Let the war on Halloween begin *rolls eyes* *shakes head*

[Minerva]

I can't get the original link to work for me, so I can't tell if she posted anything particularly snark-worthy.

FWIW, we don't celebrate Halloween. I did as a kid, but hubby and I made a family decision not to do so now.

My kids are not traumatized freaks. They know that other kids celebrate it, and they don't. That's fine. They aren't taught that other kids are evil, but they do know that we don't do things exactly like every other family. As kids growing up in a minority religion, they are learning that not everyone celebrates the same holidays, and that sometimes, it's ok to be different because of your beliefs. They are also learning that each family's choices deserve respect.

In any case, my family does not lack holiday celebrations. In fact, I'm looking forward to working a full 5 days this week, and going on a diet. This has been my month so far:

Rosh Hashanah: 2 days of feasting with extended family (multi-course dinner for 62 people over 2 days, hosted at my house)

Yom Kippur: Fast day - but with a big pre-fast meal, and a big family meal to break the fast.

Sukkot: Built a leaky hut in the backyard, had numerous festive meals with family and friends in the hut (along with some alcohol for the adults), visited other people's Leaky Backyard Huts for more feasting. This went on for 8 days.

Simchat Torah: After those 8 days, we get a day of feasting and partying indoors. My kids collected more candy than they would have received on Halloween.

I'm DONE. We still have 4 birthdays coming up in October as well.

[in case anyone is interested, Jewish holidays don't end after this month. After a bit of a break, we'll celebrate:

Hannukkah: greasy potato pancakes and jelly donuts for a week.

Tu B'Shevat: dried fruits and almonds and tree-hugging

Purim: Our dress-up holiday, with a costume party and feasting and drinking

Passover: Gluten-free feasting for a week

Shavuot: The cheesecake and ice cream and stay-up-all-night holiday

Plus, every Friday night/Saturday they get a big dinner, big lunch and time with family and friends.]

Yikes. I'd skip Halloween too if I had all that. Especially if I had a house and kids, 'cause then you've gotta decorate and buy costumes and carve a pumpkin. At my age, Halloween is a day to dress up and get boozed, which no different from some people's regular Friday night routine.

[salex]

When my husband was young, he lived in a small neighborhood in a small town, and most people knew each other. For Halloween, some of the people in the neighborhood would decorate the inside of their houses as a haunted house, and invite the kids to walk through, and everyone had a great time. He has wonderful memories of Halloween. Since we live in a large city now, allowing kids inside the house is not an option, but we always decorate the outside of our house with skeletons, spider webs, tombstones, etc. We enjoy it, but have yet to worship Satan while doing so... :cray-cray:

When I was a kid, the youth group at our church would host a halloween party for the younger sunday school kids. We'd dress up, go to the church on a Saturday afternoon around Halloween, get candy, have a little spook house (cold spagetti? Peeled grapes?) No sermons, no tracts. (United Methodists, early -mid 60s) Our school let us bring/wear our costumes to school and had a full school party. No one complained that I ever heard of, and the vast majority of costumes were home made or even kid made----

When I was older, my 4-H club had one where the older kids and leaders set up a spook house for the younger club members. (4-H clearly was evil....) This would be follwed food, sodas and a dance, I think.

I lived in a very small town--I knew most of the houses I went trick or treating, and among my mom's friends and my grandmother's friends out in the country, I'd usually get a nice haul (they didn't have a lot of trick or treaters, so they went big) of full size hershy bars, home made popcorn blls, etc. But I never heard of people going door to door to people they didn't know until I was well past trick or treating age.

Today, in our area, many churchs ave "trunk or treat".

[Koala]

I 100% agree Erika! Amen!!! We don't celebrate the devil's day. We don't celebrate the Lords birth with a christmas tree & eggs for easter. ALL 3 are pagan & satanic practices. We believe that we will go to h* if we partake in them. We stay away to protect ourselves as well as our children. Why do people even professing Christians delight in death & satan? I wish these holidays would be banned from the USA. We need to turn our country back to Christ believers not devil worshipers.

Please tell me this was one of you guys trolling the comments...I don't want to believe this kind of crazy is real :cray-cray:

[FreeJosie]

Please tell me this was one of you guys trolling the comments...I don't want to believe this kind of crazy is real :cray-cray:

How funny, because other fundies whine about Christmas trees being taken away so as not offend non-Christians. :lol: "Back in the good old days, we had Christmas trees in schools!"

[PennySycamore]

When I was a kid, the youth group at our church would host a halloween party for the younger sunday school kids. We'd dress up, go to the church on a Saturday afternoon around Halloween, get candy, have a little spook house (cold spagetti? Peeled grapes?) No sermons, no tracts. (United Methodists, early -mid 60s) Our school let us bring/wear our costumes to school and had a full school party. No one complained that I ever heard of, and the vast majority of costumes were home made or even kid made----

When I was older, my 4-H club had one where the older kids and leaders set up a spook house for the younger club members. (4-H clearly was evil....) This would be follwed food, sodas and a dance, I think.

