Happy Halloween!

soccerfreaks said:

distortions
There are some, particularly in the Christian community, who find Halloween to be akin to devil worship and, in fact, do not allow their children to participate in trick or treating, not because it is dangerous, not because it seems like begging, but because they think it represents evil. I know such people personally.

Sadly, they have not done their homework. While it may be crassly commercial these days, its origins are within religious boundaries, its origins are in the celebration of saints and souls. Halloween is a derivation of what was once called All Hallow's Eve, sort of like Christmas Eve. It was meant as an evening of celebration (or reverence) in anticipation of the next day: All Saints Day (or, in some cultures, I have recently learned, All Souls Day). The masks that are now an obvious part of the tradition were originally meant to ward off evil spirits.

How ironic, then, that some find this holiday to be evil. It is another example to me of how people with little real knowledge distort things to fit their needs, and I am not writing so much about the believers (although you would hope they would try to keep up with the facts) but those who make such pronouncements to their 'sheep'. Shame on them.

In any event, my dad used to read the poem posted above to us every Halloween before we went out, back when it was apparently clearly safe to do so.

Take care, one and all,

Joe

Hi Joe

Halloween is nothing more then dark age mythology that begin with the ancient pagan Celtic, just another carry over from the pagan religion in to the Church during the Dark ages, one of many. Nothing about it gives any glory to God so why would a Christian want anything to do with it. I have no problems with people doing it if they want to, however I would not dress up any of my kids as a devil

http://godkind.org/pagan-holidays.html
http://www.history.com/topics/halloween

Take Care
╠╣ONDO

soccerfreaks said:

well said!
Have to wonder if our anti-pagan friend celebrates Christmas with a tree and Santa Claus since those traditions also pre-date christian ritual and were incorporated by the church?

Take care,

Joe

Christmas
I see nothing wrong with doing good on any holiday. Jesus was not born on December 25th but he was borne and being no one really knows the correct date why not celebrate it at the same time the rest of the world does, tree and all but no Satan Claus or was that Santa Claus. Funny how just one little letter can change the meaning of a word.

My Son had a friend who Father did not let them celebrate anything not even there birthday, the boy always loved to stay at our house especially on the holidays. But we had to be carful not to break any of his Father rules while he was staying with us, or he would not let him come back.

While I was working in Africa what was strange to me was that some of the Muslim celebrated Christmas and some of the Christian kept some of the Muslim holidays, what a working relationship, they get more days off from work that way.

Anything can be taking to the limit all depends on whose limit it is. I always taught my children to respect everyone belief no matter how strange it seamed to them.

╠╣ONDO

soccerfreaks said:

Naturally
Someone didn't like what you said (other than me, of course), and so you change direction and try to appease them while not answering the hypocrisy of celebrating Christmas while not celebrating Halloween, both holidays derived from so-called pagan traditions.

You are, frankly, full of it.

Another explanation
Here is another explanation of the origins of Halloween, similar to the Wikipedia but with a few differences:

