AN intriguing little piece over at Forbes declares that the French, so put off by the war in Iraq and the infestation of McDonalds in their country, have largely declared Halloween dead. The “holiday”…a term hardly foreign to the leisure-loving French, no longer inspires legions of wee French kids to go about knocking on big heavy doors and pleading for candy.
Well, then let them eat cake, I say. But seriously, it seems the decline in interest follows a short-lived popularity, during which the French briefly copied our customs, but then decided that the day way too commercialized and had just enough a whiff of America about it that they decided it was time to commit the holiday to the plastic jack-o-lantern of history.
That’s all fine and dandy except that, dear Pierre, Halloween comes from the Pagan Celtic celebration of Samhain in the British Isles, where it was once believed that spirits would rise from the dead and mingle with the living. It is not American…except in its blatant exploitation of children to sell candy. That’s American through and through. But what would the holiday be otherwise, I ask you? What are you going to give all the little dressed up munchkins? Croissants? A pack of Gaulloises?