So I was thinking about how JWs tie holidays to paganistic roots (birthdays, X-mas, Halloween) and it got me to thinking about these holidays today as opposed to when they were introduced. X-mas may have gotten its start in the Catholic church and been all about jesus' birthday but it's a whole new breed of holiday today. It ain't about jesus or his birthday; it's about gift giving and togetherness with family and friends. Sure it's been turned into a material frenzied free for all for companies and corporations but I'm sure there are people out there who pace themselves during the year to be able to pay for presents.
Halloween initially was about people dressing up in costumes to SCARE THE EVIL SPIRITS AWAY. Wherein lies the problem? Don't JWs strive to keep the evil spirits away, even at the cost of bastardizing the most simplest thing? What is Halloween about now? Spirits? Not hardly. It's about going to houses and getting candy when you're a kid and going to social parties/events when you get a bit older. So what we really have here is a gradual turn from something Catholic or evil spirited into something else.
So, how is this different from: "Millions now living WILL never die!" to "Millions now living MAY never die" or "the generation of 1914" to "overlapping generations"? The sayings have morphed into something else and the old sayings are now the orphaned love child between the GB and JWs at the time of it's writing. No, let something be tied to the church of old and it's held over the fact forever but when someone ties old WTB(s)TS doctrine with what is being shoveled today and it's "new light" or "outdated info" Really? REALLY? Really? Really? Really?
".....go, and give ze fortune teller zist message: 'Her time.....iz almost.....up."