they go outside and it’s a death inducing 16?

**** sake

 

Spot on here. Are you a little uncomfortable? Put on a jumper. Don't make everyone suffer. 

[one_ian_taylor]

1 hour ago, chrisp65 said:

Around here, it’s Mari Lwyd

 

luckily for Celtic tradition and or church and state, the translation depending on spelling and pronunciation, can either be ‘Holy Mary’ or ‘Grey Mare’. 

more widely, it’s a tradition similar to wassailing, just get your horses head bury it, and once a year dig it up and parade it around the village trying to get in to people’s houses, then bury it again for next year

absolutely normal

 

 

 

If you don't have a horse's head, will other pets suffice?

[chrisp65]

4 minutes ago, one_ian_taylor said:

If you don't have a horse's head, will other pets suffice?

Only works with horses I’m afraid.

Youre going to look like a dick trying to gain entrance to someone’s house with a hamster skull on a stick.

[Chindie]

Trick or treating has it's origins in mumming and souling, a practice done in Britain since at least the middle ages where people dressed up and performed for treats (there actually used to be a thing called a soul cake for the very purpose) and offering good fortune at the turn of the seasons, often with macabre themes due to the belief of that period being a time where the supernatural and the natural crossover.

[Mic09]

2 minutes ago, Chindie said:

Trick or treating has it's origins in mumming and souling, a practice done in Britain since at least the middle ages where people dressed up and performed for treats (there actually used to be a thing called a soul cake for the very purpose) and offering good fortune at the turn of the seasons, often with macabre themes due to the belief of that period being a time where the supernatural and the natural crossover.

Sure. But it doesn't explain why my neighbour has  'DANGER, MENTAL ASYLUM' signs and clowns covered in blood over his front garden. 

Edited 21 hours ago by Mic09