| Topic: | Re:Re:Trick or Treating - best roads? | |
| Posted by: | Cllr Sam Hearn | |
| Date/Time: | 02/11/15 16:03:00 |
| The true spirit of Guy Fawkes would be hard to recapture. At its core were some deeply unpleasant anti-Catholic sentiments that even low church Anglicans like me have largely outgrown except in the town of Lewes. All Saints Eve/All Hollows Eve/Halloween is still a good time to quietly reflect upon the lives of departed relatives and friends. Thanks Giving was a nineteenth century American invention after the Civil War when they needed to create a national identity. The long lasting New England Puritan tradition meant that Christmas was only celebrated as a day off if it fell on a weekend. Emigration from southern Europe (with its Catholic Christmas traditions) did not get properly under way until the second half of nineteenth century - Just in time for the Americans to swallow Charles Dicken's version of Christmas hook line and sinker. Of course in mid-November all good Chiswickians should surely really be celebrating the giant seventeenth century Mexican stand-off when a Tyrant-King was halted in his attempt to take London by force at the Battle of Turnham Green. Anyway I have my tickets for a Diwali Party. |