Posted on 10/24/2006 1:08:40 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
Try to ping later.
Ten years ago my buddy and I went to a Halloween party dressed as porn stars Randy West and Ron Jeremy. We basically just wore jeans and shirts and said we were dressed as the porn stars Randy West and Ron Jeremy. Cheapest and easiest costume I ever wore. :)
Do not try. Do. --Yoda
Or was that Mr. Miyagi...I always get those two mixed up.
You're right. It is a secular holiday with a mixed history of observance.
Pope Bonifice created All Saints Day and some say he reset the date to 1 November to coopt the pagan celebration. European Protestants banned it. In other places, like Ireland, it continued on. Later, it was pretty much banned from the American colonies.
When the immigrants started flowing in, especially the Irish, Halloween once again grew in popularity as a children's holiday.
The only spell being cast on these little girls is done through their parents' negligence, IMHO.
Too bad the illusion ended with the clothes, eh?
How did you get all the fake hair you glued to your back off?
"Do--or do not. There is no try." -- Master Yoda
FWIW, the EXACT same artwork for handy candy is on the TARGET site and this site ...
http://www.abcunderwear.com/candy-stripper-costume.html
NOT SAFE FOR WORK!
The point is that Target is selling a teen's costume that others are selling as a stripper's costume.
Could it be Candy Striper and their spelling is bad? It's still a tacky thing to dress a girl in.
"Pope Bonifice created All Saints Day and some say he reset the date to 1 November to coopt the pagan celebration. "
Pretty funny, really. You just can't stop a good celebration. You can coopt it, but you can't stop it. That's the trouble with invading countries and trying to impose your religion on them. Those darned indigenous folks will just keep right on with their practices. The Pope did a good job, though, of adapting the Church to the existing practices. Stuck all those demonic gargoyles on everything...worked out real well.
Still...the best was the assignment of the Ressurection to the time of the Spring fertility rites. Easy to understand the connection, and popular already.
Putting Christmas near the Winter Solstice was a good one, too. Having the promise of Jesus' birth coincide with the depths of Winter was similar enough to the practices of the pagans at the same time, when mementos like the Jul tree held the promise of rebirth in the Spring.
Yup, Old Pope Boniface was a clever old guy, and so were the other Popes of that era. They managed to get Christianity accepted by most regions. It's an impressive thing.
LOL I was Randy West, my buddy was Ron Jeremy. He actually DID glue curly black hair from a wig to his arms and back!
Thank you!
Nevermind. I don't wanna know.
BTTT
Well, the number of pagans today is such a tiny minority that Halloween has effectively usurped their celebration of Samhain. I realize that there many folks who still celebrate Samhain in their own way, but they're so far from the dominant religion as to go unnoticed.
Too bad, really, I guess. I like to see variety in religious practice. Halloween is a pretty good melding, though...one of the best. The exception is in Mexico, where their pagan holiday of the same period remains intact, even though most have adopted Christianity.
La Dia de los Muertos is far closer to the pagan celebration than is Halloween. Very interesting to observe, if you have a chance to be in central Mexico at that time of year.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.