I lived in a very small town--I knew most of the houses I went trick or treating, and among my mom's friends and my grandmother's friends out in the country, I'd usually get a nice haul (they didn't have a lot of trick or treaters, so they went big) of full size hershy bars, home made popcorn blls, etc. But I never heard of people going door to door to people they didn't know until I was well past trick or treating age.

Today, in our area, many churchs ave "trunk or treat".

This sounds like my childhood. My mom was our Training Union teacher for awhile and she used to throw the best Halloween parties. The Rankins threw some great parties too. She and my brother would decorate our house and yard to the hilt. I can still remember the ghost that they made in the trees beside the house. My brother used his skills in Halloween decorating to help decorate the Legion Hut when he was in 8th grade. We lived near a cemetery and would walk out there in the dark (we had lanterns) to tell ghost stories. Of course, my mom would make hot dogs and witch's brew or hot spiced cider. The school had a carnival with costumes, more hot dogs and hamburgers, a darkened 4-6 grade hall to run around in, games and a cakewalk. The dark hall was more fun than it sounds.

This was all when the church was pastored by a liberal Southern Baptist. It eventually went fun die light and my parents joined the United Methodist Church.

[mlady]

It's always funny (or sad) to see people pretzel themselves to make something they just want/don't want to do seem "godly" or "Christian". Halloween, as celebrated here in the good old USA, can't be tied to anything Jesus said, anything in the Bible, or Satan. I suspect people are very self conscious of their decision to NOT do something that they have to come up with all manner of crazy reasons to justify it to themselves and everyone else. Can't someone just NOT WANT to do something without turning it into a religious epiphany? Having to Christianize everything makes it all seem so petty.

Let's figure out what those ol' pagens did on Tuesdays and then remove the day from our calendar because...satan.

[kpmom]

Some fundies get super bent out of shape over yoga. It's actually quite amusing.

http://rr-bb.com/showthread.php?188316- ... ids-school

Don't know if you meant the bolded to be a pun, but it gave me a chuckle.

[quinoa]

When I was a kid, in late elementary school, there was a friend of some of my classmates (I think she went to a Christian school or was homeschooled or something - I knew her only a little bit) who came from a fundie-lite family. When we were out trick-or-treating her house was on our route. Her parents set up some sort of recorded sermon or audio Bible or something playing on the front porch, and when we rang the doorbell they passed out little booklets. My acquaintance was there and we asked her if she could come out with us, and she sadly said she couldn't.

The booklet turned out to be a comic book detailing in text and drawings all the things the Satan worshipers were doing on Halloween and the methods they were using to poison and otherwise booby-trap our candy. :pink-shock:

I remember feeling really bad for my acquaintance for having such nutty parents (in my kid opinion, I know there are people on this board who have reasonable decided not to celebrate), but it wasn't until years later that I realized how weird and strangely inappropriate those booklets were. I think it would have been really upsetting if I'd been 6, but then my parents would have been with my anyway so it might not have mattered.

[halcionne]

When I was a kid, in late elementary school, there was a friend of some of my classmates (I think she went to a Christian school or was homeschooled or something - I knew her only a little bit) who came from a fundie-lite family. When we were out trick-or-treating her house was on our route. Her parents set up some sort of recorded sermon or audio Bible or something playing on the front porch, and when we rang the doorbell they passed out little booklets. My acquaintance was there and we asked her if she could come out with us, and she sadly said she couldn't.

The booklet turned out to be a comic book detailing in text and drawings all the things the Satan worshipers were doing on Halloween and the methods they were using to poison and otherwise booby-trap our candy. :pink-shock:

I remember feeling really bad for my acquaintance for having such nutty parents (in my kid opinion, I know there are people on this board who have reasonable decided not to celebrate), but it wasn't until years later that I realized how weird and strangely inappropriate those booklets were. I think it would have been really upsetting if I'd been 6, but then my parents would have been with my anyway so it might not have mattered.

OMG a Chick tract! Fundies used to pass these out sometimes, just outside the school gate when I was a kid! My Southern Baptist backslid mom said that every word was true and we should get back in church, but we never did. I thought the comics were pretty hilarious, but at the same time I believed them. And I would've been pissed if one turned up in my trick or treat bag...

[smittykins]

OMG a Chick tract! Fundies used to pass these out sometimes, just outside the school gate when I was a kid! My Southern Baptist backslid mom said tohat every word was true and we should get back in church, but we never did. I thought the comics were pretty hilarious, but at the same time I believed them. And I would've been pissed if one turned up in my trick or treat bag...

Several years ago, we had a Halloween party at work. One of my coworkers was the son of a Baptist pastor, and his father picked him up before the party and brought him back after it ended, and they left a pile of Chick anti-Halloween tracts.

