Thursday, 1 November 2007
Halloween in Australia
| Hi everyone Last night was Halloween in Australia. I have 2 kids who love dressing up and generally having a good time - so it seemed like a great excuse for a party. Many workplaces had people in costume throughout the day - so we thought we were in good company. We hit the net to find out how to carve pumpkins (as we were pumpkin novices) and took great delight in setting up our lit pumpkin on our driveway entrance. We had lots of local cars go past and slow down for a look throughout the night. But what was the response when we were talking about our great pumpkin to people - "Why would you do that - it's only something done in America not here". My kids along with a few ring ins wanted to try "Trick or treating". We have a close neighbourhood - everyone knows everyone in our street - but the response was quite underwhelming. We may have come a long way in Australia - embracing multi-cultural food and people from different backgrounds - but last night watching my kids try something a bit different made me realise how much further we have to go. It also highlighted for me how hard it must be for people from different backgrounds to celebrate their personally significant cultural and religious events in a meaningful way in our present culture. Many of our major public holidays are around Christian celebrations of easter and Christmas. But what about employees with different needs such as around Ramadan? Businesses need to recognise that not everyone comes from the same background and put in place procedures that validate different employees backgrounds and allows them to take time if needed to celebrate their events. As for us - we will continue to celebrate Buddha's Birthday as well as Panyiri and yes even Halloween. We will take sweeps at Melbourne Cup and mourn the fallen on Anzac Day. I believe in the richest possible experience in life and for my family. Happy All Saints Day! warm regards Ingrid www.heartharmony.com.au Labels: halloween, public holidays |
