A 43-year Vancouver tradition, the Carol Ships travel the waters around the city in December, with different destinations each night. People gather in waterfront parks and house parties at homes with waterviews to enjoy these seasonal displays. We vividly remember our very first experience of them over 30 years ago soon after we moved to the Vancouver area from the very cold north. It seemed magical and unique to us to see these ships and boats with coloured lights reflecting in the water and carols ringing out as we stood on a bonfire-lit beach. There was nothing like this in the wintry climates where we grew up and lived the early years of adulthood, though we still miss the snow, a rare happening here on the west coast. (We have to go up the mountains for that.)

(In all honesty, though the number of nights the Carol Ships are out has grown over the years, the area that we live in has seen a severe dwindling of the number of boats in the “parade” – pity. Maybe the individual boat owners are getting tired of being out there too many nights at some personal cost.)

Another fun tradition for families with young children is Stanley Park’s miniature Christmas train, running from the children’s farm through the fairy lit woods and back. We also enjoy the very beautiful light displays and the choirs in gardens such as the Park & Tilford and VanDusen Botanical Gardens.

That’s what we, in our childhood, called out as we rang neighbours’ doorbells, dressed in inexpensive home-made costumes. Today it’s “Trick or Treat” and often some pretty sophisticated costumes that Mom bought! Treats most desired by the little goblins are mini chocolate bars and candies – no more candy apples or homemade goodies after some bad tricks with hidden razors. Lots of carved and candlelit jack o’ lantern pumpkins line every doorway, then lie smashed on roads the next morning after the older goblins have made their rounds.

This type of Hallowe’en is predominantly a North American phenomenon, though originating in the British Isles. Immigrant parents reluctantly allowed their children to go join in this strange new form of “begging”.

Increasingly commercialized, Hallowe’en now ranks third in consumer spending in Canada, behind Christmas and the back-to-school season. And this is ironic…according to the Telegraph:

“thanks in part to a vigorous drive by supermarkets to import America’s Hallowe’en traditions and rituals to Britain, it has become the second biggest seasonal event after Christmas.”

I guess I’d qualify as a Scrooge for only buying two pumpkins and about $25 worth of the mini chocolate bars for the neighbourhood kids (and the at-home “kids”).

So, if you are out trick-or-treating tonight with your young ones or attending various fireworks (apparently a Canadian tradition!) or parties, have yourself a fun and very SAFE Halloween!

Links: some history of Halloween
Stanley Park’s Hallowe’en Ghost Train, a popular Vancouver family event.

Thanks to Erika for the skeleton drawing!

Update Nov.1.04 (All Saints’ Day): Thanks to Mark at Wood s Lot for finding this fascinating site about Halloween, Samhain, Day of the Dead, All Souls, All Saints at Mythology’s Myth*inglinks

In today’s Straight, Robin Laurence writes about Vancouver’s “Patron Saints” of the arts: painter Joe Plaskett and real-estate developer Michael Audain. Along with the VIVA (Vancouver Institute for the Visual Arts) awards funded by the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation, now “emerging, mid-career, and senior artists all benefit from cash awards created by extraordinary British Columbians. It’s the best of giving in the visual arts.”

The stories about these new patrons are interesting and inspiring and set an example of giving to the arts and culture in BC.

You may be interested in also reading about the late Shadbolts, who contributed greatly to BC’s art scene: painter Jack Shadbolt, and curator Doris Shadbolt.

And, the Lt. Governor’s speech at the 2004 VIVA Awards and Audain Prize presentation.

It is Canada’s 137th birthday! Here’s a little background history and how Canada got its name.

Many communities have celebrations like parades, free concerts and museums entries, street activities, lots of multicultural performances, and fireworks. Look at capital city Ottawa’s program of events!

and just in from CBC

‘if’ backtracked to my post of yesterday on Art in Canada & CBC, so I made a first visit and browse.

A recent and particularly timely entry caught my eye, Wyman speaks linked to an interesting and currently very important site Our Public Airwaves. There is lots of reading here, and of course the article on Max Wyman’s book, The Defiant Imagination which “makes an impassioned case for why culture matters and why it matters in particular for Canadians”. A must-read!!

Max Wyman is well-known to Vancouverites as a critic, writer and supporter of Canadian dance, music, drama and literature. I haven’t heard much about his views on visual arts, and not too much about it is in the quoted texts in this article. But his views on the need for government to protect and support culture including multiculturalism come strong and clear, a message that our political leaders need to hear. Support of the CBC is one part of this.

This book is built on a belief in the paramount importance of creative activity in the fulfilled human life, a conviction that access to creative expression and the shared creative heritage should be universal, and a commitment to creative excellence. Central to the entire exercise is the unyielding idea that, in a world where profit and the bottom line assume a dangerous primacy, society has the responsibility to provide long-term support for culture in all its multiplicity: the making of it, the enjoyment of it and the sharing of it. Since uncertainty underpins all creative enterprise, someone must be prepared to underwrite the possibility of failure. That someone must be society itself, in large part through the funding processes of government.

To properly protect our culture, it is excellence in creativity that should be supported, not nationalism. Take care of the creators, and the culture takes care of itself.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, this subject ties in with Chandrasutra’s discussions* on the importance of Canadian culture and how CBC is part of it.

Again, if you are Canadian, please sign the support a stronger CBC campaign.

*expired link removed