Do You Think Halloween is Evil or "of the devil"?

I go trick or treating at Target on November 1st.

 

Yes, I love those clearance sales

 

starting next week thousands of people will come to where I live to party for Halloween, and there will be hundreds of woman wearing only body paint walking around



yeah totally evil

 

It started out as a satanic holiday right? I don't think very many people celebrate it that way today, but there are satan worshipers and they do regard it as a holiday like christmas.

But like it basically says in the bible about eating meat that has been offered to idols... "What you don't know can't hurt you." So I don't see what's wrong with dressing up and being spooky if you don't mean it as a tribute to the devil.

 

Actually halloween has it's origins in a Celtic/Irish festival which was known as Samhain. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the devil or satan. In fact the people who celebrated Samhain did not even believe in a devil.

For more info about the --> history and origins of Halloween

 

Isn't there something about it being the day of the dead, before all saints day on nov. 1st?

 

They looked upon the days of Samhain as a time when they were somehow more in communication with the spirits of their ancestors. They viewed "ghosts" a little differently than most people do today. They did not fear them but revered them and thought of them as helpers and guides. They did not think of the dead as evil or satanic.

 

Correct. It had NOTHING to do with the devil. Halloween is as evil as Easter.

As has been pointed out earlier in this thread over the last 20 years or so 'Trick or Treating' has caught on in the UK. Although traditionalists (like me) hurumph into our warm beer and say it's a ghastly foreign import that detracts from Bonfire Night (which is the nearest thing we've got to a National Day like 4th July) the kids all love it.

Talking of 4th July (and going off topic for a bit) I've noticed that Britain's started to celebrate it as well! Not massively but you do get pubs and bars having 'Independance Day' parties where they drag out some red white and blue bunting left over from the last royal wedding and knock tuppence off the price of Budweiser.

 

Good.

It is also a break time activity, since the kids have been in school for 2 months.

Only the uninformed think is evil

 

Holloween is as evil as you make it.

 

Easter is actually more "evil" than Halloween. Easter came from Babylon/Chaldean religions and dealt directly with idol worship. In reality Easter had nothing to do with Jesus or the resurrection. It had to do with fertility gods and idolatry.

 

Wow.. people these days.

This reminds me of a pamphlet I was given to by some kid at my town's local annual music event, that said "The Burning Hell - thousands of degrees hot!" and had a picture of some cartoon people on fire and said "Lost souls burn forever!". It truly amazes me that these ultra "religious" Christians honestly believe that god is some selfish being that would damn "lost" souls for all eternity because they refused to worship him. If god is the ultimate being, don't you think he would lack human traits we look down on such as selfishness?

Sorry to put that out there, I hope I offended as few people as possible, as that is not my intentions, I am just throwing out my thoughts.

As for your question, no I see absolutely nothing anti-god about the giving and receiving of candy for children.

 

In Britain 'Easter' came from the old Norse and Saxon religions. The word itself was a corruption of Eostre the Saxon goddess of fertility. The egg and the hare (now an 'Easter Bunny') were old fertility symbols. Both have survived because the early Christians in Britain, not being stupid, simply added Jesus to the existing festivals in order to make the new religion more attractive to the locals. The resurrection story, as you say, fitted neatly into the 'rebirth' element of the pagan celebration of Easter. Also surviving of course is the custom of decorating the house at winter solstice, sorry, Christmas and the celtic cross.

Interestingly a lot of other languages have a non-pagan word for Easter more akin to the Jewish feast of Passover. Easter in French for example is 'Paque' and in spanish it's 'Pascua'

 

Would you be ok if say female members of your family would do the same things as the girl in the photo around Halloween time? I am just wondering if there are any feminists around dp or other members with some kind of respect towards women.

 

if it made them happy, sure but frankly my sister and mom are a bit fat to look good in such an outfit

but it's not really my place to say, my girlfriend is pretty much a feminist and she has a pretty revealing Halloween costume this year

We don't really look at peoples bodies are something dirty or shameful, same goes for sex

 

lol!!! I laughed out loud.

 

I am a feminist. I also walked in a parade wearing body paint.

 

I see. This reminds me of a quote from Seinfeld. You know George or whatever his name was: "There are many feminists around. Yet when the bill comes where are they?"

So thanks Pauline for making me see feminism in not such a positive light.

 

Either way

 

Excuse me? I always split the bill or pay half when I'm on a date. And just because I wore body paint in a parade doesn't mean I'm suddenly not a feminist.