Halloween vs. Fall Festival and a Hatchet Job by the local Right-wing rag..

[madinmaryland]

http://www.examiner.com/a-991673~Spooking_over_Halloween_is_silly.html

Editorial: Spooking over Halloween is silly


The Baltimore Examiner Newspaper, The Examiner
2007-10-16 07:00:00.0
Current rank: # 401 of 4,822

BALTIMORE - BOO! Evil spirits must be lurking in the woods around area public schools, clouding the minds of education and PTA officials. How else might one explain the suppression of traditional Halloween festivities in schools, replacing them with “Fall Festival” activities? Perhaps in this time of year, mischievous sprites truly do penetrate the thin veil between this world and the other to addle gullible men and women.
Guilford Elementary School in Columbia spiked Halloween this year, joining an undetermined number of learning shrines in backing away from what is estimated to be the fastest-growing holiday in America. PTA President Kris Woodson said she estimated that 40 to 50 of the school’s almost 500 students don’t want to have anything to do with Halloween. Some teachers don’t either, she said.
So the answer in this hyper-sensitive, politically correct world is to prevent the 450 students who do think Halloween is a lark from enjoying it. That should put the devil in his or her place, right? No, it just makes one suspect that the officials are self-absorbed nerds with too much time on their hands. Worse, it gives a trivial holiday substance it does not deserve.
Secular Halloween observances and images actually demean ancient, long-forgotten religious beliefs. Guilford and other area elementary students will get to decorate pumpkins (carving is much too dangerous, oh my), work on arts and crafts and participate in a one-mile turkey trot, whatever that is. The day will crescendo with apple pie and apple (pasteurized, one hopes) cider.
What child would not be thrilled? Who needs ghosts, goblins, ghouls, zombies, witches and vampires when you can get your pulse racing with a healthy turkey trot? Millions of moms or dads across America, burdened every year with the challenge of making cute unique costumes, will breathe a sigh of relief when tykes abandon Halloween for the sheer blood-curdling excitement of Fall Festival.
If the entire holiday, including candy, can be expunged, our American dental and diabetes associations will rejoice. Finally, we can have an education system and eventually an entire nation in which none must endure even the slightest whim of anything a few may find the least bit offensive.
However, one thing to keep in mind is that Halloween generates billions in retail sales for decorations, costumes, toys, candy, parties and knickknacks. Since the first known official citywide Halloween in Anoka, Minn., in 1921, the holiday’s popularity has grown steadily. According to the National Retail Federation, the average American will spend almost 10 percent more this year — about $65, up from $59 — on Halloween stuff. We’re talking big money here, fellow citizens, all for the vestiges of old Celtic (that’s with a hard C, as in candy) religion, language and culture the world has spent about 2,500 years trying to stamp out.
Maybe the Guilford PTA has some prejudice against the savage aborigines of darkest Europe. Perhaps its actions are just thinly disguised efforts in continuance of the Celtic Genocide. Let those who advocate suppression of Halloween answer those accusations. Maybe somebody should get a lawyer and file a class-action lawsuit. Or maybe, by some miracle, those involved in public education can come to their senses and realize we and they have bigger things to worry about than Halloween.

:wtf: They are more concerned about the profits of corporations selling junk rather than the children having fun? :grr:

BTW, my wife is helping organize this party.

[acmavm]

1. What can anyone say? One thing this country is surely not

short of is ignorant whackjobs.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. So is it wiccans that are complaining about halloween now?

Were they jealous of conservative christians' habit of getting to ruin everybody else's fun?

[The Straight Story]

3. Halloween, Christmas, Columbus day, Thanksgiving, et al should be banned from all schools

Culture, tradition, and history should have no place in our schools.

And all kids should wear the same clothes and have the same book bags as well.

Diversity means we get rid of all things and become one, so that the only people offended are the people wanting something they honor to be included in their child's classroom.

Eventually everyone will be the same, except at home (where they won't be allowed to smoke, or have yard sales without government permits like in some areas, they have to have decorations put out for the holidays pass a 'would it offend someone' test, etc).

Everyone's freedom ends when I am offended :rofl:

:sarcasm:

[madinmaryland]

9. Actually the goal of the Fall Festival is to include all

of the celebrations into one celebration, not to actually get rid of Halloween.

[Greyskye]

7. Um, no.

From reading the article linked in the OP, it is the local PTA which is caving to a minority of fundy's who think that Halloween is an evil Satanic holiday.

Other than the depictions of witches being ugly crones, I've never heard of the pagan/wiccan community ever having any problems with Halloween. After all, Samhain (All Hallows Eve, Halloween) is the traditional end of harvest celebration. Very scary, that.

:sarcasm:

[madinmaryland]

10. Since my wife works there, it is definately not the fundy's that are making

a stink about the Fall Festival. The whole idea with the Fall Festival, is to combine all of the celebations.

[Greyskye]

15. which is it?

If it is simply combining the various celebrations, why the outrage in the editorial that was linked then? Are they forbidding costumes or something? The editorial alludes to a number of things, some of which seem to be in opposition to each other. This bit makes it sound like it's the religious community that is upset:

So the answer in this hyper-sensitive, politically correct world is to prevent the 450 students who do think Halloween is a lark from enjoying it. That should put the devil in his or her place, right? No, it just makes one suspect that the officials are self-absorbed nerds with too much time on their hands.

Yet the very next sentence seems to castigate the non-Christian aspects:

Worse, it gives a trivial holiday substance it does not deserve.

Color me confused.

[madinmaryland]

16. Most of the artical seems to be taking pot shots at the PTA

and the school board, for nothing more than trying to make it a celebration. I don't get the real point they are trying to make. Then they comment that corporations make billions upon billions of dollars on halloween stuff and would hate to see them lose that money.

Also, if they had actually spoken to the school they might have gathered what the school and PTA was trying to accomplish.

IDIOTS!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. There was a case in Puyallup, Wa. maybe four or five years ago.

They stopped halloween celebrations, claiming offense to wiccans.

And the article was blathering something about celtic genocide, so I figured it was wiccans.

Just a couple of days ago, there were a couple of threads with wiccans upset about somebody's front yard witch decoration. So I sounds like stupidity's communicable.

[LeftCoast]

11. This Wiccan loves Halloween

I also view it as somewhat distinct from our own holiday celebrated on that night. Though the two are connected via early Christian adoption of our holiday, the modern American version of Halloween today clearly has no religious basis any longer.

[Wildewolfe]

4. color me confused...

...but where is the hatchet?

[monmouth]

5. We made our own halloween, school was not included. We had more fun..n/t

[The Straight Story]

6. In elementary school we dressed up, paraded around the hood, and went to McD's

It was fun, but then school is not supposed to be fun :)

[zbdent]

8. I always thought the Religious Reich were the ones who wanted the "Satanic holiday"

eliminated ... and there are plenty of churches holding "alternate haunted houses", with depictions of Hell reserved for those who celebrate Halloween ...

:silly:

[0rganism]

12. Not to worry, ending Halloween means we can move Christmas up another month

Just imagine, after all the other holidays have been swept aside, we can finally celebrate Christmas ALL YEAR LONG. Won't that be a blast? :crazy:

[madinmaryland]

13. Doesn't bush want christmas year round.

Didn't he say go out and shop, we'll borrow our way out of trouble!