Did you use to believe that Halloween was satanic?

[GenerationCedarchip]

The fundie-farm growing up had a lot of intellectual and pseudo-intellectual types, and I found out later on that they actually made fun of the folks who completely bought into the Satanic Panic. I have vague memories of trick or treating when I was really little but I know my mom was really picky about costumes. No ghosts, witches,etc... As I got old enough for it to be really fun, the church cracked down on Halloween parties and things like that, so no more Halloween for us. I don't think I ever really believed it was Satanic, it just got presented as being a worldly celebration of things we shouldn't celebrate.

The lack of Halloween only bothered me a little and that was more because I couldn't be with my friends. Looking back, I'm just glad I wasn't forced to go to the crappy harvest festival that took its place.

[Shirley MacLaine]

Did anyone else's family totally buy the rumors that Liz Claiborne and the CEO of Proctor & Gamble are Satanists?

Had a big house-clean at my grandmother's over that shit, we actually burned the few LC items she had.

[TheSassyOne]

Did anyone else's family totally buy the rumors that Liz Claiborne and the CEO of Proctor & Gamble are Satanists?

YES! I remember my Grandmother, Aunt and Mom discussing this when I was younger. I'm assuming they didn't believe it because we kept using Proctor and Gamble products.

[ThisOlGirl]

Did anyone else's family totally buy the rumors that Liz Claiborne and the CEO of Proctor & Gamble are Satanists?

Had a big house-clean at my grandmother's over that shit, we actually burned the few LC items she had.

I met someone just a few years ago who still believed that mess! I was going on and on about how I'd had this particular LC purse for like 4 years and how durable it was (and that I got it brand new at a thrift store). She interrupted me to say "You do know that Liz Claiborne is a Satanist, right?". I told her that Liz Claiborne can be whatever she wants, as long as she keeps putting out purses that last forever. I miss that purse.

[Rosa]

[quote="Soldevi"

When Orthodox people from Karelia were inhabitated during and after WWII to other parts in Finland, these two opposite type of traditions were slowly mixed. Nowadays kids dress up as withces and go to bless people with willow twigs.

[nolongerIFBx]

Yes. I think I was around four the last time I went.

Several of the churches offered a "Harvest Party" instead, where you could dress up as a Bible character- no Adam and Eve though!- but we didn't always got to those. It wasn't a big deal since none of our friends went either.

I do remember making sure that our cat stayed inside so that he wouldn't get picked up and sacrificed. . .

[NurseNell]

I grew up in a part of the American Midwest that was so heavily and recently settled by Germans (to the point where older people name different ethnicities of German - their families are Bohemian, or Bavarian, or whatever), so people still gave May Baskets on the 1st of May when I was growing up in the '80s. I think that's completely died out now though :( We still do it, and a few of our friends do, but it's become a pagan thing instead of a cultural one.

We gave May baskets in the 1950's in New York. I love that tradition. I had my kids do it also in the 1980's.

[antifundie]

I don't know that I ever believed that Halloween was actually Satanic, but I wasn't ever allowed to go trick-or-treating. I'm looking forward to having kids so I can do that! In one of my friend's neighborhoods, the kids would go around with the buckets for candy, and the attending parents would have empty wine glasses. I think that's really cool, and a fun way to meet neighbors.

I'm trying to figure out if I could get away with taking my dog trick-or-treating, but that might be a long shot. :) I am looking forward to tonight though--I love seeing all the kids in little costumes and stuff. I'm still hot a huge fan or anything, but I think it's cute and harmless.

[Rosa]

at least in my neighborhood, you could TOTALLY take a dog trick-or-treating if you put it in a costume. Or at least be out walking around and meet a lot of people. You'd probably get a lot of lectures making sure you know not to give the dog chocolate, though.

[ladypuglover]

Nope and that is from my kinda sort-of fundy mother's reasoning. I say kind of sort of because if we stubbed our toes or some such, she would say that it was God punishing us for not cleaning our rooms. And she was Baptist. But in the same breath she was the head of our household, she worked, she could change her own engine with the help of a cherry picker and she loved to have drinks at parties and dance. She also belived that women don't wait around for a man to help her or nothing would get done right or even done at all.

