Happy Halloween!!

With Halloween coming up, I found myself thinking about the American tradition of trick-or-treating, and wondering why we are one of few countries with this custom.

To try to answer my question, I researched a bit about the history of Halloween. It turns out that it originated from an old Celtic festival called Samhain. November 1st first marked the end of summer for the Celts, and the beginning of the long dark winter, which was a time associated with death. To recognize this transition of seasons, people would have bonfires and make predictions about the future, usually wearing costumes made from animal skins during the process.

As for trick-or-treating: Hundreds of years ago in England, people believed that spirits would come back to earth on Halloween. In order to prevent them from entering their homes, people would put bowls of food outside their house. There were also festivals in the beginning of November called All Souls' Day parades. Poor people would ask for food, promising to pray for the dead relatives of whoever gave them some. Churches encouraged people to make this the new practice of Halloween, rather than trying to please ghosts with food outside your home. With the combination of the Celtic festival and England's customs, the American version  of celebrating this holiday emerged, consisting of costumes and trick-or-treating.

Other countries, such as Mexico use October 31st through November 2nd to decorate graves of family/friends who have passed away, calling it Day of the Dead. In parts of Italy, kids wake up on November 2nd to find candy and toys left for them by their dead relatives.

With other countries' versions of Halloween clearly focusing more on the death of loved-ones, America's version focuses on costumes and candy. This leads Americans to collectively spend about $6 billion a year for the holiday. Did America stray too much from the origin of this holiday? Have we gone too far in commercializing Halloween?

Death of Complexity

Tonight I watched a story on 60 Minutes about Steve Jobs. While talking about the incredible technology he left behind, they stressed repeatedly how Jobs main focus for Apple was simplicity.

This made me realize that this was the reason Apple products became so popular. Americans like things simple and easy. The less effort, the better. Maybe this because we think less effort requires less time and of course, time is money.

I also began to worry because although in some cases simple may be better, it can also lead to laziness. If we can reach virtually anything at our fingertips with just a screen in front of us, won't people be less likely to go out in the real world? Communication with friends has become as easy as sitting in your house in silence and typing a quick message on their wall. People can buy entire books by just clicking a few buttons. 

Are people eventually going to stop calling up their friends for a verbal conversation or going to bookstores to purchase physical text because it is just too complicated or takes too much effort? I worry that Americans' thirst for simplicity will ironically kill off some of the simple pleasures in life just because they are more complex than what has become the norm. 

Bye-bye Miss American Pie

While listening to music earlier today, I came across one of my old favorites "American Pie" by Don McLean. (not a well known name in my generation, kind of a one-hit wonder) There was a reason why this one song did make it big though. Not only is the eight and half minute song catchy and easy to sing to, but it has references to what was going on in America musically as well as socially and politcally during its time period.

Reaching its height in popularity in 1972, the song talks about the shift of American culture from fifties to the sixties. America went from being a conformed, happy place to a harborer of radical movements and rebelling citizens.

McLean thought that this transition correlated with the shift in music that occurred while all this was going on. According to McLean the day Buddy Holly died, (February 3rd, 1959) was "the day the music died." I think he would also agree that the innocence of America expired right around that time as well.  Referencing other musicians such as Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and Elvis Presley, McLean clearly felt strongly about a new kind of music taking over.

I think that like the sixties, this past decade has been another major turning point for the music Americans are listening to. With rap and hip-hop becoming the most common choice of music for our generation, I wonder: Is American culture changing along with the music?

Stealing Sushi?

Last night my friend and I decided to try a new Japanese restaurant in Evanston called Kuni's. We were pleased with the traditional food, (I'd definitely recommend it to any fan of sushi) and were also pleased with the price. A little too pleased.

Upon receiving the bill, we discovered that they had forgotten to charge us for the tempura, the most expensive dish we had ordered. We quietly debated what our next action should be. Should we notify our waitress of the mistake? Should we take advantage of this opportunity to save some money? It wasn't in fact our fault that the restaurant miscalculated the bill.

If we walked away without paying, we wondered where then, are we drawing the line of moral relativism? Say we saved ten dollars if we chose not to point out the faulty bill. Would it be any different than stealing ten dollars out of a woman's purse? What about watching someone drop a ten dollar bill and choosing to keep it for yourself rather than telling them? 

In all these cases, you gain ten dollars while someone else is losing ten dollars. Doesn't this make them all equally wrong? How do you decipher which acts are more or less morally correct than the others?

If you are curious, we ended up not telling our waitress about the mistake. It's not something I'm proud of, but can you really say you would've acted differently? Unfortunately, I think many other Americans would've made the same choice. Americans like to see how much they can get away with by spending as little money as possible.

In other countries, this situation would've been viewed differently. Mr. Bolos pointed out to me that in China there is an old saying, "Don't tie your shoe in a melon patch." Meaning that it would look like you are stealing a melon if you did so. The Chinese believe it would be wrong to even appear to be a thief. Americans on the other hand, would wait until the most extreme case before considering themselves thieves. I think Americans tend to draw the line of moral relativism later than other countries, which is too late.