I hate Halloween because I have to explain stuff like this mask to my three year old. It's no longer a kid holiday.
Posted on 10/31/2005 10:00:31 AM PST by Ed Hudgins
Scared of Halloween By Edward Hudgins
Exective Director The Objectivist Center & Atlas Society ehudgins@objectivistcenter.org
October 31, 2005
Halloween has its origins in superstition and sadly, it invokes old and new superstitions still. Halloween, from "All Hallows Eve," was the evening before the Catholic All Saints Day and was supposed to be haunted by demons jealous of the holy day to follow. It also had roots in prehistoric Celtic mythology.
But in modern times it's developed into a fun day where children dress in ghoulish or cute costumes and canvass the neighborhood for candy while adults at masquerade parties imbibe more mature fare. Granted some juveniles get more into the tricks than the treats. And the occasional morbid-Goth youth can make it into an obsession with darkness and death, though they probably do that on the other 364 days of the year as well. But generally Halloween's about having fun.
Yet in our politically correct age this fall tradition is falling on hard times, under attack from, shall we say, rather diverse sides. Some extreme Christian groups oppose Halloween because the day represents the worship of Satan. Declares one Christian website, "Our forefathers recognized Halloween's association with the occult. The Pilgrims banned celebrating Halloween in America. The ban lasted until 1845." According to that site it was those damned Irish Catholics who raised that tradition from the dead.
On the other side of the—what to call it?—religious/political spectrum, in Canada a memo from the Toronto District School Board cautioned teachers that students from different backgrounds won't understand "the Christian, sexist demonization of pagan religious beliefs as 'fun.'" It went on to state that "Halloween is a religious day of significance for Wiccans and therefore should be treated respectfully." Wiccans are witches, that is, grow-ups who dress up funny but make a show of taking primitive superstitions seriously—worshipping the Earth-goddess Gia, magic spirits they imagine populate our world and the like.
And we find Europeans reacting against encroachments of Halloween back into the Old World from whence the tradition came. Some, like Catholic theologian Giordano Frosini, complain that it's a "manifestation of neo-paganism." But most nay-sayers just don't like American-style commercialization of that day—sales of costumes and candy—which, says Frosini, "undermines our cultural identify."
If you like to have fun on this day, fine. If not, if you think it's silly, fine as well. But it's sad that a jumble of competing superstitions and sensitivities are politicizing what was once a lark of a nice autumn night.
LOL at the anti-American part of this.
I prefer the traditions of 100 years ago when kids did bonfires by themselves. Yes, kids, proving again that they're not as helpless or as in danger as we like to (capitalize on - ask Graco) imagine these days.
Some extreme Christian groups
Like many Catholics? Baptists? Mennonites?
I hate the MSM.
I hate Halloween because I have to explain stuff like this mask to my three year old. It's no longer a kid holiday.
The wife is under orders to bring back a pile of candy from the store. The kids have been practicing growls and screams all week.
To all the Kill Joys out there - lighten up, will ya'.
> LOL at the anti-American part of this.
What "anti-American" part? Didn't see that.
I see them poking fun at both extremes. Poking fun at extremists = American as Apple Pie, Mom and McDonalds.
The same thinking that led Protestants to ban Christmas because it was "too pagan"
"But most nay-sayers just don't like American-style commercialization of that day"
And apparently you missed this thread right next to this 1:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1512687/posts
This silly opposition to Halloween is what happens when a culture exhalts kill-joys.
How did the Pilgrims ban all American Halloween in America? a) Pilgrims (or maybe Puritans -they're different) only colonized in what was MA Bay colony; b) the US didn't exist for another 150 years and c) how does any MA (if even that level) rule extend to all US?
Probably another half-truth in there.
> "But most nay-sayers just don't like American-style commercialization of that day"
That's not anti-American (at least as far as the editorial goes); that's just sorta-fact. Americans *have* commercialized Halloween. That the Euro-weenies are opposed to American-style commercialization.... it's a fact, but it's really *their* problem.
We're good at commercializing things. That's not a bad thing.
> you missed this thread right next to this 1
No, I saw it.
There are some people who still don't celebate Christmas for that reason. My mother is one of them.
Better ask the Christians who post such stuff. The Pilgrims/Puritans really weren't a very fun-loving group.
I respect the Christians who worry about the devil, but really it's quite harmless. Heck, I'd gamble most of us who even believe in ghosts & monsters don't even associate them directly w/Satan/devils. Maybe it was supposed to be a recognition of the evil that is wiped out by holiness, but now it's dumbed down to just getting a kick out of what is supposed to be scary; indeed, laughing it off as you laugh in a fun house or even on a roller coaster.
Actually it was the Puritans who banned Halloween in the Northern Colonies, where in Virginia, Halloween was celebrated.
I just think little kids are wicked cute in those outfits. And I love cutting Jack-O-Lanterns with those new templates.
I wouldn't bash Puritans altogether. There's usually much more than the stereotype hands us.
OTOH, I hate that their culture - or what was filtered of it - in NEW ENGLAND rules what the US is "about". We talk all about Thanksgiving as being some NE thing, e.g. That it's all about the Pilgrims. But thanks-givings were constantly declared for various things (e.g., during the RevWar), and it was Lincoln who finally attempted 1 regular annual national holiday.
Some bring up the selfishness of it. Which they have a point - why should any1 have to give over stuff for free? (Welfare!)
OTOH what the hell? It's cheap (I bet I spend less on candy for H slews of kids then I could on Christmas cards alone). And it's kind of cohesive - "we all do it" all over the country and we actually interact w/others in the public over it.
My wife just emailed me a picture of our (eight-month-old) grandson in his Tigger costume. Screw the Europeans and any and all other killjoys, they have no idea what they're missing.
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