Halloween banned in Moscow

UPI ^ | Oct 31, 2003

[george wythe]

MOSCOW, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Halloween has taken a double whammy in Moscow from both school administrators and church officials banning it outright, the BBC reports.

City education officials claim Halloween brings elements of religion into the classroom, which is forbidden. Meanwhile, the Russian Orthodox Church condemns the event's glorification of evil spirits.

The education department is also reportedly concerned ghoulish elements of the holiday have upset parents, many of whom were distressed to see children pretending to hang each other after Halloween.

A Russian Orthodox Church spokesman said Halloween was "more than strange."

"When people turn to evil forces by way of a joke, when they praise them and flirt with them, it reflects on the fate of the person, because it teaches him that evil is acceptable," Vsevolod Chaplin told the Interfax news agency.

Nonetheless, Halloween -- the night before the Catholic All Souls Day -- is not widely celebrated in Russia.

[george wythe]

Church presents hell of a Halloween

OGDEN -- Heaven is an easy pitch. It's hell that's hell to sell.

Which is why an evangelical Christian church here spends several nights each fall trying to scare the wits out of children and adults who otherwise might not think about eternity.

The Potter's House Christian Center's haunted house, called "Walk Through Hell" this year, has the requisite Halloween season scares. But Dave Bartelson, acting assistant pastor, says it also packs a message many don't want to hear: There is a hell and it doesn't take much to get there.

"We take every opportunity to take the gospel and bring it to the people in a way they can relate to," Bartelson said. "A lot of people love to be scared."

In fact, Potter's House has more than doubled its number of regular attendees at Sunday services in less than three years.

[george wythe]

Halloween: An Ungodly Import in France?

PARIS (Reuters) -- Saints instead of witches, pop songs instead of hooting owls, "Christian cake" instead of pumpkins -- France's Catholics are trying everything to fend off a Halloween celebration they say is an ungodly U.S. import.

As hordes of French children dress up as witches and monsters on Friday night, some 10,000 Christians are expected at a free rock concert in Paris to celebrate the Christian All Saint's Day on Saturday and Sunday's Festival of the Dead.

"Halloween has put these Christian holidays into the shade. Lots of young people don't even know them any more," said Ines Azais, in charge of an initiative by the French Catholic Church.

"Halloween plays with death, it wants to scare us. But we want to show that we're not afraid of death. We believe in resurrection and want to celebrate life," she told Reuters.

Pumpkin decorations and "haunted castle" theme parties, associated with the Halloween holiday in the United States, have only recently arrived in France, a country keen to protect itself from what it sees as U.S. cultural dominance.

Around 35 percent of French celebrated Halloween last year, slightly up on 2001, according to a survey in Le Figaro daily. Some bakeries are also turning their backs on pumpkins and cobwebs, which are prominently displayed in many French shops around Halloween, and have put up figurines of saints in their windows instead.

[george wythe]

Pat Robertson : "I think we ought to close Halloween down. Do you want your children to dress up as witches? The Druids used to dress up like this when they were doing human sacrifice...[The children] are acting out Satanic rituals and participating in it, and don't even realize it."

A Christian Broadcasting Network essay: "Every act around Halloween is in honor of false gods, which are spirits in the realm of the Satanic. Thus, Halloween is seen primarily as a Satanic holiday."

Albert Dager: "Children...shouldn't have anything to do with the celebration that glorifies the power of God's enemies.

William Schnoebelen, "...the difference between witchcraft or Wicca and satanism is actually non-existent."

source

[biblewonk]

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

[WackyKat]

Good thing we have the First Amendment to prevent theocrats like Robertson from running our government, isn't it?

[george wythe]

Die Witch!

[KarlInOhio]

A holiday which has largely come down giving me the choice of handing over my property to a band of little hooligans or being punished by them? Maybe we can move Halloween to April 15. Or else move tax day to Halloween so that the sting is still there on election day.

[Jim Cane]

Pat Robertson : "I'm just a jugeared dope."

[Xenalyte]

The education department is also reportedly concerned ghoulish elements of the holiday have upset parents, many of whom were distressed to see children pretending to hang each other after Halloween.

So if they pretend to hang each other before Halloween, it's okay?

[Lee Heggy]

Yes, by all means let's get rid of this appalling 'holiday' and all the other ones that don't suit us with their obvious pagan trappings and rituals. Virgin births and resurrections along with their attendant elves, sacred plants and heavenly signs and such are all pagan traditions that should be stamped out. PHEW!!! Some people are so constipated. Cram one more PC notion into their overstuffed brains and they would explode.

Bring on the trick or treaters! Raise a glass to the season and have a bit of fun! If anything Halloween teaches that life is far too short to be spent in dour contemplation of the punishments supposedly awaiting sinners.

Have a Freeping good holiday!

[Jim Cane]

Yes. Easter and Christmas hangings are sacrilicious.

[george wythe]

A holiday which has largely come down giving me the choice of handing over my property to a band of little hooligans or being punished by them?

Thanks for the reminder.

I have to buy some candy for tonight's trick-o-treaters.

Since I'm in the Atkins' diet, I have foregone having candy in the house for a long time.

[george wythe]

Yes, by all means let's get rid of this appalling 'holiday' and all the other ones that don't suit us with their obvious pagan trappings and rituals.

You sound like a Jehovah's Witness :-)

Jehovah's Witnesses are not allowed to celebrate any holidays, not even their birthdays, because all holidays have pagan trappings.

I once asked a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses by celebrating Thanksgiving is the equivalent of getting involved with pagan rites.

They told me that Thanksgiving Day has also pagan roots, since the Indians are pagans, and somewhat the Indians helped the Christian settlers.

[Lee Heggy]

Give em boullion cubes. They're cheap and wrapped in foil they look just like candy. Besides that they're good for you.

You may also want to move later.

[xm177e2]

Halloween IS a Christian holiday, just as much as Christmas. Both were invented out of whole cloth in order to replace pagan holidays. There is no special reason to celebrate "All Saints Day" November 1st, and there is no reason to celebrate Jesus's birthday in the middle of f---ing winter, except that the timing of these events covers pagan holidays. The eve of All Saint's Day, "All Hallows Eve" (which was shortened to Halloween) is the Christian name for what pagans called "Samhain."

What, you say? Halloween involves people celebrating with pagan symbols, and Christmas is nothing at all like that? Maybe you've never seen a "Christmas Tree" (German pagans favored pine trees because they were long and tall, like a sturdy penis) or "Santa Claus."

[mewzilla]

Halloween has taken a double whammy in Moscow from both school administrators and church officials banning it outright, the BBC reports.

Party poopskis.

[Levante]

"So if they pretend to hang each other before Halloween, it's okay?"

Only if they are pretending to be Muslim extremists.
=)