Jara being conservative and cranky
Oct. 26th, 2004 07:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
woodfaceI wonder where belgian - and in a way our Western European - culture is heading. WWII and the 60's have beaten the dominant position the catholic church used to hold in our society. Religion has taken the backseat so much so that I do not even question that place, it comes natural, seems natural. While Europe politically strives (and fails?) to become one identity, the same movement is making people more conscious of their nationality. However, Belgium is the most unpatriotic country I can come up with. The culture is taken for granted, seems to be unvalued and looked down upon. At the same time there is an influx of American culture that it is sickening. Television and music are 80% dominated by anglosaxon/american media, 18% by reality television that shows the decline of intelligence to be inversely proportional to the former statistic.
Now that halloween is approaching, Jara is once again shaking her head and bemoaning the decline of culture and the americanisation of Europe. We should NOT follow a (commercialised) american tradition that has its routes in OUR culture. It is not because movies and television show halloween as being fun, that we have to copy it. Neither do we have a need to have a Santa Claus. We have our own traditions and we should stick to it. Saint Nicholas will bring the children toys on december 6, with Christmas the family will exchange presents (Santa will not come down the chimney in his cheap wannabe custom), at twelfth night our children can dress up and go singing door to door to get candy or some money. We have a rich culture, an old culture. Why do we have to push it aside (because every year fewer kids do come around to sing anymore, Santa appears in our shops when Saint Nicholas is still around,...)? I hate to think that 15-20 years I'll be one of the few people refusing to open the door on halloween.
Now that halloween is approaching, Jara is once again shaking her head and bemoaning the decline of culture and the americanisation of Europe. We should NOT follow a (commercialised) american tradition that has its routes in OUR culture. It is not because movies and television show halloween as being fun, that we have to copy it. Neither do we have a need to have a Santa Claus. We have our own traditions and we should stick to it. Saint Nicholas will bring the children toys on december 6, with Christmas the family will exchange presents (Santa will not come down the chimney in his cheap wannabe custom), at twelfth night our children can dress up and go singing door to door to get candy or some money. We have a rich culture, an old culture. Why do we have to push it aside (because every year fewer kids do come around to sing anymore, Santa appears in our shops when Saint Nicholas is still around,...)? I hate to think that 15-20 years I'll be one of the few people refusing to open the door on halloween.