[SquirrelySquirrel]

My daughter's school still has Halloween party and costume parade for K-4th grade. I always sign up to bring treats and to come in and help the kids with their costumes! It's so much fun.

Halloween is by far our favorite holiday. We can't wait til the LittleSquirrel is older so we can have parties for for her and her friends and turn our woods into a haunted woods. The woods are already nice and Satanically Paganized from the egg hunts we host in there for Easter.

[AnywhereButHere]

I love Halloween. I get to enjoy the 31 days of Halloween marathons on the tv (alone of course, because husband & son are chicken :P ), decorate the house, overindulge in candy, and get to see all of the cute costumes the kids come up with. We finally live in an area where there are tons of kids, so it’s a lot more fun. When my son was younger (he’s reaching the age of not being interested in going trick-or-treating), I would wait until it got just dark to take him out. Trick-or-treating is like a carnival, they’re both better in the dark.

[PennySycamore]

I love Halloween. I get to enjoy the 31 days of Halloween marathons on the tv (alone of course, because husband & son are chicken :P ), decorate the house, overindulge in candy, and get to see all of the cute costumes the kids come up with. We finally live in an area where there are tons of kids, so it’s a lot more fun. When my son was younger (he’s reaching the age of not being interested in going trick-or-treating), I would wait until it got just dark to take him out. Trick-or-treating is like a carnival, they’re both better in the dark.

Turner Classic Movies has some great stuff scheduled for October. Vincent Price (who else?) is the Star of the Month and they'll be showing his films every Thursday. Friday nights will have the Friday Night Spooklight of horror films hosted by Bill Hader. On October 19, TCM has a evening of Tod Browning's film scheduled. He directed Freaks and other twisted flicks. Billy the Kid vs Dracula airs this Saturday evening at 2 AM and part 2 of the TCM podcast with Joel Hodgson of MST3K is now on the TCM site. Part 1 is there too.

http://www.tcm.com

[Koala]

The woods are already nice and Satanically Paganized from the egg hunts we host in there for Easter.

Most convenient! :D

[AnywhereButHere]

Turner Classic Movies has some great stuff scheduled for October. Vincent Price (who else?) is the Star of the Month and they'll be showing his films every Thursday. Friday nights will have the Friday Night Spooklight of horror films hosted by Bill Hader. On October 19, TCM has a evening of Tod Browning's film scheduled. He directed Freaks and other twisted flicks. Billy the Kid vs Dracula airs this Saturday evening at 2 AM and part 2 of the TCM podcast with Joel Hodgson of MST3K is now on the TCM site. Part 1 is there too.

http://www.tcm.com

Awesome! I need to plan out a schedule. I'm competeing with my husband and the start of hockey season for the flat screen/hd.

[Shoes Grace]

I feel so sad for Erika's kids--they'll never have the joy of watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." :cry:

I'd think the fundies would want to embrace Linus's wait for the Great Pumpkin. He'll sit out in that field and freeze his butt off and miss out on Tricks or Treats in the hopes that the Great Pumpkin has chosen his pumpkin patch as the most sincere. That's blind belief at its most powerful. I mean, this is the same little boy who can tell us what Christmas is all about.

[lilwriter85]

I also love October because of horror movies which get a lot of play on cable. I also love kid movies like Hocus Pocus.

[RandomTrivia]

Turner Classic Movies has some great stuff scheduled for October. Vincent Price (who else?) is the Star of the Month and they'll be showing his films every Thursday. Friday nights will have the Friday Night Spooklight of horror films hosted by Bill Hader. On October 19, TCM has a evening of Tod Browning's film scheduled. He directed Freaks and other twisted flicks. Billy the Kid vs Dracula airs this Saturday evening at 2 AM and part 2 of the TCM podcast with Joel Hodgson of MST3K is now on the TCM site. Part 1 is there too.

http://www.tcm.com

Any other TV Halloween recommendations? SyFy is doing "31 Days of Halloween" but most of it looks like fluff, and ABCFamily doesn't have the "13 Days of Halloween" schedule up yet (I'm hoping for the Harry Potters, even though I own the DVDs). And of course, The Great Pumpkin. :) I thought there was another cable channel or two that did Halloween programming, but the brain isn't cooperating.

[paganhomeschooler]

Yeah, what is the second most recognized satanic holiday?

I would guess Easter. Those pagan Easter eggs and bunnies and everything. Also, more chocolate to be cursed! (Damn, I'm really missing out on this candy cursing. I must be a very bad pagan. If I curse it, do I get to keep it all?)

[lilwriter85]

Any other TV Halloween recommendations? SyFy is doing "31 Days of Halloween" but most of it looks like fluff, and ABCFamily doesn't have the "13 Days of Halloween" schedule up yet (I'm hoping for the Harry Potters, even though I own the DVDs). And of course, The Great Pumpkin. :) I thought there was another cable channel or two that did Halloween programming, but the brain isn't cooperating.

AMC does some Halloween programming. They show a variety of horror movies.