Singing Potatoes
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Friday, 31 October 2003
Hallelujaween

I think I've probably written about this before, but I got really irritated yesterday when one of my cow-orkers self-righteously declared that her child wouldn't be dressing up for Halloween because hers was a "good Christian family". Karen has also been noticing this sort of thing.

I find it sad and ridiculous that certain Christian sects have begun to condemn Halloween as a "pagan holiday", because (like the complaints that "Xmas" is an attempt to "take Christ out of Christmas") it displays a woeful ignorance about the history of their own religion. Hallowe'en (or All Hallows Evening in its uncontracted form) is the night before the Feast of All Saints, which was deliberately scheduled by the Christian church to subsume the pagan harvest festival of Samhain (just as Christmas was scheduled on December 25th to replace the midwinter festival of Yule). The costumes and trick-or-treating are modern inventions, born centuries after the Celts had been assimilated into Christianity and the pagan religions had been extinguished.

But what really boggles my mind are the churches which promote a "Harvest Festival" night to replace Halloween — in an attempt to do away with what they see as a "pagan holiday", they're eschewing the Christian holiday and returning it back to its original pagan intent!

Posted by godfrey (link)
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Comments
Yeah, I ran into something like that last year; what a bunch of killjoys. At least this year no one's advocating trick-or-treats on a different day of the week (can't stay out late on a school night, oh no!).
Posted by Squelch on 31 Oct 2003 13:56
Ignorant people suck. Like your blog headed today.
Posted by Lisa on 31 Oct 2003 14:19
I agree. Ignorance is bad. It harbors fear, which is the opposite of faith.
Posted by Meredith on 2 Nov 2003 19:13