I was listening to some talk radio station in Austin this morning and they were having a debate about Halloween and how it shouldn't be taught in schools because it is celebrated by Satanic cults and the like. Quite a few callers denounced it as an evil holiday. So I looked it up and it seems that it's orgions tie to Baal worship. http://www.born-again-christian.info/christian.view.of.halloween.htm So, is the holiday evil to you and do you celebrate it?
I was listening to Talk Radio 950 on the way to the office this morning, and a Christian caller summed up my views and the views of my family perfectly. While the holiday started out as something pure with the Celtics it later morphed into a more pagan ritualistic holiday. To this day you can't adopt a black cat from shelters anywhere near halloween, and you can't find them in pet stores either... because people do sacrifice them. Also, there are many countries across the world that still sacrifice people (including children) to celebrate Halloween... and so it is something we choose not to participate in for those reasons. We don't judge people who do celebrate it, and we still buy candy to pass out to the kids, we just don't decorate or dress up or have jac-o-laterns and the like. We do have a "fall festival" at our church in Pasadena that is VERY popular with the neighborhood. It is a carnival type atmosphere with games and free food and candy for the kids, the parents in the neighborhood love it because it is a safe alternative to trick-or-treating... and it gets more popular every year. We allow the kids to come dressed up as whatever they want, but the vast majority stay away from the devils, goblins, witches and ghosts... but we don't turn those kids away if they show up. While the vast majority of people who celebrate Halloween aren't evil, we can't shy away from the fact that world-wide there are people that use it in evil ways... including the sacrificing of people, so we choose to put a more positive spin and outlook on it. In recent centuries you can't deny the fact that pagans and satanists have put a wicked turn on the holiday warping it far beyond it's original meanings and celebrations, and with that in mind we choose to not participate.
at this point, we are so far removed from any satainic/pagan aspect of it. its a good time and the kids love it (and adults too) - forget about it. not to derail, but lets look at how us christians celebrate certain holidays... the birth of our lord and savior is celebrated by having a old fat guy who drives a sled powered by 8 reindeer come down our chimneys and leave gifts for us under a decorated tree, but only if you have been good. for "santa" keeps a list of who has been naughty or nice and if you have been naughty than santa wont come down your chimney...and thats the story of the birth of jesus we mark easter as the time when our lord and savior was crucified and acended into heaven. to celebrate this solemn occasion a bunny rabit leaves chocolate eggs hidden in our yards that children must find. bottom line - we are weird!
When I was a kid in Southeast Houston during the '50's and early '60's, Halloween was like a huge block party. There were zillions of kids everywhere. (That's when the baby boomers were kiddos... it was a real boom, lol!) People at different houses had things like homemade cramel popcorn balls, candied apples, homemade fudge... all kinds of things besides the candy bought at stores. And the tricks that were pulled... water balloon barrages, egg barrages, the usual toilet paper wrapping of houses, the older teens cruisin' in their souped-up Chevies and Fords, hoping to either pick up chicks or raise hell. It was a gas! Keep D&D Civil.
It was so much fun! What you are doing is very nice, and I'm sure the kids have a terrific time, but it's a pity that our culture has become so afraid of the crazy people of this world, to the point that we toss away so much that is dear to us out of fear. The kinds of Halloweens I remember largely came to an end in Houston when a sicko put something in some candied apples, if I'm remembering correctly. It was like a splash of cold water in the faces of the parents. Grandmothers used to spend days making some of that stuff. I know, because my own grandmother did. Too bad we couldn't just be a bit more careful and continue things like they were. We made up for it as teenagers, however. Keep D&D Civil.
Probably better ways to do that than by teaching them that eating candy is the ultimate reward for individualistic thinking. Anyway, I don't know how Halloween was when it started, but I do know that somewhere down the line Halloween was a time of incredible fright for many people because it involved human sacrifice amongst other things. I still buy the candy to give out to kids, but I would do that anytime of the year.
I remember when I was a kid that some wacko put poison in pixie-sticks and after that my Mom said "no-way" to trick-or-treating. I recall my grandmother telling me about the candied applies with razorblades in them or something. It's sad to live in a world where you can't trust your neighbor, but the fact that our world has become just that is yet another reason we choose not to celebrate the day... and giving a "safe place" for kids to come on Halloween is more important then ever.
I don't deny there are wackos out there but I seriously find it hard to believe that there are many[/i] countries or people out there sacrificing kids or even cats on Halloween. Halloween is a European descended holiday and the few cultures that still practice animal sacrifice are some traditional African and Asian societies who could care less about Halloween. Anyway the Thanksgiving feast in our society is a vast turkey sacrifice. As for whether Halloween is evil I'm with Jo Mama, anything profound meaning or Halloween has been almost totally wiped out by commercialization and bad slasher flicks.
I think it was what your grandmother told you. The other thing happened a little later, but was the nail in the coffin, so to speak. I think someone was arrested for the pixie sticks thing, but I'm not sure about the apples incident. Man, those candied apples were good! My 14 year old son now considers himself "above" dressing up for Halloween, but my 10 year old daughter is totally gassed about it. (she's so cute!) I think my son is between the "it's cool, I'm a kid!" stage, and the "Party! I'm a teenager!' stage. I'm sure we will look back on this interlude with fondness. We waited so late to have kids it's rediculous. Thank goodness, they're incredible. Keep D&D Civil.
The case you'r referring to involved a father poisoning his own kid to collect the insurance money and it happened in Houston. I was six when this happened and that was my one excellent Halloween as a little kid. Our neighborhood in Houston (off Post Oak Rd.) was crawling with kids and I remember collecting enough candy to fill a pillow case. The next year and the years after it was like a ghost town (no pun intended) on Halloween, b/c everyone was so freaked out about the poisoning. See the excerpt from Snopes below for info about this case- Snopes.com By far the most famous case of Halloween candy poisoning was the murder of eight-year-old Timothy Mark O'Bryan at the hands of his father, Ronald Clark O'Bryan, in Houston, Texas. The child died at 10 p.m. on 31 October 1974, as a result of eating cyanide-laced Pixie Stix acquired while trick-or-treating. To make his act appear more like the work of a random madman, O'Bryan also gave poisoned Pixie Stix to his daughter and three other children. By a kind stroke of fate, none of the other children ate the candy. The prosecution proved the father had purchased cyanide and had (along with a neighbor) accompanied the group of children on their door-to-door mission. None of the places visited that night were giving out Pixie Stix. Young Mark's life was insured for a large sum of money, and collecting on this policy has always been pointed to as the motive behind this murder. Though the case was circumstantial (no one saw the father poison the candy or slip the Pixie Stix into the boy's bag), Ronald O'Bryan was convicted of the murder in May 1975. He received the death sentence and was executed by lethal injection on 31 March 1984 (not on the poetically-just 31 October as is often recounted in off-the-cuff retellings of the case). The O'Bryan murder was an attempt to use a well-known urban legend to cover up the premeditated murder of one particular child. (Note that for this explanation of the boy's murder to have been believed, the legend had to have been in wide circulation by 1974.) Though cold-blooded and horrible to contemplate, this crime still does not qualify as a genuine Halloween poisoning because there was nothing random about Timothy O'Bryan's death. (The spectre of the mad poisoner from the 1982 Tylenol murders was similarly employed by various murderers attempting to cover their tracks.) http://www.snopes.com/horrors/poison/halloween.asp
My kids are totally stoked about halloween! And since they don't eat candy yet......daddy gets the loot! Is that evil?
