It is the end of October. In the morning, on my way to school, I see advertisments with pumpkins on them. At noon, I go to the mensa (the place to eat, not the organisation). They've decorated the counter with pumpkins. When I go home in the evening, I behold a poster on the doors of the Schoolhouse. It's for some kind of Halloween party - more pumpkins.
I take my pen out of my trouser pocket and carefully cross out all the pumpkins. If I were inclined to more violent behavior, I would have torn the poster down. Why? Well, a few years ago, there wasn't any of this in Switzerland, where I live.
Halloween is not a traditional Swiss holiday. It's never been celebrated until, a few years ago, the pumpkins started to appear. These pumpkins are caused by the Swiss economy. Caused by marketing people who have decided that there is money to be made by selling Halloween chocolates, fake cobwebs, masks, pumpkins and pumpkin carving kits. So they started to tell us that Halloween is a holiday we're supposed to celebrate. Ads with pumpkins on them, cobwebs and pumpkins as decoration, Halloween-themed TV shows. The swiss economy has run out of holidays to commercialise, so it has decided to introduce some more to increase profits.
And when Halloween is over, it's time for Samichlaus. And when Samichlaus is over, it's time for Christmas. And when Christmas is over, it's time for the Dreikönigstag. In winter, there is always some holiday they can sell things for.
However, what is really making me angry and sad is that many people actually go along with this artificial holiday. The party I mentioned was not organised by some corporation - it was organised by people of my age, on their own initiative. Don't they see how easily they are influenced by the media, by the corporations? Don't they care?