Um……….?

I can’t claim this explanation comes from me — I found it at AmericanCatholic.org, but it’s a good summation of my understanding of the tradition:

“The true origins of Halloween lie with the ancient Celtic tribes who lived in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany. For the Celts, November 1 marked the beginning of a new year and the coming of winter. The night before the new year, they celebrated the festival of Samhain, Lord of the Dead. During this festival, Celts believed the souls of the dead—including ghosts, goblins and witches—returned to mingle with the living. In order to scare away the evil spirits, people would wear masks and light bonfires.

When the Romans conquered the Celts, they added their own touches to the Samhain festival, such as making centerpieces out of apples and nuts for Pomona, the Roman goddess of the orchards. The Romans also bobbed for apples and drank cider—traditions which may sound familiar to you. But where does the Christian aspect of the holiday come into play? In 835, Pope Gregory IV moved the celebration for all the martyrs (later all saints) from May 13 to November 1. The night before became known as All Hallow’s Even or “holy evening.” Eventually the name was shortened to the current Halloween. On November 2, the Church celebrates All Souls Day.

The purpose of these feasts is to remember those who have died, whether they are officially recognized by the Church as saints or not. It is a celebration of the “communion of saints,” which reminds us that the Church is not bound by space or time.”

I’ve also heard that in some traditions, those ancestors who had passed on were honored as part of the Samhain festival as well. In any case, our family typically participates in all the usual Halloween festivities in our household, but my wife and I also make sure we set some time aside to remember loved ones who have passed away. This helps place the celebration in a more faithful context for our kids.

Hope that helps,
Tedd

I am an atheist, but i do believe in eat drink and be merry….also live and let live…. I go way out of my way to decorate the house for Xmas, because it is mesmerizing, festive and i just simply love the beauty of all. I celebrate Easter because after the long winter, it is so refresshing to the soul the pussywillow, the cute bunnies and chicks. It is fun to watch the kids searching for Easter eggs. Halloween is just a day to be silly and scarey…. gives a chance to be creative and meet the people live on our street…… life is way to short to make a principal out of everything… sometimes a cigar is just a cigar…

Hi,my name is Darrin,I’m 37 and a father of 3 little girls.My opion on this Halloween issue is this,and please realise that this is just my opion.I am a Christian and have been for about 25+ years and I think that sending your kids out for halloween is not a bad thing,why I say this is…if you are raiseing your children to believe in the Lord and that Jesus is his Son and really instilling christian values and principals to theere lives I think that your doing what God asks of us.To go over board and delve deep into everything to find a hidden meaning to things that might not be there is kinda ridiculous.I work in a Mennonite retirement home and some belivev that the Joker card in a deck of cards represents athe devil,now having said that are you going to stop playing cards because some believe that way,No.Halloween is just another day to get dressed up and get candy for the neibours and have a bit of fun.My daughter Taylor who is 5 is going out as a poodle,Olivia y 3 yr old is going out as Franklin the turtle and my youngest Trinity is going to be a princess or something.I think that it all depends on the spirit of your heart and what your kids dress up as.If you are a bible believeing Christian and you are letting your kids dress up as demons,witches and warlocks or something evili looking you might want to rethink there choice,but if it’s just harmless fun to get candy then I think that theres nothing wrong.Let me leave you with this,Christmas,the time when we as Christians celebrate the birth of our LOrd Jesus Christ is actually a pagan celebration…..now hold on,I now what you are thinking.What I’m talking about is the whole tree thing…http://www.christmas-tree.com/where.html…this link will tell you all about it.Easter has the same deal with the Easter bunny…The point that I am trying to make is this…what does the day represent to you?If you deam it bad then don’t partcipate in it.If you are a Christian and you allow your children to participate,then make sure that they are still representing Christ as they do…Everybody loves little children dressed up as Spiderman or Cinderella.I hope that it makes a little sense.

God Bless
Darrin

Taking children out to dress up and have good, clean, creative fun is SUCH a GOOD idea. Keep your kids normal. I mean, don’t show them The Exorcist or anything BUT don’t over think everything either… if it feels right, it probably is. If they are at the age where they can extract the fun out of it then let go and have some fun, maybe some interest will spark for one of them and they will go on to become an artist or get into set design or other related artistic fields because of the exposure to the fun, colors and creative tools that this season is ALL about. Save the mourning and heavy stuff for the Holidays.

All of this while explaining to your kids the fact that Halloween is NOT evil will help your children grow up to be normal. Maybe show your 4 year old how you found out that it Halloween comes from Celtic history so that he/she may be able to see fact finding for his/herself. If your first instinct is to cut off all bad things from your kids, they will grow up skewed and unable to adapt to “real” life, which does have some bad in it. When you over-think every step of being good, then you have done bad to yourself and your children. They will become extremists of good and love which is just as bad as extremist of bad and hate.

Organized religion is for suckers anyways.

Remember that Hallow -e’en stands for All Hallows Evening, the night before All Hallows day. All Hallows is a Christian festival where we remember all the saints known and unknown. It is then followed on the next day by All Souls Day which members all the dear departed. So it’s got good solid Christian roots. Parts of it are indeed drawn from older non-Christian ideas. Like the Christmas tree they’ve been “baptised” and brought into the fold.

I’m not a big fan of the bloody gory stuff and I think the focus on evil is overblown (by both sides). There are plenty other costume ideas so that’s not really a problem. I agree with JC that too often we try to “protect” our kids from everything which leaves them in a very poor place to deal with real life.

I like spending some time remembering those who went on before us, and I like the idea of teaching tithing with the candy swag.