Topic: Is it OK for Orthodox Christians to celebrate Halloween?

[orthonorm]

Didn't someone post earlier that Christmas trees originated from a tradition where they burn a tree and make sacrifices, sometimes human sacrifices, on that tree?  Or something pagan like that?

Yes. And the cross is a pagan symbol used throughout time and the world for all sortsa crazy stuff. The neo-pagan place I was in today had all kindsa crosses for use in ritual.

And consuming the flesh and blood of a god is also pagan.

[zekarja]

We should obey our bishops unless they want us to sin against God. HG Bishop Youssef is my bishop and I should obey him in the matter of Halloween. If your bishop has advised against Halloween you should obey. Obedience doesn't have to make any sense.

As a classic example, there is the story in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers about the monk who was told to plant a dry stick in the sand and to water it daily. So distant was the spring from his cell that he had to leave in the evening to fetch the water and he only returned in the following morning. For three years he patiently fulfilled his abba's command. At the end of this period, the stick suddenly put forth leaves and bore fruit. The abba picked the fruit, took it to the church, and invited the monks to eat, saying, "Take and eat the fruit of obedience."

Source: http://www.pravmir.com/article_647.html

[minasoliman]

We should obey our bishops unless they want us to sin against God. HG Bishop Youssef is my bishop and I should obey him in the matter of Halloween. If your bishop has advised against Halloween you should obey. Obedience doesn't have to make any sense.

As a classic example, there is the story in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers about the monk who was told to plant a dry stick in the sand and to water it daily. So distant was the spring from his cell that he had to leave in the evening to fetch the water and he only returned in the following morning. For three years he patiently fulfilled his abba's command. At the end of this period, the stick suddenly put forth leaves and bore fruit. The abba picked the fruit, took it to the church, and invited the monks to eat, saying, "Take and eat the fruit of obedience."

Source: http://www.pravmir.com/article_647.html

That's wonderful.  I think that's a good virtue to follow.  But it doesn't hurt to question exactly what's going on here.  Logically speaking, we shouldn't have Christmas trees, we shouldn't sing Coptic music, we shouldn't use incense in the Church, all because sometime in the past, they were used for evil pagan practices. (incense still is actually...I've seen in Egypt it's quite popular with the ignorant minded superstitious folk)

I remember a Jehovah's Witness was telling me that iconography in our churches were pagan.

[zekarja]

We should obey our bishops unless they want us to sin against God. HG Bishop Youssef is my bishop and I should obey him in the matter of Halloween. If your bishop has advised against Halloween you should obey. Obedience doesn't have to make any sense.

As a classic example, there is the story in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers about the monk who was told to plant a dry stick in the sand and to water it daily. So distant was the spring from his cell that he had to leave in the evening to fetch the water and he only returned in the following morning. For three years he patiently fulfilled his abba's command. At the end of this period, the stick suddenly put forth leaves and bore fruit. The abba picked the fruit, took it to the church, and invited the monks to eat, saying, "Take and eat the fruit of obedience."

Source: http://www.pravmir.com/article_647.html

That's wonderful.  I think that's a good virtue to follow.  But it doesn't hurt to question exactly what's going on here.

I agree.

[orthonorm]

I remember a Jehovah's Witness was telling me that iconography in our churches were pagan.

For JWs just about EVERYTHING in your Church and our Church is pagan. Including the cross. Jesus did not die on a cross.

Srsly.

[Shiny]

I remember a Jehovah's Witness was telling me that iconography in our churches were pagan.

For JWs just about EVERYTHING in your Church and our Church is pagan. Including the cross. Jesus did not die on a cross.

Srsly.

Gotta love the stake theory, so retarded.

Oh and their NT "translation" too.

Im going as Hellraiser this year.

[minasoliman]

I remember a Jehovah's Witness was telling me that iconography in our churches were pagan.

For JWs just about EVERYTHING in your Church and our Church is pagan. Including the cross. Jesus did not die on a cross.

Srsly.

Ya, I got frustrated in trying to get into a discussion with them.

[Shiny]

I remember a Jehovah's Witness was telling me that iconography in our churches were pagan.

For JWs just about EVERYTHING in your Church and our Church is pagan. Including the cross. Jesus did not die on a cross.

Srsly.

Ya, I got frustrated in trying to get into a discussion with them.

And you think some Prots are fundies, good gracious..

[LizaSymonenko]

So, the consensus of the latest posts seem to favor the celebration of Halloween.

