OT: Halloween costume pics!Follow

Does it really take that much time to remove clothes?

We don't really celebrate Halloween here, though it's gained in popularity the last couple of years. Our version of Halloween falls in spring (around Shrovetide) and is called Fastelavn. Kids also dress up for that, though the theme of Fastelavn isn't scary stuff like Halloween (no pumpkin faces, bats, skeletons, etc.), I think it pulls its inspiration from a masquerade.

We then take turns to beat the sh*t out of a barrel containing candy. This event is called 'knocking the cat (out) off the barrel'. Good stuff, though there hasn't been an actual cat inside the barrel for some time now.

I think other European countries celebrate this as well.

Edit: Turns out Wikipedia has an article on it.

Edited, Oct 28th 2011 10:40pm by Mazra

You actually hand out stuff to them?

I remember visiting my parents during Halloween one year and some kids came by. I had no idea it was Halloween (normally Hallow's End alerts me of this, but I hadn't brought my computer with me), so when the kids rang the bell, I was pretty surprised to see a bunch of kids in what I assume were costumes of some sort. And they were pretty surprised to see the werewolf my parents keep as a pet dog. 120 pounds of pure muscle and bone that dog, and taller than most of those kids.

I've never seen a bunch of skeleton-witches run as fast as they did.

If this head cold abides I'll be doing '50s dad tomorrow, kung-fu master on sunday and I have both doctor and a decent pirate in reserve if they're needed for monday's thing.

This is my favorite holiday and I usually try to hit every party and show I can over the weekend =)

Willow, if you want pics that's one thing. But there's no way I'll post here for these jerks to mock and snicker at! I'm looking at you Aeth!

Pfft. What makes you think I started this thread purely for your benefit hmm? I like seeing other people's costumes, and I like showing off my own. If you don't want to post yours here though, that's fine. I'll accept an email.

My family hasn't celebrated Halloween since I was like 8. So since last year. Anyway...

This Fastelavn sounds kind of interesting. I'll take a look at the link. I'm not into the whole ghosts and scary crap (although I kind of like Hallow's End and TF2 Halloween maps...) But a masquerade kind of deal with cat beatings sound right up my alley.

When you come from a culture where a dozen doughnuts is considered breakfast, you're more or less ready for any kind of fattening/sugary food other cultures want to throw at you.

Submitted without comment.

Edited, Oct 29th 2011 4:17am by Poldaran

We don't have any official Halloween tradition here in Australia but since we're kind of the ******* child of English monarchy and American pop culture, plenty of kids do "celebrate" it by either dressing up from something that looks like it came out of a Rob Zombie music video or as a lady who works part time as a domestic servant and part time as a prostitute, and only uses the one uniform for both jobs. I don't have anything against it (well, apart from the disturbing amounts of children's costumes that are starting to show up in store's labelled "sexy nurse" or something, with a picture of a ten year old wearing it ) but I don't usually do anything to join in. I mostly forget about it, actually, until the doorbell rings and I wonder who the hell it would be until I see a group of kids out the window and realise that I've become a grumpy, oblivious shut-in of an old man already and I'm not even 30 years old.

Maz: Don't take this the wrong way. But, however horrendous the image is, there's something very fitting - in a "The Fantrabulous World of Mazra's Denmark" cartoon series kind of way - about picturing you talking about and demonstrating the beating of a barrel with a cat inside it with a completely friendly poker face. You Danes really are like hobbits. Just when I think I've got you bastards figured out you go and ... Well ... Pull a surprise cat out of a barrel.

(Edit: I mentioned Mazra's post to my fiancée and now she's excitedly schooling me in Fastelavn)

Edited, Oct 29th 2011 12:53pm by Smallsword

He's a Berner Sennen (Bernese Mountain Dog), but an unusually large one, and batsh*t crazy as well. He loves people, though, which is awesome, because when my parents bought him (previous owners couldn't handle him), he was shy and very afraid of strangers. Now he runs up to people, sits on their feet so they can't move and expects to be scratched behind the ears. If you don't comply with those wishes in a timely manner, he'll just lean backwards towards you, until you're supporting his full 120 pounds, which can easily throw you off balance if you're not ready for it.

What he loves more than meeting strangers, though, is when then doorbell rings. He starts barking that big dog bark that causes windows to chatter, while scratching at the door. When it's opened, he launches himself out of the doorway like he's a canine torpedo. And it doesn't matter if you're holding his collar or not, he'll take you with him if he wants to.

When he's standing on his hind legs, he's almost as tall as me, which naturally scares the living sh*t out of anyone on the other side of the door if they don't know about him.



I like your comparison of us to the Hobbits. Short, dark-haired and with fuzzy feet.

Also, it's good that your fiancé is able to help you learn the ways of our people. Resistance is futile.

Edit: Silly English, with 'teach' and 'learn' being two different things.

Edited, Oct 29th 2011 5:06pm by Mazra

The dictionary is electronic, but that's pretty accurate.

We use one word for both teaching and learning. We don't have a separate word for 'teaching', so we use 'learning' both for the receiving and giving of knowledge.

agreeing with Sgriob here and then even when they're using their better english language skills they come across like they're terrified that they'll be using the wrong word / tense etc. It's funny sometimes to see when a lot of the native speakers really butcher it with text speak etc.

That doesn't seem to stop Rawdeal.

I'm from Scotland, and we hate the English more than anyone else on the planet, yet we still learn fairly decent English.