Halloween:
The Real Story!
Father Augustine Thompson, O.P.,
We’ve all heard the allegations. Halloween is a pagan rite dating
back to some pre-Christian festival among the Celtic Druids that
escaped Church suppression. Even today modern pagans and
witches continue to celebrate this ancient festival. If you let your
kids go trick-or-treating, they will be worshiping the devil and
pagan gods.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The origins of Halloween
are, in fact, very Christian and rather American. Halloween falls
on Oct. 31 because of a pope, and its observances are the result
of medieval Catholic piety.
It’s true that the ancient Celts of Ireland and Britain celebrated a minor festival on Oct.
31 — as they did on the last day of most other months of the year. However, Halloween
falls on the last day of October because the Feast of All Saints or "All Hallows" falls on
Nov. 1. The feast in honor of all the saints in heaven used to be celebrated on May 13,
but Pope Gregory III (d. 741) moved it to Nov. 1, the dedication day of All Saints Chapel
in St. Peter’s at Rome. Later, in the 840s, Pope Gregory IV commanded that All Saints
be observed everywhere. And so the holy day spread to Ireland. The day before was the
feast’s evening vigil, "All Hallows Even" or "Hallowe’en." In those days, Halloween didn’t
have any special significance for Christians or for long-dead Celtic pagans.
In 998, St. Odilo, the abbot of the powerful monastery of Cluny in Southern France,
added a celebration on Nov. 2. This was a day of prayer for the souls of all the faithful
departed. This feast, called All Souls Day, spread from France to the rest of Europe.
So now the Church had feasts for all those in heaven and all those in purgatory? What
about those in the other place? It seems Irish Catholic peasants wondered about the
unfortunate souls in hell. After all, if the souls in hell are left out when we celebrate those
in heaven and purgatory, they might be unhappy enough to cause trouble. So it became
customary to bang pots and pans on All Hallows Even to let the damned know they were
not forgotten. Thus, in Ireland, at least, all the dead came to be remembered — even if
the clergy were not terribly sympathetic to Halloween and never allowed All Damned
Day into the Church calendar.
PO Box 271227 + Flower Mound, TX + 75027 + 1-800-803-0118 + www.dritaly.com
But that still isn’t our celebration of Halloween. Our traditions on this holiday centers
around dressing up in fanciful costumes, which isn’t Irish at all. Rather, this custom
arose in France during the 14th and 15th centuries. Late medieval Europe was hit by
repeated outbreaks of the bubonic plague — the Black Death — and she lost about half
her population. It is not surprising that Catholics became more concerned about the
afterlife. More Masses were said on All Souls’ Day, and artistic representations were
devised to remind everyone of their own mortality.
We know these representations as the "Dance Macabre" or
"Dance of Death," which was commonly painted on the walls of
cemeteries and shows the devil leading a daisy chain of people —
popes, kings, ladies, knights, monks, peasants, lepers, etc. — into
the tomb. Sometimes the dance was presented on All Souls’ Day
itself as a living tableau with people dressed up in the garb of
various states of life. But the French dressed up on All Souls, not
Halloween; and the Irish, who had Halloween, did not dress up.
How the two became mingled probably happened first in the
British colonies of North America during the 1700s when Irish and French Catholics
began to intermarry. The Irish focus on hell gave the French masquerades and even
more macabre twist.
But, as every young ghoul knows, dressing up isn’t the point; the point is getting as
many goodies as possible. Where on earth did "trick or treat" come in?
"Trick or treat" is perhaps the oddest and most American addition to Halloween, and is
the unwilling contribution of English Catholics.
During the penal period of the 1500s to the 1700s in England, Catholics had no legal
rights. They could not hold office and were subject to fines, jail and heavy taxes. It was a
capital offense to say Mass, and hundreds of priests were martyred.
Occasionally, English Catholics resisted, sometimes foolishly. One of the most foolish
acts of resistance was a plot to blow up the Protestant King James I and his Parliament
with gunpowder. This was supposed to trigger a Catholic uprising against their
oppressors. The ill-conceived Gunpowder Plot was foiled on Nov. 5, 1605, when the
man guarding the gunpowder, a reckless convert named Guy Fawkes, was captured and
arrested. He was hanged; the plot fizzled.
Nov. 5, Guy Fawkes’ Day, became a great celebration in England, and so it remains.
During the penal periods, bands of revelers would put on masks and visit local Catholics
in the dead of night, demanding beer and cakes for their celebration: trick or treat!
Guy Fawkes’ Day arrived in the American colonies with the first English settlers. But, buy
the time of the American Revolution, old King James and Guy Fawkes had pretty much
been forgotten. Trick or treat, though, was too much fun to give up, so eventually it
moved to Oct. 31, the day of the Irish-French masquerade. And in America, trick or treat
wasn’t limited to Catholics.
PO Box 271227 + Flower Mound, TX + 75027 + 1-800-803-0118 + www.dritaly.com
The mixture of various immigrant traditions we know as Halloween had become a fixture
in the Unites States by the early 1800s. To this day, it remains unknown in Europe, even
in the countries from which some of the customs originated.
But what about witches? Well, they are one of the last
additions. The greeting card industry added them in the
late 1800s. Halloween was already "ghoulish," so why
not give witches a place on greeting cards? The
Halloween card failed (although it has seen a recent
resurgence in popularity), but the witches stayed. So,
too, in the late 1800s, ill-informed folklorists introduced
the jack-o’-lantern. They thought that Halloween was
druidic and pagan in origin. Lamps made from turnips
(not pumpkins) had been part of ancient Celtic harvest
festivals, so they were translated to the American Halloween celebration.
The next time someone claims that Halloween is a cruel trick to lure your children into
devil worship, I suggest you tell them the real origin of All Hallows Even and invite them
to discover its Christian significance, along with the two greater and more important
Catholic festivals that follow it.

