Halloween

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englishredrose

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What do you make of Halloween?
Do you join in any community spirit fun in it or do you avoid all of it?
Do you watch any horror movies
Do you watch any popular gothic style movies
What do you make of popular gothic fashion all year round never mind just at Halloween.

Is it just a piece of harmless fun that you let your kids join in or do you see the darker side of halloween and concerned how fashion horror helps link us to evil that bit more and see the danger in making evil attractive? What are your thoughts on Halloween and all things are this time? Is it really a bit of fun that allows to enjoy evil innocently or is there something more serious? Do you know anyone who couldn’t fight evil over goodness through direct result of harmless fun at halloween? Not hearsays per se but actually know of anyone but please don’t disclose their identities 🙂
 
In my people’s culture, Halloween is an American cultural import.
 
Halloween is fine.

My family celebrates Halloween like everybody else.

My 3 year old is being a strawberry this year. She wanted this costume even though she was one last year. Kids. . . . .
 
I live in England and Halloween is relatively new here so my mum never celebrated it when she was a child. For that reason my family didn’t celebrated Halloween when I was younger and the first time I went trick or treating it was with my friends when I was 12. This year I won’t be celebrating it because my family is going on holiday to the lake district but we will probably carve a pumpkin or something (or do you call them jackolanterns in America?).
 
This year I am trying to incorporate a little bit of "All Saints’ Day into Halloween. We have hundreds of trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood and every year I dress up and pass out candy. This year I am dressing as a “purgatorial” ghost (think Jacob Marley in “Scrooge”) and I’m going to have chains and a tattered sign around my neck that says “Pray for Me”. Also I bought a beautiful little statue of Mary and placed it on a black rock in my flower bed, and I’m going to have LED candles all around it. I live in a predominately Evangelical community, so it may go right over their heads, but with God’s Grace, something just might strike someone and make them go, “hmmm…” I decorate for Halloween, but this year I’m staying away from witches and instead I have jack-o-lanterns, old movie monsters or ghosts/skeletons (to remind us that death comes to all). I don’t watch “gory” movies anymore. I do watch “scary” movies, but usually the movies are old classics where the theme is still “good triumphs over evil”. Even in the old Frankenstein movies you can see that people thought it was blasphemous to try to “create” life and to play God. Anything with just a bunch of graphic killing is “out”.
 
I think it’s a harmless celebration. Kids of all ages dress up and take delight in getting treats. Our catholic parish hosts a ‘Trunk and Treat’ which is a safe place for families to gather. The origin is Celtic where the beginning of Fall signifies a death of sorts and on that night, the demons are said to have roamed about looking for souls. The people disguised themselves so they would be left alone. Check out the history below.

And no, I don’t think kids and families celebrating Halloween will embrace the dark side and I don’t think Halloween is a celebration of the dark side. Falling in with the wrong crowd and embracing dangerous philosophies is a possibility year-round but I think a solid, faith-based background helps prevent all kinds of problems later…specifically during the challenging teen years. 👍

As for the movies, I think the slasher genre is unimaginative and just a series of brutal murders. Movies that are truly scary have imagination and a continuing theme of good overcoming evil. They’re definitely not for young children.

chalicecentre.net/samhain.htm
 
Veronica97 said:
This year I am trying to incorporate a little bit of "All Saints’ Day into Halloween. We have hundreds of trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood and every year I dress up and pass out candy. This year I am dressing as a “purgatorial” ghost (think Jacob Marley in “Scrooge”) and I’m going to have chains and a tattered sign around my neck that says “Pray for Me”. Also I bought a beautiful little statue of Mary and placed it on a black rock in my flower bed, and I’m going to have LED candles all around it. I live in a predominately Evangelical community, so it may go right over their heads, but with God’s Grace, something just might strike someone and make them go, “hmmm…” I decorate for Halloween, but this year I’m staying away from witches and instead I have jack-o-lanterns, old movie monsters or ghosts/skeletons (to remind us that death comes to all). I don’t watch “gory” movies anymore. I do watch “scary” movies, but usually the movies are old classics where the theme is still “good triumphs over evil”. Even in the old Frankenstein movies you can see that people thought it was blasphemous to try to “create” life and to play God. Anything with just a bunch of graphic killing is “out”.
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Well, at least the Evangelicals are celebrating Halloween.

When I was a kid my mother took me, one year, to this stupid Evangelical “Fall Festival” thing because the parents didn’t like Halloween.
 
used to love trick or treating. Now I don’t hand out treats ever…I’ve seen too many teenagers (girl this one time at my mom and dad’s when I was there) just put on makeup and call it a costume (or claim they were getting candy for their “sick sibling”…yea, RIGHT) I go to Vigil Mass for the Holy Day and then watch movies like Ghostbusters or Casper or Tower of Terror (made for TV movie based on the Disney World/Land ride). Its All Hallows Eve…All Saints Day Eve…

p.s. why do parents let their kids dress as the SCREAM creature? That movie is rated R!
 
jediliz said:
used to love trick or treating. Now I don’t hand out treats ever…I’ve seen too many teenagers (girl this one time at my mom and dad’s when I was there) just put on makeup and call it a costume (or claim they were getting candy for their “sick sibling”…yea, RIGHT)
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I don’t know…I really don’t mind teens coming to trick-or-treat…even the ones that don’t have a costume. There’s a lot worse things they could be out doing…and I’m almost happy that they still have a bit of “child” in them when the world wants them to grow up so quickly. All are welcome to my home.
 
englishredrose said:
What do you make of Halloween?
Do you join in any community spirit fun in it or do you avoid all of it?
Do you watch any horror movies
Do you watch any popular gothic style movies
What do you make of popular gothic fashion all year round never mind just at Halloween.

