What should we do about Halloween?

Not outdated if you respect/worship the dead.

It isn't really a holiday - no one gets a day off for it. And why is it outdated? To me it is simply a fun evening for children to dress up and pretend to be some one else or something else.

I do run into an issue though as my daughter attends a Christian school who does not support Halloween - they have a "Harvest Fest" instead. Celebrated exactly as Halloween typically is for children - except no scary costumes. I have to explain that going Trick or Treating is not worshiping the devil, just a way of having fun and that Halloween for the majority of people is no longer considered worshiping devil, but perhaps way back in history it was consider as such. Now it is for children to dress up, go trick or treat or go to parties.

Not outdated to my 10 year old. Nor to me either, come to think of it.

I don't like having to answer the door a million times to do the candy thing, but I got no problem with it.

what should we DO ?

Huh?


Halloween is many things to many people.

Unfortunately , its latest incarnation has kids and adults dressing up and begging for candy...

They're pretty honest about that aspect of it in Ohio, they call it Beggar's Night . . .

thats how I feel about it now.





All Hallows eve was once considered a " new year"

it was the end of harvest season, time to rest and prepare for the winter.


It was also a day ( or just time of year) to honor the dead.
Remember family who have passed on, and do small rituals in thier honor, and to help pass on their memory to living family members.

How it went from that to Trick or Treat -Smell my feet-
( cough cough christians cough cough)
is beyond me..

It's a fun day for kids is what it is.

And if you have a great old creaky house, like I used to, it's a fun day for grown ups because you can put skeletons, bloody body parts and tombstones in the front garden, a corpse with a knife sticking out of his head half-way up the front stairs, and a coffin with a body in it at the top

You can play your horrid screechy, moaning, screaming music with all the lights out and blood dripping down the glass on the front door, which is slightly ajar.

And when the kids knock (they must be 7 or older, mind you), you leap out in your own freaky outfit and scare the bejesus out of them! LOL

And they all look forward to the next Hallowe'en at your house!

That's Hallowe'en.

Personally, I'm putting a pumpkin on the porch, some decorations in the windows and stocking up on candy like there's no tomorrow (leftovers, don't ya know?).

If you've got a problem with that, I'll egg your house.

I've already got a dozen set aside for the yahoo who keeps parking in front of my house rather than use his own driveway, so you know I'll do it.

You could always call a towing company from a pay phone and get his car towed to a garage and have it 'fixed'...

Well, turning on the sprinklers and aiming them at his car hasn't worked. I was thinking more along the lines of a Molotov cocktail, but eggs seem like the next logical step in the scale of escalation...

If he leaves his window cracked, pour some fish oil in there..

Shewolf and Chai Tea, you, of all people, should know that what the so-called Christians have corrupted into All Hallows Eve (Halloween for short) is actually Samhain, the start of the new year (as someone has already pointed out). For the adherents of Wicca it is the holiest night of the year. The few Wiccans that I have known personally resent its being corrupted into a kiddies' dress-up holiday far more than some so-called Christians dislike its pagan antecedents.

The tradition of dressing in weird and scary costumes at such times is a very ancient one. Since Samhain is the end of the old year and the start of the new, it is a time when there's a split second when the curtain between the mundane everyday world and the world of 'the other side' parts. It is no longer last year but not yet next year either. (It's why ghosts and goblins and demons always appear at midnight -- it's not yesterday yet but not yet tomorrow either. The gates are open for a moment.) So, with the gates open, the spooks, goblins, devils and all evil spirits can cross over to our side. People dress up as these unwelcome spirits in order to fool them. The theory is that, seeing a bunch of goblins and ghosts, the real interlopers will think that this territory has already been occupied. The dress-up is a self-defense protective measure.

This tradition is not only ancient but very widespread throughout Europe, not just among the Celts who used to worship the Druidic way. You'll find the same traditions -- though often on different dayes -- in the Scandinavian and Slavic countries also.

As someone else has also pointed out, this is all closely connected to respect for departed ancestors. This is the time when their spirits return to Earth and they must be honored and fed. Are you making the connection to the handing out of candy yet?

Feed me Snicker bars and M&Ms! Feed meeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

When I was a kid in Chicago we had Beggar's Night too, and I remember it falling on my birthday, which is the day before Halloween. Not sure if it always does. I didn't like Halloween. It was cold out and, besides being my birthday, I had to wear some quickly devised get up, put on a scratchy mask, go out with other kids in the freezing cold carrying a paper sack, and knock on doors...

Isn't Nov. 1 all saints' day? thus I've thought Halloween meant eve of all saints' day... whereas Nov. 2 is All Souls day.. (or maybe I have those backwards.)

Halloween is the end of my work year - so I celebrate like a prom queen.

I've stopped giving out candy and now give out little trolls, balls painted like eyes, erasers in the shape of skulls, glow in the dark pens etc. There's a lot of little stuff that is just as cheap as candy, and I feel very self-rightgeous that I'm not contributing to making kids fat or diabetic. The troll dolls were a little too popular and I could tell I was getting the same kids back for a second grab.

Party on little ghosts and goblins, just don't TP my trees.

When I was a kid, Halloween was a magical time to me. My siblings and I would trick or treat until we had a big galvanized tub full of goodies. We got to run around until 9PM, looking at costumes and decorations. These days, I have two friends that grump about it and try to influence people to avoid the festivities. I always tell them I don't care what they say; I want to see the kids have fun.

Merry Andrew, thanks, that was helpful. I saw your post after I posted.

What I like to "do" on Hallowe'en is to go to the pub as soon as I get in from work. That way, I avoid any moral decision making whatsoever.