Jesusween

[Gravekeeper]

Wasn't the whole original point of costumes so you could hide from the ebil? Shouldn't they be hiding from TEH DEVIL along with everyone else? ;p

The best way to say it is that the aspect of God as Jesus, Son of God and Man and Savior of the World wasn't in full play yet. God as Father and Creator was.

Christianity is odd. >.>

[fireheart17]

Wasn't the whole original point of costumes so you could hide from the ebil? Shouldn't they be hiding from TEH DEVIL along with everyone else? ;p

Wasn't it due to copying the spirits as well as protection?

(I actually had to point this out to people the other day who kept arguing that Halloween is strictly an American festival, when in fact it has its roots in Gaelic/Celtic lore)

[Gravekeeper]

(I actually had to point this out to people the other day who kept arguing that Halloween is strictly an American festival, when in fact it has its roots in Gaelic/Celtic lore)

Haha, what? Who the Hell would argue its strictly American? It's Roman and/or Celt/Gaelic. But universally ties back to various fall/harvest festivals and what not.

Does America even have any strictly American festival holidays aside from Thanksgiving? ( Which even then isn't really unique to America and was an English/Native harvest festival ). Me thinks most if not all festival holidays observed in America are quite a bit older than America itself.

[fireheart17]

Haha, what? Who the Hell would argue its strictly American? It's Roman and/or Celt/Gaelic. But universally ties back to various fall/harvest festivals and what not.

Does America even have any strictly American festival holidays aside from Thanksgiving? ( Which even then isn't really unique to America and was an English/Native harvest festival ). Me thinks most if not all festival holidays observed in America are quite a bit older than America itself.

Remember, Aussie here. Not American

And there are several people down my neck of the woods who view it as an unwanted American pop culture influence. And yes it does tie back to harvest festivals as well-some of the common Halloween activities are derived from that. As is the respect for the dead, which is where all the spooky stuff comes from

You folks have Fourth of July, Martin Luther King Day and Thanksgiving. We don't celebrate any of those. (Oh and I forgot Canadian Independence Day or whatever you folks call your independence day?) We Aussies have Australia Day, Adelaide Cup or Melbourne Cup day (depending on your state) and Easter.

[Gravekeeper]

You folks have Fourth of July, Martin Luther King Day and Thanksgiving. We don't celebrate any of those. (Oh and I forgot Canadian Independence Day or whatever you folks call your independence day?) We Aussies have Australia Day, Adelaide Cup or Melbourne Cup day (depending on your state) and Easter.

We have Canada Day, Victoria Day ( For the Queen ), Easter, Remembrace Day, Boxing Day and Pirate Thanksgiving ( Started by an English pirate >.> )

[Ginger Tea]

Willoween - A Halloween party or group costume based upon the movie "Willow." Requires at least one friend of small stature to play the title role.

Or Hansome Tom in Suburban Knights.

Melloween - Everyone gets stoned before they go out for Halloween. Or don't go out, but instead stay home and eat candy while watching discount-bin horror movies because, well, you're stoned. Regardless, all involved are mellow.

If I wasn't put off smoking as a child due to a crazy babysitting experience with a neighbour, I might have taken up weed, but as I really can't smoke (tried a few times when really wankered) I would have to bake mine, but I would be eating my munchies before I got the munchies.

I always saw Halloween's trick or treating as an American thing, we did a few when we lived in Germany, but when we moved back to England, no one really did anything door to door, cept for penny for the guy, I only ever see adults dressing up and that is rarely TBH, I didn't get to go to my local's halloween as I didn't finish working my day off till 10pm, but I don't know how many would be in dress up.

No costume
No booze

would be my prerequisite if I was running a theme night and on the 31st itself, it being a monday, I don't think anyone will be doing owt unless it's the Rocky Horror down at my local cinema.
Halloween has always been 'celebrated' on the last friday/saturday of the month.

[Mytical]

A church near where I grew up with had an anti-halloween thing going. Only at least they made it fun. Games, food (the hot dog sauce made by one of my neighbors was one of the best I've ever had...wish I knew the recipe), etc. Heck you got better candy and had a better time going to it then trick or treating..because our town was very small.

[Gravekeeper]

I don't recall anything anti-Halloween going on in my town growing up. Just my two JW friends being really bummed out. >.>

[Ree]

One of the churches near me used to have a costume party at Halloween, rather than a Halloween party.
They had a "come as your favourite bible story" theme.

(I still laugh when I remember the story that I heard from a coworker when he was younger. He strapped a card table to his body and stapled paper plates all over it and went as "The Last Supper". )

[Panacea]

At the very least, they could have come up with a more creative name for it. There's nothing creative about taking the "Hallow" off and replacing it with "Jesus." .

The irony is, the origin of the holiday's name is Christian: it's a contraction of All Hallow's Eve, the night before All Saints Day.

The original name for the festival in its Celtic roots is Samhain.

And part of the point was harvest festival, part New Year celebration (Samhain is the Celtic New Year IIRC), and part day when the barrier between worlds is thin, so you dress up to hide yourself from unfriendly spirits, not to worship them.

[protege]

I don't recall anything anti-Halloween going on in my town growing up.

I know of a few things. Some churches hold "hell houses." Instead of haunted houses, their characters depict various things that will supposedly land you in Hell. Also, one DJ (Delilah on 99.7) usually goes on about how her children aren't allowed to trick-or-treat because it's "evil."

[Kheldarson]

Christianity is odd. >.>

Ehh...a little. The full theology makes sense, but that's a discussion for another topic entirely.

The original name for the festival in its Celtic roots is Samhain.

And part of the point was harvest festival, part New Year celebration (Samhain is the Celtic New Year IIRC), and part day when the barrier between worlds is thin, so you dress up to hide yourself from unfriendly spirits, not to worship them.

Or to completely scare them away.

Had a conversation yesterday with a people greeter at Wal-Mart who wanted to know why we had Halloween. So told him about Samhain and the New Year. It bowled him away. I think I further rocked his world by explaining that all of the major religious holidays were appropriated by the Church from the pagans.

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

And I can only imagine the reaction this would get if it were a muslim man wanting to hand out Korans...

[RecoveringKinkoid]

(I still laugh when I remember the story that I heard from a coworker when he was younger. He strapped a card table to his body and stapled paper plates all over it and went as "The Last Supper". )

We had a Halloween party at our church once (and yes, it was a straight up Halloween party, too. Our priest came dressed as a big green space alien.). A friend of mine showed up in a button down shirt and a pair of khakis. I asked him why he didn't dress up. He said, "I did. I'm supposed to be a Methodist."

[Duelist925]

Christianity is odd. >.>

I've yet to read about a religion that isnt, in some way.