Halloween "a day for the good Lord, not for the devil"

[Stingy Jack]

Originally posted by Tubalcain
ok, im a christian, but even i know how to distinguish reality from make believe. faith is great, and everyone should have faith in something, but i dont believe that god would want you to miss such an excellent chance to bond with your child. and lets face it halloween can be great fun for the whole family. every day of the week should be the lords day imo. and if you break halloween down to its basic origin, it was a chance for the farmers to get together and thank "god" for their bountiful harvest. they would celebrate, have fun, then hunker down and get ready for winter. it wasnt looked down upon until us christians associated satan with it.

Actually, Halloween began in Ireland, and was originally a night to be feared. Samhain, the Celtic new year, was celebrated at the end of October, signifying the official end of summer. It was believed that on this night, the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead was at its thinnest. Spirits of the dead, and other fairies and sprites from beyond, could easily enter into this world on that night; and it was believed that they would do so in search of a body to possess for the next year. Naturally, people did not desire their bodies to be overtaken by a dead spirit, so they would dress up in ghoulish costumes in the hopes of fooling any spirit into thinking they (the people in costumes) were already spirits themselves and should be left alone. The spirits were also thought to be very dangerous tricksters, and households would set out plates of food for them hoping that the spirits would be pleased and leave that particular household alone. (This is how many people believe trick or treating began, but there are other histories for this tradition ... some involving the door-to-door gathering of "soul cakes" for All Soul's Day.)

One particularly nasty spirit, Stingy Jack, was said to enter into the world of the living on the night of Samhain. Tricked by the devil to wander the world of the dead forever, Jack used a turnip as a lantern (lit by an eternally burning coal given to him by the devil) and could only gain eternal rest if he could find a live soul to replace his own. The jack-o-lantern tradition came from this legend. If you put a jack-o-lantern out on your doorstep, Jack would see it and think that you, too, were searching for a soul and would leave yours alone.

My point for all this is to show that Halloween was originally much more than a feast thanking god for a good harvest. It did involve spirits of the dead, and devils and faeiries and all of that jazz.

Which is just how I like it.

[Arioch]

No more for these people......are christians really that easily swayed? Is their faith that fragile and fleeting?

[massacre man]

Originally posted by MichaelMyers
Across the Bible Belt this Halloween, some little ghosts and goblins might get shooed away by the neighbors - and some youngsters will not be allowed to go trick-or-treating at all - because the holiday falls on a Sunday this year.

"It's a day for the good Lord, not for the devil," said Barbara Braswell, who plans to send her 4-year-old granddaughter Maliyah out trick-or-treating in a princess costume on Saturday instead.

Some towns around the country are decreeing that Halloween be celebrated on Saturday to avoid complaints from those who might be offended by the sight of demons and witches ringing their doorbell on the Sabbath. Others insist the holiday should be celebrated on Oct. 31 no matter what.

"You just don't do it on Sunday," said Sandra Hulsey of Greenville, Ga. "That's Christ's day. You go to church on Sunday, you don't go out and celebrate the devil. That'll confuse a child."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041015/D85O199O4.html

people are gonna thinkk the girl's retarded when they see her walkin around on the day before halloween


but you go to church in the morning and trick or treating in the afternoon



we should all ring her doorbell in costume

[massacre man]

Originally posted by Stingy Jack
Yeah, I'm taking my kid trick or treating in Memphis, and there's already talk of having it on Saturday night instead. That sucks but ... it is trick or treat. I guess quite a few folks will just have to accept being tricked Sunday evening if they refuse to dish out the treats.

if they don't give you candy burn their house down

[Sam The Egg]

that is so infuriating I can't even rant on it.

[Dolarhyde]

Is it costumes or the candy collecting that bothers them? It would seem to me that if it were such a bad thing it would be wrong any night of the week, not just Sunday. What if children were dressed as characters from the bible, would that make a difference?:confused:

Personally, I love Halloween. I noticed it was on Sunday this year, but thought nothing else about it. I live in Georgia, and this is the first I've heard of this, maybe it's not as big of a deal as everyone thinks.;)

[Steve_Hutchison]

Some people love a god they never met more than their own children, I guess.

[Fluff the Ho]

of course every few years its gonna land on a sunday ya dumb asses

lets make it every last sunday of october then, just to piss em off

and what i dont get is if they are all about god or whatever, why halloween would even be an issue for them. we can celebrate the devil so long as its not a sunday, cuz that is gods day? right

SHOOT THEM ALL

GDIS

[thEsounDofdirT]

what if somebody decided to move christmas to just sundays... and that it could never be celebrated any other time than sunday... *sarcasm* because sunday is that one and ONLY day that you should worship

[Chainsaw Guy]

Most people dont even decorate or give out candy the cheap bastards