I don't understand. Nothing in all of the explanations of Samhain/Halloween I have read sounds evil. Please humor me and explain. Thanks!

Emma, mom to two sweet boys

I think (what I've always understood it to be) is the day that pagens chased away the evil spirits. They would dress up and dance and scare them away. I have no idea why that sounds evil. We celebrate it as what I said above. HTH!

http://www.amitymama.com/images/icons/wink.gifBecca SAHM to Nate 7, Mary 2, and wife to my policeman and best friend!
cd, uncirc, select vac,bf, nature loving family!

I just found a great site that explains the history of halloween. Very interesting! I forgot how to make it clickable, sorry!
www.dcls.org/x/archives/halloween (http://www.dcls.org/x/archives/halloween)

http://www.amitymama.com/images/icons/wink.gifBecca SAHM to Nate 7, Mary 2, and wife to my policeman and best friend!
cd, uncirc, select vac,bf, nature loving family!<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small"><EM>Edited by JennyC on Wed Oct 03 03:46 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

Well...I'll respond here. We are Catholic and do not "celebrate" Halloween as it is celebrated today. However, we have Catholic friends who do celebrate the day. We just tell our kids that we have decided not to celebrate this holiday b/c this is what is best for our family, but other families decide what is best for them.

We do celebrate All Saints Day on November 1st and All Souls Day on November 2nd. In fact, our old parish had a celebration on All Saints Day where the kids all came dressed up as thier favorite saints. I loved that!

We do talk about the dead and pray for the dead (souls in purgatory) and to the dead (souls in Heaven/Saints); that is a very important part of our faith. However, I think that today, Halloween is primarily about candy and secondarily about dressing up in whatever costume one decides. After that, it is about focusing on evil spirits and death (I do not think that Halloween itself is evil). So, first, we don't give our kids candy that much and don't think that is necessary for them. Second, we don't want them dressing up whatever way they choose--especially given their choices in most stores. More importantly, however, we don't want them seeing what other kids dress up as (the devil, witches, Pokemon, Harry Potter....my kids don't even know what Pokemon and Harry Potter is). And finally, although we do talk about death and angels/spirits, evil and the devil, we prefer that influence to come from us and not from what they would see on Halloween night or at Halloween celebrations.

I hope I have explained myself well and not rambled..lol. Just our perspective...



Holly
Wife & Mother

"You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised: great is your power and to your wisdom there is no limit....you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you" (St. Augustine).

All Hallows Eve as it is referred to in England is a sombre pagan event where all spirits are allowed to walk the earth. It is certainly not meant to be a celebration. I remember that when I was a teenager my Mum told me if I wanted to see my beloved to be, I should wait until midnight on Hallow'een and turn 3 times and look in the mirror. This of course was just an old wives tale and was designed to keep me at home, instead of watching scary movies with my friends! It is also in my meagre opinion, Halloween is not 'evil' in itself and neither is Tolkein nor Harry Potter ....the latter being creative art and therefore not purporting any more evil than good. There are, unfortunately those that choose to do so and I do not endorse these practices. On All Hallows Eve, we were never allowed to go out after dark and quite frankly it shocked and enveyed me to hear of the stateside shenanigans! My 2 year old will be protected from any extremes and does not eat candy anyway, but we dress up as unscary costumes and visit friends for a potluck dinner....have fun with life....

<font color=purple>*~~<font color=green>Phaedra</font color=green>~~*</font color=purple> http://www.amitymama.com/images/icons/wink.gif
<font color=green>aroma</font color=green><font color=red>yoga</font color=red><font color=blue>dancing</font color=blue>mama to <font color=orange>Jamie</font color=orange> age 2.2

ITA with Holly, she said it so well. Its not the origins of Halloween that I disagree with (we don't celebrate) but what is has become today. Even though Halloween itself isn't evil, the focus of it has become evil (witches, ghosts, monsters, devils) and this is not something I want my children to celebrate. I want my kids to fear evil, not think its funny. i don't want my children dressing up as wicked witches or devils. I'm also less than comfortable with them getting candy from strangers (we don't know alot of people in our neighborhood).

We will spend Halloween (this year on Wednesday) with our lights off, and will attend a "fall celebration" without costumes or candy at our church the weekend before.

HTH!


<font color=purple>~~blessings~~</font color=purple>

<font color=blue>Rebecka</font color=blue>

<font color=green>wife to Dean since Jan 1997
mom to Mallen, Aug 1999 & Gemma, June 2001
birthmom to Elizabeth, June 1990</font color=green>
<font color=blue>faithful servant of the Lord</font color=blue>

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I appreciate everyone's responses!

So, it sounds like it has more to do with today's "celebrations" of Halloween than the origins of the holiday. I didn't know that.

Also, it doesn't seem like it is so much for religious reasons that it isn't celebrated, but because you don't want your kids exposed to the bloody, gory (sp?) costumes and stuff. I can understand that! That stuff really scares my ds.

I always saw it as just a fun holiday to dress up as candy when I was a kid and that is how I still celebrate it with my kids. They won't be dressing up as the grim reaper or anything anytime soon! But even if they do want to dress up as something like that when they are older, I'd probably let them.

Emma, mom to two sweet boys