October 16, 2011
-
Halloween
This is part of the year that I dislike the most: Halloween. It bothers me to see kids dressed up in evil costumes. I’ve had to deal with the “real” dark side and it’s not a play thing. We make a family night that night. Last year we went to Chuckie Cheese. It was great and very empty. We’re doing the same this year.
Why is Halloween popular?
Comments (46)
Beats the heck outta me. I always stay at home and hope like hell that no one will knock on my door asking for candy (I never buy any). Fortunately, I usually get left alone.
Well, we don’t do Halloween, because it’s a Christian holiday.
At the same time, I posted a few times about why I think Purim is sooooo much better than Halloween.
Why I Prefer Purim Over Halloween
I don’t mind little kids dressing up in fun costumes and going for treats at friends and relatives homes. The rest of it I really don’t like. Chuckie Cheese sounds like a good idea.
Halloween is popular because it is no longer about anything but itself. It has all the fun, communal ritualistic celebration of a holiday without any of the weight of actually honoring something. It’s a nice example of how you can have meaningful and entertaining holidays while acknowledging that the festivities are centered around something fictional, because really, it is the social connections and things you actually do that matter.
Kids get to be creative, meet their neighbors, hang out with their friends and family, get some exercise, and then enjoy games and candy, all without any ulterior motive or being sold a belief system. The macabre and spookiness aspect has a sort of paradoxical dual value too; on one hand, Halloween celebrates things that are scary and being scared is really fun for its own sake and brings people together wonderfully, on the other, Halloween ultimately diminishes the scariness of death, the dark, the cold, things that go bump in the night, etc. by not treating them so seriously and preventing them from becoming taboo and sacred. It inverts our typical values and shows that this really isn’t evil because we are all still human, reacting to the world in human ways. It’s a great time of year, at least in the northeast U.S., and it complements that fun chill underpinning the holiday really nicely. If you’re a horror fan like I am, it’s also a good opportunity to indulge yourself and share your enthusiasm with other people. And finally, there’s some other feeling about the holiday that I love that I can never quite put my finger on. I suppose it reminds me that I will die, my body will become cold and empty and that’s ok.
yes, it’s a pagan holiday-I think of it as the next day “all saints day” brings me back to what it really is in our church; celebration of the dead who were good not bad. There is evil in the world and with God we can be win good over evil.
That really does sound like the best time to go to chuck e cheese. We have a service at church that day, for Reformation day, the day Martin Luther tacked the 95 theses on the doors of the Catholic church.
No Halloween in Malaysia. Thanks God for that.
You had to deal with the real dark side? I find that interesting and I’m curious as to how. Have you posted about it?
Even though I abhor scary movies, especially the blood and gore ones with gratuitous killing, Halloween is a different kind of scare. Its a holiday where kids especially get the opportunity to explore the fear in a safe way. The old fairy tales (not the cleaned up versions) serve the same purpose.-1523044855–x”>@vickevlar -
Halloween was popular for me when I was younger because I got FREE CANDY and got to hang out with some school friends. I don’t try to make a big deal out of Halloween anymore. I don’t go out or go to weird parties with friends that act like immature teenagers. I don’t know; to me, it just ran its course and it doesn’t have a purpose for me anymore.
I have decided to ignore Halloween.
Halloween is about mascarade. You get to be someone you can’t otherwise be for a day and people accept it.
I think it is popular with the kids because of the candy but I would be very concerned about who is giving my kids what in their trick or treat bags in these days of such awful sick individuals roaming loose in the world.
I think it’s popular because it’s a fun night. It’s the one night of year you can dress up as whatever you want and no one will look at you weird. Plus, if you’re a kid, candy is good too.
Halloween really isn’t all that bad. I’ve done a lot of studying about Halloween and it’s not evil like people may think. What makes Halloween evil is not the day, the holiday, the month or the time of year, it is people and their actions that can make things bad.
@TheSchizoidMan - wishing you the best in that.
@hevcoh - Halloween is not a Christian holiday. There is nothing “Christ” like about it.
@ata_grandma - We always like Chucky Cheese
@vickevlar - I’ve never heard that view before – thanks for commenting.
@Babyboomerjill - You are absolutely right.
@bethro78 - Service on Halloween – that’s great.
@PrincessDiyanaAleeya - Thanks for the bit of knowledge – Makes me wonder if Halloween is just an USA thing.
@Randy7777 - It’s the eve of All Saints Day. It’s Christian enough. Chuckie Cheese, however, is pretty much the evilest place on earth. At least the one I had to go to.
