Christian mums, how do you handle Halloween?

[mumwithnoname]

Just wondered what you do on Oct31? We're going to a "Not a halloween party" at church. But I do get sweets to give to Trick or treaters cos I feel mean if I don't!! Feel a bit of a hypocrit though!! My dh thinks we should ignore it totally but I not sure thats very easy when you've got kids who hear about it from friends at school.

That'll be me then...we're a thoroughly ungodly bunch of atheist (me), Buddhist (dh), & making his mind up whenever he's ready (ds).

Hallowe'en is a perfectly respectable Xtian festival, surely? It's the eve of All Saints on November 1st, & marked as All Hallows Eve in most church calendars.

It's possibly a particularly appropriate time to remember the dead, for obvious reasons - dying of the year, natural cycle & all that.

I'd be more worried about 'trick or treating' - last year my perspective was one of telling a bunch of teenage yobboes to 'f*ck OFF!' & subsequently washing caked egg off the window ...& I worry about elderly neighbours...in a few years' time, I'll have ds's safety to worry about. Unless I shame him in front of his mates by not letting him out!

just a thought - the christian calander took on pagan festivals in December and merged tehm with teh birth of Jesus and Easter/ spring festivals how come they never got round to it for Halloween

Actually, calling witches evil is offensive to people who still follow the original pagan religions. The devil is a construct of Christianity. Religions older than Christianity don't see the world as black and white, good and evil. Christians are often ignorant when it comes to paganism and apply their historic prejudices, born of an age when Christians were struggling for power and created propaganda to demonise (in the true sense of the word) the opposition. Just as armies are fed propaganda denigrating their opponents, to make them less than human and therefore OK to kill.
Don't assume that people who aren't members of your particular church, and don't share the same beliefs, are evil and that their customs are evil. That's what the Christian churchs did to Judaism in the past. Thankfully it is no longer acceptable to describe Jewish people as devils or associate them with devil worship. Don't fall into the same trap of intolerance with regard to pagans, witches and all.

Thank you edam for the voice of reason. I have been off mumsnet so didn't see this thread last week - just as well as I have now had time to read and consider before posting, so I might be able to stay polite.

Firstly lets get something straight here - Halloween is NOT a Pagan festival, it is a Christian derived holiday. Pagans celebrate Samhain. The Christian Church invented Halloween to take over the Pagan holiday (spot on gothicmama) - the name is a contraction of 'All Hallows Eve'.

And edam is right - the devil is also a Christian invention. We have no belief in such a mythical figure - so why do you have this wierd idea that we worship it?

I had a celebration of the harvest on Oct 31st. I also raised a toast to my ancestors and gave thanks for their lives, for without them I would not be here. What might I ask is evil about that?

So maybe the Christian Church needs a lesson in religious tolerance. Love thy neighbour? I don't think so, not if you are a Christian living next door to a Pagan apparently.