Is Halloween evil?

[HollyS]

Date: 10/15/2009 4:04:44 PM
Author: MonkeyPie
Er...Harry Potter is evil?

No, not in and of itself. But what on earth would make anyone stand in line for 24-48 hours to get the first copies?? A certain degree of nuttiness. And is that a good thing? Or is it just weirdness on display . . .

 

[MonkeyPie]

Date: 10/15/2009 4:16:11 PM
Author: HollyS

Date: 10/15/2009 4:04:44 PM

Author: MonkeyPie

Er...Harry Potter is evil?

No, not in and of itself. But what on earth would make anyone stand in line for 24-48 hours to get the first copies?? A certain degree of nuttiness. And is that a good thing? Or is it just weirdness on display . . .

Probably for the same reason people used to stand in line for concert tickets for that long!

 

[Bia]

Date: 10/15/2009 4:16:11 PM
Author: HollyS

Date: 10/15/2009 4:04:44 PM
Author: MonkeyPie
Er...Harry Potter is evil?

No, not in and of itself. But what on earth would make anyone stand in line for 24-48 hours to get the first copies?? A certain degree of nuttiness. And is that a good thing? Or is it just weirdness on display . . .

Why is it weird?

I''m not a HP fan personally, but I''ve been known to stand in long lines for things--since when did using your imagination become weird or delusional? One might say our posting on a diamond forum all day, every day, is weird, no?

If it''s fun, makes you happy, and isn''t harming anyone else, live and let live.

 

[Sha]

Hmmm...I''m not American (Halloween isn''t celebrated where I''m from), so maybe I''m not fully understanding this whole thing. But I find it ironic that religious holidays like Christmas and Easter aren''t celebrated in public schools (is that a fact?), but Halloween generally is? Aren''t religious holidays banned in public schools because of freedom of relgion/the risk of ''forcing'' certain religions to those who may not subscribe to those beliefs? But who says every child wants to feel ''pressured'' to celebrate Halloween? If the school officially recognizes or celebrates it as a holiday - it does give support to the Event and creates some pressure, IMO, for children to participate, as well as marginalizing those children (and parents) who choose, for whatever reason (religious or otherwise) not to take part. Kind of what they were trying to avoid with the religious thing?

 

[junebug17]

Date: 10/15/2009 2:03:06 PM
Author: dragonfly411
Kenny - first of all, I don''t think this was started as a religious thread, so doesn''t qualify, and that leads to my second point

I don''t think it is based on your religious beliefs at all. All Hallow''s Eve was developed to recognize the dead... which has nothing to do with religion. Furthermore, if it is in relation to ''evil'' then EVERY religion has evil.

That being said, no, I don''t think Halloween is evil. Yes I think it is RIDICULOUS to remove holidays from the lives of children. In my school growing up, we recognized Hanukkah, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Valentine''s Day, St. Patrick''s Day, and children were allowed to celebrate other holidays as well. Why NOT?

I WILL say that Halloween has sparked a more spooky holiday in some, including myself. I gobble it up, scary tv, scary movies, scary studies, dressing up, I am now a candy giver instead of getter hehe, I love it!

Dragonfly, I have to disagree with you, certain religions feel Halloween is related to the occult and Satanism, and therefore ban it, so there is at least partly a religious factor involved. When my kids were young I knew a very religious woman who didn''t approve of Halloween for the above reasons, along with the rest of her church.

 

[junebug17]

Date: 10/15/2009 5:02:05 PM
Author: Sha
Hmmm...I''m not American (Halloween isn''t celebrated where I''m from), so maybe I''m not fully understanding this whole thing. But I find it ironic that religious holidays like Christmas and Easter aren''t celebrated in public schools (is that a fact?), but Halloween generally is? Aren''t religious holidays banned in public schools because of freedom of relgion/the risk of ''forcing'' certain religions to those who may not subscribe to those beliefs? But who says every child wants to feel ''pressured'' to celebrate Halloween? If the school officially recognizes or celebrates it as a holiday - it does give support to the Event and creates some pressure, IMO, for children to participate, as well as marginalizing those children (and parents) who choose, for whatever reason (religious or otherwise) not to take part. Kind of what they were trying to avoid with the religious thing?

