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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to ask someone to explain to me the issues surrounding Hallowe'en from a religious point of view?

93 replies

Permanentlyexhausted · 24/10/2013 22:58

Just that really. I understand that the celebration of Hallowe'en is offensive/unacceptable to many Christians but I don't really understand the specific reasons why. The only people I know who actively disagree with Hallowe'en are Christians but maybe it is offensive to other/all religions. I'm just interested in finding out a bit more about the situation.

Please enlighten me.

OP posts:
TheOpposibleThumb · 25/10/2013 08:02

Letting the Devil in..... Honestly, what a lot of medieval claptrap.

1980shell · 25/10/2013 08:42

This time of year was also when human and animal sacrifices were made. :0(

mrsjuneyjuney · 25/10/2013 08:42

My parents used to give Christian leaflets to trick or treaters. I wasn't bothered about not going in and celebrating but I used to feel sick on halloween when the doorbell went I used to wish they could just not answer the door. Luckily Halloween was normally in half term so people had a few days to forget about it.

MurderOfBanshees · 25/10/2013 08:43

1980 In the time and culture that human and animal sacrifices were acceptable I'm pretty certain it was done all year long.

Rosduk · 25/10/2013 08:58

Halloween was never about the devil or evil in my house growing up. I still enjoy carving a pumpkin with my own DD and sharing ghostly stories. To me it always has been a 'bit of fun' and not taken too seriously, although having lost a son this year, it takes a different turn and I like the idea of
him not being too far away for one day a year.

It's interesting that the reasons people celebrate or are against/do not participate in Halloween celebrations are so varied in these posts - everyone views it so differently!

1980shell · 25/10/2013 09:02

People involved deeply in this celebration actually still perform animal sacrifices today.

Bringmewineandcake · 25/10/2013 09:16

How my vicar explained it -
Trick or treating - you spend all year telling your kids not to accept sweets from strangers but then suddenly it's ok to actively go knocking on people's doors to ask for them.
Trick or treating again - you spend all year telling your kids not to bully others when they don't get what they want, then it's supposed to be ok to do this for one night.
Costumes - celebrating evil (some of them, pumpkins and ladybirds are fine, others not so much)
Costumes again - wounds / burns etc are basically being displayed as 'scary' and hideous - how would a young child with actual scarring feel?

sashh · 25/10/2013 09:21

Halloween is not one of the appointments (festivals) you would celebrate.

Nor is Christmas eve, many Christians have their own celebrations then.

This time of year was also when human and animal sacrifices were made. :0(

I think you need to read about May day (the old one not the communist one) and corn dollies.

People involved deeply in this celebration actually still perform animal sacrifices today.

That is highly insulting and just wrong. Well it is about as right as Christmas being about sacrificing a turkey and eating it as a sacrifice with special 'trimmings'.

Do you consider turkey to be an animal sacrifice? I bet you don't. Also in the days before refrigeration all communities were killing their animals at this time of year so they had the minimum to feed over winter, and not all the meat could be salted or preserved so all communities ate more meat at this time than any other.

pointyfangs · 25/10/2013 09:23

1980shell that is nonsense. Satanists may perform animal sacrifices. They are not 'deeply involved in this celebration', they are deeply involved in the rituals of their own religion, which is nothing to do with the pagan festival of Samhain. Please don't conflate Satanists with pagans, it is offensive.

PedlarsSpanner · 25/10/2013 09:26

what pointy said

PloddingDaily · 25/10/2013 09:28

I'm a rusty Christian, I have a solid faith but don't often get to church. I don't do halloween, for some of the reasons listed by bringmewineandcake. There are other things in life that I avoid as they too make me feel compromised, or I just don't want to do them. I don't berate my Hindu, Muslim or Atheist neighbours (or anyone else for that matter! Grin) if they don't join in everything I see as 'fun', I'm not a killjoy & I don't 'whinge' about halloween...but it's not for me or mine, I find the whole thing of trick or treating around here at least equates to 'demanding with menaces' & I tend to lose my sense of humour when the doorbell goes for the millionth time despite the front of the house being dark, or the polite 'no trick or treaters please, baby sleeping' (etc) sign gets ripped off our door & flung away.

I don't do halloween, it's my neighbours right to enjoy it if they want, but it would be nice if people extended reciprocal courtesy to each other re the right to choose without being demonised either way.

WilsonFrickett · 25/10/2013 09:31

Toad interesting you see American-inspired conservatism as a force against Halloween, when to me it is very much an American festival, I wonder how that plays out in the States?

quoteunquote · 25/10/2013 09:32

www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/paganism/holydays/samhain.shtml

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain

the celebration has been around since dawn of time,

it is about celebrating, what the year has brought, and saying goodbye to that cycle.

when a new faith system is introduced to a community, it is impossible to get people to give up their celebrations so the new religion, just imposes new celebrations on top of the old, all our "christianity" festivals, are imposed on pagan ones, which follow the sun.

Gingerdodger · 25/10/2013 09:33

I am RC and have no issue with Halloween other than it brings more plastic tat into my house! I don't see it as encouraging evil anymore than I would spending a night watching a horror film or whatever.

