People are fine with being disrespectful to Christians

[Flymetothezoom]

At a church playgroup. The people who run it are very devout Christians. I am taken aback, by the number of parents, who thought it was appropriate to bring their kids to the church dressed for Halloween. Kids are dressed as witches, goblins, skeletons, creepy pumpkins etc..
The church holds a light party every year on Halloween and is very clear that they do not endorse Halloween.

My close friend who's Catholic isn't hugely into Halloween as it falls on All Saints Day.

I don't see the issue with kids coming in Halloween costumes but they could've left it until today to dress up.

Oh gosh that is a tricky one! In a way, I guess some would see it no differently to when we dress children up and do the nativity play! But I’ve not come across an adult dressing up as the Virgin Mary before … I would probably be taken aback a bit… 🤣

Yep, it’ll disrespect Christian’s till the cows come home.

Using the threat of an all powerful all seeing being to control the populace is an outdated method not everyone has grown out of yet.

Anyone that chooses to align themselves with the church is suspect as far as I’m concerned.

Standing up and saying ‘Im a Catholic’ after everything we now have evidence the Catholic Church has been doing both at home and around the world is at best blindly selfish and at worst a way of covering your own abusive behaviour

imagine getting offended because you had a Halloween party and people came dressed for Halloween.

It’s a good thing you’ve never experience real persecution.

For a idea of real persecution why not read about the Christian missionaries who did everything in their power to irradiate native religions around the world or the many, many way they set up institutes to ‘help’ the poor and vulnerable so they could abuse them.

The Church has zero room to talk about respect.

I misunderstood thinking it was the light party the children were attending. That said I am not sure either way - it really depends upon the way the playglup is run/ethos and what was said as to whether this was disrespectful

Yes absolutely they do

Are "Light parties" common? I associate them with far-right American evangelical churches.

All Saint's day is on 1st, not 31st though

So do I and I would be very wary of any church who held one as a result.

The Church took over many older pre Christian holy places, festivals and customs and adapted them to its needs, I think at least in part because people were very, very reluctant to give them up. It was actually quite sensible. Puritan attempts to de secularise Christmas were short lived and unpopular.

I love Halloween. My (Christian) family celebrated in the 60s and 70s, dressing up as vampires and monsters and all. I take issue with anyone who thinks a baby in a pumpkin outfit is in someway channelling the forces of darkness and would suggest they do some reading up on (just one example) the Inquisition, if they want full on hypocrisy and evil in action.

Greek Orthodox- My Greek friend from school used to go to church on a Sunday- If I stayed the night on a Saturday I got to go too.
The pluming incense and Icons were gorgeous.
Russian Orthodox seems similar- Icons, beeswax candles and incense.
Her parents had Icons in their large and slightly creepy Edwardian house-
One night when her parents were away, We heard a scream from one of friend’s older sisters.
She said she’d seen a ghost, and looked genuinely terrified.

We went to look, and sure enough, a ragged grey shape swept across the bathroom wall..
It turned out to be a cobweb on a light fixture, blowing in the draught as the door was closed - It gave us a fright, though.

This particular church should make people aware that fancy dress isn't suitable or is frowned upon. Perhaps many just didn't realise?

Ah ok, me bad!

Bang goes my 3 years at a Catholic private school convent education - all for nought not knowing when All Saints Day was !

Stop posting reasonable solutions to these difficult questions, it takes all the frothing at the mouth fun away.

@Powderandpaint

All Saints is 1 November. It is sometimes known as All Hallows, which is how you get to Hallowe’en, or All Hallows Eve. Modern Hallowe’en was possibly a Christianisation of the Celtic festival of Samhain. Certainly there was a long-standing belief that the boundaries between this life and the next are thinner before All Saints and All Souls, hence for example the Mexican festival Día de Muertos.

I'm a Christian and have no issue with Halloween. I don't find it disrespectful at all. Do you also ban Harry Potter and the like?

I think OP is, like most Christians, missing the meaning of Halloween/Samhain or perhaps brainlessly following the media stereotyping of it rather than actually engaging their own critical thinking. The irony of that considering they are accusing people of doing the same is not lost on me.

Halloween/Samhain traditions of dressing up in scary costumes have never been about glorifying evil or the dark, quite the opposite in fact, it has always been about using scary costumes to scare off evil and wandering spirits or malevolent forces on a night when people believed the barriers between the earthly and the supernatural were thinnest. The fires and costumes were intended to scare off the dark and evil things.

Considering the varied Christian religions purposefully placed their feasts for all souls and or all saints etc. on Halloween in order to supplant pagan beliefs and tap into the same traditional practices of pushing back the darkness at this time of year...it seems that little kids dressing up in costumes to scare off the darkness and to infect the world with some joy is exactly in line with what the Christians should be after. Calling it disrespectful is the height of irony and is remarkably tone deaf to Christian history and to the history of the tradition of fancy dress at this time of year.

The fact that the OPs Christain group sounds like they are ripping off another religion's traditions in the form of Diwali to have a celebration of light while simultaneously denouncing the pagan religious practice of dressing up to scare off the dark things of this season is doubly amusing. Christians happy to denounce one set of religious practices they previously stole and rode the coat tails of for centuries, while now beginning to ride the coat tails of another in poor mimicry. Then the Christian stands and plays the victim like they are hard done by...yeah, not buying it.

Also...catch yourself on OP. The idea that Jesus Christ would be offended by something that brings innocent children joy and fun is a pedantic view of Christianity more in line with the old covenant He sought to overturn. More in line with the Sanhedrin's bureaucratic rule following and shallow image consciousness that Jesus' holistic and causal approach to right and wrong cast down.

Climb down off your high horse and enjoy the season.

Our church has held a light party for a few years now. Before that, it wasn’t something I was familiar with. We are CofE and very relaxed.

Light parties are disrespectful. They are basically saying that people who celebrate Halloween is wrong and their way is the right way.

Unfortunately, most of us atheists have far more tolerance skills than the pushy type.of Christian that goes on about them. I hold my tongue when people diss my Halloween celebrations and go on about their fabulous boring light parties.

Amusing because I was looking through my Facebook memories today and one of the chief offenders has left me a comment disparaging my celebrations every Halloween for twelve years, of course under the guise of Christian charity.

So who here has genuinely seen a ghost?

I am a practising Christian and feel as you do but many Christians do ban Harry Potter as a celebration of the occult.

How did we get from pumpkins to gimp suit? Bit of a difference there! OP I would just worry about your own child. People are allowed to be Christian and celebrate Halloween. Times are changing and people have different relationships with whatever God they worship. I am an atheist and find many issues with the church however do not get offended by individual people making choices for their families and believing in/celebrating certain things.

@viques Stop posting reasonable solutions to these difficult questions, it takes all the frothing at the mouth fun away.

😂😂

I think with issues such as these it is a classic WWJD?

He was always a bit dramatic though, wasn't he?