Halloween is now a ‘thing’ in Australia, amid the cries of joy and groans of disdain.

Medowie celebrated in style with a disco for kids hosted by the Dunes Greenhouse Eatery, then followed it up with lots of fun and merriment with trick or treating around local streets on Monday night.

Medowie Mums facebook page had a post running all week for parents to put their streets down on a list of ‘Medowie Safe Streets’ for parents to accompany their children around for some light hearted fun.

Last week, News Of The Area reported that we, along with local mother Susan Patten, would be stocking Coles and Woolworths with balloons for people to take and put on their letterbox if they were happy to have door knockers.

Over 600 balloons were taken during the course of two weeks.
Susan told News Of The Area, “It’s lovely that so many households chose to be involved this year.”

“It truly is growing every year, and it’s lovely to see the kids having fun!”

Safety was a big focus this last week, with parents reminded to accompany their children and speak with them about the differences between taking lollies from strangers, and visiting neighbours with an adult on this one celebrated night.

Australian culture is a combination of British and American culture in some regards, and for a long time there was a strong resistance to Halloween.
It’s traditionally not a mainstream cultural practice we have celebrated as a country.

However, over the last five years or so, possibly longer, it’s becoming more accepted and more of a mainstream cultural practice.

It seems more and more families are now taking it up in terms of trick-or-treating being a fun thing to do for the kids and family around this time of year.

Whether we have jumped on the Halloween bandwagon, or whether the celebration in Australia has gradually become more culturally acceptable, as long as our kids are safe and we can make our own minds up as to whether to participate, then all is well!

By Rachael VAUGHAN