To ask why people celebrate Halloween

[Flippetydip]

This is absolutely not a goady post but I just don't get Halloween at all. It seems like a celebration of everything that is horrible. Why do people do it?

What cardibach said.

Flippetydip Have you met any witches? Generally they're a very easy going live and let live lot. No - but I assuming they don't generally go round on broomsticks with tall pointy hats and black cats either....

It's deep in my cultural calendar and identity.

I don't think it is celebrating dark things, that seems a very shallow interpretation.

As a child, we understood that it was a night when spirits etc were at large and the carved swedes (pumpkins being a modern and American development, as far as I can see) were to scare the dark spirits away. It was about fending off the dark and scary, not celebrating it.

But such subtleties are lost in people's minds and understanding now. At our kids and community parties we do traditional halloween activities: apple bobbing, the thing with flour (a flour 'cake' with a cherry on top, the person who cuts the slice that causes the cherry to fall has to pick it up with their teeth).

You do realise that Halloween is not a modern American festival but goes back to Pagan times and predates most monotheistic religions?

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/28/halloween-more-than-trick-or-treat-origins?CMP=share_btn_tw

What I'm sad about is how bonfire night has been completely relegated and is a bit of a non event these days. I have such lovely memories of local community bonfire night parties , baked potatoes and doing penny for the guy. Much better than Halloween.

Yep - me too, but I have been well reminded on this thread that it is hideous in origins - which is absolutely is. I still love it though!

For fun.
5 parties this year.
Just decorated house.
We are fun loving types.
We don't believe that witches werewolves blah blah are real so we don't find them 'all that is horrible'

Xmas us worse surely, a decree that all boy babies be killed? And not even a Premier inn available? in bethlehem

I love bonfire night too, but actually, it a far more sinister 'celebration' if you look at its roots.

Well I do have a black cat
I celebrate Samhain (fully clothed - it’s bloody freezing and I like my neighbours!) with a small ritual and a glass of red to remember my ancestors, but before that the kids will get dressed up and go trick or treating along with half of the estate. I’ve decorated the house and garden and we’ll carve the pumpkin after tea.
It’s fun for the kids and something more serious for me and frankly I just like decorating the house!!

thegreenheartofmanyroundabouts
Crossposted the link to Ron's article, maybe once more and the message will be heard

What an odd question. You don't consider the thousands of pagans , for whom it's an extremely important time of year? Or are you thinking of the commercial side, and why the non pagans bother ? (which I do get.. I don't understand why non christians celebrate Christmas, for example, and I do mean Christmas, not Yule..)
As a pagan I don't go in for the tacky side but it was certainly fun when I was a kid. We didn't have all the stuff you can get in the shops now (in the 70s and 80s) so made our own and I did go Trick or Treating.
As an adult, I don't go in for any of that; I simply don't know any children and none call round here, I live v rural otherwise I'd be up for callers.
We pagans take it very seriously. It usually means a couple of days off work in order to be free to do the Walk of the Dead in Avebury... this means staying up the entire night (the walk is done at night with no lights) . We do this to honour the ancestors but also for those who have passed within the last year. Hardly fun and games although it is an enjoyable night and ends with food, drink and music in the early night

I don’t like Halloween.

We used to decorate and trick or treat but a couple of years ago I just thought ‘ugh’ and couldn’t see the fun in it. Suddenly found kids dressed up as dead things and monsters unappealing.

I’ve heard that a church nearby are doing a neon type glow stick party so I’m going to take the DC to that instead to see what that’s like. its got a bouncy castle, party games and face-painting etc so it should be nice. I asked DC what they think and they want to go to the party so hopefully they’ll enjoy it.

early hours rather.. ie morning.. not night!
And therefore is taken seriously. I stay up the entire night before the drive back home. Which is more effort than put into N Y Eve these days.

I use to feel the same but I'm pretty good at face paint and my kids love it and my neighbour hood really get into the spirit so for the past two years I have just gone with the flow. The kids love it all and I love seeing all the costumes and hearing (some) the jokes and seeing all the houses decorated.

I'm afraid I don't see witches and vampires as good clean fun, I see them as pretty dark and scary

No more than nursery rhymes or fairy tales. Some fairytales are gruesome! Telling stories and exposing kids to scary stuff in a controlled safe way is actually beneficial to them and helps them cope with stuff in real life.

Most little witches and vampires at my door are anything but scary 😀

Yep - me too, but I have been well reminded on this thread that it is hideous in origins - which is absolutely is. I still love it though!

In that case, why do you find it so inexplicable that people love Halloween?

I'm afraid I don't see witches and vampires as good clean fun, I see them as pretty dark and scary

I don't, because they aren't real

I don't, because they aren't real

But neither are horror films but they are still dark and scary.

Our local church holds a light party with crafts, bonfire and fireworks so we'll be going to that instead tomorrow.

Talk about an about face! Your minister presumably knows that christians used to dress up and dance around bonfires on all saints eve too? Wasnt just those pesky pagans😀

Another pagan here.

You don't to celebrate it but I do think YABU to ask why others do.

What I'm sad about is how bonfire night has been completely relegated and is a bit of a non event these days. I have such lovely memories of local community bonfire night parties , baked potatoes and doing penny for the guy. Much better than Halloween.

You see, I find it much weirder to celebrate the failed gunpowder plot. Penny for the guy is just ghoulish. Guy Fawkes was brutally tortured and executed at the hands of the English crown "woooooo! Let's celebrate that".

Halloween falls the day before all saints day. You don't have to celebrate it, in the same way that nobody has to celebrate Christmas or Easter, but it's just shallow to assume that it's "just an American import" (it isn't) and all about sweets and dressing up a small ghosts (it isn't). In the same way bonfire night isn't all about eating baked fucking potatoes. Guy Fawkes night is actually a pretty odd thing to celebrate for people from other backgrounds (like me), while Halloween isn't.

Talk about an about face! Your minister presumably knows that christians used to dress up and dance around bonfires on all saints eve too? Wasnt just those pesky pagans😀

Eh? I’m not really interested in that, I just saw a thing in Facebook about a not horror themed party and decided to go

As ghosts*

Your minister presumably knows that christians used to dress up and dance around bonfires on all saints eve too?

What’s that got to do with not wanting kids dressed up as monsters?

No - but I assuming they don't generally go round on broomsticks with tall pointy hats and black cats either....

Some have a broomstick, never seen a tall pointy hat. Cats are not uncommon, but not necessarily black.

As pointed out by others Halloween/Samhain is very important to some pagans.