Halloween Pearl-clutching

[Guest Anonymous]

Here's a good one. Trick-or-treating is just like going to first base with Satan!

Well,You could tell yourself that, but halloween does not glorify Jesus-it glorifies evil. Compromisers who don’t mind holding hands with the devil, if just for a night. Surely the Lord won’t mind. He’ll understand. It’s compromise. Where’s your courage! Afraid people will scoff at you? Afraid your children will be made fun of if you take a stand against this demonic day? If you say you’d die for HIM then why can’t you give up just one day FOR HIM? Wake up people and quit being foolish.

[DistantStar]

Ah yes. The Canadian Halloween experience. Working on a fab costume only to have to cover it with a parka. Alternatively - making the costume 4 sizes too big so you can wear heavy clothes under it.

Mittens were standard. At least those were my memories. Maybe it's the global warming, but lately Halloweens have been a bit warmer and less likely to have frost. Makes it easier to identify the costumes when they kids come by for candy. This is all in the Greater Toronto area.

Growing up in Texas I had a book wherein the protagonist's mother made her wear a heavy coat over her costume. I was totally mystified by this until four years ago when I moved to the mountains. Brrrrrrr. (I'll probably see our first dusting of snow in the next couple of days!)

I'm still pagan enough to be willing to help with praying over the candy if anybody needs any help. :)

[PBrooke]

Here's a good one. Trick-or-treating is just like going to first base with Satan!

Holding hands is first base? Whoa, someone sold me a bill of goods as a pre-teen...

[Guest Anonymous]

Holding hands is first base? Whoa, someone sold me a bill of goods as a pre-teen...

Lol! Thanks for that PBrooke, even though I have to go change my shirt due to spitting coffee all over myself. Nah, holding hands isn't what I would consider first base either. I was just having a go at the "handsex is a sin!" crowd. :P

**Edited because I mixed up PBrooke with pomology. I'm sorry!

[Guest Anonymous]

In my city, most of the christian churches have halloween festivals but they specifically ask that your kids don't wear scary costumes. Boring.

[doe]

Has any child been enticed by Paganism/Satanism just by celebrating Halloween in the traditional American way (dressin a costume and get candy from strangers)? The only people who are "celebrating" the pagan customs of the season are likely pagans already! My attraction to paganism came during college when I wanted to explore spirituality that had to do with feminism and nature. It had nothing to do with trick-or-treating!

As a child who grew up loving Halloween, I cay attest that any idea of either Paganism or Satanism never even occurred to me. C'mon! It was just dressing up, candy, parties, and fun decorations. I became a pagan as a late teen, and honestly I never saw the connection.

What drives me up the the wall are the Christian websites that try to "expose" the truth about Wicca/Paganism because a supposed former high priestess of the unicorn people got into some dark magics, and anything she says is the final authority on the subject. I have known many people who have associated with these types of religions/paths and have never heard anything about what they 'really' do behind closed doors.

Honestly, I think stories like that are BS. Do things like that actually happen? Sometimes they might. But I've never seen people like that as representative of earth religion/magic paths.

[dawbs]

I keep skimming through and seeing this post title...

I know someone can make a great image of the Pearls being clutched by a Halloween Daemon--my mental image is great.

[Mommy22alyns]

Halloween to me was about dressing up, running around my neighborhood getting as much candy as I could. Now that i'm a parent, it's the same way with my kid..we don't get that deep when it comes to halloween. To me, it's just a fun night!

I know, right? Just not worth getting worked up about.

[Mommy22alyns]

I found two. This one: generationcedar.com/main/2009/10/true-history-of-haloween-should-christians-celebrate.html

And a follow up post here: generationcedar.com/main/2009/11/halloween-clarifying-yesterdays-post.html

I think most of the quality wackiness takes place in the comments of the first post.

Once again, the thing that drives me NUTS about Kelly is that she is constantly posting articles and lengthy quotes and such AS her blog posts. If you have a blog, aren't YOU supposed to write it?? Kendal does the same thing.

[apple1]

...As a child who grew up loving Halloween, I cay attest that any idea of either Paganism or Satanism never even occurred to me. C'mon! It was just dressing up, candy, parties, and fun decorations...

My daughters, when they were young, used to say that there is a mothers' day, and a fathers' day, and Halloween is kids' day-- after all, a day for getting candy must be kids' day. :-)

[Linnea]

Halloween is a pretty big deal here in the Subarctic, but adjustments have to be made.

When we lived in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where white Halloweens were not uncommon, my mother pursuaded my brothers that "Arctic Explorer" was a good Halloween costume.

[finleeport]

I only wore one costume on Halloween, and that's when I was in kindergarten. My family doesn't celebrate Halloween, they came from Greece and its not well known there. I was told that it was a holiday for the devil. as I grew older I did my own research and learned the halloween was originally a Pagan holiday bidding farewell to summer and also venerating the dead.

I also did look up religious mythology about Halloween and read a lot of witch-hunter's accounts; The Witches' Sabbath was usually on Halloween, or All Hollow's Eve night. Witches, Lepers, Jews, Heretical Christians, Gypsies, Pagans and Atheists were said to fly on goats or brooms or pitchforks to get to the dark, secluded place where the sabbath was to take place. It started at midnight and ended at dawn. They would have processions, dancing, orgies, black mass and banqueting on human flesh (usually children's flesh) and stewed bones. They would trample on the cross, spit on it, mock God and kiss the devil's anus.

Its kinda funny when you think about, but I kinda like it because..well I usually am interested in 'Romanticized' evil. I even base some of my stories on some of these myths, for fun only.

[emmiedahl]

Oh, I am so adopting this! Usually I can persuade my husband to take the kids door to door to door to door...but a drink might just make it bearable.

