When/where did this "Halloween is bad" thing begin/start?

  • Thread starter Thread starter DlandFan06
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

DlandFan06

Guest
So where did this knee-jerk reaction to Halloween come from? When my parents were kids in the 1960’s and 70’s you still had jack o’lanterns, skeletons, ghosts, and yes devils as well as witches and other types of monster. So my question is, when did this “Halloween is evil” thing start? Was it with the introduction of gore or was it something later(and by later I mean 90’s on.)?

I don’t want to have people lopping each other’s heads off because I started a thread on this question so I just want the answers and nothing but the answers please. And I used the phrases “knee-jerk” and “Halloween is evil” for lack of better phrases because when I first thought of this question it sounded, then I forgot exactly how I wanted to write it down so yeah, lol. That’s why I have those phrases in there. If you have better phrases you are more than welcome to use them.
 
Kneejerk?

It’s always been dodgy.

My great aunt used to tell us about how they would lock the doors and not go out when they were young (1900-1910) growing up in London.

I know America like to turn it into a second Christmas but in England it can be madness in places.
 
I think some of it began with fundamentalist “radio preachers” who saw Satan everywhere and exploited Satan-worshipping and animal abuse stories into an anti-Halloween message. (Many if these guys also preached against Christmas.) Also somewhere along the line Halloween morphed from kids, candy, and costumes to an adult / workplace costumes / increase in the “gore factor.” The Christian origins and links to All Saints got lost in a wave of commercialism. Rare episodes of food tampering grew into urban legends of razor blades, community-wide programs of x-raying candy bags at local hospitals, and many parents found all this just not worth it. Like so much that was innocent in the Baby Boomer 50’s, Halloween has gotten over-hyped, over-commercialized, over-emphasized, and over-priced.
 
I don’t really have an answer, but I suspect it was a combination of things resulting in more fear. There were a lot of urban legends about razor blades in apples and that sort of thing. Also Protestant fundamentalism was on the rise in the late 60s (I was a part of that) with a belief in Satanism, demons, possession, and the like. If you really believe that a lot of real people are scary, then something like Halloween becomes something to avoid.

I’m of your parent’s generation. The “scariest” thing I can remember were the homemade Halloween cookies decorated with “Vote for Nixon.” :eek:

My parents, lifelong Democrats, thought it was hilarious. That was his first run at being President.
 
Jennifer_G said:
In the 1980’s, it was LSD laced candy, and the 1990’s, “Look out for scratches in candy and opened bags!”. I see those pop up every 10 years.
Click to expand...
I remember reading that there have been zero reported cases of needles, razors, LSD, etc. It’s just like three quarters of the nonsense the media likes to peddle, it’s baseless conjecture not based in reality. it gives their ratings a hike, so it gets dragged out when things are slow.

The given responses sum it up pretty well, it’s based on fear-mongering and creating associations where none exists. As for me, I love Halloween; in terms of aesthetic it’s my favorite holiday of the year 😛
 
When I was a kid (late '70s), we made jack-o-lanterns and went trick or treating at a few houses, but we were kind of the rebel family. My school and many of the kids in it didn’t celebrate Halloween at all, believing all the witches and goblins to be a glorification of Satan.

Since it now seems to be a night for adults to actually practice and glorify whatever deviant behavior they can think of, I tend to avoid it. Usually, I work Halloween night because that is the night that has the highest level of sick calls on the year at my company, more than Christmas or Thanksgiving. It is our most popular holiday. I haven’t had a child show up trick-or-treating at my house in years.
 
Halloween is hands down my favorite secular holiday. I totally love Halloween! Do people seriously consider it evil?

It’s easily one of the funnest days of the entire year!🙂
 
whatsmyname said:
I haven’t had a child show up trick-or-treating at my house in years.
Click to expand...
We haven’t either, but if you saw our very long, rutted, potholed driveway, you’d understand why. It’s scary! 😃

After Christmas and the county fair, Halloween is our community’s most fun family event. We were involved until the children got too old to be interested. I miss it, but it’s not as much fun without kids. I guess I’m going to have to borrow someone’s child. 😉
 
I agree with those who say it started with the Evangelical Protestants in the 1960s and 1970s. I can remember attending Halloween parties (not “harvest” parties) at my Baptist church when I was little. But the older I got, the more “demonized” Halloween became. When a preacher or writer made a claim; e.g., “Halloween has evil origins and we shouldn’t celebrate it”, it was difficult to check it out for accuracy, especially if you were just a kid.

However, I can’t help but wonder about two secular occurrences in U.S. culture that I believe have actually hurt the reputation of Halloween.

The first is the massive commercialization of the holiday. I’ve seen articles that say that Halloween is the 2nd most expensive holiday in the U.S., as families spend thousands celebrating Halloween.

