[Steve_Seattle]

"Wow, I could not possibly disagree with this author more. This celebration of death and evil which seems to becoming increasingly dark and popular is a sign that our culture is rapidly descending into the pit of hell."

I understand your point of view. For many, Halloween seems to have become sort of a pagan festival. However, despite all of the blood and gore (fake, of course), Halloween retains a certain lightness of spirit. For many people, it's mainly a chance to dress up in exotic clothes that they can't wear in their daily lives.

For me, the real hard core pagan festivals are the Gay Pride and Solstice celebrations that have cropped up in recent years in the big cities. In those festivals, the anti-Christian spirit is front-and-center, and is - in fact - the POINT of the festivals.

Other examples of rank paganism are certain rock concerts, TV awards shows (Oscars, Emmys, etc.) and - sad to say - even some sports events such as the Super Bowl are trending in that direction, as are certain political events such as the Democratic National Convention.

[dschapin]

I live in Oregon which is one of the most pagan states in the U.S. so the paganism is likely more in your face here. Here there is a darkness that you can actually feel around Halloween and the costumes and decorations are extremely dark and demonic. There is also a lot of overtly satanic stuff that goes on here around Halloween. For example, there was a report in the news today that someone was stealing and mutilating cats in Clackamas County.