Sha, Halloween isn''t considered a religious holiday, so you can''t really compare it to Christmas or Easter. Halloween isn''t based on any religious dogma, it is a tradition. Halloween is so accepted in this country that most people just view it as a fun day for the kids. But as I previously stated, certain churches and religions view it as evil.

 

[packrat]

I''m going to go out on a limb and say-everybody can''t be happy all the time. Some of the people can be happy some of the time. There is no solution to make everyone happy, in a public situation like that. Someone is always subjected to something they don''t like, regardless. There will always be someone to squawk because the Salvation Army bell ringers say "Merry Christmas" b/c not everyone celebrates it or is Christian and the other side will squawk b/c nobody says "Merry Christmas" anymore. It''s a no win situation with any holiday that some celebrate and some don''t.

As far as Halloween goes, I never celebrated it, but we dress the kids up and take them out b/c it''s fun. And I hide some of the candy. They get to play dress up and I get cavities. It''s win win.

I think the age of PC-ness is making everyone run around like chickens w/their heads cut off cuz guess what, you can''t please every person, every religion and no religion, on the face of the Earth all at the same time.

Anymore, I think it''s just a matter of who can squawk the loudest and the longest. The powers that be just get sick of it and cave.

 

[MonkeyPie]

Date: 10/15/2009 5:02:06 PM
Author: junebug17

Date: 10/15/2009 2:03:06 PM

Author: dragonfly411

Kenny - first of all, I don''t think this was started as a religious thread, so doesn''t qualify, and that leads to my second point

I don''t think it is based on your religious beliefs at all. All Hallow''s Eve was developed to recognize the dead... which has nothing to do with religion. Furthermore, if it is in relation to ''evil'' then EVERY religion has evil.

That being said, no, I don''t think Halloween is evil. Yes I think it is RIDICULOUS to remove holidays from the lives of children. In my school growing up, we recognized Hanukkah, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Valentine''s Day, St. Patrick''s Day, and children were allowed to celebrate other holidays as well. Why NOT?

I WILL say that Halloween has sparked a more spooky holiday in some, including myself. I gobble it up, scary tv, scary movies, scary studies, dressing up, I am now a candy giver instead of getter hehe, I love it!

Dragonfly, I have to disagree with you, certain religions feel Halloween is related to the occult and Satanism, and therefore ban it, so there is at least partly a religious factor involved. When my kids were young I knew a very religious woman who didn''t approve of Halloween for the above reasons, along with the rest of her church.

I had a friend in elementary school that was Jehovah and her family didn''t celebrate it - so she simply didn''t come to school that day. I have no problem with people basing their beliefs on their religion, but it isn''t fair to push it on EVERY kid, when the majority of kids in the US are allowed to dress up for the day. That isn''t to say that going to school and being the only kid not dressed up is any different (that''s pushy too), but parents have a lot more options than raising hell at the school board and forcing the holiday to be removed from schools altogether, especially when they are in the extreme minority.

 

[Mara]

Booo on banning Halloween festivities from school. I totally remember the dress up and parade and as a kid it was sooo fun.

Now as an adult I want to skip the dress up and just eat the CANDY.

I also agree there are always going to be groups that are unhappy about something related to how they raise their kids. Didn't something happen a year or two ago where school libraries can't carry certain types of books anymore?? I don't remember what it was though.

 

[junebug17]

I want to state for the record that I love Halloween too! I have really good memories of my kids having so much fun dressing up and trick or treating, they always loved it. So hard for me to see anything evil in children having fun.

 

[Erin]

That''s a really good point Sha.
Thanks!

 

[dragonfly411]

june - I do see your point and I have met those. To clarify, I was trying to dissuade others from thinking that one would ONLY determine halloween as good or evil based on religion, and thus that made THIS THREAD a religious thread. Sorry if my post was confusing

 

[dragonfly411]

to add further - I do not see HP as evil, or anything to do with evil. Why is it that fantasy is related to that for some? I''m not accusing anyone of thinking that, but the post about it originally made it seem that way so was curious.

