Tuesday 25 October 2011

Halloween and tradition

After surfing the Net and googling certain concepts, answer the following questions:

What is Halloween and what do its celebrations involve?

Is keeping traditions important to a nation? Is knowing about foreign traditions equally important?

How can tradition be combined with cutting edge technology that has radically altered the way we used to live?

4 comments:

  1. First of all, by the word tradition we mean all the customs, beliefs, habits, celebrations etc. that are handed down from one generation to another. As a result, these are the basic features that each nationality has in order to discriminate from the other. By all these we can easily realize that keeping our tradition alive is required mainly because they make us individual from other people around the world. For example, no other country except Greece have all these customs in the Easter such as roasting lamb, dying eggs etc. And that’s why a lot of tourists come to visit our Country this time of the year. In addition, music is a portray of our tradition; a lot of nationalities are aware of our traditional instruments such as lira, mandolin etc. Of course all these traditional things wouldn’t be so widely known without technology. Every nation’s habits, customs and culture firstly became known through movies but at the moment it is easier through internet. Every individual has the chance through youtube, Wikipedia or generally Google to widen his/her knowledge on other cultures characteristics.

    But another question comes on the surface. Why do we have to know about every country’s tradition except ours? In my opinion I believe that every person should know about other countries’ traditions because by this we can understand some features of their characters’, way of living, music, celebrations etc. One common example is the Halloween celebration which was originated in Ireland. Halloween is an annual celebration on the night of October 31. Although when it first appeared it was a celebration mostly for children, at the moment all members of the family have an active role in it as they are wear frightening costumes, decorate their houses with horrifying figures, organize fancy parties but they also go around the houses in the neighborhood asking for trick or treat. But what makes this celebration so important is that it began from an Island of Europe and at the moment a lot of cities (such as United States, Canada, United Kindom, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden etc.) have adopted this type of celebrating.

    (I combined all the answers and I tried to make them seem like an essay)

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  2. Great research, Helen! Apart from the few mistakes I list below, everything else was OK!

    1) differentiate from the rest (not discriminate)
    2) make us unique (not individual)
    3) no other country HAS
    4) first became known
    5) the Internet
    6) culturAL or culture's characteristics
    7) originated (without was)
    8) wear (without are)
    9) fancy DRESS parties
    10) they go trick-or-treating

    I am now waiting for the other students' responses!

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  3. Well,the Halloween is a festival which takes place in autumn and includes themes of death, evil, the occult, or mythical monsters.Black and orange are the holiday's traditional colors.It starts on October 31, and people celebrate wearing costumes, whereas the decoration of houses based on imagery of death and the supernatural. It is a holiday for children and for several adults too. Schools are closed and Halloween activities such as mask wearing, costume parties, themed decorations, and even trick-or-treating have grown quite popular with adults as well, making Halloween an all-ages celebration. The imagery of Halloween is derived from many sources, including national customs, works of Gothic and horror literature (such as the novels Frankenstein and Dracula), and classic horror films. Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, corn husks, and scarecrows, are also prevalent. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween.
    In my opinion,keeping traditions is important to a nation, in order to reenforce their unity and their diversity from the others nations. Traditions are keeping alive the history of a nation and are reminding to people that they have all together common roots and origin. From the other point of view, knowing about foreign traditions is equally important, in cases of people who are visiting other countries when they are celebrating an old tradition, or when people are immigrating to another country with different traditions from their county.By this way they show respect to the country that their hosts. In other cases, i think is difficult to know the traditions of other nations, because there are so many different traditions all over the world. Now about how can tradition be combined with cutting edge technology that has radically altered the way we used to live,i don't really know, but i have got the feeling that is irrelevant one from each other. Tradition has the ability to remain unaffected by the technology and that's why it manages to remain alive in the same way over the years. Also,so it should be, the tradition be kept away from technology.

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  4. BRAVO MARAKI! I AM HAPPY YOU ARE SO WILLING TO WRITE ON THE BLOG! HERE ARE A FEW CORRECTIONS I HAVE MADE TO YOUR COMMENT:

    Well,the Halloween is a festival which takes place in autumn and includes themes of death, evil, the occult, or mythical monsters.Black and orange are the holiday's traditional colors.It starts on October 31, and people celebrate BY wearing costumes, whereas the decoration of houses IS based on imagery of death and the supernatural. It is a holiday for children and for several adults too. Schools are closed and Halloween activities such as mask wearing, costume parties, themed decorations, and even trick-or-treating have grown quite popular with adults as well, making Halloween an all-ages celebration.

    The imagery of Halloween is derived from many sources, including national customs, works of Gothic and horror literature (such as the novels Frankenstein and Dracula), and classic horror films. Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, corn husks, and scarecrows, are also prevalent. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween.


    In my opinion,keeping traditions is important to a nation, in order to reinforce (REINFORCE) their unity and their diversity AMONG the others nations. Traditions KEEP alive the history of a nation and REMIND to people that they have all together common roots and origin. From ANOTHER point of view, (ON THE OTHER HAND) knowing about foreign traditions is equally important, in THE case of people who VISIT other countries when THE LOCAL RESIDENTS are celebrating an old tradition, or WHO IMMIGRATE to another country with different traditions from their county. IN this way they show respect to the country WHICH hosts THEM. In other cases, I think IT is difficult to know the traditions of other nations, because there are so many different traditions all over the world.

    Now, about how tradition CAN be combined with cutting edge technology that has radically altered the way we used to live, I don't really know, but I have got the feeling that THESE TWO ARE NOT RELATED. Tradition has the ability to remain unaffected by technology and that's why it HAS manageD to remain alive in the same way (OR: INTACT) over the years. Also,so it should be, the tradition be kept away from technology. (???) (TRADITION SHOULD BE SEPARATE FROM TECHNOLOGY)

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