Dressing down for Hallowe’en holiday

How dressing up as a witch is reflective of Edinburgh City Council’s values is unclear, says John McLellanHow dressing up as a witch is reflective of Edinburgh City Council’s values is unclear, says John McLellan
How dressing up as a witch is reflective of Edinburgh City Council’s values is unclear, says John McLellan
An intriguing motion is before Edinburgh councillors today, calling on officers to spend time writing up a report to explore whether Hallowe’en should become a public holiday.

Perhaps hard-pressed council officers deserve an extra day off to recover from all the pointless reports councillors dream up for them to prepare, but the basis of this one seems to be a claim from SNP councillor Euan Hyslop that Hallowe’en is a Scottish thing, and that even the name is “considered by many” to have originated in Scotland.

However, the many doesn’t include the Chambers Dictionary, which puts it down to Old English, or any of the other sources I checked which back that up. Nor is it beyond doubt that Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious and Pope Gregory IV shifted All Saints Day to November 1 in 835 to trump the Scottish and Irish pagan festivities of Samhain.

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Whatever. But Councillor Hyslop’s motion also calls for a review of all public holidays so they are “a reflection of our values as a council”. How dressing up as a witch or spraying your hedge with fake cobwebs is reflective of Edinburgh City Council’s values is unclear, but perhaps the study could examine how the noble Scottish turnip was usurped as the vegetable of choice for lanterns by the Yankee pumpkin.

But a more valuable exercise would be to report how much officer time is spent every year pandering to the whims of councillors compiling unnecessary reports and writing posturing letters, which make no difference to the delivery of public services.

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