I also don''t see it as weird.... is it weird that women wait in line to get in stores at 4 AM the day after Thanksgiving? Is it weird that people wait out the door to get into clubs, or concerts, or book readings? Is it weird that people put themselves on waiting lists for rings to be designed?

To each his own, what is fun to some is not to others.

Meanwhile, I''m going to go scare myself in a movie theatre tomorrow

 

[lucyandroger]

Date: 10/15/2009 5:02:05 PM
Author: Sha
Hmmm...I'm not American (Halloween isn't celebrated where I'm from), so maybe I'm not fully understanding this whole thing. But I find it ironic that religious holidays like Christmas and Easter aren't celebrated in public schools (is that a fact?), but Halloween generally is? Aren't religious holidays banned in public schools because of freedom of relgion/the risk of 'forcing' certain religions to those who may not subscribe to those beliefs? But who says every child wants to feel 'pressured' to celebrate Halloween? If the school officially recognizes or celebrates it as a holiday - it does give support to the Event and creates some pressure, IMO, for children to participate, as well as marginalizing those children (and parents) who choose, for whatever reason (religious or otherwise) not to take part. Kind of what they were trying to avoid with the religious thing?

Sha, the reason is that the vast majority of Americans do not see Halloween as a religious holiday but rather a secular holiday about dressing up and getting candy. There are other holidays that some Americans find offensive, for example Columbus Day, but public schools continue to celebrate them. Some religions do not permit the celebration of birthdays. As packrat said, you can't please everyone.

I don't think the answer is taking all celebration and "fun" days out of school. Kids need to be kids. They will have plenty of boring halloweens where they have to wear regular clothes and buy Halloween candy for themselves in the future.

ETA - I grew up in NY, well known for being a "melting pot" of cultures and religions. I had Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu friends that celebrated Christmas as a secular American holiday. Some had trees and some just exchanged presents and had a family meal. When we had holiday parties in school, nothing was ever said about the religious significance of holidays. We just exchanged presents, made gingerbread houses, played with dreidels, etc. It was FUN!

 

[junebug17]

Date: 10/15/2009 5:27:10 PM
Author: dragonfly411
june - I do see your point and I have met those. To clarify, I was trying to dissuade others from thinking that one would ONLY determine halloween as good or evil based on religion, and thus that made THIS THREAD a religious thread. Sorry if my post was confusing

I gotcha! And I agree, I wouldn''t call this a religious thread!

 

[Regular Guy]

Date: 10/15/2009 1:50:15 PM
Author: kenny
Whether Halloween is evil falls squarely within your religious beliefs and we can''t discuss religion here on PS.

Kenny, take a moment and look at the top, pinned thread on this board.

Draw your own conclusions.

 

[packrat]

I was raised as a Jehovah''s Witness as well. Mom picked us up early from school if there was a birthday party or like for Halloween/Christmas parties. I did different art projects than the other kids, things like that.

I don''t understand parents or adults in general raising a fuss about things like that. If you send your kids to a public school, where the majority of students do "A" but you don''t...hello? Just don''t do "A" then. 200 other kids shouldn''t have to cease and desist from "A" just b/c of one kid. Nobody wants to be different or singled out anymore. We can''t all be the SAME and it won''t work to try to FORCE people to be the same. Sometimes adults need to suck it up and realize that by trying to force everyone to be the same, they''re making the different kids STAND OUT even more. I wouldn''t have wanted to be made to feel like I had this big neon sign above my head "Missi does not celebrate Holidays. Missi does not get presents. Missi does not do the Pledge of Allegiance" and if my mom would''ve been a squawker, that''s what would''ve happened. Instead, yes, I was different and the kids new it. Everyone knew it. Hard to hide it. However, it was never made into a big deal, which is exactly how my mom wanted it, and it''s the polar opposite of what other adults are doing by their squawking. Yeah, they''re doing what they believe is right for the kids but all they''re accomplishing is making things harder on the kids.