laurettas said:

Another explanation
Here is another explanation of the origins of Halloween, similar to the Wikipedia but with a few differences:

Halloween:
The Real Story!
Father Augustine Thompson, O.P.,
We’ve all heard the allegations. Halloween is a pagan rite dating
back to some pre-Christian festival among the Celtic Druids that
escaped Church suppression. Even today modern pagans and
witches continue to celebrate this ancient festival. If you let your
kids go trick-or-treating, they will be worshiping the devil and
pagan gods.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The origins of Halloween
are, in fact, very Christian and rather American. Halloween falls
on Oct. 31 because of a pope, and its observances are the result
of medieval Catholic piety.
It’s true that the ancient Celts of Ireland and Britain celebrated a minor festival on Oct.
31 — as they did on the last day of most other months of the year. However, Halloween
falls on the last day of October because the Feast of All Saints or "All Hallows" falls on
Nov. 1. The feast in honor of all the saints in heaven used to be celebrated on May 13,
but Pope Gregory III (d. 741) moved it to Nov. 1, the dedication day of All Saints Chapel
in St. Peter’s at Rome. Later, in the 840s, Pope Gregory IV commanded that All Saints
be observed everywhere. And so the holy day spread to Ireland. The day before was the
feast’s evening vigil, "All Hallows Even" or "Hallowe’en." In those days, Halloween didn’t
have any special significance for Christians or for long-dead Celtic pagans.
In 998, St. Odilo, the abbot of the powerful monastery of Cluny in Southern France,
added a celebration on Nov. 2. This was a day of prayer for the souls of all the faithful
departed. This feast, called All Souls Day, spread from France to the rest of Europe.
So now the Church had feasts for all those in heaven and all those in purgatory? What
about those in the other place? It seems Irish Catholic peasants wondered about the
unfortunate souls in hell. After all, if the souls in hell are left out when we celebrate those
in heaven and purgatory, they might be unhappy enough to cause trouble. So it became
customary to bang pots and pans on All Hallows Even to let the damned know they were
not forgotten. Thus, in Ireland, at least, all the dead came to be remembered — even if
the clergy were not terribly sympathetic to Halloween and never allowed All Damned
Day into the Church calendar.
PO Box 271227 + Flower Mound, TX + 75027 + 1-800-803-0118 + www.dritaly.com
But that still isn’t our celebration of Halloween. Our traditions on this holiday centers
around dressing up in fanciful costumes, which isn’t Irish at all. Rather, this custom
arose in France during the 14th and 15th centuries. Late medieval Europe was hit by
repeated outbreaks of the bubonic plague — the Black Death — and she lost about half
her population. It is not surprising that Catholics became more concerned about the
afterlife. More Masses were said on All Souls’ Day, and artistic representations were
devised to remind everyone of their own mortality.
We know these representations as the "Dance Macabre" or
"Dance of Death," which was commonly painted on the walls of
cemeteries and shows the devil leading a daisy chain of people —
popes, kings, ladies, knights, monks, peasants, lepers, etc. — into
the tomb. Sometimes the dance was presented on All Souls’ Day
itself as a living tableau with people dressed up in the garb of
various states of life. But the French dressed up on All Souls, not
Halloween; and the Irish, who had Halloween, did not dress up.
How the two became mingled probably happened first in the
British colonies of North America during the 1700s when Irish and French Catholics
began to intermarry. The Irish focus on hell gave the French masquerades and even
more macabre twist.
But, as every young ghoul knows, dressing up isn’t the point; the point is getting as
many goodies as possible. Where on earth did "trick or treat" come in?
"Trick or treat" is perhaps the oddest and most American addition to Halloween, and is
the unwilling contribution of English Catholics.
During the penal period of the 1500s to the 1700s in England, Catholics had no legal
rights. They could not hold office and were subject to fines, jail and heavy taxes. It was a
capital offense to say Mass, and hundreds of priests were martyred.
Occasionally, English Catholics resisted, sometimes foolishly. One of the most foolish
acts of resistance was a plot to blow up the Protestant King James I and his Parliament
with gunpowder. This was supposed to trigger a Catholic uprising against their
oppressors. The ill-conceived Gunpowder Plot was foiled on Nov. 5, 1605, when the
man guarding the gunpowder, a reckless convert named Guy Fawkes, was captured and
arrested. He was hanged; the plot fizzled.
Nov. 5, Guy Fawkes’ Day, became a great celebration in England, and so it remains.
During the penal periods, bands of revelers would put on masks and visit local Catholics
in the dead of night, demanding beer and cakes for their celebration: trick or treat!
Guy Fawkes’ Day arrived in the American colonies with the first English settlers. But, buy
the time of the American Revolution, old King James and Guy Fawkes had pretty much
been forgotten. Trick or treat, though, was too much fun to give up, so eventually it
moved to Oct. 31, the day of the Irish-French masquerade. And in America, trick or treat
wasn’t limited to Catholics.
PO Box 271227 + Flower Mound, TX + 75027 + 1-800-803-0118 + www.dritaly.com
The mixture of various immigrant traditions we know as Halloween had become a fixture
in the Unites States by the early 1800s. To this day, it remains unknown in Europe, even
in the countries from which some of the customs originated.
But what about witches? Well, they are one of the last
additions. The greeting card industry added them in the
late 1800s. Halloween was already "ghoulish," so why
not give witches a place on greeting cards? The
Halloween card failed (although it has seen a recent
resurgence in popularity), but the witches stayed. So,
too, in the late 1800s, ill-informed folklorists introduced
the jack-o’-lantern. They thought that Halloween was
druidic and pagan in origin. Lamps made from turnips
(not pumpkins) had been part of ancient Celtic harvest
festivals, so they were translated to the American Halloween celebration.
The next time someone claims that Halloween is a cruel trick to lure your children into
devil worship, I suggest you tell them the real origin of All Hallows Even and invite them
to discover its Christian significance, along with the two greater and more important
Catholic festivals that follow it.

