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Is Halloween evil?
- Thread starter Riders
- Start date
Augustus
…
The Christian (well Protestant) opposition to Halloween is due to the post-reformation obsession with purging any hints of "Popery" from the "true faith".
For them, it's "evil" because it's Catholic, not because it's Satanic.
"Christmas is Pagan", "Halloween is pagan", "the Church suppressed science" etc. types of argument all tend to result from Protestant anti-Catholic polemic in the Middle Ages.
amorphous_constellation
Well-Known Member
Halloween is the quintessential symbol of shapeshifting gods, which were represented in european paganism with ubiquity
Growing up I wasn't allowed to celebrate Halloween due to the demonic imagery. If I have children I would also not celebrate it with them in a secular way. Instead Halloween to me (after I became Catholic and looked at how it was celebrated in my Church) is a day to remember the damned, demons, how not to go to the first thing and how the second has been conquered by the Lord Jesus. In that sense it is not evil at all.
All Hallows' Eve not just a Catholic thing
All Hallows' Eve | Duke University Chapel
All Hallows' Eve | Duke University Chapel
I don't think Halloween is evil. Actually, it's kind of absurd in a way. It was kind of fun as a kid, getting in a costume and going from door to door saying "Trick or Treat." But I stopped doing that by age 10 or 11. All I ever got were rocks anyway.
It's a fun diversion for the kids, so I'm not really against it, although as a general health concern, it should be noted that eating too much candy isn't good. Plus, the custom of trick-or-treating has had to change over the years, due to incidents of people poisoning candy or other types of predatory behavior targeting children.
Other than that, I find the whole thing to be rather silly. But I guess there's a time and place for silliness, and Halloween is it.
May the blessings of the Great Pumpkin be with you all.
It's a fun diversion for the kids, so I'm not really against it, although as a general health concern, it should be noted that eating too much candy isn't good. Plus, the custom of trick-or-treating has had to change over the years, due to incidents of people poisoning candy or other types of predatory behavior targeting children.
Other than that, I find the whole thing to be rather silly. But I guess there's a time and place for silliness, and Halloween is it.
May the blessings of the Great Pumpkin be with you all.
Something always spoils the fun. I used to make candied and caramel apples. Of course that stopped years ago due to safety. We do have quite a 'horrors' display.
Muffled
Jesus in me
I believe it depends on how it is celebrated. I do believe it is superstition that spirits decide to be active on a specific day of the year.
Halloween is just coming to Mexico. The local people have Dia de la Muerte on November 1 and 2, which is a remembrance of the dead, but expressed as a joyful celebration, often with families gathering in cemeteries at night where they build an alter to a deceased ancestor with his or her favorite food and drink, and having a fiesta. It's a Catholic country, but this is different from the way Catholics observe All Saint's Day.
But here's the wrinkle. We have had a local Wal-Mart for about fifteen years, and it sells costumes, Halloween make-up, and little plastic pumpkin buckets for trick-or-treating, and the Mexican families are adding it on to the existing holiday, which now begins a day earlier on October 31. We get little vampires and ghosts visiting. My wife likes to photograph them and present photos of the kids in costume to their families. When they first started doing this some years back, they didn't know the trick-or-treat line. They would hold up their buckets and shout Halloweeeeen!
This won't be an evil holiday to these people, because they do not view death the same as I grew up with, and I don't think the church has a problem with it.
But here's the wrinkle. We have had a local Wal-Mart for about fifteen years, and it sells costumes, Halloween make-up, and little plastic pumpkin buckets for trick-or-treating, and the Mexican families are adding it on to the existing holiday, which now begins a day earlier on October 31. We get little vampires and ghosts visiting. My wife likes to photograph them and present photos of the kids in costume to their families. When they first started doing this some years back, they didn't know the trick-or-treat line. They would hold up their buckets and shout Halloweeeeen!
This won't be an evil holiday to these people, because they do not view death the same as I grew up with, and I don't think the church has a problem with it.
Muffled
Jesus in me
The Christian holiday of All Saints' Day falls on 1 November, followed by All Souls' Day on 2 November, and is currently a Solemnity in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, a Festival in the Lutheran Churches, as well as a Principal Feast of the Anglican Communion. - Wikipedia
I believe many protestant denominations tend not to celebrate saints that much and certainly not on a day.
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Muffled
Jesus in me
I believe I am not familiar with any connection.
Muffled
Jesus in me
Last year I had to eat the candy because no-one showed up. Must have been a Covid-19 thing.
I think it depends on what it means for a person. I don't like the modern Halloween that reminds too much worshiping evil things.
Riders
Well-Known Member
Well personally i like to watch horror movies but only around the Haloween holiday, I have been watching horror movies less in the past few years because it scares me too much. But I like watching Scream or Halloween,1 or 2 or H20 and there's a new Halloween movie out this year. I watched the first half of Lost Boys the other day on youtube. Of course, I am a vampire person and I watch Buffy The Vampire Slayer on and off throughout the year. I also like Nightmare On Elm Street on Halloween and the true story of Jack The Ripper. SO certain movies this time of year I like. But I give it rest outside of Buffy and Vampire soaps the rest of the year.