Posted on 10/28/2020 11:47:55 AM PDT by Carpe Cerevisi
Every October, Christians trash each other on social media over Halloween. Is it harmless costumes and candy? Participation in the occult, cavorting with demons? Co-opting a pagan holiday?
Christians believe demons are real. The Bible talks about them. Most Christians agree that you should stay away from them. Fallen angels lurking in your kid’s candy bag might freak out a Christian mom or dad. And the stranger-sabotaged candy scares of the 1980s still haunt some parents.
Halloween remains popular among American Christians. Yet this stalking sense of the demonic has some churches holding sanitized “harvest festival” events, away from the gruesome imagery in the streets, satisfying the family desire to participate without the risk.
Other Christians take the hardline tactic of pointing out historical links to the Celtic pagan Samhain festival, supposedly the “real” Halloween. Trick-or-treating is declared equivalent with Ouija boards and seances. The 5-year-old in her princess tutu and tiara overloading on sweets is basically equivalent to a necromancer.
What is rarely discussed in these unhallowed debates is what exactly Halloween is. The term gets used for everything from neopagan reconstructions to Catholic cemetery processions for All Hallows’ Eve, to costumed parades through the Main Streets of small-town America.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
No.
I’ll be giving out candy if that’s what they mean....
This could be a fun thread. Then again it’s on the Religion Forum so fun probably won’t be allowed.
But we're also not the holiday police.
“stranger-sabotaged candy scares of the 1980s”
Been going on a lot longer than that. I was a kid in the 1960s and I remember hearing those stories from my parents back then.
I can’t picture Jesus and the Disciples participating. Demons to them were all too real. I don’t see why a Church would sanction such activities. If individuals want to go this route, that’s on them.
My daughters dressing up and going door to door to get candy is not a bad thing.
Yes.
By participating, we mock both Hell and its minions and the heathens and their false gods.
We’re not participating in the occult, we’re flouting it. We’re not celebrating a pagan holiday, we’re hijacking it.
I’m with you I have grown to hate Halloween.
“it’s on the Religion Forum so fun probably won’t be allowed”
Gee, what kind of church do you attend my friend?
Gave the parents a reason to go through our candy...
I'm keeping an eye on you. If it looks like you're smiling and having fun, I'm blowing the whistle.
/heavy sarc
Great comment
This perspective is in keeping with what the Dominican nuns taught. We always had the day off on all saints day as a holy day of obligation. We attended mass. Halloween was great fun
Yep. I suspect a lot of that “dangerous” candy ended up in their bedroom. Lol
Let’s do Christmas (Winter Solstice/Saturnalia) and Easter (Spring fertility festival) next.
I never gave it a moment’s thought once I had kids. Didn’t even consider doing Halloween. Not a big deal to bow out.
The teachers in CA say the little tykes can be covid spreaders...they all work from home in our county....so, NO CANDY!
We are small town and there are some major restrictions on what you can and can not have up as decorations. Not by law but by customers and neighbors politely telling you that something is "a bit much".
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