It used to be that Halloween was one of the easiest (and most fun!) holidays for families, with very little advance preparation other than a costume. Most kids and adults just made home-made costumes, or bought those cheap costumes from a KMart. Now even kids spend a ton of bucks on realistic costumes (and of course, they’re fireproof and they have reflectors so that drivers can see them easily!).

And the decorations are amazing; again, it used to be that Mom and Dad made wooden tombstones out of scrap lumber to use for lawn decorations and hung some cardboard pumpkins up in the living room window, along with the traditional REAL jack-o-lantern; now people create wild yard and interior decorations.

And the FOOD! ALL the women’s magazines carry “your complete Halloween menu for ghoulishly-good holiday!” And we’re not just talking pumpkin cupcakes and a cake that looks like a spider! ALL the courses of the dinner are Halloween-themed and even though they claim to be easy to prepare, don’t believe it! And it’s not cheap either; we used to get vegetable soup and applesauce out of a jar for Halloween, but now…well, it’s no wonder we’re all overweight, even if we don’t buy candy!

And the second thing that I wonder about is the depiction of Halloween on television shows. Again, it used to be that the television situation comedy characters celebrated Halloween just like any normal American families, with candy and a few homemade or really cheap decorations and homemade costumes and a cute wholesome child-friendly plot (e.g., the children discover that the grumpy old lady next door is really very nice). But now, every situation comedy has some kind of fantastic Halloween episode that shows costumes that only a Hollywood makeup artist could create, and decorations clearly done by professionals and of course, lots of romance! When American families see this, they can’t help but aspire to be just like their favorite television family and possibly decide to spend more time and money on Halloween.

Anyway, it’s too bad. Our daughters are long-grown up and gone, and we miss seeing all the little kids in cute costumes. (Kids in our city either go church-sponsored “Trunk or Treating” or they travel to the “rich neighborhoods” to trick-or-treat.
 
As a kid in the 80s in Catholic school, they used to have a Halloween related event after school in which plenty of music, activities, and candy were provided. Costumes were encouraged and there were some wild ones! After getting a load of candy from the parish, I would go home and my parents and I would watch a (tasteful) scary movie or two and call it a night.
 
Cat said:
I agree with those who say it started with the Evangelical Protestants in the 1960s and 1970s. I can remember attending Halloween parties (not “harvest” parties) at my Baptist church when I was little. But the older I got, the more “demonized” Halloween became. When a preacher or writer made a claim; e.g., “Halloween has evil origins and we shouldn’t celebrate it”, it was difficult to check it out for accuracy, especially if you were just a kid.

However, I can’t help but wonder about two secular occurrences in U.S. culture that I believe have actually hurt the reputation of Halloween.

The first is the massive commercialization of the holiday. I’ve seen articles that say that Halloween is the 2nd most expensive holiday in the U.S., as families spend thousands celebrating Halloween.

It used to be that Halloween was one of the easiest (and most fun!) holidays for families, with very little advance preparation other than a costume. Most kids and adults just made home-made costumes, or bought those cheap costumes from a KMart. Now even kids spend a ton of bucks on realistic costumes (and of course, they’re fireproof and they have reflectors so that drivers can see them easily!).

And the decorations are amazing; again, it used to be that Mom and Dad made wooden tombstones out of scrap lumber to use for lawn decorations and hung some cardboard pumpkins up in the living room window, along with the traditional REAL jack-o-lantern; now people create wild yard and interior decorations.

And the FOOD! ALL the women’s magazines carry “your complete Halloween menu for ghoulishly-good holiday!” And we’re not just talking pumpkin cupcakes and a cake that looks like a spider! ALL the courses of the dinner are Halloween-themed and even though they claim to be easy to prepare, don’t believe it! And it’s not cheap either; we used to get vegetable soup and applesauce out of a jar for Halloween, but now…well, it’s no wonder we’re all overweight, even if we don’t buy candy!

And the second thing that I wonder about is the depiction of Halloween on television shows. Again, it used to be that the television situation comedy characters celebrated Halloween just like any normal American families, with candy and a few homemade or really cheap decorations and homemade costumes and a cute wholesome child-friendly plot (e.g., the children discover that the grumpy old lady next door is really very nice). But now, every situation comedy has some kind of fantastic Halloween episode that shows costumes that only a Hollywood makeup artist could create, and decorations clearly done by professionals and of course, lots of romance! When American families see this, they can’t help but aspire to be just like their favorite television family and possibly decide to spend more time and money on Halloween.

Anyway, it’s too bad. Our daughters are long-grown up and gone, and we miss seeing all the little kids in cute costumes. (Kids in our city either go church-sponsored “Trunk or Treating” or they travel to the “rich neighborhoods” to trick-or-treat.
Click to expand...
So would you say that the Protestant reaction to it influenced the Catholic reaction to it? Something must have changed from the innocent type of Halloween to the Halloween of today.
 
