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Wednesday 26 October 2016

Bloody Halloween

Holiday WiFi too slow for anything substantial but this one burst through somehow. While on holiday we visited Knightshayes, a house which has interested us for a while because of its Victorian Gothic-Revival interior.

On arrival we found that for some reason most of the ground floor was festooned with those huge theatrical cobwebs seen in Hammer Horror films. Furniture, mantelpieces, light fittings, all were treated to the seasonal Halloween look with lots of other additional bits and pieces of a ghoulish nature. Victorian Gothic interior somewhat spoiled. Upstairs inaccessible too for some reason. Maybe a National Trust loon was busy spraying more fake cobwebs all over the bedrooms.

Fortunately we are NT members and hadn't actually paid for this infantile farce, but what is it with Halloween? Are we reverting in some way? As a fake commercial festivity it has become even more odious than Christmas.

Okay - back to the holiday. Which is rather enjoyable so please forgive the outburst. It just had to come out.

7 comments:

Sackerson said...

Pseudo religion.

Sam Vega said...

Revenue. It's half term in most areas, and stressed parents need somewhere to take the kids that's not too taxing or dependent on a prior understanding of neo-gothic aesthetics.

wiggiatlarge said...

Sad that Halloween an American festival with no ties to this country has largely usurped our own Guy Fawkes night a few days later, pure commercialism.

Demetrius said...

All Souls is the day we should mourn all those we have lost and loved. The present imported Halloween is a travesty and in context disgusting.

Scrobs. said...

And the bloody fireworks will start this weekend and last for several days.

JRT will go berserk every evening while the gormless oooaaahers gobble their sticky barbecued dross and gawp at a few sparks.

Little dog just can't stand the noise, and is frightened out of her wits.

Anonymous said...

Nasty and vulgar and driven by managerialism. Order of the day - if you can make an extra groat by prostituting yourselves then do so, and we at corporate will spend it for you. I have had some dealings with NT - as tricksy a commercial operator as ever there was. I did not renew after Uppark burned down during 'improvements'.

A K Haart said...

Sackers - it feels purely commercial to me, a product of marketing and mass media.

Sam - yes it's revenue and the NT pushes it hard.

Wiggia - I find it sad too. People are so easily manipulated.

Demetrius - yes there is a disgusting aspect behind the silly frolics.

Scrobs - the fireworks go on for weeks here. Treated as toys.

Roger - we have only just joined and so far are not particularly impressed. We'll see how it goes.