Do you believe it is wrong to celebrate Halloween?

by anew 36 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Nosferatu

  I really don't give a shit about the origins of Halloween. I focus on what it really means: having fun. Yes! You can have fun on halloween! Kids go door to door collecting candy, that's fun. Grown up dress up in stupid costumes, go to the bar, and participate in contests and win prizes. That's fun. I love dressing up for Halloween. I won third prize one year at the bar for dressing up as a woman. The guy who won first place had bigger breasts than I did.

  If there's any demonized day of the year, it's Gate Night. I had my truck window smashed out three years ago on Gate Night. That is a teenagers' holiday to go out and be shit disturbers. I will never allow my kids to go out on Gate Night.
• 

  dh

  Actually, Halloween has nothing whatsoever to do with Satan

  just goes to show you what i know. i am the misguided one, ha ha ha.
• 

  onacruse

  Shades of Hislop's The Two Babylons.

  Anything I think is inherently deleterious to a fellow human being, I won't do.

  Giving candy to kids in costumes doesn't fall into that category (even if it does make them rather hyperactive...but then I do that with the grandkids; poor little old mom and dad LOL )

  Last year, for the first time, I handed out candy, and gooolllllyyyy sargeant, no lightning came down and struck my arm.
• 

  Big Tex

  We celebrated it for the first time last year. The kids got dressed up and did the whole trick-or-treat thing. One loved it, the other liked the candy but didn't feel comfortable about "celebrating the devil". Which I can respect, especially from a child. I'm kind of in that category as well. I didn't mind so much about last year, as I chalk that down to experimentation, but I'm not comfortable celebrating Halloween.
• 

  onacruse

  Chris:

  One loved it, the other liked the candy but didn't feel comfortable about "celebrating the devil". Which I can respect, especially from a child. I'm kind of in that category as well.

  That raises an interesting question. I don't have any children to get costumes for and take them door-to-door, flashlight in hand, and then have to sort through the candy-bag to make sure some perv didn't try to pull a fast one; burdens that I can well imagine would make any parent uncomfortable.

  However, I wonder how the idea of Halloween being a "celebration of the Devil" came into your child's mind, and why it appears to haunt you, to some extent.

  I only ask this because I know how pervasive were (and, to no small extent, still are) the perspectives and perceptions with which I was raised...conditioning is powerful.

  Respectfully,

  Craig
• 

  Princess

  We have taken the kids trick or treating for years now. I have found the neighbors to be friendlier at Halloween than at Christmas. The kids are astounded that these people give them treats just for knocking on their doors. They make a big deal out of the kids' costumes and one elderly lady makes up special bags of treats for each of my kids. I look forward to it every year. Makes me glad I live here.
• 

  Carmel

  what's the "devil"?

  Elaine Pagels
• 

  Mulan

  I was raised a JW. I am not now. I now celebrate most holidays. I still will not celebrate halloween or if I had kids, I would not allow them.

  You are newly out of the JW's, I assume. Give it time and you won't see it as a big deal.

  We give out candy each year, and last year attended a weekend Halloween party with dozens of fellow ex JW's. We wore costumes, and had a ball. I highly recommend it.
• 

  Terry

  Society and its observances, no matter which one, is the result of ALL the people who have lived in the previous decades along with ALL of their wackiness.

  Let us face facts, everything everywhere is colored by what people think and have thought; believe and have believed.

  The names of the days of the week are all taken from gods that have been worshipped.

  Sunday	The sun, in honor of the sun god.
  Monday	The moon, in honor of the moon god.
  Tuesday	The planet Mars, in honor of the god Mars. The Saxons named this day after their god Tiw and called it Tiw's day. "Tuesday" comes from the name of this Saxon god.
  Wednesday	The planet Mercury, later named in honor of the Teutonic god Wedn or Woden.
  Thursday	The planet Jupiter, later named in honor of the Teutonic god Thor.
  Friday	The planet Venus, later named in honor of the Teutonic goddess Frigg or Freia.
  Saturday	The planet Saturn, in honor of the Roman god Saturn.

  SO WHAT?

  The names of the months of the year too have pagan origins.

  January	Januarius, in honor of the Roman god Janus.
  February	Februarius, in honor of the Roman festival of general expiation and purification.
  March	Martius, in honor of the Roman god Mars.
  April	Aprilis, which was derived from aperio, a Latin verb meaning to open. The month is so called because it is the month when the earth opens to produce new fruits.
  May	Maius, in honor of the Greek goddess Maia.
  June	Junius, in honor of the Roman goddess Juno.
  July	Julius, in honor of Roman emperor Julius Caesar.
  August	Augustus, in honor of Roman emperor Augustus Caesar.

  SO WHAT?

  And what about the very currency we use to buy things with? Mystic symbols abound! Take out a Dollar Bill and look on the back at the MYSTIC EYE! What is it? What does it mean?

  Here:

  The centerpiece of this mandala is the All-Seeing Eye ? an important symbol within freemasonry and rosicrucian traditions for hundreds of years. So it is not surprising to find pride among occultists who understand the significance of this emblem: ?Our beautiful seal is an expression of Freemasonry, an expression of occult ideas.? (Wyckoff, H. S. The Great American Seal. The Mystic Light, the Rosicrucian Magazine, p.56)

  SO WHAT?

  If your mind is permeated with FEAR of symbols, of superstitions, of resonances with all the wacky ideas mankind has had through the ages you can go nuts trying to avoid the unavoidable.

  You know what all this means?

  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

  Relax.

  There is no boogy man in the closet. If you hear something go "bump" in the night it is probably me cracking my toe on the edge of the dresser.

  Halloween is no different from every other silly thing that has come from mankind's past.

  Have fun. Let your children be free of superstitious fears. Tell them the truth. Only people who have had their minds tampered with are disturbed at silly things.
• 

  Iforget

  Well since it's my birthday I pretty much blow all their no celebrating rules out of the water all in one night!

  I let my son do it. I could not care less because it's all about candy to him. I was robbed of a childhood and it's my job to make sure he isn't.