I've had this conversation recently with the youth in our church and their parents....and unfortunately (as I see it) I was on the losing side.

While one may claim that Halloween has innocent roots, and has nothing to do with devil worship, etc.....how does one explain dressing young children as ghosts, demons, vampires, witches, etc.  How is that not evil?

Granted there are also princesses, superheroes and Spongebobs, but, what of the witches?

Why deck out your front yard as a cemetery and hang skeletons from your trees?  Why have goblins jumping out at you from behind bushes.

If death is so much fun, then when faced with an illness.....why bother going to a hospital to get cured?  Remember death is fun and funny!

When I asked my students to dress in decent costumes, nothing evil....because there are thousands of good things to dress as, I was ridiculed, belittled and almost left in tears....because I am a prude and don't know how to have fun.

Dressing as a vampire with dripping teeth, is not my definition of fun.....and as an Orthodox Christian, it is my duty to "suggest" that the children that I teach, mentor, feel responsible for and love, not dress as evil creatures.

Why is that wrong?

[Alveus Lacuna]

Didn't read the whole thread, but Liza I agree with your criteria. In my house my wife likes Halloween and I don't, and she wants the kids to have the fun with it. I am not going to jump in an participate, but I'm not going to make a huge stink about it aside from the things which I feel violate our faith, namely those things which glorify, trivialize or even "mock" death.

No witches, zombies, grotesque gore, spirits and specters, etc. But I'm honestly not going to throw a fit if my wife wants to dress my toddler like a giraffe and let him go get some candy.

People who oppose someone else's fun are always going to get a hard time in this culture.

[Riddikulus]

So, the consensus of the latest posts seem to favor the celebration of Halloween.

I've had this conversation recently with the youth in our church and their parents....and unfortunately (as I see it) I was on the losing side.

While one may claim that Halloween has innocent roots, and has nothing to do with devil worship, etc.....how does one explain dressing young children as ghosts, demons, vampires, witches, etc.  How is that not evil?

Granted there are also princesses, superheroes and Spongebobs, but, what of the witches?

Why deck out your front yard as a cemetery and hang skeletons from your trees?  Why have goblins jumping out at you from behind bushes.

If death is so much fun, then when faced with an illness.....why bother going to a hospital to get cured?  Remember death is fun and funny!

When I asked my students to dress in decent costumes, nothing evil....because there are thousands of good things to dress as, I was ridiculed, belittled and almost left in tears....because I am a prude and don't know how to have fun.

Dressing as a vampire with dripping teeth, is not my definition of fun.....and as an Orthodox Christian, it is my duty to "suggest" that the children that I teach, mentor, feel responsible for and love, not dress as evil creatures.

Why is that wrong?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with you being sensitive. One has the right to be senstive to all manner of things, that's not even in question. But dressing up as a witch, does not a witch make. It doesn't make one evil. There are real witches, who don't ride on broomsticks and don't have pointy hats. Why confuse the young with the insistence that something as innocent as dressing as a charicature of a witch makes them evil? Where is the correlation between pretend and real?

For me, emphasising any of this as "evil" overlooks what is, in fact, evil. Overusing the warnings turns ears away from hearing when there is a genuine need for warning; and one is left with egg on one's face; and damaged people one could have helped had one not overplayed the "satanic" card. It's a case of crying "Wolf!" And one shouldn't be surprised if one is seen as a panic merchant.  

[Riddikulus]

Didn't read the whole thread, but Liza I agree with your criteria. In my house my wife likes Halloween and I don't, and she wants the kids to have the fun with it. I am not going to jump in an participate, but I'm not going to make a huge stink about it aside from the things which I feel violate our faith, namely those things which glorify, trivialize or even "mock" death.

No witches, zombies, grotesque gore, spirits and specters, etc. But I'm honestly not going to throw a fit if my wife wants to dress my toddler like a giraffe and let him go get some candy.

People who oppose someone else's fun are always going to get a hard time in this culture.

I completely respect your sentiment, but I don't think that all the brouhaha is a question of simply opposing someone else's fun. It seems more sinister than that. Labelling people as evil/satanic for dressing up doesn't wash.

[Riddikulus]

We should obey our bishops unless they want us to sin against God. HG Bishop Youssef is my bishop and I should obey him in the matter of Halloween. If your bishop has advised against Halloween you should obey. Obedience doesn't have to make any sense.

