# Canadian Halloween?



## funetical (Oct 27, 2009)

Hey Nestor, Is there Halloween in Canada, and if so is it the same commercialized by Nickelodeon trifle of a mockery of something legitimate that has become the American Halloween? Or the American Everything. Really this country is great but we sold out all our holidays.


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## Shawner (Oct 27, 2009)

We have Halloween up here but we call it "Weens of the Hallow".  

Don't ask me why


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Oct 28, 2009)

What Shawner said.

We celebrate Weens of the Hallow on the last day of October (Oct. 31) just like you guys do in the US.

There is a small difference, however, in how kids in southern Manitoba celebrate it that isn't repeated anywhere else in North America that I know of.  When I was growing up, I always thought it was a bit odd for the kids on TV to shout "Trick or Treat" when they went to a neighbor's house.  That's cuz in Southern Manitoba (including Winnipeg), we used to always shout out "Halloween Apples!" instead.

If you Google "Halloween Apples", you'll find 2 or 3 links to verify, but I can tell you from personal experience that's what's commonly shouted by kids in Southern Manitoba.  And, when I was a kid, I shouted it too.  We often did get apples in our sacks instead of candy or chocolates.  My mother would confiscate them to make apple sauce or apple pies with because there was the ever present fear (that I don't think ever really happened) that someone would booby trap an apple by putting a razor blade or pin inside it to injure some kid when he bit into it.

I always tell my tenants that I'm going to be giving out treats in the front lobby, and if they want to give out treats as well, to join me there (rather than having the kids running around to every apartment in the building).  One time I had a elderly female tenant who brought a large bowl of popcorn for me to give out.  I graciously accepted, and I told each kid that I'd give them a handfull of popcorn too if they wanted, and a kid will take anything if it's free.  But, I kinda felt that popcorn is about the worst thing you can give out.  It's cheap, it's not something a kid is gonna really "want", it it breaks up into pieces in the sack so it's a mess by the time the kid gets home.  I kinda wondered if that tenant had ever been a kid.  Kids want "good" stuff, like chocolate bars.  Popcorn ranks even lower than bubble gum in a kid's estimation.


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## funetical (Oct 28, 2009)

That's crazy. Popcorn, what the hell was she thinking. It's interesting that you guys seem to know about our culture but as Americans we know very little of yours. We seem to have an America-centric view on things. It sort of explains our foreign policy.


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Oct 29, 2009)

Yeah, but at least the kids took the popcorn.  I guess they figured that as long as it's free, there's no down side to taking free popcorn.  But, I figured getting popcorn for Haloween was like getting new socks for Christmas.



funetical said:


> It's interesting that you guys seem to know about our culture but as Americans we know very little of yours.



It may be interesting, but it's not unexpected.

We're a country of 33 million people, (or about the population of California) living right next door to a country of 10 times that population.  Most of the news broadcasts we get here and most of the TV shows we watch here come from the US.  Canada has three Television networks; CBC, CTV and the Global television network.  I don't think any of them operate in the US.  So, with Canadians watching American TV networks, and Americans not watching any Canadian TV, it's predictable that Canadians are gonna learn all about what's happening in the US, but Americans won't hear anything about what's happening in Canada.

But, that's just the way the situation is skewed between America and Canada.  It's not that Canadians know more about the rest of the world, and Americans know less about the rest of the world.  If you were to ask a Canadian or an American who the President of Japan or Argentina was, neither one would know.  Except maybe by fluke.


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## funetical (Oct 29, 2009)

That makes sense. I'm learning a tremendous amount about Mexican culture by watching telemundo, univision etc.... Do you think you have a small population because it so damn cold? I had a friend who went to Canada once. He said it was cold. I also saw that movie cool runnings and there was a scene in Calgary where it was snowing.


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Oct 30, 2009)

funetical said:


> I had a friend who went to Canada once. He said it was cold. I also saw that movie cool runnings and there was a scene in Calgary where it was snowing.