It''s funny, really, the hypocrisy in adults. Adults squawk b/c kids don''t read. They sit in front of the tv and zone out. Then a book comes along and sparks their interest like NOTHING before, and adults squawk and pick it apart and wage a vendetta against it b/c it doesn''t suit their idea of what kids should read. Nevermind that it could very well be the gateway to an avid reader who devours many genres and begins to read at a higher level and appreciates many types of writtings.. Adults get on their Huffy bike and make the bitter beer face and harumph about it b/c only a set group of people apparently should decide what is proper reading material for every child on the planet. Yes, the squawkers.

Gone are the days of teaching kids that we''re all different. Different eyes, hair, skin, religion, everything. Now are the days to force everyone in public to do everything the same, lest we offend.

 

[Circe]

Not having read too many of the replies ... what complete and utter nitwittery. The ban is based on it being as "evil" occasion? Not even touching on the roots of the holiday or its being co-opted by the Catholic Church for its own ends, and thus, sanitized ... if we''re going to talk about holidays with frightening imagery, let''s hit Easter. A man tortured to death rising from the dead? UNwholesome.

Or, you know, let''s accept cultural developments as contributing to the societies that we live in, and modify them gradually as opposed to banning them outright (because as we all know, THAT tends to work beautifully ....)

P.S. - No offense intended to anyone who celebrates Easter. I''m incensed at the lack of logic, and trying to illustrate it with an equal-yet-opposite example.

 

[swimmer]

Whoa Circ, I thought Easter was all about chocolate bunnies hiding eggs!

We have a Halloween dance at our school, all the girls go as something or other and then add on sexy. Dress as a kitten, or a devil, or a cowgirl, but make sure to show a ton of skin, the strangest combo yet was "sexy toothbrush."

I love Christmas break! Teachers celebrate it all year long, the only students I have to speak with are selling me movie tickets or taking my order in a restaurant. Many districts tried to rename it "winter holiday break" um, yeah, no, that did not catch on. I guess we could call the Christmas dance, the Solstice Celebration? But that might be giving too much attention to the Wicca? Sometimes things get silly, I was always embarrassed as a student in chorus when we would sing beautiful X-mass songs and then slum it with "I had a little dreidel," like that is the only Jewish song out there. Oy to the vey.

 

[crown1]

Date: 10/15/2009 5:52:18 PM
Author: packrat
I was raised as a Jehovah''s Witness as well. Mom picked us up early from school if there was a birthday party or like for Halloween/Christmas parties. I did different art projects than the other kids, things like that.


I don''t understand parents or adults in general raising a fuss about things like that. If you send your kids to a public school, where the majority of students do ''A'' but you don''t...hello? Just don''t do ''A'' then. 200 other kids shouldn''t have to cease and desist from ''A'' just b/c of one kid. Nobody wants to be different or singled out anymore. We can''t all be the SAME and it won''t work to try to FORCE people to be the same. Sometimes adults need to suck it up and realize that by trying to force everyone to be the same, they''re making the different kids STAND OUT even more. I wouldn''t have wanted to be made to feel like I had this big neon sign above my head ''Missi does not celebrate Holidays. Missi does not get presents. Missi does not do the Pledge of Allegiance'' and if my mom would''ve been a squawker, that''s what would''ve happened. Instead, yes, I was different and the kids new it. Everyone knew it. Hard to hide it. However, it was never made into a big deal, which is exactly how my mom wanted it, and it''s the polar opposite of what other adults are doing by their squawking. Yeah, they''re doing what they believe is right for the kids but all they''re accomplishing is making things harder on the kids.