Even worse... when we are trick-or-treating at the houses of people we know, I have been known to ask for refills. As in, "Hey, my gin and tonic is running dangerously low. Do you have anything I can dump in here? It's to stay warm (wink-wink)."

[O Latin]

Even worse... when we are trick-or-treating at the houses of people we know, I have been known to ask for refills. As in, "Hey, my gin and tonic is running dangerously low. Do you have anything I can dump in here? It's to stay warm (wink-wink)."

I think that should be like trick-or-treating for grown-ups. Dress up in costumes and go around your neighborhood begging for alcohol. Now that would be my kind of Halloween.

Just because I like to tell this story, my friends and I have been known to bring water bottles full of gin and tonic to (church) choir practice, and we may or may not have had a Christmas Eve party in a secluded corner of the music wing complete with three different kinds of alcohol. Good times.

[emmiedahl]

The whole drinking for adults/candy for kids + costumes is what happens on Purim, so I blame it on being Jewish. I hope I am not giving all the Gentiles the wrong idea.

"She's a bit of a lush, but I guess that is normal for Jews..."

[StarrieEyedKat]

The whole drinking for adults/candy for kids + costumes is what happens on Purim, so I blame it on being Jewish. I hope I am not giving all the Gentiles the wrong idea.

"She's a bit of a lush, but I guess that is normal for Jews..."

:lol:

We Trick or Treat in my in-laws neighborhood, where everyone knows one another. They all pass out candy to the kids and beers to the adults, it's wonderful. Occasionally we'll trick or treat in my step-sisters neighborhood where one house has a grill set up and passes out hot dogs, bags of chips, cookies, candy, punch and coffee to everyone.

To me, Beggars Night really lets you see what kind of neighborhood you're living in. Where we live now, no one passes candy out and the street is depressingly boring, not just for Halloween, but also for Christmas and in the summer. No decorations, no kids running around, nothing. I have no idea who my neighbors are and I hate that. My in-laws' neighborhood has block parties and fish fries in the summer, tons of Trick or Treaters in the fall, gorgeous decorations up during the winter holidays and they have Friday night get-togethers all year round. They also do things like watch out for one another when someone's out of town. I'd rather live in a neighborhood like that.

[Maul the Koala]

The whole drinking for adults/candy for kids + costumes is what happens on Purim, so I blame it on being Jewish. I hope I am not giving all the Gentiles the wrong idea.

"She's a bit of a lush, but I guess that is normal for Jews..."

Quite a few of the non-Jewish people around this area drink alcohol out of their coffee mugs when trick or treating. I think my parents were the only ones that didn't, haha.

[Avalondaughter]

I think that should be like trick-or-treating for grown-ups. Dress up in costumes and go around your neighborhood begging for alcohol. Now that would be my kind of Halloween.

Just because I like to tell this story, my friends and I have been known to bring water bottles full of gin and tonic to (church) choir practice, and we may or may not have had a Christmas Eve party in a secluded corner of the music wing complete with three different kinds of alcohol. Good times.

I think at Christmas we need to resurrect the tradition of Ye Olde Wassail. Go from door to door asking for drinks!

[Fat Actress]

I wasn't allowed to celebrate Halloween as a child. We turned our lights out and hid in the basement. As a child who adored dressing up, I was miserable. Now I celebrate big. My husband and I dress up as well & we do family themes for our costumes. Last year it was Alice in Wonderland (me: queen of hearts, DH: mad hatter, and baby: the white rabbit). This year it's a little mermaid theme (me: Ursula, DH: king triton, toddler: sebastion, baby: eel). I make elaborate stroller decorations and then we hit up every costume contest we can. It's great fun. Fundies are just kill-joys.

[Kitty]

I love Halloween. I hate the gross aspects of it, but LOVE the creepy aspects. I've never been scared of Halloween stores, skulls, etc. For me, it's the dressing up part.

Last Church, a conservative Baptist church, started up a Fall Festival a year or two after I left. When I was still there, they'd have us come to the last AWANA night before Halloween in costume. We couldn't be devils or witches though, and I know at least two people who had to buy two costumes- they'd have one costume for trick-or-treating and another for AWANA. And at AWANA they never said anything about Satan or Halloween, they just had us dress up for kicks.

The talk of drinking while trick-or-treating would definitely put their knickers in a twist. :D

I just wish I could have a costume that wasn't meant for someone with huge boobs and wasn't meant to make me look like a porn actress.

[helloemi]

Upon finding out that Martin Luther day is on Halloween, I am tempted to dress up as a zombie Martin Luther.

Bwahahahaha Or an evil nun and make the husband go as zombie Martin Luther....

[LilMissMetaphor]

[debrand]

My birthday, anniversary and first grandson's birth all occurred on Halloween. It's a BIG deal to me. I love Halloween. If Satan's plan for world domination is to rot kids' teeth with candy it is no wonder he hasn't succeeded yet.

When I first saw this subject thought, DAMN, I wanted to start the Halloween is evil thread. :D

[lilwriter85]

There were a few churches in the town that I grew up in that didn't celebrate Halloween. One of them was an Assembly of God church and I can't remember the denominations of the other two churches. The Assembly of God church used to have a potluck and movie night on Halloween every year. The pastor was a teacher at my high school and he told about why his church didn't celebrate Halloween.

[eineAnanas]

There's a man living in my neighborhood who always turned his porch light on during trick or treating, but then hung a sign on his door that said his family doesn't believe in Halloween because it's the Devil's holiday. My friends and I were always tempted to toilet paper his house. If you don't celebrate Halloween, fine, just don't leave your lights on and use the night as an excuse to act more godly than the rest of the neighborhood.