As a classic example, there is the story in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers about the monk who was told to plant a dry stick in the sand and to water it daily. So distant was the spring from his cell that he had to leave in the evening to fetch the water and he only returned in the following morning. For three years he patiently fulfilled his abba's command. At the end of this period, the stick suddenly put forth leaves and bore fruit. The abba picked the fruit, took it to the church, and invited the monks to eat, saying, "Take and eat the fruit of obedience."

Source: http://www.pravmir.com/article_647.html

That's wonderful.  I think that's a good virtue to follow.  But it doesn't hurt to question exactly what's going on here.  Logically speaking, we shouldn't have Christmas trees, we shouldn't sing Coptic music, we shouldn't use incense in the Church, all because sometime in the past, they were used for evil pagan practices. (incense still is actually...I've seen in Egypt it's quite popular with the ignorant minded superstitious folk)

I remember a Jehovah's Witness was telling me that iconography in our churches were pagan.

Can't even pray because it's what pagans did/do!

[LizaSymonenko]

I never tried to ruin anyone's fun.  I simply suggested they not dress up and pretend to be evil characters.

What did Christ do to demons?  He expelled them from their victims.

When their are millions of good and innocent characters to dress as, why trivialize the evil by picking exactly those costumes which Christ would despise?

....And what of erecting cemeteries in your front yard, or worse, right in your house?

Is there something "good" in trivializing death?

The one mom laughed at me, and said she would ask our priest to come over and "bless" the graves.

[dcommini]

So, the consensus of the latest posts seem to favor the celebration of Halloween.

I've had this conversation recently with the youth in our church and their parents....and unfortunately (as I see it) I was on the losing side.

While one may claim that Halloween has innocent roots, and has nothing to do with devil worship, etc.....how does one explain dressing young children as ghosts, demons, vampires, witches, etc.  How is that not evil?

Granted there are also princesses, superheroes and Spongebobs, but, what of the witches?

Why deck out your front yard as a cemetery and hang skeletons from your trees?  Why have goblins jumping out at you from behind bushes.

If death is so much fun, then when faced with an illness.....why bother going to a hospital to get cured?  Remember death is fun and funny!

When I asked my students to dress in decent costumes, nothing evil....because there are thousands of good things to dress as, I was ridiculed, belittled and almost left in tears....because I am a prude and don't know how to have fun.

Dressing as a vampire with dripping teeth, is not my definition of fun.....and as an Orthodox Christian, it is my duty to "suggest" that the children that I teach, mentor, feel responsible for and love, not dress as evil creatures.

Why is that wrong?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with you being sensitive. One has the right to be senstive to all manner of things, that's not even in question. But dressing up as a witch, does not a witch make. It doesn't make one evil. There are real witches, who don't ride on broomsticks and don't have pointy hats. Why confuse the young with the insistence that something as innocent as dressing as a charicature of a witch makes them evil? Where is the correlation between pretend and real?

For me, emphasising any of this as "evil" overlooks what is, in fact, evil. Overusing the warnings turns ears away from hearing when there is a genuine need for warning; and one is left with egg on one's face; and damaged people one could have helped had one not overplayed the "satanic" card. It's a case of crying "Wolf!" And one shouldn't be surprised if one is seen as a panic merchant.  

To piggy back on this, the act of guising which was popular in Scotland (which was brought to America) was a way to ward off the evil spirits. They didn't dress up to "mock" evil or even poke fun at evil, but to keep evil at bay. Also names were very important to the Celts, when something was perceived as evil or scary the Celts would give it a name - once it had a name you could control it and it was then unable to harm you.

In the US when the Scots and the Irish brought this celebration with them the American people went crazy with it (as they do most things). They started mocking evil and poking fun at death because they didn't understand the culture behind what they were doing. Eventually Halloween became what we have today because stores like Sears started marketing costumes and some preachers started coming up with these stories about how the Druids were evil and Samhain was an evil Celtic festival dedicated to a god of the same name (a god that has never existed in Irish or Scottish folklore and mythology). Of course coming from a culture that hardly wrote anything down it was easy to come up with tidbits here and there to make the holiday something it probably never was.

There is nothing wrong with wanting people to act responsible and not to poke fun at things we consider sacred; but good luck getting them to realize that in this day in age. I am not saying to give up, don't give up, keep going because those who go against the grain and make a stand for what they believe are usually the ones that leave a lasting impression on our lives.

[Riddikulus]

I never tried to ruin anyone's fun.  I simply suggested they not dress up and pretend to be evil characters.

What did Christ do to demons?  He expelled them from their victims.