It''s funny, really, the hypocrisy in adults. Adults squawk b/c kids don''t read. They sit in front of the tv and zone out. Then a book comes along and sparks their interest like NOTHING before, and adults squawk and pick it apart and wage a vendetta against it b/c it doesn''t suit their idea of what kids should read. Nevermind that it could very well be the gateway to an avid reader who devours many genres and begins to read at a higher level and appreciates many types of writtings.. Adults get on their Huffy bike and make the bitter beer face and harumph about it b/c only a set group of people apparently should decide what is proper reading material for every child on the planet. Yes, the squawkers.


Gone are the days of teaching kids that we''re all different. Different eyes, hair, skin, religion, everything. Now are the days to force everyone in public to do everything the same, lest we offend.

you speak from experience and make some good points. i intend to think about what you have said. it seems that everyone should think more about the "majority rules" concept and less about the "me me" mentality. to answer the question, i don''t think halloween is evil as i know it. anyone can make anything evil if they want to. costumes, candy, and having a good time don''t equal evil to me.

 

[rhbgirl24]

Date: 10/15/2009 5:08:26 PM
Author: junebug17

Date: 10/15/2009 5:02:05 PM
Author: Sha
Hmmm...I'm not American (Halloween isn't celebrated where I'm from), so maybe I'm not fully understanding this whole thing. But I find it ironic that religious holidays like Christmas and Easter aren't celebrated in public schools (is that a fact?), but Halloween generally is? Aren't religious holidays banned in public schools because of freedom of relgion/the risk of 'forcing' certain religions to those who may not subscribe to those beliefs? But who says every child wants to feel 'pressured' to celebrate Halloween? If the school officially recognizes or celebrates it as a holiday - it does give support to the Event and creates some pressure, IMO, for children to participate, as well as marginalizing those children (and parents) who choose, for whatever reason (religious or otherwise) not to take part. Kind of what they were trying to avoid with the religious thing?

Sha, Halloween isn't considered a religious holiday, so you can't really compare it to Christmas or Easter. Halloween isn't based on any religious dogma, it is a tradition. Halloween is so accepted in this country that most people just view it as a fun day for the kids. But as I previously stated, certain churches and religions view it as evil.

Halloween IS based on a religious holiday. Not a christian holiday however. But then again ALL christian holidays are based around pagan holidays. One of the ways they got the "common folk" to convert back in the dark ages.............. by incorporating things they already believed and did. The christmas tree is pagan, hiding easter eggs is pagan. Do the research, you'd be shocked how easter eggs hunts came to be!

 

[VRBeauty]

Date: 10/15/2009 1:36:57 PM
Author: Haven

Date: 10/15/2009 1:20:12 PM

Author: cellentani

Yup, Halloween is really bad. It''s almost as bad as that other holiday public schools aren''t allowed to celebrate - Christmas.

I completely understand schools not celebrating Christmas--it''s a religious holiday. Why would a public school celebrate a religious holiday????

I think cellentani making the same argument -- though more slyly -- that rhbgirl24 is making. Although Christmas ostensibly commemorates a religious event, many of the trappings of the celebration (the tree and gift exchange, for example) are based on ancient pagan holidays.

 

[Sha]

Yes, that''s true - the religion/pagan holiday thing is really interwined.

With regard to my earlier point - I understand that Halloween isn''t officially considered a ''religious'' holiday, but like others in the thread have said, I think a lot of people see it as originating from occult practices/Satanism (whether or not it''s celebrated that way today) - and that *can* be considered as opposing Christianity, I think? So.....just to be devil''s advocate

(no pun intended) - if a holiday with possible roots in Satanism is widely accepted and celebrated in schools...then why can''t a Christian holiday like Christmas or Easter be celebrated also?

Why can you celebrate a holiday which was associated with the occult, but not one associated with God?

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Date: 10/15/2009 10:19:34 PM
Author: Sha
I understand that Halloween isn't officially considered a 'religious' holiday, but like others in the thread have said, I think a lot of people see it as originating from occult practices/Satanism (whether or not it's celebrated that way today) - and that *can* be considered as opposing Christianity, I think? So.....just to be devil's advocate

(no pun intended) - if a holiday with possible roots in Satanism is widely accepted and celebrated in schools...then why can't a Christian holiday like Christmas or Easter be celebrated also?

