Posted on 10/05/2017 12:21:52 PM PDT by ColdOne
An elementary school in Massachusetts has decided to cancel all Halloween events, saying the holiday is not inclusive and can be awkward for some children. Perhaps for this year only, the rejection of Halloween would open the door for an important history lesson which the school could remember instead.
"Halloween is a holiday that not all families celebrate and — for a variety of reasons — some Mitchell families keep their children home from school on that day," Gregory Bayse, principal of Mitchell Elementary School in Needham, wrote in a letter to families, local ABC channel WCVB reported. He quoted one teacher who said there was "awkwardness planning a class celebration knowing that not all of her students would be able to participate."
Bayse admitted, "For many years Mitchell has celebrated Halloween in class parties and a parade of students in costume." Even so, he said that the faculty was "near-unanimous in believing" that the school should stop hosting Halloween events.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Either the kids accept this and become fully indoctrinated, or they revolt. Given it’s 2017 and not 1917, I’m expecting the former.
“Instead of Halloween, the school will hold a celebration called William Mitchell Day on November 9, to commemorate the school’s founder and to celebrate the season of autumn”
Wow... that sounds boring AF.....
Whatever. Just remember kids, trick or treat night is the night you egg the principal’s house. He’s the one taking away your treats, he deserves a few tricks.
How close is this town to ‘Salem’?..........................
Also, parents have gotten too heavily involved in Halloween. When I was a kid, we made our own costumes - it's amazing what you can do with cardboard boxes, old sheets, old clothes, etc. When my kids were in primary school in the 1980s, it was a competition among the parents to outdo the others.
What does it matter if people keep their kids home? All they’re missing is a Halloween party.
Aren’t these the same schools that say we need a longer school year and longer school days to keep up with the (fill in today’s national rival)?
Why don’t schools just do academics, and families and communities can do holidays?
The school loses state/fed money if students stay home.
Schools get their funding based on attendance. This might be the real reason.
Once response might be for Halloween-loving parents to threaten to keep THEIR kids home, if Halloween ISN'T celebrated. Have an all-day Halloween party.
Not close. It’s a wealthy suburb west of Boston. Salem is on the North Shore.
As for Christmas, Hanukkah, Easter etc. schools in my part of the country did decorations only...trick or treating, costumes and parties were out side of school. Private parties and neighborhood trick and treating.
Whoever thinks or thought it was the schools domain to have and host holiday parties were wrong to start with.
LOL!!! That’s funny and true!
Wow! Good thing I was already sculpting William Mitchell’s head out of butter! I’m all ready for WMD17!
Celebrate ramadamadingdong instead. Haloween only depicts death. The muzzies practice it.
This is the Christians this time. There’s a percentage that are out of their minds like the Muslims.
I loved Halloween when I was a kid, and I loved it in the 1980s when I started to have kids.
No more.
Adults “celebrating” Halloween have ruined it for kids. My last 5 went to a Christian school where it was banned, and for good reason.
I’m over it.
If Christians are offended with the current state of Halloween, they should take it back. It is not exclusively a Catholic observance, as it was begun long before the Reformation, so can also be claimed by Protestants. (I do not subscribe to the idea that it was adopted from a pagan holiday.)
That is, Halloween is the evening of the three-day observance of Allhallowtide. All Saints’ Eve (Halloween), All Saints’ Day (All Hallows’) and All Souls’ Day. Allhallowtide is a “time to remember the dead, including martyrs, saints, and all faithful departed Christians.”
On All Hallows’ Eve, Christians traditionally believed that the veil between the material world and the afterlife thinned. In order to prevent recognition by a soul, “people would don masks or costumes to disguise their identities”.
That is, on Halloween, ‘first through the gate’ were the troubled, not virtuous souls, who look for those they knew in life, for bad reasons. This is the reason for the costumes.
But the following day, All Saints’ Day, the most virtuous of people return, to again spread about their goodness and blessings as they can.
The last day, All Souls’ Day, is for those departed who were good Christians, to find solace among the living, and peace in their rest. Mostly seen in the Mexican Day of the Dead, it is a chance for the living to remember their love for the departed, maybe to remind them that once loved, they are still loved.
Maybe they could celebrate Samhain to mark the end of harvest? Bob for apples, dress up in costumes and do a mummer’s play, go door to door for Samhain treats, maybe carve a few turnips. Just so it’s cultural and not at all Halloweenish.
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