When their are millions of good and innocent characters to dress as, why trivialize the evil by picking exactly those costumes which Christ would despise?

....And what of erecting cemeteries in your front yard, or worse, right in your house?

Is there something "good" in trivializing death?

The one mom laughed at me, and said she would ask our priest to come over and "bless" the graves.

I don't understand the correlation between dressing up, even as something evil, and demonic possession.

How do we know which costumes Christ would despise?

Can't we trivialise death, at least to some degree, when Christ has conquered it? I suspect that some of the elements of costumes that seem to be poking fun at death lie in the Christian's hope regarding eternal life. Death is conquered! Christ is Victor!

[Alveus Lacuna]

The one mom laughed at me, and said she would ask our priest to come over and "bless" the graves.

And it's this kind of thing that makes me way to eschew the whole holiday (holy-day?!?!) altogether. But for the sake of peace in our house and picking my battles I find a compromise of sorts.

That kind of response would have honestly had me reacting uncharitably, as I likely would have suggested that I just kill her, bury her in her front yard, and dance on the mound for fun. We could even put a cute ghost of her coming out of the ground that is again getting stabbed by me because of how angry she would have made me.

[Luke]

My twin brother likes the holiday:  

[Riddikulus]

My twin brother likes the holiday:  

 

[Gebre Menfes Kidus]

The Bishop has singled out Americans, not me! And didn't you see that I tagged my post with "it's a jest!"?
Edited to add.    Sorry, I was distracted with a chat elsewhere and left that post looking too humourless!

No need, I was right there with ya.   

He really he is a puritan, but I wanted to make fun of him by not being a fun person so went for fundie

Gotcha, thanks.

While he may be using a lousy fundamentalist argument to present his opinion, what about other Orthodox clergy who believe it's wrong to participate?  Let's face it, a lot of the Holy Fathers, Saints, Elders aren't/weren't particularly concerned with having fun or taking part in stuff they felt was spiritually dangerous.  Surely dressing up as witches and ghouls can't be viewed positively.  I personally think the reaction is a bit overkill, but I can understand the reason for their warnings.  Anywho

Those pesky bishops, getting in the way of our fun. Next thing you know they're going to start telling us to fast from meat and dairy on certain days and not eat after midnight before receiving Communion. The horrorrrrrr!! 

In Christ,
Andrew

LOL!


Selam

[Gebre Menfes Kidus]

So, the consensus of the latest posts seem to favor the celebration of Halloween.

I've had this conversation recently with the youth in our church and their parents....and unfortunately (as I see it) I was on the losing side.

While one may claim that Halloween has innocent roots, and has nothing to do with devil worship, etc.....how does one explain dressing young children as ghosts, demons, vampires, witches, etc.  How is that not evil?

Granted there are also princesses, superheroes and Spongebobs, but, what of the witches?

Why deck out your front yard as a cemetery and hang skeletons from your trees?  Why have goblins jumping out at you from behind bushes.

If death is so much fun, then when faced with an illness.....why bother going to a hospital to get cured?  Remember death is fun and funny!

When I asked my students to dress in decent costumes, nothing evil....because there are thousands of good things to dress as, I was ridiculed, belittled and almost left in tears....because I am a prude and don't know how to have fun.

Dressing as a vampire with dripping teeth, is not my definition of fun.....and as an Orthodox Christian, it is my duty to "suggest" that the children that I teach, mentor, feel responsible for and love, not dress as evil creatures.

Why is that wrong?

You are not wrong Liza. You have a Christian conscience that you follow. The unfortunate consequence of following your conscience is that you will be ridiculed and mocked, sadly even by some who are supposed to be your Orthodox Christian brethren. But stand firm. You are a great encouragement to me and many others! More than you realize!


Selam

[Gebre Menfes Kidus]

We should obey our bishops unless they want us to sin against God. HG Bishop Youssef is my bishop and I should obey him in the matter of Halloween. If your bishop has advised against Halloween you should obey. Obedience doesn't have to make any sense.

As a classic example, there is the story in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers about the monk who was told to plant a dry stick in the sand and to water it daily. So distant was the spring from his cell that he had to leave in the evening to fetch the water and he only returned in the following morning. For three years he patiently fulfilled his abba's command. At the end of this period, the stick suddenly put forth leaves and bore fruit. The abba picked the fruit, took it to the church, and invited the monks to eat, saying, "Take and eat the fruit of obedience."

