Hallowe'en

Really, I don't believe that Hallowe'en on this level has any more right to be here than white people wearing dreadlocks or any other kind of cultural misappropriation. There was a recent public spat about “blackfishing”.

In my opinion
It is OK for people who live here and who come from other cultures to bring their own culture with them and to celebrate it here.
It is not OK for white British people to adopt/absorb those cultures into our own as though we have a part in it
It is OK for people from other cultures who live in Britain to assimilate and take on board whichever parts of British culture they care to join in with.
It's all a bit complicated but I get it.
But I object to this level of Hallowe'en just as I object to Trick-or-Treating or “Black Friday” in the same way that Britain does not celebrate July 4th , Thanksgiving nor 14th Juillet, Bastille Day.

I passed this house on my way to join my friends walking along the riverbank in windswept weather to blow out some cobwebs. It seems that the decorations here are a charity fundraiser.

1984: The year I graduated