NOTE: Dictionary.com has been the first out of the blocks this year to announce its chosen 'Word of The Year' (yes, it's that season once again!) Its choice is the youth slang '6-7' -- which I explained on 29-10-2025. If you missed it, you can still find it on the 'History' page of this website.
Well, “Hallowe’en is upon us once again” It will be celebrated (if celebrated is the right word) tomorrow night.
The word itself is a contraction of “All hallows evening”—or the night before All Hallows Day—also known as All Saints Day or the Feast of All Saints in the Christian calendar. (It is ‘Hallows Even’—that being a contraction of ‘evening’—which is why it should be spelled with the inverted comma between the two Es to indicate the missing V. But of course, everyone seems to have forgotten this these days!)
All Hallows Day was the day to remember all the Christians (the “saints”) of past generations. And for some reason the evening before All Hallows Day came to be associated with ghosts, and ghouls and things that go bump in the night.
There was a medieval tradition that on the evening before All Hallows day vengeful ghosts wandered the earth (perhaps it was thought of as an annual holiday from Hell?) and it was marked by the wearing of costumes and the eating of “soul cakes”—which, a bit like hot cross buns at Easter, were marked by a cross (the symbol of Christian forgiveness).
The modern Hallowe’en with “trick or treat” (basically demanding lollies with menaces) appears to have been invented in America, and to have arrived in Australia only in recent years—when retailers started using it as another marketing opportunity.
A lot of schools have joined in the Hallowe’en obsession.
My assumption is that it feels safe to do so. It is now unsafe to mark Christmas or Easter in schools (far too Christian!)—but Hallowe’en is still seen as a Christian festival it is safe to indulge in without being attacked by the Woke.
Rachel Quin, of the Collins Dictionary, says that Hallowe’en is now always associated with the “gothic.”
This word comes from the ancient people called the “Goths”—a Germanic people whose first invasion of Rome took place in AD 238.
Their name came to be applied to a style of architecture, and of typeface, and of literature, and of a branch of modern pop music.
Gothic literature is “a genre of fiction characterized by suspenseful, sensational plots involving supernatural or macabre elements and often (esp. in early use) having a medieval theme or setting” (Oxford).
And there are movies (e.g. the films of Tim Burton) and TV shows (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) that could also be called “Gothic” … as can the whole of Hallowe’en every year—it is now a celebration of the Gothic style.
But I remain convinced that the modern Hallowe'en is a foolish American invention that frightens small children and has no place in the Australian culture.
Tonight I'll join Jason Morrison (filling in for John Stanley) on 2GB, 4BC, 2CC and the Nine Radio Network for 'The Word Clinic' -- right after the 10pm news (9pm in Queensland).
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BY THE WAY...
If you'd like to see my A-Z list of Aussie slang, you'll find it here in the Australian Geographic website -- A-Z list of Aussie slang. Here’s the link: The A-Z of Aussie slang - Australian Geographic
The liveliest part of this website is usually the Q and A page -- be sure to check it out from time to time.