Source: http://www.pravmir.com/article_647.html

Wonderful Orthodox attitude, and a wonderful story as well. Thank you!


Selam

[NicholasMyra]

"Abba Macarius was traveling up from Scetes to the town of Terenuthis. He went to spend the night in a temple where the bodies of the pagans had been laid to rest years before. And he dragged out one of the mummies and put it under his head for a pillow.

The devils, seeing his boldness, flew into a rage and decided to scare him. And they began to call out from the other bodies, as if calling to a woman:

'Lady, come with us to the baths.'

And another demon, as if he were the ghost of a woman, cried out from the body the Abba was using as a pillow:

'This stranger is holding me down and I can't come.'

But the Abba, far from being frightened, began to pummel the corpse, saying: 'Get up and go swimming if you are able!'
Hearing this the demons cried: 'You have overcome us!' And they fled in confusion."

[Gebre Menfes Kidus]

"Abba Macarius was traveling up from Scetes to the town of Terenuthis. He went to spend the night in a temple where the bodies of the pagans had been laid to rest years before. And he dragged out one of the mummies and put it under his head for a pillow.

The devils, seeing his boldness, flew into a rage and decided to scare him. And they began to call out from the other bodies, as if calling to a woman:

'Lady, come with us to the baths.'

And another demon, as if he were the ghost of a woman, cried out from the body the Abba was using as a pillow:

'This stranger is holding me down and I can't come.'

But the Abba, far from being frightened, began to pummel the corpse, saying: 'Get up and go swimming if you are able!'
Hearing this the demons cried: 'You have overcome us!' And they fled in confusion."

The best Halloween story ever!  I love it! 


Selam

[Shiny]

This is what I did for Halloween this year:

http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php/topic,30894.0.html



Selam

Stand guard vigilantly for toilet paper being thrown amongst the branches of your trees.

How far would he get with a Gideon's Bible I wonder..

[Gebre Menfes Kidus]

This is what I did for Halloween this year:

http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php/topic,30894.0.html



Selam

Stand guard vigilantly for toilet paper being thrown amongst the branches of your trees.

How far would he get with a Gideon's Bible I wonder..

1. I thoroughly rely on my Orthodox Study Bible 

2. I live in the "hood," where such WASPy shenanigans are not tolerated. 


Selam

[SubdeaconDavid]

Serbian Bishop Alexander writes about the inappropriateness of Orthodox Christians in any way participating in Halloween i.e. no lanterns, trick or treat etc. 

Halloween undermines the very basis of the Church, which was founded on the blood of martyrs who had refused, by giving up their lives, to partake in any form of idolatry.

The holy Church must take a firm stand in counteracting any such (pagan) events. Christ taught us that God is the judge in all our actions and beliefs and that we are either for God or against God. There is no neutral or middle-of-the-road approach.

http://www.russianorthodoxchurch.ws/synod/engdocuments/enart_bpalexanderhalloween.html

[FrChris]

Through the GOARCH website another opinion is offered:

Well, good Orthodox Christian, what should our Church make of this controversy?  Is Halloween something we Christians should shun like the Black Mass?  Don’t the facts about Halloween’s origins prove that it is an abomination?

No.  First of all, none of these “facts” are true.  It’s all fiction...

[biro]

The Eve of the Feast of All Saints (as celebrated by the Western churches) has nothing to do with the occult.

In our day and age, it has become... a costume party, where little kids get candy and grown-ups go out to clubs.

Fundamentalists have made the thing more serious than it has to be. They probably draw more attention to the occult than some actual occultist people do. 

If anything, parents often miss the opportunity to tell the kids the real reason anybody wanted to celebrate in the first place- "blessed is God, who is wondrous in His saints."  If one is in a Western church, it's a golden opportunity to talk about that, and All Souls' Day which is on Nov. 2.

Then again, if you wait until today, all the candy is half off at the drugstores. 

[Margaret S.]

Oh, no, not that Lord of Death stuff again. Samhain is not a person, not even in the sense that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are persons but an Anglicising of samhuinn which means November. I realise that to a non-Gaelic speaker it might be hard not to think Sam Hain but try. Also try to remember that as little as we know of Celtic deities they don't usually have names you can find in the phone book. I was trained as an ethnologist and I have an interest in the calendars and folk customs of the British Isles and in all seriousness that article on the ROCOR site is sheer tripe. If anything 'samhain' is a feast of light. It's a fire festival, fire to push back the cold and the dark, remember we're talking about fairly primitive people, subsistence farmers for whom death by freezing and starvation was very real. There are a whole string of fire festivals in Britain over the winter - Michaelmas, St Katherine's Day, Hallowe'en, Martinmass, Hogmonay, St Bride's Day - and they've all got a heck of a lot more to do with being frightened of the cold and the dark than daft Lords of Death and associated nonsense.