Why can you celebrate a holiday which was associated with the occult, but not one associated with God?

Just because people "think" it originates from something, doesn't mean it actually does. Satanism as a religion wasn't started until 1966, and occult isn't a established religion. So though Halloween may have occult origins, it doesn't make it a religious holiday (since occult is not a religion), it would just mean it's a holiday that the prevailing religion (Christianity) disapproves of. Christmas is the day that celebrates Jesus' birth, so if you celebrate/observe it, that means you believe that Jesus at least existed, which would more or less make you Christian. But celebrating Halloween just makes you American as far as I can tell? Even if Halloween was defined as a day in which you could commune with the dead, it still wouldn't be supporting any specific religion, but just the belief you can communicate with the dead.

If you start objecting to things based on non-christian religions, then you'd have to start objecting to the names of the days of the week as many of them have connections to the names of Pagan gods.

Also, you could argue that Halloween is influenced by All Saints day, which is Christian, celebrated for saints that have passed.

I also think it's silly to ban the celebration of Christmas in a (relatively) secular manner, and I'm an atheist (and former 'pagan'). I think it would be crossing a line if Christmas was celebrated by spending all day teaching kids about Christ and asking everyone to pray, but I think it's ok to spend the day singing reindeer songs and decorating snow men cookies. I think when I was in high school, we learned about various kinds of winter celebrations in addition to Christmas that were celebrated by different religions and cultures, which I think was a nice was to do it.

 

[kas baby]

I remember in one school district I attended while growing up we had "Oktoberfest" complete with costumes, learning folk dances, painting mini-pumpkins, coloring fall themed pictures, bobbing for apples, drinking apple cider or hot chocolate, and eating doughnuts and candy- yum! I remember having a blast!

Once we switched schools after a move, my sisters had a Halloween thing. Since its out in the boonies, the school hosted a trick-or-treat thingy so the kids could get candy, but they had to do an activity of some sort to ''win'' the candy (like shoot a basketball, hop on one foot, throw the sandbag in the target, and others were like solve this puzzle... stuff like that)

I don''t think Halloween is evil. I guess if we want to get philosophical, we would have to define what evil is first though- and no one has even come up with a definition for that! "something that isn''t good" doesn''t count because what is good? is something inherently good, or does it have the quality of being good? what is goodness? are there parameters? can we measure it? good luck answering them!

as a weird side note... does anyone know why witches were said to ''fly on magic broomsticks''? One of my botany books has an, um, ahem, rather interesting explanation

It falls under the section of psychoactive plants and how they were administered sometimes as poultices to rather interesting parts of the body with rather interesting devices... the active compounds in the plants were then taken into the bloodstream, going about their various pathways thus causing the psychoactive effect, usually of hallucination. This can be seen as the veil lifting as well, since the perception of the mind is altered

The book is either "The Botany of Desire" by Pollan, or "Tales of a Shaman''s Apprentice" by Plotkin, although I can''t remember which, both are great reads.

 

[justginger]

What rubbish. America is going to become the "un-fun" country, with millions of normal people hogtied in the red tape of PCness. Halloween was the best holiday ever as a kid -- cool outfits, going out after dark, giggling with friends, and stuffing yourself with candy! I can''t think of any evil or religious connection to the way the holiday is celebrated in the modern times.

I think many Australians think it''s a bad holiday. It''s just not done down here by the majority of people -- and I''m pretty sure the number ONE reason they hate it is because they don''t have the porch light rule! At home, you want trick or treaters? Turn on the porch light. You don''t? Leave it off. Here, with no porch light rule, kids go knocking EVERYWHERE. And to people who don''t wish to participate, it gives them the sh!ts. Especially when the "kids" are teenagers who then take the liberty to egg their house when they don''t answer the door. Plus they don''t like the idea that 364 days of the year kids are taught "stranger danger" and "don''t take candy from strangers" -- but then for one night of the year, you kinda tell all the kids to ignore those very important rules. There is some inconsistancy there, but if you''ve grown up doing it, you don''t really notice.