DlandFan06 said:
So would you say that the Protestant reaction to it influenced the Catholic reaction to it? Something must have changed from the innocent type of Halloween to the Halloween of today.
Click to expand...
I think so.

My husband and I were Evangelical Protestant for the first 47 years of our lives, and we can clearly remember when Halloween WAS NOT demonized by our churches/denominations (I was Conference Baptist, he was Assemblies of God).

But then a few teachers and preachers started connecting Halloween with the occult, which had a huge public following during the late 1960s during the “hippie/LSD/Viet Nam war protests/tune in turn on drop out” movements.

During those extremely turbulent and frightening times, celebrities like Anton Lavey and his “Church of Satan” rose to “star status” and attracted many followers. Even regular folks in the real world outside of Hollywood were investigating the occult, spiritualism, attending séances, wearing crystals, looking into astral projections and soul travel, becoming mediums, studying witchcraft and “magick,” etc., investigating occult religions and cults, etc.

I personally think that one of Satan’s strategies is to convince well-meaning Christians to connect perfectly-innocent and wholesome pastimes with great evil. This results in the loss of that innocent activity to darkness and hell. The work that Christians do to “demonize” the innocent activity distracts Christians from true evil and sin. Instead of expending our energy and relying on the Holy Spirit to help us fight our besetting sins like gossip or adultery or racism, we instead get involved with the “fight” against Halloween. What’s really more important in our Christian life and testimony–defeating sin in our lives, or refusing to pass out trick or treat candy to neighborhood children? :rolleyes:

We see this happen all the time, as Christians fight against “evil” practices like various music styles, dress codes, dancing, makeup, theater and movies, romance novels, certain toys (for a few years during the 1980s, one group of Christians was teaching that it is evil for children to “pretend” to be animals or anyone other than who they actually are), etc.

Often their fight goes public, and Christianity ends up looking ridiculous as thinking people shake their heads and wonder how Christians can protest dancing, but ignore racism.

Anyway, yes, I do believe that various Protestant teachers and preachers played a major role in causing U.S. Christians, Catholic and Protestant, to drop Halloween from the “approved list of Christian activities”. It’s like I’ve often said on CAF–Evangelical Protestants have a very long list of “Rules” that must be followed–it is a very “legalistic” version of Christianity. Evangelical Protestants often accuse Catholics and the Catholic Church of being legalistic and following a set of rules, but Catholics are free indeed compared to Evangelical Protestants.

The awful thing is that this list of Evangelical Protestant rules is not written down, so a lot of Christians get tripped up by it and find themselves shunned by their formerly-friendly Evangelical Protestant friends. Celebrating Halloween in a traditional way (wearing a costume, passing out candy at your house, putting up decorations, carving a jack-o-lantern, etc.) can get an Evangelical Christian in trouble in their church/fellowship.

I think this would be a good book, BTW–The Unwritten Legalism of Evangelical Protestantism. It is a necessary book, because a lot of Catholics are lured to Evangelical Protestantism by the supposed “freedom” of that sect of Christianity (no more rules against birth control! Woo hoo! And no more “obligation” to attend church every Sunday! Woo hoo hoo!) It’s all sham. There are so many rules in Evangelical Protestantism that a Catholic’s head will spin (just like in the movie, The Exorcist, which is one of the movies forbidden for Evangelical Protestants to watch–but you won’t find that “rule” written down anywhere!)
 
The day that we celebrate Halloween has different histories in different cultures.

If falls on a cross quarter, meaning a halfway point between an Equinox and a Solstice.

In many cultures the crossquarters as well as the Equinoxes and Solstices marked holidays or holy days. Days of festivals, rituals etc.

In Catholic tradition it’s All Hallow’s Eve, the day before all Saints day.

In many cultures it was a time to address mortality, as the last of the harvest comes in and people get ready for winter. As the year and crops were “dying”.

In many cultures it was believed that at this time, the “veil” between the world of the living and the dead was thin and spirits could pass through. For this reason, during the Days of the Dead in Mexico and parts of South America, altars are made and offerings are left for the souls of loved ones who have passed on to return and spend some time with their families. It is a time to address our own mortality as well as remember our loved ones.

In other cultures, they feared the return of the spirits, fearing some might not be benevolent, so they put out scary lanterns to frighten the spirits away, and sometimes left offerings out near the road so spirits wouldn’t come to the homes. Some people disguised themselves so spirits would not recognize them.

In catholic cultures soul cakes were handed out.

In certain pagan traditions Oct 31 marks a new year, a time of divining what might be in store for the upcoming year.