Interesting!
I really enjoyed reading this! Thanks for posting it.

Hondo said:

Christmas
I see nothing wrong with doing good on any holiday. Jesus was not born on December 25th but he was borne and being no one really knows the correct date why not celebrate it at the same time the rest of the world does, tree and all but no Satan Claus or was that Santa Claus. Funny how just one little letter can change the meaning of a word.

My Son had a friend who Father did not let them celebrate anything not even there birthday, the boy always loved to stay at our house especially on the holidays. But we had to be carful not to break any of his Father rules while he was staying with us, or he would not let him come back.

While I was working in Africa what was strange to me was that some of the Muslim celebrated Christmas and some of the Christian kept some of the Muslim holidays, what a working relationship, they get more days off from work that way.

Anything can be taking to the limit all depends on whose limit it is. I always taught my children to respect everyone belief no matter how strange it seamed to them.

╠╣ONDO

Muslims in Africa celebrate

Muslims in Africa celebrate Christmas in a religous sense because they recognise that Jesus was a prophet send by Allah and appreciate his teachings not because they wanted a day off work.

I love Christmas in Agadez (a muslim city in Niger). There is no gift giving perhaps because of povery but many, many Muslim people descend on the Togolese Catholic church behind our house for mass at midnight and/or Christmas morning followed by dancing and food. The Muslims celebrate it with the same joy that they do Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha.

I can understand Christians celebrating Eid Al Adha (Festival of Sacrifice) which is about Ibrahim attempting to sacrifice his son when Allah stopped him. This celebration is about sacrifice and surrending to Allah. Eid Al Fitr is celebrating the end of Ramadan and really if you are in a Muslim majority it is difficult not to get caught up in this celebration.

But I agree, Halloween is a time for just having fun! It brings out creativity, resourcefulness, generosity, kids get to meet their neighbours and just have a great time. My daughter loves it from designing and making her costume to collecting candy with her friends.

dasspears said:

Interesting!
I really enjoyed reading this! Thanks for posting it.

You're welcome!
Sorry for the "ads" in the middle--teach me to not carefully read my copy and paste!

Buckwirth said:

Why do you have to make something pagan?
Just treat it as secular. Fourth of July, memorial day..

I find it funny that the religious right pushed to move DST back a week so the kids could go out in daylight (they just go out later).

It's fun, have fun with it.

Hi Buck
I understand your point but I don’t believe we make it pagan, it is pagan because it came from a form of a pagan religion. Back in the dark ages it crept into the Church as did a lot of other pagan religious beliefs that are still kept today.

I am all for fun I just rather my fun without the Devil somewhere in it, same as you would without something religious in it, I am sure you can agree with that.

╠╣ONDO