There are much more evil things in our society which happen every day, they are brought about by people doing awful things and not by a bunch of school kids wearing a lot of synthetic 'pink witchy' type clothes from supermarkets. Although on reflection those outfits and plastic tat above are probably manufactured in poor working conditions living in abject poverty which bothers me much more but isn't limited to stuff produced for Halloween.

Halloween is followed by All Souls Day a Holy Day of Obligation for RCs. Our church always does a service got the bereaved on the Sunday near here to which all the families of those who had funerals at the church are invited and prayers said for those people and their families and for loved ones of other parishioners. It's very emotional and beautiful and a great comfort to many. Quite oddly one of my favourite masses.

MurderOfBanshees · 25/10/2013 09:34

1980 Oh do provide us with examples! I'd especially like you to find some that
a) aren't lone groups of weirdos
b) aren't part of a culture that performs animal sacrifice outside of Hallowe'en

1980shell · 25/10/2013 09:37

I know Christmas etc. is not. But that's not what the thread is about. I don't celebrate Christmas/christmas eve etc. OR CONDEMN those that do.
And we are not talking bout May Day either, again a whole other thread!

"That is highly insulting and just wrong. Well it is about as right as Christmas being about sacrificing a turkey and eating it as a sacrifice with special 'trimmings'."
There is a whole ritual that goes along with sacrifice, I'm sure you and others don't do that when u are about to eat ur turkey. That's the difference between pagan sacrifice and you eating a turkey for Xmas.
There have been tv programmes on about this and it's all over the Internet, so please don't condemn me for speaking the truth! This is not something I've made up in my head to insult people.

MurderOfBanshees · 25/10/2013 09:39

"pagan sacrifice"

Hmm

"There have been tv programmes on about this and it's all over the Internet"

Oh well it must be true. Got to believe everything on TV and the internet..

1980shell · 25/10/2013 09:41

Lol ok sorry everyone

sashh · 25/10/2013 09:42

There have been tv programmes on about this and it's all over the Internet, so please don't condemn me for speaking the truth!

Wow there are things on TV and the internet, it must be true.

So don't listen to any of us who do actually celebrate this festival. Don't read any historical books just believe what is on TV and the internet, along with the Queen being a Lizard.

I am condemning you for talking a load of twadle.

Toadinthehole · 25/10/2013 09:45

Wilsonfrickett

I think that's a very good question, and I don't know what the answer is. I do know, however, that it has become very common for churches to put on alternative events, frequently known as "light parties".

What I do know is that there are lots of old traditions in the CofE that predate Christianity - one example is beating the parish bounds. It used to be the case that lots of local traditions and ceremonies (involving the vicar, more often than not) originated in Saxon times prior to widespread Christianity, and people just interpreted them as they wished. Ironically, some of these old traditions have been lost in the last generation precisely because the local church (as the community's focal point) tended to preserve them, and these churches are now being closed.

Not quite on point, but the story of Lady Godiva is an example - while there really was a Lady Godiva (her name was, I think, Godgifu), the story itself is thought to be something to do with a pre-Roman fertility goddess. The Grail legends also have a pre-Christian origin - the word itself is a mistranslation of "dish" rather than "chalice". Anyway, I am starting to blather. I find it all very interesting.

1980shell · 25/10/2013 09:45

I used to celebrate it. And if you'd bothered to read my first post u would see references to The World Book Encyclopedia, (2008), “Halloween,” pages 24-25. So I do get info from other sources.

Sallyingforth · 25/10/2013 09:46

It's just another commercial activity imported from the US. Nothing whatever to do with its religious beginning.

worldgonecrazy · 25/10/2013 09:48

As a pagan, I celebrate Hallows (not Samhain, which is a festival of Irish origin). There are similarities, the feasting, the remembering of ancestors, both by blood and by kinship. But it is not "summers end" for me, which I think is sometime in September. There is also some debate about whether it really is the "new year" as there is only one piece of evidence to support that supposition.

Hallows is one of the holiest nights of the year, it's a time for remembering the people who are the reason I am here, in this time and this place.

There is absolutely nothing about devils, pumpkins or anything else involved. Those are items I relate to the secular Halloween. I have always seen that are about facing up to fears, and learning not to be scared of monsters by poking fun at them. By doing this, children learn to be braver, and to stand up to the real life monsters, who more often have a human face.

If anyone is interested in finding out more about the real history of Halloween, or any of the other festivals that we celebrate in the British Isles, I can highly recommend "Stations of the Sun" by Professor Ronald Hutton.

MurderOfBanshees · 25/10/2013 09:49

Of course Sallying Hmm

kerala · 25/10/2013 09:49

"Next year we will stick to bonfire night activities"

Watch out that is offensive to Catholics! Celebrating the burning of a Catholic who was resisting English oppression. I hadnt fully realised this but an Irish friend got quite exercised about it. I would press on with your planned Halloween there will always be someone complaining and your activities sounded very innocuous and good fun.

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