Antipodean Holidays: Halloween & Guy Fawkes Day

Being in a new country, we have to get used to different holidays. The day after we arrived, it was Boxing Day, which is not celebrated in the US. As the year progressed, we learned about and celebrated Waitangi Day, ANZAC Day, Queen's Birthday, Mother's Day in May but Father's Day in September, and Labour Day in October.
Most recently, we had Halloween on October 31 and Guy Fawkes Day on November 5:

HALLOWEEN -
Sadly, it's not a big holiday here. Many of you know how much I liked dressing up as the Energizer Bunny, wearing pink footy pajamas, and banging my drum all day at school. Good times. Plus there's all that chocolate. Need I say more? I LOVE Halloween. Our own family tradition included the Annual Pumpkin Throwing on November 1st when we lobbed the now-rotten pumpkin off the deck into the wheelie bin below. So I was disappointed to find out that nobody really does anything for Halloween. No pumpkins to carve. Nobody at school dresses up. I had resigned myself to Halloween as a non-event.

Imagine my suprise when trick-or-treaters came to my door about 6:30! Uh oh. I had nothing to give them. There were 4 cute little kids with 2 moms, and all I could do was plead American ignorance; "I was told you didn't celebrate Halloween in NZ. Sorry! I don't have anything to give you." The oldest girl, about 8, responded cheerfully, "That's OK. Thank you! Have a Happy Halloween!" She was so polite and so sincere. I felt like a heel.

After they left, I rummaged through my kitchen and found some chocolate granola bars to give away, in case more kids show up. And they did. Then more. Then I ran out of chocolate granola bars and had to resort to blackberry ones. After 16 kids, and dwindling supplies, I decided to send Curt to the local dairy (convenience store) for lollies (candy). Alas, no more kids arrived, wouldn't you know it. But still, we had more trick-or-treaters here than we had in the US in the last 5 years!

And I'm proud to say that I took the lollies to work the next day to give to student helpers so I wouldn't eat them all myself. (But I did manage to eat a few.)

GUY FAWKES DAY -
I find this holiday quite confusing. Here's what I've learned:
Back in England in 1605, Guy Fawkes and 12 other guys tried to blow up Parliament, which including killing the King and all the Lords. They didn't like the current government because they were Catholics and the government was anti-Catholic. Or something like that. It was supposed to be the beginning of a mass Catholic uprising in England.

Instead, on November 5 Guy Fawkes got caught red-handed with 36 barrels of gunpowder in the basement of the Parliament building. He was arrested and later executed.

So every year on November 5, England celebrates the failed gunpowder plot ... by lighting fireworks, bonfires, and effigies of either Guy Fawkes or the Pope(!).

Here's a few problems I have with this holiday:
1. It's not very clear if the holiday is to celebrate the plotters, or to celebrate the government who thwarted the plot. Some of the English have been known to wonder, in a tongue in cheek kind of way, whether they are celebrating Fawkes' execution or honoring his attempt to do away with the government.

2. By naming the holiday after the "bad guy" they have immortalized his name. It's a little like naming 9/11 Osama Bin Laden Day.

3. Speaking of names, it's crazy that Guy Fawkes got the holiday named after him, because he wasn't even the leader of the group! He was just the one who was caught first. The ringleader probably thought it was pretty unfair that the holiday wasn't named after him, but was named after one of his underlings instead. Of course, he was dead by then, but still.

4. Why blow things up when celebrating that you didn't get blown up? It lacks logic. It's like celebrating the day you almost died from e coli by going out and eating undercooked hamburger. I don't get it.

5. This is New Zealand. Nobody tried to blow up our Parliament in 1605. We didn't have a Paliament in 1605. This place was inhabited solely by Maoris in 1605. Australia doesn't celebrate Guy Fawkes Day. Why does NZ?

6. Mostly, this holiday appears to be an excuse to set off lots of fireworks - accidentally starting fires, causing injuries, and scaring animals. This year, the city council debated whether to ban private fireworks because the firefighters and police and hospitals are so overworked that night. This did NOT turn out to be a very popular idea!

So the fireworks continue. That's OK, I guess.
I now know a little more about Guy Fawkes. That's fine.
And I didn't singlehandedly eat bags and bags of M&Ms and Hersheys and Reeses and Almond Joys ....
That's probably good, too.

Megan

A series of unfortunate events

I feel like we've been bragging and gloating too much lately about our nice new house and cool jobs. So I thought I should share with you a few of the minor snafus we've experienced lately, just so you don't think we're living in utopia here.

1. No parking
Our choir was supposed to go to Pitt St. Methodist Church for a rehearsal with their choir one Saturday morning. It's located downtown, and we couldn't find anywhere to park. We drove around the block a few times (actually 3 blocks when you factor in the one-way streets) and finally found a place on Pitt St, only to discover that a) we didn't have any change for the parking meter and b) the parking meter takes credit cards but not debit cards ... and we didn't have the credit card with us. The parking warden stopped and talked to us and recommended a few other locations. So we got back in the car and drove arond the blocks a few more times. Finally on our 4th time around, we accidentally ended up in a turn-only lane which forced us on the motorway headed south. So we gave up and went home. So much for choir practice.

2. Getting Lost
Our choir was supposed to sing for a church member at her nursing home because she was turning 106(!). Curt and I arrived at the nursing home, which is a campus of 10 buildings and we didn't know where the singing was supposed to be. All the doors were locked and there was no office or infomation desk in sight. We didn't see anyone from choir. We didn't hear any singing. They must have been there somewhere, but we couldn't find them. After a while, we gave up and left. (Do I sense a pattern here?)
The regular choir practice was going to take place back at the church about 45 minutes later, and we had some time to kill, so we headed to the electronics store ... which was closed. Another wasted trip. (Uh oh. There's definitely a pattern happening.)
So we gave up and headed back to choir practice. We were the first ones there (everyone else was still at the nursing home having tea and cookies) and we debated whether to confess that we'd been there or to just act like we never intended to go there in the first place. I ended up confessing and getting loads of symathy, especially since it was the second time we'd missed an event recently.

3. Getting towed
Normally, I have to be at work every morning at 7:30 so it's easy to find a place to park on the street out by the school's front gate. I've never had to search for parking options on any other streets because I'm the first one to arrive every day.
Well, one day I offered to work from 12 to 7 because the usual librarian was unavailable. When I arrived at school just before noon, there were no parking places to be seen. Eventually I saw someone pulling out of a spot along the side of the school where there were 20 other cars. So I parked there and went to work.
At 7:00, I came out and my car was GONE! (as were all the other 20 cars) Had my car been stolen? I found the school security guard and we figured out that it must have been towed. Apparently the space along the side of the school was a bus zone between 2-4. Oops.
The next problem was to find out which towing company had my car. While the security guy searched for that bit of information, I went back in the library and called Curt to come and get me. All I can say is it's a good thing we have 2 cars.
I felt like crying. I was so frustrated for doing something dumb and expensive and it had been a long day. Besides, why didn't the school just call me to move my car? They have the license plates of both our cars on record just for this reason. (At least with this reasoning, I could act like it wasn't entirely my fault.)
Anyway, Curt came to get me and I finally got home about 8:00. The next morning, he took me to work, one of the other librarians (bless her heart) drove me to the tow yard, and I retrieved my car. It cost me $112 NZ = $72 US : (

In spite of these recent snafus, we still feel like we're pretty lucky - and very happy - to be living here. Let's face it, we DO have cool jobs and we DO have a nice house. Most of all, we live on a tropical island in the South Pacific!! ... Even though I probably shouldn't brag about it. Sorry.

Megan