Happy Halloween everyone, joy, happiness and health...

Well, if you celebrate that, then I wish you the same, Picco. However, I shall exclude myself, for one thing, I'm extremely opposed to all forms of superstition - whether taken seriously or treated as fun - and for another and at least as importantly, it's not really a traditional British thing but an US American import that started here only around the 1980s. What we used to celebrate here, with fireworks and bonfires, used to be Guy Fawkes Day (5th November), in remembrance of the plot in the 17th century to blow up parliament along with the King. Now completely over-shadowed by this dreadful Halloween nonsense. For a week or two before Guy Fawkes Day, you used to see kids on street corners with a home made rag dummy, asking people for a "penny for the Guy", i.e., collecting money to go towards fireworks and stuff. Alas, long gone it seems, even here in the countryside. Not that I would consider the whole Gunpowder Plot affair a particularly salubrious business, for either side, alas. Still, as the kids used to shout or sing, "Remember, remember, the 5th of November; gunpowder, treason, and plot!"

Quite an attractive looking theme from a graphical point of view, Picco, but also quite distracting I would think.

Hello Nexter...

Halloween, or Halloween in Canadian French, is a traditional folk and pagan festival originating from the Anglo-Celtic Islands celebrated on the evening of October 31, the eve of the Catholic holiday of All Saints' Day. Its name is a contraction of the English All Hallows' Eve which means the eve of All Hallows' Day in contemporary English and can be translated as "the eve of all saints" or "the vigil of All Saints' Day".

Despite its name of Christian and English origin, multiple sources present Halloween as a legacy of the religious festival of Samhain2 which was celebrated at the beginning of autumn by the Celts and constituted for them a sort of New Year's celebration. Halloween is thus known to this day under the name Oíche Shamhna in Gaelic. It is a very popular festival in Ireland, Scotland and Wales where there are many historical testimonies of its existence. Jack-o'-lantern, the emblematic Halloween lantern, itself comes from an Irish legend.

It was from the 8th century, under Pope Gregory III (731-741) and, in the following century, under Pope Gregory IV (827-844), that the Catholic Church moved the feast of All Saints' Day, which could celebrated until then after Easter or after Pentecost, on November 1st. It has been argued that the Church sought to cover up the feast of Samain. This must, however, be put into perspective because the Church celebrated a martyrs' feast after Easter and when the feast of All Saints was established, that of Samaïn had fallen into disuse. The Celts having a lunar calendar, the festival of Samaïn could not fall regularly on November 1st. The very nature of these two festivals being radically different, we hardly see what can bring together the Catholic saints' festival, the Celtic festival of Samaïn and its imagery with the Sidh.

The Halloween festival was introduced to the United States and Canada after the massive arrival of Irish and Scottish emigrants, particularly following the Great Famine in Ireland (1845-1851). It gained popularity there from the 1920s and it was on the new continent that Jack-o'-Lanterns made from pumpkins, of local origin, appeared, replacing the turnips used in Europe.

Today, Halloween is celebrated mainly in Ireland, Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It is to a lesser extent celebrated in many other influenced countries marked by an Americanization of their culture. The most famous modern tradition is for children to dress up in scary costumes like ghosts, witches, monsters or vampires and go ringing doorbells asking for treats with the phrase: Trick or treat! which means “trick or treat!” »Note 1. The evening can also be marked by bonfires3, fireworks, children's games, the reading of horrific tales or Halloween poems, the showing of horror films but also the holding of anticipated masses of All Saints’ Day in its strictly religious component3.

Source Wikipedia...
Cordially...

Hi Picco,

Well, I didn't need all that - partly inaccurate - Wikipedia info and knew the history etc. well. Wikipedia is a bit of a minefield - good in parts, to extremely poor in others, and everything in between. It's a great concept, just not subject to sufficient scrutiny for accuracy so needs to be taken with a very large pinch (bag, really!) of salt.

Anyway, fact remains that US-style Halloween is full of superstitions. And that it's entirely alien to Britain and most especially England. And there's nothing nice or whatever about it either. One just has to think back to the late 1980s and'90s, when bloody kids going around tricking or treating were causing absolute havoc when people didn't give them anything or didn't answer their doors! Rubbish bins emptied all over the front of the house, and worse!

Anyway, I'll have none of that bloody US import nonsense. (Just as I object to all other US influences and imports. Especially where our British English language is concerned. We should have at least some sort of supervision of the language like you have in France, or even better, the far more strict Icelandic Language Authority - the latter also covering the names of native Icelanders, including gender appropriateness. Now that's how things should be, and the latter should always remain based on the *biological* gender.)

We still - just about, alas! - have our own culture and we should treasure it and preserve it, and free it of gratuitous foreign influences. And by that I would include populist low culture influences of immigrant communities. That sort of nonsense gets money thrown at it, but is anything being done for our own culture? Is it bugger!

So, treasure your own French or French Canadian culture Picco, because once it's gone, it's gone. Anyway, enjoy your Halloween.

Hi Nexter,

I partly agree with you, personally I don't celebrate Halloween, the happy Halloween on my part was aimed at those who celebrate it and to accompany the theme that I did for fun and because I like to make winstep themes on various subjects...
As for the identity culture of each country, I am a fervent defender of it but unfortunately seeing how the world turns it seems to me that everything is disintegrating gradually and as for French culture this has unfortunately been happening for several years that she started to leave as you say.
As for Wikipedia, I am perfectly aware that not everything is the truth and that there is something to eat and drink, it is just a source of general information that must be compared and supplemented with other historical sources of specialists in history...
And yes, it's true, there is nothing nice about this celebration, completely diverted from its original tradition by forced Americanization.
We'll see where the future takes us...

Hi Picco,
Well we pretty much agree then.

Alas, it seems that French culture is little better off than the British one. At least you don't seem to have succumbed to any great extent to US style junk food, one saving grace. (I quite enjoyed the food in the southern part of France myself, many, many moons ago. )

Yes, everything's falling apart, in large part thanks to 'Political Correctness', 'woke', 'Cancel Culture' etc., and of course identity politics, and on top of that the 'new Rome' US trying to rule the whole damn planet.

To quote a dialogue from a cult sci-fi series from the 1990s,

"How will it end?"
"In Fire"


On that note Picco, I wish you well in your defense of French culture.

I just want to say that I love Picco14's Halloween theme. I think it is one of the best themes out there.

Halloween in the US is mostly about "Trick or Treat", kids and adults dressing up in costumes, and watching a lot of spooky movies. There can be a dark side, but I think, and hope, that is not a part of mainstream society. I also agree that Britain should remain British and France should remain French. A watered down world where everyone is the same would be boring.

So Picco14, where can I download this theme? It's too late for this years desktop, but I sure would like it for next years. Also is your Adams Family - Wednesday theme available anywhere?

Thanks for all your great themes. You have quite an artistic talent.