OK, what is it with Halloween and people’s beliefs?
Now, I know I’ve done some postings on Pagan holidays (see January 9, 2007) and how they have all been taken over and re-themed by Christians. But now it seems that even that is not good enough for some groups.
All Hallows Eve was celebrated by the old earth religions (religions that worshipped the four elements and ether, or spirit, religions like Druidism, Wicca, and many other that are considered Pagan). This was the festival that was known as Samhain, which thanks to Wikipedia is...
a Gaelic festival held on October 31-November 1. The Irish name Samhain is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end". A harvest festival with ancient roots in Celtic polytheism, it was linked to festivals held around the same time in other Celtic cultures, and continued to be celebrated in late medieval times. Due to its date it became associated with the Christian festival All Saints' Day, and greatly influenced modern celebration of Halloween
Halloween was the Christian Church’s way of turning the Pagan holiday into something they could have and make fun of the believers of Wicca which was turned into witchcraft with their followers becoming witches (whom have been portrayed as ugly evil beings). So the celebration of Halloween is actually Christian as it is today. But there is a disturbing trend that I saw when we moved to Florida.
Many churches around here don’t want their parishioners celebrating Halloween because it is evil. Huh? They would rather them celebrate All Saints Day and don’t want them partaking in anything Halloween.
Okay, let me see if I’ve got this straight. Halloween is now a Christian ‘holiday’ as it was taken from the original Pagan holiday, but many Christian churches believe it is evil because it involves witches and evil spirits. Uhh, are these guys not on the same page?
I give up making sense out of what organized religions do beyond the basic ‘be kind to others’ and ‘treat those as you would yourself’ stuff. I think I’ll just celebrate the changing of the seasons to the winter months.