So, images of ghosts, skeletons, scary Jack-0-lanterns and giving out sweets, all became wrapped up.

Sometimes when cultures “borrow” something from one another, they borrow the outward symbols of it, but not the original meaning etc.

So Halloween has definitely morphed over time, and various groups took it up and put their own slant on the traditions.

Depending on where you stand, The day that we celebrate Halloween was ALWAYS about fear and evil…or always about death, or always about divining, or always about offerings, or always about remembering loved ones…etc

It depended on which culture you were part of and what that day meant in your culture.

Throw all those traditions into the “witch’s cauldron” and see what comes out.

I noticed a real breakout of fear and spiritual warfare in Evangelical Protestantism 25 years ago. Anything that might possibly be construed to invoke or harbor demons became suspect.

Since there is clearly an ingrained connection between Halloween and spirits, and fear of demons, and divination…understandably they wanted to put distance between themselves and any of that…which they believed could truly put someone in danger of spiritual harm.

Hence the alternative fall festivals and parties, and trunk or treating came along.

Halloween is really what you make it, but there IS a lot of history that comes along with that date on the calendar that deals with spirituality and demons. None of that is new.

In our home we celebrate the days of the dead, and most of our energy goes into that. We have Jack o Lanterns around because they are fun and beautiful, but the focus in on Days of the Dead decorations, and an ofrenda where we honor and remember our loved one’s who have passed on.

I can see a good case for a Christian not wanting to celebrate a holiday that focuses on spirits, demons, witch craft etc.

When my kids were young I did pick and choose which aspects of the holiday they participated in and what manner of costumes were appropriate. And we did Days of the Dead as well, so those traditions were highlighted.
 
Exiled_Child said:
Halloween is hands down my favorite secular holiday. I totally love Halloween! Do people seriously consider it evil?

It’s easily one of the funnest days of the entire year!🙂
Click to expand...
I remember going out and getting candy using an old pillowcase as a child. Other members of my extended family went to the graveyards to clean it up and then go to mass, vigil mass for All Saints Day.
 
Our church always has a Halloween party and invites all the kids of the neighborhood, with apple bobbing, costume prizes, lots of candy. It’s to prevent kids having to wander the neighborhood – I think it works for the younger kids. Teens will still go door to door. And younger kids who go out always have a parent in the background.
But we knew a woman who swore she had been taken to a black mass or some such celebration at which a baby was sacrificed, in her childhood. I don’t know how true this is, But she said the satanists choose this day to practice whatever evil they think best, to worship Satan.
Considering the state of our society, it would not surprise me. So I try to pray a rosary on Halloween, and the prayer to St Michael. I don’t like Halloween, but do like All Saints’ Day.
 
ProdglArchitect said:
I remember reading that there have been zero reported cases of needles, razors, LSD, etc. It’s just like three quarters of the nonsense the media likes to peddle, it’s baseless conjecture not based in reality. it gives their ratings a hike, so it gets dragged out when things are slow.

The given responses sum it up pretty well, it’s based on fear-mongering and creating associations where none exists. As for me, I love Halloween; in terms of aesthetic it’s my favorite holiday of the year 😛
Click to expand...
Tainted Halloween candy is pretty much an urban legend.
 
Nelka said:
Kneejerk?

It’s always been dodgy.

My great aunt used to tell us about how they would lock the doors and not go out when they were young (1900-1910) growing up in London.

I know America like to turn it into a second Christmas but in England it can be madness in places.
Click to expand...
Well, animal shelters often won’t give out black cats near Halloween. Some have gone through cemetaries and stolen statues, due to this same scenario. Some people take Halloween very seriously who are opposing our faith.

Halloween is the high season for some, I think for witches, say.

We have gotten to the point people inspect candy received, and some hospitals will x-ray it.

Halloween was always my favorite holiday, even above Christmas. There’d be this one kid jumping up and the step. That was me. Well, my mother made our own costumes by hand, and we’d compete, often winning, in costume contests. She’d sew some amazing costumes.

She had a Southern Belle costume, pilgrim, mouse, clown, among others.

We took Halloween in the spirit of playing at being someone else for one day. One year, I was Frodo, had a ring on a chain. It was like being part of a costume ball but with candy!

However, I know some people will do some awful things during it, so it’s moved to a whole new level.

I live in Mexico, and we have mainly “Day of the Dead”, here. Still, this time of the year often has something related to the fall, often associated with the dead coming back. Here, they visit funerals, clean up cemetaries, bring foods and things the deceased would have liked.

I’ve seen people bring alcohol, playing cards and more.

They often have a mass at midnight.

I wish we could strengthen our tradition of associating it with All Saints’ Day and All Soul’s Day.

I understand years ago in the US, they’d bob for apples, drink cider, and it was also a celebration of the fall.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top