Margaret

[biro]

Also, there's candy! 

[Melodist]

The Eve of the Feast of All Saints (as celebrated by the Western churches) has nothing to do with the occult.

In our day and age, it has become... a costume party, where little kids get candy and grown-ups go out to clubs.

Fundamentalists have made the thing more serious than it has to be. They probably draw more attention to the occult than some actual occultist people do. 

If anything, parents often miss the opportunity to tell the kids the real reason anybody wanted to celebrate in the first place- "blessed is God, who is wondrous in His saints."  If one is in a Western church, it's a golden opportunity to talk about that, and All Souls' Day which is on Nov. 2.

Complete agreement with one addition. You don't need to be in a western church to explain the history of halloween, especially if you live in a western culture that celebrates it. Living in a western culture and being in an eastern rite church, it can become an additional opportunity to teach and celebrate the reality of all saints.

Then again, if you wait until today, all the candy is half off at the drugstores. 

This is a good enough reason by itself to look forward to halloween.

[biro]

Of course. Reese's Peanut Cups cannot possibly be evil. 

[FrChris]

Don't forget Heath bars! toffee is a weakness of mine, and mixing it with chocolate...well, that is a temptation that must be fought!

[Melodist]

Smarties.

[Shanghaiski]

Serbian Bishop Alexander writes about the inappropriateness of Orthodox Christians in any way participating in Halloween i.e. no lanterns, trick or treat etc. 

Halloween undermines the very basis of the Church, which was founded on the blood of martyrs who had refused, by giving up their lives, to partake in any form of idolatry.

The holy Church must take a firm stand in counteracting any such (pagan) events. Christ taught us that God is the judge in all our actions and beliefs and that we are either for God or against God. There is no neutral or middle-of-the-road approach.

http://www.russianorthodoxchurch.ws/synod/engdocuments/enart_bpalexanderhalloween.html

Except, originally, Halloween was an Orthodox Christian feast in the West for All Saints, and has nothing, really, to do with paganism. What has become attached to it is a much later innovation, probably no older than the 18th century.

[elephant]

And if you celebrate it 13 days later you can enjoy all those goodies half-off!
But don't try going door-to-door.

Love,
elephant

[Ebor]

Thank you Margaret for beating me to the punch on the "Samhain" clap-trap 
I was delayed by fighting the impulse to get a keyboard shaped dent in my forehead again.

Over in the other Halloween thread that's been around a while, I and another person went over the nonsense that gets spouted about this and some of the Real History and what real human beings have done during seasons and changes and that in a world where the only source of human made light and heat was fire, the coming of the darker days and winter lead to things like feasts and events to keep the light and life going.   The circle of the year or as Ronald Hutton put in "The Stations of the Sun" were what people lived by: Spring and planting, Summer and growth, Fall and Harvest against the cold and dark of winter...

And we really do NOT know much about the Druids' beliefs or the Anglo-Saxon's either..

Ebor (wondering if in a few months the "Eostre" as an Anglo-Saxon "goddess' codswollop will be back too.)

[dcommini]

[shameless self promotion] The latest post on my blog talks about the common misconceptions of Halloween and the origins of said holiday (to a degree). [/shameless self promotion]

I agree that Halloween is not in and of itself evil, it started off as an Orthodox holiday that got merged with the existing folklore of Scotland and Ireland which then transferred to the States as the Scots and Irish migrated.

[Ortho_cat]

bah, let the kids eat their candy...

[Heorhij]

To me, Halloween is just a celebration of good humor and laughter, nothing more.

[minasoliman]

Don't forget Heath bars! toffee is a weakness of mine, and mixing it with chocolate...well, that is a temptation that must be fought!

I'd be soooo happy to trade my toffee for your Reese's, Kit Kats, and Crunches.

[Schultz]

To me, Halloween is just a celebration of good humor and laughter, nothing more.

Are you still angry about children extorting candy from you, though?

[Shanghaiski]

bah, let the kids eat their candy...

even if it has been sacrificed to idols?

[dcommini]

bah, let the kids eat their candy...

even if it has been sacrificed to idols?

Wait, candy can be sacrificed?