She started all of us kids for our love of all things morbid. She wouldn't let us do halloween gory but we did have wonderful homemade costumes. Witches, devils, cats, fairies and so forth but not anything oozing blood. She let me dress up as my favorite childhood story hero.... Lizzy Borden. She also bought every book about good old Liz that she could find and she encouraged even my sons love of ghoulishness.

Thanks to my mother, I still love and adore Halloween and in no way does it conflict with my Christian beliefs.

[dawbs]

My parents decided, for a short while, it had the 'appearance of impropriety' to have us participate.

So they bought us each a HUGE bag of candy (our choice--@ sams) if we wouldn't go out TorTing and still handed out candy but refused to decorate or particpate in it otherwise.

That was in their 'fundiest' phase (before that we just had 'nothing scary/demonic' as the costume rule)...They got over it.

And my sisters and I never bought into it.

[QAF_Rocks]

However as someone mentioned Ouija boards, those are regarded badly. One of my parents is atheist, one agnostic. But you could buy mini Ouija boards when I was in my early 20s and I remember shopping with parents, saying "Oh cute!" and getting the response "We'll NOT have that thing in the house."

Wow, really? You'd think outright atheists would be the least likely people on the planet to be superstitious about Ouija boards. Unless they just stopped believing in deities but didn't get rid of the rest of their supernatural beliefs. I got a Ouija board for my eighth birthday. It was kind of a boring toy because it only worked with one of my parents. When my brother and I tried it on our own, the darn thing never moved.

[kittypie]

Fundie-Lite here and have never believed that Halloween is satanic. Jeez.

[finleeport]

Well, Happy Halloween everybody, Happy All Hallow's Eve, and Happy Samhain. Don't eat too much candy.

[keeks21]

Halloween was satanic in my family, but so was The Simpsons, Pokeman, Roald Dahl novels etc

EDIT: Also just remembered, garden statues with glass eyes were satanic as well. Do not remember why though.

[Alecto]

I was in prime trick or treating age when the Satanic Panic hit. I was also a blond haired blue eyed little girl. Needless to say in 1988-89 I didn't get to trick or treat for fear the Satanists would kidnap us.

[JesusFightClub]

Wow, really? You'd think outright atheists would be the least likely people on the planet to be superstitious about Ouija boards. Unless they just stopped believing in deities but didn't get rid of the rest of their supernatural beliefs. I got a Ouija board for my eighth birthday. It was kind of a boring toy because it only worked with one of my parents. When my brother and I tried it on our own, the darn thing never moved.

LOL! I actually asked my parents before about this. My (atheist) mum thinks it makes for unhealthy thoughts. People can get obsessed by it and be manipulated by others, she says. She does not think a spirit moves it but she does think "It's just too scary for people".

My (agnostic) dad has his share of Scottish superstition as do I. He's more of "shouldnae mess wi' some things".

[Unbalanced]

I went to Christian (accredited, mind you) school K-12 and in elementary school we had "Harvest Parties" instead of Halloween ones. But that's about as far as it went - I don't know anyone who didn't go out trick or treating, hand out candy, go to haunted houses, read Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Goosebumps, and Fear Street, so on and so forth.

Hell, once I hit high school, it wasn't uncommon for people to come in on Halloween dressed up in costume. The administration didn't care.

I think the number of people who truly believe the commercialized concept of Halloween (not counting Ouija boards, etc.) as a satanic holiday is greatly exaggerated.

[QAF_Rocks]

I think what bothers me is not so much that people think Halloween is satanic. It's that they believe anything is satanic. If you believe something is satanic, that means you think that devils and demons are real. I just find that utterly confounding and disturbing. It's not part of my worldview, to put it mildly.

LOL! I actually asked my parents before about this. My (atheist) mum thinks it makes for unhealthy thoughts. People can get obsessed by it and be manipulated by others, she says. She does not think a spirit moves it but she does think "It's just too scary for people".

Gotcha. I can see how that might happen, especially with kids. I never had any idea the Ouija board was supposed to be evil. Of course I didn't believe in spirits even at eight years old, but it was fun to pretend. We did play with it off and on over the years, contacted "spirits" (but only nice ones), and wrote down a bunch of predictions for the future that were, of course, laughably incorrect. I was easily scared by many things as a child, but the Ouija board wasn't one of them. I was more freaked out by the "Bloody Mary" mirror game.

