HALLOWEEN: Has Halloween Become too Commercialised?

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Last edited by on Mon Oct 15 2007, 12:13; edited 5 times in total

Has Halloween Become too Commercialised in the Muggle World?

The theme for this debate is Halloween, and whether or not it has become too commercialised in the Muggle World. Does trick-or-treating represent the true values of the holiday? Are the shops just cashing in? Or does celebrating it each year teach us about its history?

There will be two sides, for and against.

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SIDES
FOR: Yes, Halloween has become too commercialised in the Muggle World
AGAINST: No, Halloween hasn't become too commercialised in the Muggle World

PARTICIPANTS

Gryffindor
RhiannonMei
amberg93

Hufflepuff
kikso
dragonweaver

Slytherin
Agatha Black
Wytchkitty

Ravenclaw
Herbaceoustraitorous
polly

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I'd love to participate! *is just itching to argue * XD

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Your sides are below. Remember, the more detailed and creative your arguments, the better chance you have of earning a high amount of points.

SIDES

FOR: Yes, Halloween has become too commercialised in the Muggle World
amberg93 debating for Gryffindor
kikso debating for Hufflepuff
Wytchkitty debating for Slytherin
polly debating for Ravenclaw

AGAINST: No, Halloween hasn't become too commercialised in the Muggle World
RhiannonMei debating for Gryffindor
dragonweaver debating for Hufflepuff
Agatha Black debating for Slytherin
Herbaceoustraitorous debating for Ravenclaw

Let the debate begin!

Remember the simple, traditional costumes and activities that used to make Halloween fun? Halloween parties weren't all based on money and who had the biggest and best decorations and displays. It wasn't a popularity contest. It was just a simple holiday to scare a few friends for the fun of it.

Once known as the spookiest, creepiest holiday around, Halloween has fallen from its spooky pedestal and landed into an ocean of greed and laziness.

Yes, sadly, even this holiday has now been tainted by an array of price tags and touched by the hand of commercialization. Along with Christmas, it's now become a huge franchise of costumes, candy, and profit.

It seems that now Halloween is just another day to make money off of people. Overpricing costumes, candy, and even haunted tours of places has become common. No one seems to want the old, traditional celebrations back.

And as Halloween has become so 'Americanized' people seem to forget that not everyone sees Halloween the same. All Hallows Eve, and Samhain, and Hop-tu-Naa are just some traditions/beliefs that are being smudged out as the huge franchise keeps growing.

Halloween means different things to different people. It is not only a time of trick or treating but for some it is a way of welcoming a new year or a way to commune with the dead as part of their belief system.

There seems to be nothing mysterious or sacred about Halloween anymore and for many who grew up with it being one of their favorite holidays, they now detest it. There are just things that should have never been commercialized; Halloween being one of them.

Even though Halloween has become a source of 'money making' for some companies, it still has the air of how people celebrate it back in the days

What I mean by 'air' is that Halloween still has all the things that is realted to the original holiday. True that most people call Halloween a 'fun' holiday by decorating their front lawn with pumpkins and dressing up as a scary devil or ghost - that is what they did back then too.

Dressing up (costumes) :

Quote :: On Halloween night in present-day Ireland, adults and children dress up as creatures from the underworld (ghosts, ghouls, zombies, witches, goblins

Halloween is a day that people believe that ghosts/ the underworld can be contacted. Thus when dressing up in the costumes, they role play these spirits.

Quote :: Celts also believed that on October 31, the boundary separating the dead from the living became blurred

As said before, the costumes represent the quote above. Haunted Houses and spooky decorations also represent that. So some people in Ireland lit bonfires (as some Celts before) to reinforce the boundary between us and the 'underworld'

Quote :: The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

Since a lot of things change and adapt over time in history. Why not halloween. In Rome, they had a goddess of fruits so now modern day, we have bobbing for apples.

Not commercialized at all

http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=713&display_order=1&mini_id=1076
http://www.arikah.com/encyclopedia/Halloween

Maybe a small part of Halloween is being preserved, but the big picture is that Halloween just isn't as much fun for the older generation as it used to be. Sure there are places around the world that can still celebrate it with a mixture of mainstream, but where's the joy in buying all these costumes and Halloween decorations just to turn around and throw them away.

Do you know that a good number of pumpkins are wasted each year? They are carved into jack-o-lanterns but after that they're wasted. Not many people want to use them for anything else. What about pumpkin pies?

Did you know that all of the cookies and Halloween cakes that are not sold end up in dumpsters? This is FOOD being wasted for no reason.

And costumes, expensive ones find their way into the trash the next morning. And many of the costumes are so flimsy that they fall apart easily.

What happened to the skill of handcrafting and making your own costumes? The joy of seeing your hard work paying off is far better than simply buying a cheaply made costume that you can easily dispose of the next day.

When you take into account all the wastefulness that happens just for Halloween, it's rather sad.

Halloween the day where we all dress up, have parties or go out with your parents to get sweets. Do you remember when there was only witch hats in the super market and you had to make your own costume? Now everything is just laid out before us. And the things put out in the supermarket months before. If they were not after money then what else?
Halloween is in fact and irish pagan tradition. Yet I’m sure many young people didn’t know that. Its all about the sweets. You turn the tv on a few days before Halloween and its all adverts and programs about trick or treating. What ever happened to the traditional festivals? Which of you have ever done apple bobbing. That used to be the traditional game played now its all sweets. Let alone the money how many people go out to see how much money and sweets they can make?
In North America, unmarried women were frequently told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the
face of their future husband would appear in the mirror. However, if they were destined to die before marriage, a skull would appear. The custom was widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting cards from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
All the things we see today like skulls and witches all come from the old pagan traditions. I wonder how the pagans feel about this. Their religious tradition was taken over by people and made into a day just like easter. To make money for the super markets. Just like valentines day. Now its all cards and flowers instead of showing the true meaning of love.
Not only has the modern day Halloween stolen traditions and changed them they have also taken away peoples creativity. When my mum was young there was no costumes to buy they had to be made. You had to use what you had and your creativity and designing skills. Now you can walk down to the supermarket and buy a skeleton or witch outfit. Now where’s the imagination in that? Trick or treating was also seen as begging when she was younger. Now no one sees at it as wrong because the press has made it such a common thing. If these were not to make money then what for? All the creativity and religion is taken out for it and we get a modern day commercialised celebration.
I for one love Halloween and when I was younger our primary school head teacher used to tell us of for trick or treating and we got told to use our creativity and he would tell us the celebration of Halloween each year. But how many American children out there know the true meaning and not the sweets and costumes from shops?
Did you know now that they hold look-a-like costume challenges on the internet and some entry’s out of pikaciu and naruto? Where is the spirit coming to life theme there? Its just a money making thing. In fact someone I know is going as Harry Potter for Halloween.
And I also ask you how many of you got junk emails about Halloween? Do you think that would have happened when my mum was a child no? Because Halloween is all about the money now a days.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

Halloween hasn’t become too commercialised. Let me explain some history moments about Halloween. First off, in the United States were the first to publish a Halloween catalogue in 1909. Each item in the catalogue was made by pioneers. This gave extra money to these pioneers as well as it provided Halloween decorations that could be found within the catalogue.

During the two world wars, the Germans helped manufacturer special Halloween figurines that were exported to the United States. Part of my argument is that Halloween hasn’t become too commercialised due to the fact that it helped supply jobs for families and pioneers. Not to mention that it also helped the Germans during the war and gave families something to look forward to. It is the businesses who made Halloween seem to be commercialised but really they just try to capitalize on the holiday season.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

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