Ok Down Under Question, What is Hallowean all about?

So I guess this question is more directed to my readers in the USA, ( I am making the assumption that I have heaps of these).

Firstly, you should know that we don't have the Halloween tradition here in Australia. When I was growing up, if we went around knocking on doors at night looking for a handout of sweets especially if dressed as some weird ghosts, devils or such, I think we would have had the dogs chasing and probably a size 12 boot in the rear end, and If we decided to prank a home for not getting any candy...well lets just say we'd probably be picking rocksalt or birdshot out of our rear ends for a month.

We get a lot of TV shows from the USA, so the kids kind of know it exists and the stores are trying to flog (sell) us all the associated crappy masks, costumes, lollies (candy) etc, but really I don't know whether to encourage my children to get involved and what should I do if kids start knocking on the door on the 31st October ( I dont even know for sure if the dates right). Is this a serious religious festival or just a bit of fun?

I would really appreciate your comments, I am still trying to fly this Blogger thing and the comment function doesn't seem to be working, so if you can't comment here pls tweet me @dad_down_under or make a comment (and Like) over at my new Facebook.com/daddownunder page

If your a reader from Australia or elsewhere else I'd love your take on this tradition too.

Solar flares or just bad luck

Man time flies when life goes on around you, can't believe that is been over a month since I put up a post here.

Now onto what's bothering me today, Is it the effect of Solar Flares or just bad luck that just about everything electronic I own has had "issues" in the past couple of weeks. First the dryer went, now against my darling brides advice I thought it's only the bearing, it'd be a waste not to fix it. Anyway my helpful appliance repair man kindly charged me $80 to tell me that it was stuffed. Next in line wash the washing machine ( think it died of a broken heart at the loss of it's life long dryer companion). Ok now we expect things to come in three's so wait another week and the TV decided to become a purple and white TV...very cool visually but not the best to watch for any length of time. Well that's 3 down that's got to be it for a while I think to myself.

DOOOH, wrong again... Walking past our Hot water system on Saturday afternoon I notice lots of water pouring out and youch it's hot water...never a good sign. Hot water systems do only last so long but this one (very expensive heat pump type) is less than 3 years old.... NOT happy. The loverly lady on their support line then informs me that the warranty doesn't cover labour and it'll be about $350 to fix it...NOT HAPPY I may have even let out a couple of mild profanities after getting off the phone.

Anyway for those readers who are still with me at this point I feel much better now, In fact I might even go for an invigorating cold shower.