[browngrl]

No. As a child I thought: Halloween = candy.

[Eclipse]

I had no idea the satanism hysteria was so widespread. I'm guessing my parents thought it was all hogwash.

I was born in 1984 and have been celebrating halloween ever since. My Catholic family with Scottish heritage viewed it as a traditional activity. My mom made each kid our own trick or treat bag with ghosts, bats and graves on it. My parents always let us pick out our own costumes and were supportive when I was 8 and decided I would celebrate the original meaning of Hallowe'en by only being something scary or dead. I was a precocious child :D

My mom took me to a store when I was 9 to buy a Ouija board with my birthday money. Light as a Feather was a regular sleep over game.

For any Fundies reading this, none of the kids I grew up with are drug addicts, alcoholics, or teenage parents. It was all part of our wholesome upbringing.

When I was little the biggest challenge around Hallowe'en was finding a costumes that would fit over a snowsuit.

[liltwinstar]

Something I find really interesting...a lot of churches do "harvest parties" as a Halloween alternative. Yet (according to Wikipedia anyway) Samhain is a harvest festival. So seems to me these churches are waaaaay closer to paganism and "pagan ritual" than they would have us believe.

That thought is bringing me a lot of joy right now :)

[2xx1xy1JD]

No, not exactly Satanic BUT.....highly discouraged by the Orthodox Jewish rabbis.

The reasons can be summarized as:

1. It has Pagan roots.

2. It has a Christian connection via All Saints Day.

3. Whether or not it is more Pagan or more Christian doesn't matter, because either way it has roots in non-Jewish religion and is therefore treife (not kosher).

4. Why should Jews put effort into a non-Jewish holiday, when many ignore perfectly nice Jewish holiday? Nu, why don't you put up a Sukkah and dress up for Purim?

5. Tales of anti-semitic incidents taking place - which from a Jewish POV is pretty much the same as calling it Satanic.

Now, I live on the same street as a couple of anti-Halloween Orthodox rabbis, so it was pretty quiet here tonight. Our family also has a no-Halloween policy, even though most of the kids at our kids' school go treat-or-treating. I know I sound like the resident fanatic, but before you feel sorry for my kids, consider this:

1. We do not lack holidays and celebrations. In fact, over the past month, we've had Rosh Hashana (2.5 days off school, 2 days of synagogue, 2 nights of feasting at our house with a combined total of 50 guests), Yom Kippur (half day off school, 1 day of synagogue, big meal at grandparents afterward to break the fast), my 40th birthday with big surprise party thrown by hubby, 9th birthday party for my daughter featuring total chaos and screaming girls in our home, Sukkot (building leaky hut in the backyard, 4 full days plus 2 half-days off of school, 4 days of synagogue, 4 nights of feasting, neighborhood "sukkah hops" for kids, tweens and adults), 40th birthday for hubby, 12th birthday for daughter. [This year, we also had the added excitement of hubby needing emergency eye surgery for a retina which is currently in the process of detaching.] We also celebrate Shabbat every week on top of that, which means that there is a feast with family or friends every Friday night. It's enough already.

2. My kids DO get to dress up and eat candy - in February/March, during the Jewish holiday of Purim.

3. Despite the fact that Halloween is clearly intriguing for them and that most of their other friends do it, my kids (at ages 7, 9 and 12) can explain to their peers that we don't, and the youngest even told me tonight that he wouldn't want all that candy because too much of it makes him throw up. Yes, these are my never-spanked kids from the non-patriarchal home with unbroken wills - so much for the notion that such kids can't possibly be self-disciplined.

[AmyP]

there was a "satanic panic" in the late 80's and early 90's??? Wow, I failed to notice. First I've heard of it.

[Trynn]

My parents decided when I was 13 and my brother was 6 that trick or treating was of the debil.

I agreed with them, until I found out about the true origins of Christmas. I decided that if I was also going to celebrate Christmas, then I could go ahead and celebrate halloween. besides, just because I'm going door to door begging for candy does NOT mean I am going to go worship Satan.