Snow is not a rarity in Canada as it is in Texas.  We can get blizzards up here that will dump two feet or more of snow on us, and that can shut a city like Winnipeg down for days until the snow is cleared.  I myself remember one blizzard we got where the radio stations were pressed into public service asking for people with snowmobiles to transport doctors, patients and nurses to and from hospitals.  That was the only time I ever saw snowmobiles going up and down the residential streets of Winnipeg.

    Also, Winnipeg has enough snow removal equipment that the major streets and avenues will normally be cleared overnight, but the snowfall can be much worse on the west side of the mountains in British Columbia or in Eastern Canada where warm tropical air masses from the Carribean will collide with cold fronts coming down from the Arctic.  When that happens, you can hit with literally 10 feet of snow.  Take a look at these pictures from Labrador (which is a sparsely populated region on the east coast of the Canadian main land):

Environment Canada: Trans Labrador Highway - Winter 2004







Personally, I wouldn't have believed that heavy equipment like that could operate on top of a huge snow drift, but I learn something every day.  And, yes, that is a Canadian Government web page, so those photos weren't PhotoShop'ed.

Here's a map of the region:






And here's a closer look:
http://www.labradorcoastaldrive.com/home/files/pg/map.pdf

Red Bay is right on the coast of the Strait of Belle Isle between Labrador (on the main land) and the Island Province of Newfoundland.  Lodge Bay is about 50 miles north east of Red Bay, just about 5 miles due south of Mary's Harbour.

Red Bay Labrador

Lodge Bay : Labrador Coastal Drive

Lodge Bay has a population of 90 people, so it won't show on most maps.


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## funetical (Oct 30, 2009)

Being in central Texas I've never even seen snow. We have flurries every other year or so, but it doesn't stick. It will shut a city down though. If we Ice over, the city will tell everyone to stay home. Everything just comes to a halt. On the other side of that though we break 110 F every summer. I like the heat though it's invigorating. The cold makes me want to nap.


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## oldognewtrick (Nov 1, 2009)

Nestor, did you give away all your popcorn? Did the kids bring their own bag this year or did you provide one? Do you give just plain popcorn or do you make flavors? Cheese popcorn my favorite. With all your home brew stuff couldn't you just brew a pint or two and give them to the parents that are dragging the little candy munchers around, I know I could of used a brew or 4 when mine were younger.

Seriously, I do enjoy hearing about the customs of our friends to the north and the links to Labrador Bay were pretty cool for those of us who have never experienced snow fall like that, whats the next holiday on the Canadian calender? And thanks for taking the time to show us a little bit of your country!


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Nov 1, 2009)

Oldog/Newtrick:

Say, you've hit on a really good idea there.  Maybe I can just make beer for Haloween next year and give each of the little munchkins a few drinks.



> whats the next holiday on the Canadian calender



Well, yesterday was Haloween, and I was in Walmart today.  I'm surprised I didn't see any Christmas Trees or Santa Clause's yet.  Maybe next week.

Funetical:  I was in Texas (Houston, actually) for a two week course when I worked for an oil company in Alberta.  I was amazed how big that city was.  I was told that it's actually the merger of several cities that each grew independantly until their outskirts met.  I was told that Houston had several "downtown" areas because of that melding together of several cities.  I do remember that it was a real long taxi ride from the airport to company offices where the courses were going to be held.  I also remember walking across a highway there and going to a coffee shop for an hour or two.  When I tried to walk back across that highway, there was bumper-to-bumper traffic going 70 mph on it, and to try to cross it on foot would have been suicide.  So, I ended up calling a taxi cab to take me across the road!

We simply don't have highways like that here in Manitoba.  We only have one downtown in Winnipeg, too.


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## Staci_25 (Nov 1, 2009)

funetical- I think the entire state may be in for an icy/cold/miserable winter.... but I have to say, I love those ice days when the world stops! And two feet of snow!? I dont think I've seen that in about 20 years! much less an actual blizzard like yall up in canada!


