{"id":7553,"date":"2015-10-30T17:57:53","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T23:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7553"},"modified":"2015-10-30T18:02:34","modified_gmt":"2015-10-31T00:02:34","slug":"the-war-on-halloween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7553","title":{"rendered":"The War on Halloween"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sergei_Aksyonov_3486318b\"

Sergei Aksyonov Photo: REUTERS\/David Mdzinarishvili<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s that time of year, time for the Russians to take their turn at complaining that Halloween is an evil Western import.<\/p>\n

Segei Aksyonov, who has been placed in charge of the Crimean peninsula, which Russia recently snatched from Ukraine, called the holiday “cultural colonisation.”<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a spokes-priest for the Russian Orthodox Church suggests that celebrating Halloween leads to terrorism:<\/a><\/p>\n

He also regrets that “when our country struggles against global terrorism, some of our citizens, may be jokingly, disguise in evil forces, making their children use to play with evil.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Obviously, the Russian church is still catching up on clerical education following the end of the USSR. The root meaning of “cosmetic” is not “beauty” but “order,” with a secondary meaning of “ornamentation.” Look it up<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But if you want “cultural colonization,” (and I revert to the American spelling,)\u00a0 just look here:
\n\"russiansI took this photo last month on the Greek island of Corfu. The Russian guided-missile destroyer Smetlivy<\/a><\/em> was in port, and sailors wandered the old town district <\/a>on shore leave.<\/p>\n

And did they end up in the hundreds of perfectly acceptable Greek bars and restaurants? No, they were always at McDonalds.<\/a><\/p>\n

Look, spend your rubles on a good Corfu sofrito<\/em> and some Corfu “real ale” <\/a>and have fun on Halloween, OK?<\/p>\n

If, that is, it is possible to feel festive while cruising up and down the Syrian coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s that time of year, time for the Russians to take their turn at complaining that Halloween is an evil Western import. Segei Aksyonov, who has been placed in charge of the Crimean peninsula, which Russia recently snatched from Ukraine, called the holiday “cultural colonisation.” Meanwhile, a spokes-priest for the Russian Orthodox Church suggests that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,33,53],"class_list":["post-7553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-culture","tag-greece","tag-russia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1XP","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1236,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1236","url_meta":{"origin":7553,"position":0},"title":"Zippy, the Halloween Slug","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I have heard of most of these Halloween folk customs.The one with the slug is new to me, though, but maybe someone in the Pacific Northwest could try it and report.Meanwhile, Red Witch in Melbourne is in the midst of a Halloween countdown, examining the commercial side of the holiday\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=australia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3317,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3317","url_meta":{"origin":7553,"position":1},"title":"Does Halloween Fill a “Spiritual Vacuum”?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The \"Halloween season\" keeps starting sooner, and its economic impact increases. Not everyone is pleased. Bloomberg News columnist Amity Shlaes reacts against its \"paganism.\" She is pleased to see the violence of \"Mischief Night\" fading but continues, \" Unmask Halloween, however, and you\u2019ll also find some disconcerting features. Christmas and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11003,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11003","url_meta":{"origin":7553,"position":2},"title":"Happy Halloween","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 31, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy Halloween, dear readers. This day finds me still coping with the 16.5 inches (41 cm) of snow that fell this week, working simultaneously on two journals (a new Pomegranate is coming!) and preparing to start a book-editing project. And my own stuff too, of course. It doesn't feel very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Halloween\"","block_context":{"text":"Halloween","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=halloween"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/halloween-goth-girl-240x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":543,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=543","url_meta":{"origin":7553,"position":3},"title":"\"Halloween Hoopla\"\"What the f*** happened\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 26, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Halloween Hoopla\"\"What the f*** happened to Halloween?\" rants Foamy the squirrel. (Link good until Nov. 3; then check the \"Toons\" page.)Tag: Halloween","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1246,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1246","url_meta":{"origin":7553,"position":4},"title":"Organizing Halloween Ritual","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I said that I was not going to post any more Halloween items. I take that back. Here is one more. One decision we've made is to rebuff curious friends who ask to join our Halloween rituals. It seems like half the people I know want to be pagan on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Halloween\"","block_context":{"text":"Halloween","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=halloween"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6787,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6787","url_meta":{"origin":7553,"position":5},"title":"The Myth of Halloween Sadism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Myth in the popular sense, that is to say, an urban legend, says sociologist Joel Best, who has been studying the razor-blade-in-the-apple and similar stories for decades. Visit his website and click the tab for \"Halloween Sadism.\" Halloween sadism is best seen as a contemporary legend (sometimes called an urban\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Halloween\"","block_context":{"text":"Halloween","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=halloween"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7553"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7563,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7553\/revisions\/7563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}