Alas, I miss Halloween in Australia. However...I''ll be Stateside from next week til the beginning of November -- so evil hayrides, apple cider, and trick or treating, here I come!!

 

[ksinger]

Date: 10/15/2009 10:55:37 PM
Author: MakingTheGrade

Date: 10/15/2009 10:19:34 PM
Author: Sha
I understand that Halloween isn''t officially considered a ''religious'' holiday, but like others in the thread have said, I think a lot of people see it as originating from occult practices/Satanism (whether or not it''s celebrated that way today) - and that *can* be considered as opposing Christianity, I think? So.....just to be devil''s advocate

(no pun intended) - if a holiday with possible roots in Satanism is widely accepted and celebrated in schools...then why can''t a Christian holiday like Christmas or Easter be celebrated also?

Why can you celebrate a holiday which was associated with the occult, but not one associated with God?

Just because people ''think'' it originates from something, doesn''t mean it actually does. Satanism as a religion wasn''t started until 1966, and occult isn''t a established religion. So though Halloween may have occult origins, it doesn''t make it a religious holiday (since occult is not a religion), it would just mean it''s a holiday that the prevailing religion (Christianity) disapproves of. Christmas is the day that celebrates Jesus'' birth, so if you celebrate/observe it, that means you believe that Jesus at least existed, which would more or less make you Christian. But celebrating Halloween just makes you American as far as I can tell? Even if Halloween was defined as a day in which you could commune with the dead, it still wouldn''t be supporting any specific religion, but just the belief you can communicate with the dead.

If you start objecting to things based on non-christian religions, then you''d have to start objecting to the names of the days of the week as many of them have connections to the names of Pagan gods.

Also, you could argue that Halloween is influenced by All Saints day, which is Christian, celebrated for saints that have passed.

I also think it''s silly to ban the celebration of Christmas in a (relatively) secular manner, and I''m an atheist (and former ''pagan''). I think it would be crossing a line if Christmas was celebrated by spending all day teaching kids about Christ and asking everyone to pray, but I think it''s ok to spend the day singing reindeer songs and decorating snow men cookies. I think when I was in high school, we learned about various kinds of winter celebrations in addition to Christmas that were celebrated by different religions and cultures, which I think was a nice was to do it.

LOL! No kidding. But then the people who insist that Halloween is satanic or evil display their ignorance in a glaring way. They''re usually the same people who wouldn''t do any non-pulpit-appoved reading about pre-christian religions because it would be a way for Satan himself to assail them. Knowledge being a dangereous thing and all. Basically anything that they don''t/won''t understand is lumped together under the moniker "satanic", whether it is or isn''t. Pretty silly when you know that the religions of Europe were harvest/fertility based and didn''t even have a concept of Satan or Hell. But hey, it''s a handy catch-all for everything that scares them, or sour grapes that there is still an echo of something they tried to stamp out with centuries of indoctrination and violence. I lump them in with the good folks of Kleberg county, TX, where the county commissioners voted to replace the innocuous English greeting of "Hello" with "Heaven-o" because hello has HELL in it.

I like Halloween as it sits, just fine. Candy. Dress-up. Bats. What''s not to like?

 

[that_someone_special]

You know, when I was little (I'm almost 26) we had Christmas Vacation, Easter Vacation and Halloween Parties. I know that they stopped that, it's now Winter Break, and some fall type of celebration. I am completely ok with that. It just makes me a wee bit sad that my kids won't get to dress up and play at school like I did! But what do I know, 10 year old get pregnant now and 4 year olds have ipods

As far as Halloween? BEST DAY EVER. I like it more than my birthday and christmas. Our wedding date is 10-30-10 for a reason

And I would get married on Halloween if it was on a saturday

ETA I'll just say, I'm agnostic by the way. I still celebrate the tree and gift giving of xmas, but that's about it for those kinds of holidays. I love love loveeeee halloween and it's not just for kids!!

 

[Ali]

It seems Halloween can''t be discussed without bringing up religion.