The War on Halloween

[NeedleCast]

So I'm driving to work this morning and pass a church that's got a bunch of nice Halloween decorations set up. Normally I wouldn't pay the church much mind, but their marquee reads "Come celebrate Fall Festival with us!" and then goes on to talk about games, prizes, a moon-bounce, et. al.

It got me thinking. Why is it that it's okay for some Christians to call Halloween "fall festival" but not okay for others to call Christmas the "holiday season" or some other name?

I'm in the DC area, so I'm not terribly surprised this idiocy is going on here? Is the rest of the country experiencing a war on Halloween? This is one of my favorite holidays!

[acmavm]

1. It seems to me that the people who are against celebrating

Halloween are the very people it was meant to honor. The ghouls and witches and spooks and monsters amongst us.

[Marrah_G]

4. The witches still celebrate it, thank you very much.

It is the same day as one of our most important Sabbats (holy days) called Samhain.

[acmavm]

5. I was being a wise ass. The 'real' witches (those who do

believe in the supernatural) aren't the witches I was talking about.

[King Coal]

9. Hallowfestivus for the restofus.

[Dervill Crow]

2. Halloween IS a Harvest Festival.

All Hallow's Eve is the Christian name, isn't it? Calling it a harvest festival is giving honor to the Pagan forces of nature.

[NeedleCast]

3. I understand that

But it was never called that where I grew up. It was always just Halloween. Until I was in my teens, I didn't really care. Halloween meant I got to stay up late, put on makeup, dress up as Spiderman and got piles of free candy. That was about as rockstar as you could get at age eight.

I'm more trying to figure out how the Fundies can get their panties in a bunch when some talking head refers to Christmas as "the holiday season" but don't pass out from the smell of their own hypocrisy when they change the name of a holiday they associate with pagan rituals and devil worship.

[Marrah_G]

7. Here is what is even more absurd

The past leaders of their religions stole these Holy Days at the point of a sword, murdering millions because some ass-in-a-hat in Rome said so. They renamed the Feast Days, renamed the Gods (calling them the Devil) and then a thousand years later have the NERVE to bitch about it.

Fundie Christians really piss me off this time of year.

[Dervill Crow]

10. They're just being dumb . . .

It just strikes me as particularly amusing that in their effort to make the holiday acceptable they are making it more Pagan. Dumbasses don't even realize that their oh-so-Christian holidays that they are so protective of are based on Pagan celebrations. That raises their hypocrisy to an even greater level, in my estimation.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

23. I made a fundie mad once over holidays.

He belonged to the Ass. of God church and the whole family is a bunch of bullies.

I told him "You better not have a Christmas tree because that's a Pagan symbol! You better not have any Easter bunnies or Easter eggs, because those are Pagan symbols too!".

Boy was he pissed.

We don't speak.

[msongs]

6. interesting story on origins of jack o lantern style carvings to escape christian impositions ->

according to an article in today's LA Times on the origins of carving faces on gourds, pumpkins, etc:

pagan/druid cultures in ancient europe considered the head to be the seat of the soul. Corpses may or not have been buried as social ritual but heads were frequently detached and saved. When the christians came to town and started destroying previously existing cultures, suppressing old ways, and punishing old ways practitioners (think inquisition style tactics), druids eventually gave in to christian approved burials without detaching heads.

They began the symbolic carving of gourds as head "replacements" or symbols that carried on earlier traditions. That is where the jack o lantern thing came from, according to the Times article.

Now the jack o lantern is the king of halloween symbols, carved by millions of christians, and the druids have their revenge. sweet!

Msongs

[Marrah_G]

8. Also

Carved gourds make great candle holders when you are forced to hide any trace of your faith.

[iamthebandfanman]

11. Merry Samhain! n/t

[Marrah_G]

13. You too!!

Blessed Be!

[Dervill Crow]

26. Merry meet and Blessed Be.

We're everywhere, aren't we?

Well, probably not Free Republic. :rofl:

[TornadoTN]

12. It's out of hand around here in Eastern Tennessee

Everywhere you see a sign for a haunted house, a sign for a Harvest Festival is placed right beside it. Not that it's a bad thing in general, but they are usually placed in such a way to obstruct the Haunted House or Halloween sign. There are banners and political-style yard signs advertising "Harvest Festival" and "Trunk or Treat" (whatever the hell that is) placed by the churches all around the area, so much so it's almost as bad as political season.

They also get the prime time on the local news stations to advertise their events and declare how bad and "anti-church" Halloween truly is.

When I was younger, Halloween was celebrated by pretty much everyone - church or no church. We had a good time, dressed up, collected our candy, and that was that. Now, they are trying to make all kids that dress up and have a good time seem like they are somehow "evil" for doing so. Pretty pathetic.

[NeedleCast]

17. One thing I remember

Is that when I was a pre-teen - and we're talking the early 80's here - there was a big scare because someone had put razor blades in apples or something, so the big thing was X-raying all the stuff we collected trick-or-treated. The local police set up an X-ray station...at our church. It only seems like it's the last 10-15 years that Halloween has become "anti-church."

I don't get it.

[TornadoTN]

20. I remember a lot of that too

Mid - Late 80's for me, we had those same scares too. People were concerned about there being razor blades in apples or Snickers bars, pills in candy, etc. So the police did the X-ray thing (my parents just looked through my stuff very closely). If I recall, there was also a scare about stickers given out on Halloween being laced with LSD. I know that it happened a few times in my youth outside of Halloween, but one year everyone was very cautious about stickers, so much so that my teachers gave us lectures about it.

Now we just worry about the Devil and how this holiday corrupts our youth.

I'm not sure which one is worse.

[ChickMagic]

24. The doctors here at Parkland

provided free xrays of candy. Not once did they find anything.
Not once. I think it was a fundy urban legend to scare kids from
going door to door. It had the added benefit of isolating neighbors
from each other and be suspicious of them.

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. Funny I researched these articles last night. Really got me laughing a bit.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/holidays/halloween/

[Marrah_G]

15. It's really sad

Web pages like those fill me with a combination of sadness and anger. It's worse having people fear you then hate you. Fear causes them to act even more irrationally. Plus having passage in their holy book that says killing me is a good thing....well let's just say it doesn't make me feel safe, warm and fuzzy.

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. What really burns me are the people who refuse to believe

that Christianity co-opted pagan holidays and rituals. :eyes:

I really feel for your predicament. :hug:

[NeedleCast]

18. It's like each new wave of religious nutters

has to out-do the last in nuttyness.

[yardwork]

19. Yes, it's that time of year again when so-called "Christians" slander pagans.

I really don't care what they call my New Year holiday. I call it Samhain, and I consider it one of the most sacred days of the year. If other people want to celebrate it (or not) in their own way, I don't care at all. I wish that they didn't feel obligated to slander me and my spiritual path, but they do.

[deutsey]

21. I know a Christian family that has seen Halloween as satanic for years.

One of them (he was my best friend from 5th grade to high school) sent me a Christmas card one year that had inside a handprint with a big bloodstain in the palm. The card said something about "Remember the reason for the season."

They're a really nice family I've known since, as I said, I was in 5th grade; the parents even helped me pay for college when I was in a bind. But our religious differences really make me want to stay away from them, unfortunately.

[Raine]

22. It's not just the DC area, I'm in the Los Angeles area and

there is a war on Halloween here too by those weirdo fundie churches, they advertise their "harvest" festivals...how stupid! :silly:

[Evoman]

25. Because some Christians are whiny bitches?

:shrug:

[Breeze54]

27. Because some of them are idiots? Just guessing...

I don't have actual links and facts! :P