How British colonialism determined whether your country celebrates Halloween
Countries marked in pink see their candy imports peak in October. (Quartz) image from the Washington post articleThey had a better picture, but the file size was too big so I used that one instead
Halloween is a controversial day in Australia. The holiday is not traditionally observed there widely, but kids are still aware of it from TV and movies. So, every year, an increasing number of Australian children dress up in costume and go door-to-door for candy, as the grown-ups debate whether they should continue to resist the foreign cultural imposition.
“If any children approach my building, I’m just going to silently admire them from the intercom screen and pretend that I’m not home. I won’t be the only one,” Australian writer Van Badham declared in Wednesday’s Guardian, as part of the annual Australian tradition of refusing to enjoy Halloween. “For people like my mother, it’s a deliberate rejection of the kind of U.S. imperialism that suckered her generation not into witches hats and candy, but Australian participation in the Vietnam war.”