@Jewelbeetle - I’ve never posted on the “dark” side. It’s just not something I like to think about. The last incident was a guy that was demon possessed. He came to church and was being disruptive. Me and another guy directed him towards the front door and began to talk to him. He was speaking in an evil low voice. Everytime we spoke about Jesus he cowered into the corner. After several minutes the “real” person came back and then he decided to leave.
@makesenseofmadness - thanks
@hevcoh - disagree - Chuckie – lol
@Shining_Garnet - Thanks for commenting
@Grannys_Place - That is the concern
@WondersCafe - almost like Washington?
@RoaminCatholic@revelife - Thanks
We have something similar in Croatia in February, it’s more like carnival or something. But Halloween is a US thing and I’m glad we don’t have it here. February has become frustrating either way for me, couse one night of the month everybody dresses up and goes wild.
I am guessing because it gives people a way to be more evil than they already are. People will disguise themselves and do things to harm others or whatever. Pranks go too far sometimes. I personally hate Halloween and won’t celebrate it. My kids don’t do Halloween either and they don’t care. They don’t feel like they are missing out on anything. I don’t give out candy either. I leave my lights off and close my blinds so no one comes over.
I don’t think Halloween, in terms of how it was when I was growing up; i.e., “trick or treating” and dressing up in costumes, is as popular anymore. It was a fun time back. Except for some tricks which got out of hand, it was just a good excuse for dressing up in a costume, visiting neighbors for treats & having a party. Today, going from door to door to collect treats is not as popular, and in my apartment complex, it’s just not done anymore. Many churches in the area, including my congregation, offer “Trunk or Treat” in which kids can experience a wholesome, safe time together and collect some goodies. Our apartment is holding a “Trunk or Treat” for the first time this year. It is so named because we don’t have to open a door to the kids, but distribute the “treats” from the trunk of our cars.
However, being involved with Celtic music and lore, I do know about the roots of Halloween (All Hallow’s Eve) in the British Isles. It was part of the fall festival known as Samhain (pronounced “Sahwahn”. It was celebrated the night before All Saint’s Day.
~~Blessings and Cheers
It should be more important what it means to you (or COULD mean to you) rather than what its roots are. I’m a born-again Christian, and I fully recognize that on Christmas day, we celebrate Christ’s birth despite Christmas’s pagan roots. On Easter, I fully recognize that we celebrate Christ’s resurrection despite Easter’s pagan roots.
We’ve chosen to take pagan holidays, keep their original symbols (like the bunnies at Easter, which have nothing to do with Christ at all), yet still find the good in those holidays. I don’t hear most Christians complaining about those days.
I don’t see why Halloween should be any different. It is simply another skin-deep holiday – none of the original intentions (good or bad) are actually celebrated. People simply carry out customs because they find them to be a fun diversion from normal life.
If you want to be consistent in your beliefs, then you need to abandon the various symbols that are found in other holidays. If you’re buying a chocolate bunny at Easter, then you’re celebrating an ancient goddess named Eostre. Or you could simply find bunnies to be warm and fuzzy things, which FEELS like a nice symbol, so you let it slide.
When it all comes down to it, to a child, a witch is nothing more than a silly costume on Halloween. A Jack-O-Lantern is just a pumpkin with a funny face carved into it, and “Trick or Treat” almost never ends in the old definition of Trick. By treating Halloween differently, you’re giving its symbols power and credibility that they’ve already lost over time and would never would have otherwise. Personally, I would encourage a child to think of these “scary” symbols as silly and stupid fun, and when they get to a certain age where they can think rationally about spiritual things, THEN talk to them about the real-life versions of Halloween witches and Harry Potter sorcery, about real demons and the like.
If your child loses trust in what you tell them (e.g. they develop their own opinions that Halloween is safe whereas you’ve told them differently), they’ll trust you less on more important spiritual matters.
@poosywhistle - No chocolate bunnies in this house. – You’re right consistence is the key. Let’s keep it pure all the way around.
@DonnaLou - -never heard of the trunk or treat.
@boricua_chic_2008 - I’m always glad when the Christmas decorations go up and Halloween goes down.
@bmojsilo - Thanks for the lesson – interesting.
@Randy7777 - You’re welcome.
I think you missed my point. If you want to be consistent, then you should be ignoring Christmas and Easter, as well, since they are not “pure” but originating completely from pagan holidays. Christmas was originally Brumalia, which celebrated the sun and the wine god Dionysis / Bacchus, and gift-giving stemmed not from the three wise men but from part of the festival of that time. Easter had multiple false gods as its origin, starting with the Babylonian Tammuz. So if you’re worried about celebrating Halloween and keeping things pure, just make sure you’re not setting a double standard on holidays and ignoring the origins of two while investing your focus into one.
