Christianity and Halloween: is heaven really going to be full of "true Christians" moaning about how wrong Halloween is....

[m0therofdragons]

ISIS is wrong, Halloween is just kids having fun. It really doesn't matter where it originates from. Currently people seem to enjoy popping on a costume, spending time with the family carving pumpkins and eating sweets.

I'm Christian although it seems I'm a terrible one as dc aren't attending a "light party"- which appears to be many churches' way of making money out of Halloween, and we'll be giving trick or treaters sweets when they knock.
I can't help feeling heaven is going to be full of dull kill joys.

[bertsdinner]

I thought Halloween was a pagan festival in origin, like Easter. In a way, I quite like that old traditions are still celebrated.
For most people, Halloween is just a bit of secular fun.
Not all Christians are miserable about it, I work with a woman who is a devout Christian (may be a Quaker) and dosnt celebrate Christmas, as she says it's a pagan festival, not Christ's birthday, but she's very jolly about it.

[ReallyTired]

Muslims often choose not to celebrate Halloween. Are they considered to be miserable or is ok to respect their beliefs.

[NotMyChashkaChai]

I personally do not celebrate Halloween. for me, it's the evening before all saints (hallows) day and is a special time to remember those close to us who have died. I don't see what witches, ghosts, pumpkins and begging for sweets etc have to do with this and personally I find it a bit inappropriate and disrespectful.

That is of course my personal view. I am of course not representative of all christians and of course I don't wish to stop others celebrating Halloween (or any other festival) if they want to, but this is why I choose not to participate.

[HaydeeofMonteCristo]

I thought Halloween was essentially a Christian festival - all Hallows' Eve. Obviously not in its current for with trick or treating, but those were its origins.

Most of the trick or treaters we have seen around our way tonight have been the Catholic families

[BelindaBagwash]

I'm in Scotland and always went to church as a child. We always celebrated Hallowe'en and there was a party for the kids in the church hall. When I lived in England, a church member had recently returned from holiday in Scotland and was horrified at the amount of Hallowe'en stuff she'd seen there. Other members were agreeing with her about how terrible that was.

It was obviously a big deal to them, but didn't bother me at all.

[Buxtonstill]

I don't believe in God, but in the extreme reality he did exist, I think he would be more disgusted by people getting into hideous debt, drinking themselves into liver failure and gorging themselves into comas in the name of his kids birthday.
Knocking on a few doors asking for sweets pales into significance.

[LionsTeeth]

Capsium With regards to the xtian issue, the “X” is actually indicating the Greek letter “Chi”, which is short for the Greek meaning “Christ”. In the same way that one would write Xmas. Xtian and Christian are exactly the same thing.

[m0therofdragons]

I don't mean for this to be a Christian bashing thread because I believe in God and go to church. I completely get that some people don't want to do Halloween - totally fine. What I dislike is the suggestion they are superior Christians because if it which is how I feel. To be fair it was one comment made on the church fb page but 3 others agreed with her and they are people I believe to be friends who are supporting someone who is openly putting me down.
I hate the image of Christians being dull and lacking in a sense of humour. No wonder people turn away from the church. Anyway, we had fun and neighbours seemed to too.

[capsium]

Thank you, Lion, for your explanation.

[NotMyChashkaChai]

I completely do not consider myself as a superior christian because I don't celebrate Halloween! There were people from my church out t&t-ing tonight. I just choose not to take part in it.

[howabout]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

Guessing those who don't celebrate Halloween are equally uncomfortable in churches complete with gargoyles and centuries of religious art and allegory.

[StarkyTheDirewolf]

howabout huh? (Genuine confused face, not head tilty)

[Flashbangandgone]

Dressing up as a witch or a ghost no more turns you into a baby-eating satanist than playing a shoot out game with sticks as guns turn you into a perpetrator of a mass shooting..: it's fun and how children play, pretend and learn about life including its difficult bits

Christians who believe otherwise should stop being so paranoid...

[SouthWestmom]

I thought you dressed up to blend in with the returned spirits? So they wouldn't harm you? Why do I think this?
Slight panic that I have to undo 16 years of trick or treating with various of the dc - ignorance being no defence at the pearly gates.

[howabout]

Starky the wiki link gives a pretty wide ranging discussion of all the Christian and pagan origins of Halloween which more or less summarises my understanding of my theological studies on this. All the dressing up etc is in the same interpretative tradition as religious art and writing (eg Lord of the Rings) imo fwiw

[Lovelydiscusfish]

I was interested in this idea - do Christians celebrate Halloween?
So, did a bit of active research. I observed myself (a Christian) and my dd's friend's mum (another Christian). I observed that we both had carved pumpkins with the dd's ( or had enabled others to do so), had both purchased a small amount off tacky Halloween shit from Poundland, and we both allowed our dd's to go trick-or-treating, to an age appropriate extent.
Blatantly, my research taught me nothing!
All Christians, just like people of other faiths or none, are different, on this and other issues.

[Pigeonpost]

I celebrate Halloween, Christmas and Easter. However I don't believe in devils, witchcraft, God or the Easter Bunny. I just like to have an excuse to theme something and decorate the house!

[StarkyTheDirewolf]

I read the overview *how about" but I'll have to give the whole link my full attention tomorrow, I'm tired and not concentrating (DH woke me up with am elbow to the face this morning, which he conveniently slept through).

It's interesting though, I've never thought about it like that, I always sort of interpreted old churches and the art in them as part of the history of the time, the show of wealth of the church as was. Rather than the pagan association, but I suppose it all has roots in paganism.

[StarkyTheDirewolf]

Jeez, I'm so tired I can't even name highlight accordingly. Bed time! Happy Halloween though all!

[BartholinsSister]

Sometimes you hear Christians being mean about Satan, and bemoaning Halloween as some kind of celebration of the devil - but according to their Bible, who killed the most people, God or Satan?

[MarmiteAndButter]

I live in an Islamic country. Halloween was massive here, absolutely massive. I don't think a single child at my DCs school - whether Muslim, Christian or Hindu bowed out of it.
If I had mentioned some Christians being against it, my Muslim friends would think that sounded crazy.

PS Christmas is big here too, there are decorated trees everywhere

[CaoNiMao]

Wouldn't it be Xian then, not Xtian? It's not Xtmas...

slinks off to pedants' corner

[ArmchairTraveller]

I think that Europe is a better place since Christians were banned from burning people alive for not following the approved line of thought.
I like living in a country where there is freedom to worship whatever you like, with laws untainted by faith. I stopped being a Catholic when I seriously considered the question 'Would I want to live in a world ruled by the Catholic church?' and decided 'Absolutely not'
So, freedom to celebrate what you like as long as it doesn't harm others. I wonder how the law is getting on with formulating protections for children being forced to undergo exorcism by faith communities in this country, and having the devil beaten out of them. That's Christian and Muslim community issue in several areas.
Let's hope if there is a God, in heaven they sort out all the fucked-up warpings of so many of their original teachings. Religion is a bit like the arse-end of Chinese whispers, the message is so distorted by men that the original is unrecognisable.
Happy Samhain!

[headinhands]

What I do see, often, is patients accepting chaplaincy support at the end of their lives when previously they were adamant they didn't want it.

That doesn't prove anything, no one is denying that people believe it and find comfort in it.

christian bashing

There are very massive massive inconsistencies between what mainstream Christians believe and what the bible says, and it's reasonable to point those out. It's interesting to see how Christians argue these away.

[TrojanWhore]

The inconsistencies with the Bible usually arise when OT is quoted. Because NT superseded it.

Just like the Koran superseded the NT.