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How & Why to Re-focus Halloween as a "Fall Festival"
GTBE email ^ | 10/07/05 | self

Posted on 10/07/2005 10:14:25 AM PDT by The Spirit Of Allegiance

Re-focus Halloween!


If your school insists on having some kind of Halloween celebration, recommend that they steer away from the ghoulish and occult and, instead, focus on the event as a fall festival. ...

"When you turn evil into a game, it trivializes it and numbs children to its darkness."
(excerpt from email) GREAT RESOURCE SITE for Teachers, Parents & Students.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 13; antifun; autumn; badnannynocandy; bestwitches; bewitched; blessedbe; bobbingforfries; botheredbewildered; busybody; candygramformongo; carved; darkside; dedeviled; deeplytroubled; devilment; doubletoilandtrouble; evil; fraidycat; ghostpatrol; ghoulish; goulpatrol; halloween; hallowweenie; headlesshorseman; holierthanthou; hollowweiner; horrors; humorless; iknowjackchick; itsonlymakebelieve; jackchick; jackolantern; killjoy; littlemonsters; lostmybroom; nannyismlives; nightout; nocandyforyou; nocostumehuh; noreality; notricknotreat; occult; partypooper; pc; punkinhead; satanism; scaredtopieces; sleeplesshollow; spoilersofamerica; takingcandyfromababy; theshadowknows; thirteen; thislittlelightomine; toocheaptobuycandy; trouble; troubled; troublemaker; trulytrivial; turnoffporchlight; unfun; unmasked; wickedwitchoffr
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To: R. Scott



Samhain marks one of the two great doorways of the Celtic year, for the Celts divided the year into two seasons: the light and the dark, at Beltane on May 1st and Samhain on November 1st. Some believe that Samhain was the more important festival, marking the beginning of a whole new cycle, just as the Celtic day began at night. For it was understood that in dark silence comes whisperings of new beginnings, the stirring of the seed below the ground. Whereas Beltane welcomes in the summer with joyous celebrations at dawn, the most magically potent time of this festival is November Eve, the night of October 31st, known today of course, as Halloween.


201 posted on 10/07/2005 12:15:33 PM PDT by dljordan
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To: Red Badger

"What in SamHain is that?........



Samhain marks one of the two great doorways of the Celtic year, for the Celts divided the year into two seasons: the light and the dark, at Beltane on May 1st and Samhain on November 1st. Some believe that Samhain was the more important festival, marking the beginning of a whole new cycle, just as the Celtic day began at night. For it was understood that in dark silence comes whisperings of new beginnings, the stirring of the seed below the ground. Whereas Beltane welcomes in the summer with joyous celebrations at dawn, the most magically potent time of this festival is November Eve, the night of October 31st, known today of course, as Halloween.


202 posted on 10/07/2005 12:16:15 PM PDT by dljordan
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To: Blurblogger

your post is one of the scariest things I've ever read on the FR.


203 posted on 10/07/2005 12:16:31 PM PDT by bigsigh
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To: Sam Cree

Okay, I don't allow my kids to say anything but Jeez wouldn't bother me in the slightest. That's just going overboard.


204 posted on 10/07/2005 12:20:39 PM PDT by ShadowDancer (Stupid people make my brain sad.)
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To: SuziQ
If folks don't want to celebrate it, then don't, but don't make a fuss and spoil everyone else's fun, for heaven's sake!

But, dear Suzi, they MUST spoil your fun! They care too much for your immortal soul to allow you to have one little speck of enjoyment out of life.

You MUST wear a sorrowful expression at all times and turn your head from abominations such as jack-o-lanterns and Christmas trees.

Above all, perform your wifely duties in a locked-doors lights-out environment only, with your ankle length flannel nightgown bunched up just enough to permit the shameful act that brings forth children to occur.

205 posted on 10/07/2005 12:21:34 PM PDT by TontoKowalski
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To: Blurblogger

I see Halloween as fun time for kids, maybe I'm wrong, but I wouldn't take that away from children. They love it, and even adults have fun giving them candies and chocolates.


206 posted on 10/07/2005 12:21:48 PM PDT by Victoria Delsoul
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To: Blurblogger

Instead of candy howzabout handing out those pink chewable tablets the dentist gives you to show where to brush?


207 posted on 10/07/2005 12:22:50 PM PDT by Kokojmudd (Outsource Federal Judiciary and US Senate to India, NOW!)
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To: Red Badger
I don't know. "All Hallows Eve" was a pretty "evil" night for me and my friends, growing up Catholic in small town Ohio in the 60's. Ever drop a cherry bomb into a jack-o-lantern? :)
208 posted on 10/07/2005 12:23:38 PM PDT by manwiththehands
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To: Blurblogger

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy. --H. L. Mencken

Sorry but Halloween is just a silly, fun day for kids..candy and dressing up..ANY day or Holiday can be made "evil" by idiots. Dont let the wack jobs take one more fun childhood memory away from kids...


