Halloween is to die for in Ballarat. Come October 31 each year, Ballarat's streets have become alive with goblins, vampires and stardusted bogeymen.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
We used to think Halloween was something that only happened “over there”, in America or perhaps in a more traditional sense in small European villages.
After all, why would we celebrate the coming of darkness, the festival of sacrifice and encroaching death known as the northern hemisphere winter, when we’re all in our togs at the beach sipping on shandy?
But love it or hate it, Halloween has arrived in Australia. Expect to find fairies at the pub and children wearing witches hats tearing at your front door, demanding lollies with grubby, outstretched palms.
Even the supermarkets have an aisle devoted to the now heavily-commercialised festival, once known as Samhain and celebrated by our pagan European ancestors.
But according to some of the characters pushing Ballarat’s entry into this somewhat alien territory, the proliferation of ghoulish concepts and traditions in Australia isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
David Waldron is an historian and folklorist at Federation University, and he thinks Halloween is a powerful way for societies to come to terms with their dark pasts.
“Ballarat does have quite a dark past that we don’t talk about that much but nonetheless it’s there,” he said.
”A friends of mine runs ghost tours in Ballarat and there’s so much material to work with. It’s a way for society to come to terms with things that have happened in the past.
“Halloween is one of the few events where we connect with the parts of our society and culture we don’t like to talk about.”
He said he didn’t see it as a problem that Australia celebrated the festival in the springtime.
“It’s become kind of backwards in Australia in that seasonal connections are completely around the wrong way. That being said, in Australia the season of summer...can be a dark time – drought can hit and you can run out of water,” he said.
Dr Waldron also said the miners who moved to Ballarat in the 1800s were incredibly superstitious and in fact celebrated All Hallows' Eve until it was stamped out by strong Christian sentiment.
“The people that came to Australia in the goldrush were often very poor and they often brought their superstitions with them,” he said.
“A lot of houses in Ballarat will have witches marks or signs, three interconnected circles or pentagrams, on windowsills, doorways or fireplaces to protect from evil spirits, in old mining cottages.”
Nicole Robe from Black Hill is a huge fan of Halloween. She has ran a Facebook page for the past two years called Ballarat Trick or Treaters, which coordinates which houses children can visit each year.
Every participating house is invited to register with the page, and is encouraged to put out an orange balloon if offering sweets, or a blue or teal balloon if offering non-food treats.
“I just think it’s a bit of fun – you get out and meet your neighbours and it’s safe if the parents go along with the kids,” she said.
“I feel we need a bit more community spirit. There’s always bad stuff in the news...we just want to do something fun.”
Donna and Robert Kienbaum are American ex-pats now living in Lake Gardens. Their home is decorated with cobwebs, homemade tombstones, carved pumpkins and horrifying skeletons emerging from graves.
Last year, the Kienbaums were visited by 234 trick-or-treating children, and are expecting more this year.
Mrs Kienbaum said many people didn’t realise Ballarat was home to quite a strong Canadian and American community.
“It’s about sharing that culture – Australians are interested. With all the horror in the world, we grow up fast and it’s a nice opportunity for kids to be kids, commercialism aside,” she said.