Halloweenies -- The ghouls of political correctness take the fun out of being a kid

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | Saturday, November 01, 2003 | Francine E. Rose

[Willie Green]

Halloween is over, but I can still see beaming ghosts and goblins, witches and sorcerers, monsters and hip-hop stars parading around outside my local elementary school yesterday. They were the lucky kids; many schools offered only "harvest celebrations" yesterday.

The harvest celebrators saw Halloween as someone else's holiday. When my children were in preschool, both Jewish and Christian schools objected to Halloween. The Jewish preschool teachers explained to me, a Christian, that Halloween celebrated a Christian holiday, All Saint's Day. Though I grew up Catholic, this was news to me, but OK, no Halloween party in Jewish preschool. One year later, in a Christian preschool: no Halloween party because Halloween was a devil-worshipping, Satanic holiday.

[sfRummygirl]

Actually, there were a few churches that got kinda blitzed. I heard it was pretty funny. Kinda like Purim. Oktoberfest type thing.

[Mo1]

Oh ok .. so tell me .. how does one dress for Reformation Day ??

[One_American]

We went out trick-or-treating with the purpose to build up a serious pile of good candy. Anyone who dared give us apples or pennies or anything else deemed 'bogus', their house was immediately subjected to an egging, shaving creaming, toilet papering, bar soaping of the windows, and/or flaming bag of fresh dog crap on the porch attack. That was standard operating procedure in my neighborhood.

[Mo1]

PC aint won yet guys....childhood is NOT dead so long as fathers like that exist!

That's a nice story .. thanks for sharing it

[sfRummygirl]

I'm not sure! You could do a monk thing, maybe leiterhosen.....middle ages....Kinda like Renn Faire? I didn't get to go to one this year, so next year will be the first for me.
I'ld have kids do both, actually. Do an imaginative costume, stress to them it wasn't about power-over craft crap, and then take them to the ref fest. What the heck.

[jedwardtremlett]

You ARE getting the point that I think you're just a little out of touch with how things really work, right?

If there were human sacrifices going on in England, today, it'd be all over their papers, right next to which britpop star is bonking who and what Prince Harry did last weekend. That there is not is either sign of conspiracy, willful ignorance... or the fact that someone you're reading is wearing tinfoil under their hat.

So do us both a favor. Just tell me which of these books it was, and the page number. A direct quote from that page to back up your assertion would be good, too, but if you can just give me the book I can go from there.

References: Celebrations - The Complete Book of American Holidays, Robt. J. Myers, (Doubleday & Co., 1972).

The Famous Druids, A. L. Owen, (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1962).

The American Book
of Days, George William Douglas, (H.W. Wilson Co., 1948).

[Mo1]

The widespread problem of harmful substances such as razor blades, drugs, poisons, needles, etc. being placed in the Halloween treats here in America is no accident. Testimonies of several ex-Satanists show that these children killed and injured by the "treats" are sacrifices to Satan (or Samhain). Satanists throughout the world continue to perform human sacrifices on Halloween.

Don't trust your neighbors much??

[jedwardtremlett]

Sure! : )

However, why don't we do it over freepmail? This thread's cluttered and off-topic enough as it is. ; )

I'll watch the box.

J

[Willie Green]

Sounds pretty harsh, IMHO.
Perhaps my neighborhood was just a little friendlier.
We reserved those kind of pranks only for retribution against those few neighbors (and there were only a few) who we knew were crabby a--holes all year long. Yeah, there were many who were more skimpy than others with the goodies. But what the heck, that wasn't any reason to harass them. A freebie was still a freebie.

[jedwardtremlett]

I never engaged in any of that, myself : ) My mother would have invariably found out and I'd have been killed.

I DO remember one early halloween - this was when I was young enough to have my mom come with me - were we marched up to one house, and a lady was dressed as a witch in front of a plastic cauldron. And she was handing out pennies.

"No bad candy to rot your teeth! HEHEHEHEHEHEHE!" she said.

I think if I'd been alone and had an egg I might have thrown it. ; )

J

[Smokin' Joe]

All Hallowes' eve, later Halloween is the day before All Saints' Day in the Catholic Religion.

My 4 year old Granddaughter and I went out (she as a Care Bear), me as...well, me, and despite the cold covered about 12 blocks. She loved it, trick or treaters were few and far between, (probably due to temperatures in the 20's) and we returned with her plastic pumpkin loot bucket overflowing. I wouldn't trade all the tea in China for smiles like those...

[Mo1]

I'm not sure! You could do a monk thing, maybe leiterhosen.....middle ages....Kinda like Renn Faire?

So basically they dress up, kind of like halloween? .. They just call it a different name

IMO .. halloween is just a day for kids to have fun .. I say let them

[Smokin' Joe]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is Purim?

[Mo1]

We reserved those kind of pranks only for retribution against those few neighbors (and there were only a few) who we knew were crabby a--holes all year long.

Where I grew up, that was called mischief night .. the night before Halloween .. usually done with t-paper ..

[Vicki]

We had one. Used to have about 60.

[Smokin' Joe]

Halloween now surpasses New Year's Eve and St. Patrick's Day with regard to alcohol intake - go figure.

Not hard. Haven't you heard: "Get drunk and be somebody...else."

[Smokin' Joe]

Halloween now surpasses New Year's Eve and St. Patrick's Day with regard to alcohol intake - go figure.

Not hard. Haven't you heard: "Get drunk and be somebody...else."

[sfRummygirl]

No, I'm not sure if anyone dresses up for Reform day, or at least it's not really a trend...just a few folks did. I'm new to this thing, so I'm not the best person to ask this year....

[Mo1]

Ok .. thanks

Learn something new every day at FR ..

Sweet Dreams

[sfRummygirl]

Jewish holiday, involving getting dressed in costume, really blitzed on wine, and eating too much Hammentashen....(Jews, please give the actual info about Esther and the dance and all that..)