@Randy7777 - Me too!
@poosywhistle - I guess then I don’t agree with your definition of consistent. I like celebrating the birth of Jesus and His resurrection. I don’t celebrate evil. You have a wacked out point of view.
@Randy7777 - I suppose I don’t see Halloween as celebrating evil. If you put aside its origins (the same way you and I both do for Christmas and Easter) and look at what the holiday is TODAY, then it’s not celebrating evil. Today, it’s no more evil than exchanging playful insults with a sibling where you both know it’s all in the name of fun (and if you can’t see the innocence in that, then we’re probably just on completely different playing fields).
Do you really think that all the other people in the world that celebrate Halloween are doing it with the intention in mind of encouraging and celebrating evil, or is it more likely that everyone treats it as nothing more than a costume party?
If anything, Christians should take the opportunity to show that we understand the difference between the ridiculous and the real (e.g. a Disney witch and a wiccan, the latter of which is far more dangerous in its subtlety).
@poosywhistle - You are post modern in your thinking so yesa we are on different playing field. I believe the Bible says what is good and evil. -even if it has Disny stamped on it
-shrug- I think we get too caught up in trying to identify good and evil “things” and it removes our hearts from the picture. I think the good hearts of various prostitutes and the evil hearts of the self-righteous in the Bible reflects that good and evil is not about what you do but why you do it. Evil doesn’t reside in things or actions or symbols, it comes from us when we take our eyes off of God. When we get too caught up in labeling things as good or evil based on “law”, we place more value in the law itself than the purpose of the law (which is there to protect our spiritual well-being) and the Giver of that law. We end up mimicking the Pharisees in Matthew 12:1-14.
All that said, I’m just explaining my viewpoints because you originally asked about the popularity of Halloween. I’m not judging you for not participating or anything of the sort. We just have different viewpoints like the men in Romans 14, and if you’re not fully convinced that Halloween isn’t about celebrating evil, then by all means don’t participate, and more power to you, brother.
@poosywhistle - we live in a world that blurs the line of good and evil. They call evil good and vice versa. I haven’t a clue what point your are trying to make except not to celebrate anything. Are you Jehovah Witness?
@Randy7777 - Nope, I think I said before that I’m a born-again Christian. I get the feeling you’ve been skimming my comments and only remembering the major sentences without their context. Otherwise, I don’t see how you would get the idea that I said not to celebrate anything when I said before that I ALSO celebrated the traditional Christian holidays…? That alone would disqualify me as a Jehovah’s witness. Let me try another approach:
1. Your post initially asked “Why is Halloween popular?” so I assumed the question was sincere and you wanted to understand a different view of Halloween. You asked a question, which is the whole point of my comments.
2. If you see Halloween as evil, and anyone that celebrates it is simply blurring the line between good and evil, then there’s not much anyone can say (which begs the question – “why ask in the first place?”)
3. I don’t see Halloween as evil, and I don’t believe I am blurring the lines or seeing evil as good.
4. I believe that there are dangerous things in this world, and I believe there are different levels of danger. For example, eating junk food and walking on a busy freeway are two things that are very unhealthy, but one will get you fat and one will get you killed.
5. Similarly, I believe there is value in recognizing what things in this world actually lead to evil. I don’t believe that Halloween does. I don’t think it even qualifies as junk food dangerous.
6. I celebrate Christmas with all the Christmasy symbols, fun activities, and beautiful decorations for the sole purpose of enjoyment, but I understand that my heart is celebrating Christ.
7. I celebrate Easter with all the Eastery symbols, fun activities, and beautiful decorations for the sole purpose of enjoyment, but I understand that my heart is celebrating Christ.
8. On random evenings, I sometimes go out with friends and have dinner, see movies, or other harmless activities that are all done in the name of community and enjoying the company of your neighbor, even if it doesn’t always have a lot of spiritual value.
9. Halloween is simply just a pre-planned night out with one’s friends, all done for the sake of enjoying community. The people who dress up and participate are doing it for no evil purpose – it’s just an activity and a way to draw laughs from your friends.
10. I -DO- believe there is danger in things that make the REAL occult seem appealing. I would not doubt that Harry Potter has led some kids to want to be like him and so they investigate the real world of witchcraft, which I find to be very dangerous. But as for Halloween, it is viewed as ridiculous, which does not make people want to take it any further.
Does that explain my viewpoint of why I think it is popular and not evil?