Why are the local evangelical church so hostile to Hallowe'en?

[HerBewitcheditude]

I just wondered if anyone could tell me this. My DC's go to this youth club round the corner at one of these happy clappy, non-conformist type evangelical churches. They're all up in arms about hallowe'en because apparantly it's all about worshipping the devil. They're also annoyed that it's a pagan festival.

I always thought hallowe'en was all about rejecting the devil and scaring away evil spirits with carved vegetables (OK that may sound like a dubious defence system, but it seems to have taken off and I have never seen any devils so hey, maybe there's something in it)... And christmas, harvest and easter were pagan festivals which the early christian church adapted, and they're perfectly happy to celebrate them. Why the downer on hallowe'en particularly? Anyone know?

the original theory of hallowe'en just means the day before all saints' day, so it's the day that all the spirits of the dead go on their way to heaven etc.

it's derived from paganist times, but then that means that so is all saints' because it's the day we remember our dead after they've moved on the day before. iyswim.

they can't object because they're the ones that incorporated a pagan festival into their calendar. i assume that the complaints have only risen because of the adoption of the american way of celebrating and everyone starting to believe that it's a day to celebrate evil.

Well, 'Because they're fuckwits' is the short answer. I am beginning to adopt a blanket approach on dealing with evangelicals, which is a bright sweet smile and 'You know, it always amazes me that intelligent-looking people actually believe this crap'.

I mean, by all means, believe your bullshit be it Christian, Muslim, Pagan, Jewish or Satanist, but do stop expecting other people to give a flying fuck.

I am an evangelical Christian and Halloween makes me and many people I know very uneasy. Not because of fancy dress costumes and pumpkin lanterns (which I quite like) and children collecting sweets but because characterising evil in this jokey way actually seeks to conceal the true nature of what is evil and dark in our world and it feels dangerous to us. THat is our viewpoint - and we are entitled to act upon that within our sphere. There is also a light party happening in our city on Saturday - because contrary to what some people seem to think, Christians do actually like to have fun.

SGB - I found your post quite offensive. Debate the issues but don't resort to chucking simplistic insults at a whole belief system - diminshes your intelligence.

NorthernLurker: Well, that's just tough. Because while I respect people's right to believe bullshit (which all religions are: a combination of effective social control and comfort blanket) I see no reason to take the bullshit seriously.
However I agree that people are entitled to 'act within their sphere' and there isn;t anything wrong with people holding 'anti-Hallowe'en' parties if they wish to. It's when they come bleating in trying to stop other people having fun on the grounds that their particular interpretation of their daft outmoded myth systems doesn't allow it.

SGB - in this case, these particular "fuckwits" are talking to young people who have chosen to join a youth club attached to an evangelical church. I don't think there's any suggestion that they are stopping anyone else from doing as they please, or "bleating" to make anyone else stop having fun. They're entitled to tell people who have gone into "their sphere" what they believe and why.

You are also entitled to think they are wrong. As it happens, I also think they are wrong. But they are not automatically fuckwits because they don't believe the same as you. Any more than I'd call you a fuckwit for not agreing with me. It's just rude and uncalled for.

AMIS: NOt commenting on the specific details of the specific organisation you are having dealings with - more a general observation after reading (either on this thread or the other one) that a (non-faith) school was obliged to cancel its Halloween party because of a couple of bleating fishheads who objected.

putting aside any religious or spiritual objections, I don't like Halloween at all for the simple reason i think its grusome!!

Not a fan of horror films at all, and really not keen on walking passed sooooo many shops with face masks with dripping blood, skulls, monsters etc etc

maybe i am just a lightweight and scare easily but I think its awful!!! and even in the supermarket, there were horrid masks right by the tills, my 2 year old was not keen either and she really did not like the display of skulls and rats in the clintons window.

and just don't get me started on trick or treat.....!!!!!

Oh I see SGB - you are just 'generally observing' that Christians are fuckwits? How nice, really adds a lot to the debate.

NL: Nope. Evangelical Christians who can't leave other people alone (and who display lamentable ignorance about the origins of Halloween with it) are fuckwits. Many Christians are perfectly nice reasonable people, who just have this little quirk of believing in daft stuff but that no more makes them bad people than a love of philately or the collected works of Danielle Steel would.

Halloween is a Christian festival, though - the day before All saints day, when all the faithful departed are especially remembered. It's part of the Christian calendar.

I don't like the commercial element, with all the ghastly merchandise, and we don't do trick or treat because I don't appreciate the idea of blackmail for treats.

Samhain is the pagan festival which falls on the same day, and the church created a festival to co-incide with Samhain to accomodate the beliefs already held to, just like it did with Yule and Eostre.

I'm an odd evangelical anyway, but unless one is going to take the tack of Jehovah's Witnesses and shun all of those festivals, there's not really a good argument spiritually speaking, to shun Halloween.

KayHarker, thank you for your post.

Have just sent my daughter to an evangelical 'alternative' hallowe'en party dressed as a pumpkin. Will this offend them?

MP, I thought the costumes etc were actually meant as a way of reducing the power of all those ghouls, bad spirits etc. If people believe they exist, then surely getting one over on them by using ridicule is a good thing. (At least that was my understanding of it as an outside observer.)

Yes, there's a very sound psychological reason behind the costumes and the masks, no matter how crass and commercialised. Making the abstract tangible makes it less daunting. My issue with the evangelical pov here is that they might make evil even more scary than it should be if they refuse to have anything to do with even its visual representation at Hallowe'en.

There's almost no form of artistic expression that doesn't attempt to communicate some abstract concept in concrete terms. We are equipped with an intellect in order to understand abstraction. A bigger question arising from this thread is that of censorship.

Annoyingly tonights Halloween party at our church has suddenly been cancelled

and dh has had to take a very pissed off dressed-as-Catwoman-dd to a random party in the town centre instead

Thank goodness the town centre are running something