Historian Kirk Cameron declares that Halloween is christian

[JHeathen]

You indeed have a very interesting point here, but that´s maybe a tad bit of a harsh connection drawn to Halloween. People also dress up as mummies, vampires, ghosts, Frankenstein´s monster, fairies and clowns :wink-kitty: Also, dressing up at Halloween is a "american thing", it has no tradition in that regions of Europe where the main number of "witch-trials" took place....

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Wikipedia says the costumes started in Ireland & Scotland, then came to the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

[brokenminded]

Guiesing is Scottish abd might be related to christianity loosely. I think the outfits were to scare away demons and such. Its been a long time since i learned this stuff and have honestly forgotten a lot. Kirk Cameron may, sadly, be right.

[Anny Nym]

Wikipedia says the costumes started in Ireland & Scotland, then came to the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

"Among the earliest record of guising at Halloween in Scotland is in 1895" is a bit too recent and maybe more victorian-bound, I think?

Also, were Ireland and Scotland really affected so much by the witch-hunt phenomenon?

[brokenminded]

Turnip carving goes back to the 15 hundreds. This would be pumpkins today. Again a Scottish tradition on the 31st in relation to warding off spirits.

[samurai_sarah]

"Among the earliest record of guising at Halloween in Scotland is in 1895" is a bit too recent and maybe more victorian-bound, I think?

Also, were Ireland and Scotland really affected so much by the witch-hunt phenomenon?

Short answer: Ireland. No. Scottish Highlands. No. Scottish Lowlands. Yes.

Ireland, Wales and the Scottish Highlands remained largely untouched by witchhunts. In Ireland and the Scottish Highlands, there are very few cases. Wales, if memory serves, stands out with a grand total of five executed witches. Three of those witches stood trial in England, so actually Wales only had two witch trials.

The simplest answer as to why these three areas remained relatively unaffected by the witch-craze is that witchcraft was an accepted part of life. Both good and bad magic existed, or the fairies were to blame if things went wrong. For example, if all your cows died of anthrax, the answer to the mystery was that the fairies had shot them with fairy-arrows.

In Wales, if you suspected that someone had put a spell onto you, the way to deal with it, was either to employ a counter-spell, or you just went to that person and asked them to remove the spell. Witchcraft was part of everyday life and generally not connected to the devil/evil.

In Ireland, until after the English conquest, there was no law against witchcraft (it's a bit more complicated, but for the sake of brevity, there was mostly no law against it). The first law came in 1586, but witch trials never really took off. Part of the reason, it appears, is that the first witchtrial - which happened before there even was a law - was openly politically motivated. The Irish nobility and people of influence, had no interest in going along with a case against one of their own, brought by an English bishop. So, arguably, the witch-craze never happened, because it was a) not part of the cultural repertoire, and b) too English.

The Scottish Lowlands had a rather different view of the entire issue, and consequently burnt witches. The Highlands on the other hand, operated along the lines of Ireland and Wales. That is to say: everyone knew that witches existed, but no one saw any need to do anything about it.

Sources:

S. Duffy (2005) "Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia", Routledge: New York

Robert Dudley Edwards (1977) "Ireland in the age of the Tudors: The destruction of Hiberno-Norman civilisation, Harper& Row Publishers

Geraint H. Jenkins (2007) "A Concise History of Wales", Cambridge University Press

Brian John (2001) "Witches and Wizards in Pembrookeshire", Greencroft Books

J. Goodare (2002) "The Scottish Witchunt in Context"

ETA: Sorry about all the sources. My inner academic demanded references. :embarrassed:

[Anny Nym]

Short answer: Ireland. No. Scottish Highlands. No. Scottish Lowlands. Yes.

Ireland, Wales and the Scottish Highlands remained largely untouched by witchhunts. In Ireland and the Scottish Highlands, there are very few cases. Wales, if memory serves, stands out with a grand total of five executed witches. Three of those witches stood trial in England, so actually Wales only had two witch trials.

The simplest answer as to why these three areas remained relatively unaffected by the witch-craze is that witchcraft was an accepted part of life. Both good and bad magic existed, or the fairies were to blame if things went wrong. For example, if all your cows died of anthrax, the answer to the mystery was that the fairies had shot them with fairy-arrows.

In Wales, if you suspected that someone had put a spell onto you, the way to deal with it, was either to employ a counter-spell, or you just went to that person and asked them to remove the spell. Witchcraft was part of everyday life and generally not connected to the devil/evil.

In Ireland, until after the English conquest, there was no law against witchcraft (it's a bit more complicated, but for the sake of brevity, there was mostly no law against it). The first law came in 1586, but witch trials never really took off. Part of the reason, it appears, is that the first witchtrial - which happened before there even was a law - was openly politically motivated. The Irish nobility and people of influence, had no interest in going along with a case against one of their own, brought by an English bishop. So, arguably, the witch-craze never happened, because it was a) not part of the cultural repertoire, and b) too English.

The Scottish Lowlands had a rather different view of the entire issue, and consequently burnt witches. The Highlands on the other hand, operated along the lines of Ireland and Wales. That is to say: everyone knew that witches existed, but no one saw any need to do anything about it.

Sources:

S. Duffy (2005) "Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia", Routledge: New York

Robert Dudley Edwards (1977) "Ireland in the age of the Tudors: The destruction of Hiberno-Norman civilisation, Harper& Row Publishers

Geraint H. Jenkins (2007) "A Concise History of Wales", Cambridge University Press

Brian John (2001) "Witches and Wizards in Pembrookeshire", Greencroft Books

J. Goodare (2002) "The Scottish Witchunt in Context"

ETA: Sorry about all the sources. My inner academic demanded references. :embarrassed:

Thank you. So once again, one can say "with coexistence, things going way smoother!"

PS: I like your inner academic. Trip down the academic memory lane for this recently turned SAHM here. Give your inner academic a non-crunchy cookie :lol:

[patsymae]

Kirk is getting some feedback: rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/kirk-cameron-denounced-as-pagan-and-papist-for-encouraging-celebration-of-halloween/

[ThisOlGirl]

Kirk is getting some feedback: rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/kirk-cameron-denounced-as-pagan-and-papist-for-encouraging-celebration-of-halloween/

Kirk is looking a little, erm, "Toolish" in that Raw Story picture. The beard, the hair...

[thoughtful]