Is it just a piece of harmless fun that you let your kids join in or do you see the darker side of halloween and concerned how fashion horror helps link us to evil that bit more and see the danger in making evil attractive? What are your thoughts on Halloween and all things are this time? Is it really a bit of fun that allows to enjoy evil innocently or is there something more serious? Do you know anyone who couldn’t fight evil over goodness through direct result of harmless fun at halloween? Not hearsays per se but actually know of anyone but please don’t disclose their identities 🙂
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If your heart is first and foremost devoted to God, this is what is most important in pertaining to your questions. All else falls to something that is not so important, and if you place God first, all else will fall into its correct slot.

Much more importance and focus should be placed on All Saints Day and All Souls Day. That way Halloween won’t become the spectacle of the season. The term Halloween itself denotes itself as the evening before All Saints Day, yet look how many people even know that today? More importantly, how many kids know that???!!

It is fun to dress up. I enjoy seeing the kids have fun dressing up and I enjoy getting visits for candy from them on trick o treat night. I don’t see harm in that, except if they really start to believe it is a day for causing mischief or doing evil things- occult things. I would feel better about the cultural celebration of Halloween if I knew children also got to look forward to celebrations and activities of the subsequent religious holidays that follow as well. The celebration of Halloween should be downplayed in comparison to these two religious holidays that follow.

If people saw the real horrors of war and other atrocities in the world, they would NEVER watch a horror film again or think it is ‘fun’ to do so.
 
Forgot to mention that I give out quarters for Halloween. One for little kids and two for older ones with nieces and nephews getting 4. It saves me from the temptation of ‘sampling’ and reduces the inevitable sugar intoxication for the kids. It’s also cheaper than me buying treats, my hubby and I eating them and then having to buy more. I have to add that we don’t get hundreds of kids either as some do. :eek:
 
ringil said:
Halloween is fine.

My family celebrates Halloween like everybody else.

My 3 year old is being a strawberry this year. She wanted this costume even though she was one last year. Kids. . . . .
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:rotfl: that’s cute 🙂
 
englishredrose said:
What do you make of Halloween?

It happens once a year

Do you join in any community spirit fun in it or do you avoid all of it?

We have about 90 kids come to our door and we hand out candy bars
Do you watch any horror movies

Too busy handing out candy 🤷

Do you watch any popular gothic style movies

Same
What do you make of popular gothic fashion all year round never mind just at Halloween.

I teach at an arts college. I just shrug at students who dress in goth outfits. I figure most of them will outgrow the phase. They seem to “rejoice” in making themselves as unattractive as possible 😃

Is it just a piece of harmless fun that you let your kids join in or do you see the darker side of halloween and concerned how fashion horror helps link us to evil that bit more and see the danger in making evil attractive?

I see it as harmless fun.
What are your thoughts on Halloween and all things are this time? Is it really a bit of fun that allows to enjoy evil innocently or is there something more serious?

I don’t consider as enjoying evil innocently, but innocent fun. Sometimes, people just take this way too seriously, and as a result, give more credance to the holiday. As Glinda the Good Witch in the Wizard of Oz says, “Be gone. You have no power here!”

Do you know anyone who couldn’t fight evil over goodness through direct result of harmless fun at halloween?

No, but I have known people who can’t enjoy harmless fun, periof
Not hearsays per se but actually know of anyone but please don’t disclose their identities 🙂
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I have my bowl of candy and little toys ready to pass out. I will go to Mass first, so I may be a little late in passing stuff out, but I will be back before dark. One of us will go around with my son and the other will stay and pass out treats. We are usually swamped in our neighborhood. It is one of the closest for several apartment buildings. But I stand ready!
 
Personally, I think it’s just fine. . . it’s for children. . . the key is to make sure they understand it is just fun, and then the next day to remember All Saints Day (a Holy Day of Obligation).
 
Halloween made the people ignore the protestant reformation day, so I like it(ok I also like the horror thing).
 
englishredrose said:
What do you make of Halloween?
Do you join in any community spirit fun in it or do you avoid all of it?
Do you watch any horror movies
Do you watch any popular gothic style movies
What do you make of popular gothic fashion all year round never mind just at Halloween.

Is it just a piece of harmless fun that you let your kids join in or do you see the darker side of halloween and concerned how fashion horror helps link us to evil that bit more and see the danger in making evil attractive? What are your thoughts on Halloween and all things are this time? Is it really a bit of fun that allows to enjoy evil innocently or is there something more serious? Do you know anyone who couldn’t fight evil over goodness through direct result of harmless fun at halloween? Not hearsays per se but actually know of anyone but please don’t disclose their identities 🙂
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It’s the last day of October

Candy gets handed out occasionally. Watch Treehouse of Horrors

The Simpsons don’t really count

No

It’s stupid

Halloween is fine–All Hallows E’en. We wouldn’t have it if not for the Church.
 
We treated it as any other day, other than the kids having to dress up to “get candy” from neighbors :). They would dress as one of the Saints or as one of God’s creatures. We tried to stay away from anything having to do with evil spirits or death.
 
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