209 posted on 10/07/2005 12:25:31 PM PDT by FeliciaCat (I like my money where I can see it...hanging in my closet.)
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To: KevinDavis

Did I say they couldn't practice their religion? I simply commented that their were people out celebrating their religion by dressing up in black robes and walking to the top of a big hill. I have no idea what they did after they got to the top. We left. We had other things planned. It was bizarre to me because I had never seen such before. If I had never been to a Catholic church, and I visited for the first time, I would probably describe what happens there as "bizarre."

Regardless of what other people do, we don't celebrate Halloween. That probably makes us "bizarre," and so what!


210 posted on 10/07/2005 12:26:53 PM PDT by petitfour
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To: absolootezer0

Was the event associating Columbine with Halloween at all? If so, that's pretty terrible. And is your church anywhere near Jefferson, Colorado?


211 posted on 10/07/2005 12:29:28 PM PDT by Tim Long (Gingrich Brownback '08)
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To: Chi-townChief

Hey now, our kids would riot if we tried to sneek off to Octoberfest without them.

One price gets them in the gate and they're off to the rides while us older ones meander over to the beer tent.


212 posted on 10/07/2005 12:35:51 PM PDT by PeteB570 (Life's short, lighten up a bit)
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To: Overtaxed
Well...it stopped being fun when carloads of kids from outside the neighborhood show up at the door. And they're usually teenagers. Grow up, fercryinoutloud! Shouldn't be trick-or-treating much long after 10 years old.

I was thinking you probably had a reason for not enjoying Halloween. Yes, a carload of teenagers from outside your neighborhood is a good reason for your feelings. What a shame that they can ruin the fun for the neighborhood children. I understand how you feel.

213 posted on 10/07/2005 12:36:38 PM PDT by Chena (I'm not young enough to know everything)
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To: Bernard Marx

"Christianity, unable to suppress the belief, adopted it."

Well, not in my ex daughter-in-laws house. If anyone wants to know how really bad this nonsense can get read on:

My ex daughter-in-law threw out every Disney movie I gave my grandaughter. " If you look really hard in the "Lion King," she said, "you can see the word SEX written in the clouds."

She blacked-out with a felt marker the horn of a unicorn on a poster I gave her daughter since God never made such a creature.

She burned all the first edition Harry Potter books I
bought.

She smashed every pumpkin I supplied in the fall, being too stupid to bake a pumpkin pie instead of making a Jack-O-Lantern.

She was very well versed in the Bible, though. Since she believed that God would always provide everything she needed---took it to mean shoplifting at Foleys at the perfume counter was OK.


214 posted on 10/07/2005 12:39:03 PM PDT by texaslil (and)
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To: texaslil

OMG!!!! Your ex daughter-in-law sounds like a nightmare...and worldclass nut job. YIKES......She sounds like a Life Time Movie.


215 posted on 10/07/2005 12:42:06 PM PDT by FeliciaCat (I like my money where I can see it...hanging in my closet.)
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To: Chena; Overtaxed
We live in a nice neighborhood, and we have people dump off vanloads of kids who run around unsupervised. Knocking over the smaller ones, running through flowerbeds, and the like.

Now, every year, more and more people leave their porchlight out (the local signal for "don't stop here"). It's a shame, but I can't blame anyone for going that route after the mess things have become.

Didn't this used to be about the kids in the neighborhood?

216 posted on 10/07/2005 12:43:58 PM PDT by TontoKowalski
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To: Blurblogger

Fall Festivals are just the leftover "Harvest Festivals" from days gone by.

Kid in the city hardly know what a farm is, let alone a harvest season.

Halloween is the only event of note they can identify with for Fall.


217 posted on 10/07/2005 12:44:10 PM PDT by Rebelbase ("There are millions of mediocre Americans, and they, too, deserve to be represented in the USSC. -RH)
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To: Blurblogger
Whatever the origins, I perceive that halloweenin has been partially co-opted in recent years, by various and sundry neo-pagan religious types (most in the camp of the far-left, I believe.....would-be commies if it were cool to be one any more) ...sort of their official holiday. This may explain some Christians reaction to it.

So many churches today have fall festivals on halloween that are as fun or more fun than trickertreatin.' Very few kids whether or not they do halloweenin are missing out on any fun.....the parking lots are always jammed packed. I have heard of many Christians handing out bible tracts as well as they trikertreat. No harm, no foul.
218 posted on 10/07/2005 12:45:34 PM PDT by Kokojmudd (Outsource Federal Judiciary and US Senate to India, NOW!)
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To: manwiththehands

Ever had your yard toilet papered?.................


219 posted on 10/07/2005 12:48:21 PM PDT by Red Badger (In life, you don't get what you deserve. You get what you settle for...........)
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To: Blurblogger

Most Ridiculous Thread of the Day.


220 posted on 10/07/2005 12:49:16 PM PDT by Constitution Day (When life gives you lemons, just shut up and eat your damn lemons.)
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