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## funetical (Nov 2, 2009)

I think your right Staci all everything stops here when we freeze over and it gets quiet. From what I've been told there's nothing fun about snow.
Nestor, that sucks. I strongly dislike Houston. I have family there and I dread going in that general direction. All of our cities expand to incorporate the extirioir districts. There are sections of cities that are encapsalated by cities with no official incorporation. 

Sunset Valley, Texas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## granite-girl (Nov 3, 2009)

Nestor-
  Cool stuff on Canada.  I've never been there either.   I would've thought the colder area & more snow would be to the West near Alaska.  Of course, that's where we Americans see a lot of ice, snow... "Ice Road Truckers" & "Deadliest Catch".  love those shows, I can't imagine driving on those roads IN SEMI'S !  
We get our fair share of snow in Indiana, but not so much lately.  I can remember as a kid, my Dad went out & bought a snowmobile, either right before or after a blizzard hit, & went to the grocery store for everyone in the neighborhood.


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Nov 3, 2009)

Granite Girl:

No, it isn't the coldest areas that get the most snow.  Ya gotta remember that snow is water, and that water has to come from somewhere.  The colder the air, the less moisture it can contain, and the dryer it is.

The worst snowfalls happen wherever warm moist air from the south mixes with cold Arctic air from the north, or where warm moist air cools as it rises to go over a mountain range.  So, you get the worst snow on the west side of the Rockies when warm moist air from the Pacific Ocean rises and cools.  (In your ski resorts on the west side of the Rockies, you can have a 5 or 6 foot dump of snow, easy.)  And, you can get some real heavy snow falls along the East coast of the continent.  Hurricanes that form off the west coast of Africa will often take a path that steers them right along the US eastern seaboard.  As long as they don't run into a real cold air mass, then all they do is give you lots of wind and rain.  The Canadian Maritime provinces of Newfoundland (which includes Labrador), Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island kinda stick out from the continent into the path of those hurricanes.  The hurricanes are very much weaker by the time they get up here, but when they mix with really cold air from the north, then you can get either wind with super heavy rain or real bad blizzards.

That picture of the construction equipment clearing a 10 foot snow dump on a highway made it onto that Government of Canada web page because that much snow is a freak occurance even for us, and it was undoubtedly the result of a hurricane from the south mixing with a cold arctic air mass.  Typically, it's only a foot or two most times, and we can deal with the situation with ordinary snow plows and snow blowers.  But, during my lifetime, I recall playing with my two sisters after a bad blizzard when I was only about 6 or 7 years old.  We couldn't get out of our house because the snow had drifted up against the sides where both the front and back doors were.  So, my dad ended up using a cooking pot to scoop snow away from the front door so we could open it.  After that, me and my two sisters went out to play in the snow.  We could walk up the snow drift onto the roof of our house and then jump off the roof on the other side of the house into the snow.  My dad didn't even clear the snow away from the back door that year; we just waited for it to melt because that blizzard occured in March, anyway.  It would melt in April and May.

But, those are the kinds of blizzards that only happened once every 30 or 40 years; they're not at all common.  We call them "Colorado Clippers" because they're caused by warm air masses from the Gulf of Mexico going up the middle of the US (on the east side of the Rockies and mixing with cold air from the North over the Dakotas and the Canadian prairies.  When you get lots of warm wet air mixing with bitterly cold air from the north, that's when you get an awful lot of snow.  You guys just don't have enough really cold air down there to make for heavy snowfalls.  You've got the warm moist air, but not the cold air you need to make good snow.


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## granite-girl (Nov 3, 2009)

Wow- a handyman & a meteorologist !(sp?) It's all too confusing to me. That kind of stuff only happens around here every 20-30 years also.  That blizzard I was talking about was the famous Blizzard of '78 around here.  I don't think my sisters & I jumped off the roof, but we probably could've.  And I have 2 boys (2 & 5) now who would love that!


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## funetical (Nov 6, 2009)

Nestor is all things. Sees all knows all.


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