Cancel Halloween

[Cleetus]

We can't offend real witches

Morons

[Ya_know]

I didn't know there were real witches...

[NooNoo]

I didn't know there were real witches...

You take that back! There are! I know of one! Her name is Willow!

[hudsonsmith]

Its their holiday. The church stole it.

Many of the ancient peoples of Europe marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter by celebrating a holiday in late autumn. The most important of these holidays to influence later Halloween customs was Samhain, a holiday observed by the ancient Celts, a tribal people who inhabited most of Western and Central Europe in the first millennium bc. Among the Celts, Samhain marked the end of one year and the beginning of the next. It was one of four Celtic holidays linked to important transitions in the annual cycle of seasons.

Samhain began at sundown on October 31 and extended into the following day. According to the Celtic pagan religion, known as Druidism, the spirits of those who had died in the preceding year roamed the earth on Samhain evening. The Celts sought to ward off these spirits with offerings of food and drink. The Celts also built bonfires at sacred hilltop sites and performed rituals, often involving human and animal sacrifices, to honor Druid deities.

By the end of the 1st century ad, the Roman Empire had conquered most of the Celtic lands (see Rome, History of). In the process of incorporating the Celts into their empire, the Romans adapted and absorbed some Celtic traditions as part of their own pagan and Catholic religious observances. In Britain, Romans blended local Samhain customs with their own pagan harvest festival honoring Pomona, goddess of fruit trees. Some scholars have suggested that the game of bobbing for apples derives from this Roman association of the holiday with fruit.

Pure Celtic influences lingered longer on the western fringes of Europe, especially in areas that were never brought firmly under Roman control, such as Ireland, Scotland, and the Brittany region of northwestern France. In these areas, Samhain was abandoned only when the local people converted to Christianity during the early Middle Ages, a period that lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. The Roman Catholic Church often incorporated modified versions of older religious traditions in order to win converts. For example, Pope Gregory IV sought to replace Samhain with All Saints’ Day in 835. All Souls’ Day, closer in spirit to Samhain and modern Halloween, was first instituted at a French monastery in 998 and quickly spread throughout Europe. Folk observances linked to these Christian holidays, including Halloween, thus preserved many of the ancient Celtic customs associated with Samhain.

Halloween traditions thought to be incompatible with Christianity often became linked with Christian folk beliefs about evil spirits. Although such superstitions varied a great deal from place to place, many of the supernatural beings now associated with Halloween became fixed in the popular imagination during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance (14th to 17th century). In British folklore, small magical beings known as fairies became associated with Halloween mischief. The jack-o’-lantern, originally carved from a large turnip rather than a pumpkin, originated in medieval Scotland. Various methods of predicting the future, especially concerning matters of romance and marriage, were also prominent features of Halloween throughout the British Isles.

Between the 15th and 17th centuries, Europe was seized by a hysterical fear of witches, leading to the persecution of thousands of innocent women. Witches were thought to ride flying brooms and to assume the form of black cats. These images of witches soon joined other European superstitions as symbols of Halloween.

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_...loween.html#p8

btw, my wife's a wiccan, although she doesn't object to halloween

[Ya_know]

You take that back! There are! I know of one! Her name is Willow!

HeeHee...Hey wait

First Confus-ed started being nice to me, then Adept started talking to me again, Now a quoting and response directly from you...

Is all forgiven, or what???

[Cleetus]

I still hate you

[PuterGeekGirl]

HeeHee...Hey wait

First Confus-ed started being nice to me, then Adept started talking to me again, Now a quoting and response directly from you...

Is all forgiven, or what???

Nah, I think I heard He!! mighta froze over tho....

[Stalemate]

For my part, personally, there was nothing to forgive and no apologies made, so not much to fuss about.

I've just decided to change the way I interact here, hoprefully for the best.



BTW, that Encarta article about Halloween and witchcraft refers to the Inquisition as being a witch-hunt, which we know today was more of a hunt for money, land, power and political clout. Anyone who disagreed with the established church was fair game, not just witches.

Microsoft's view of history. Kinda like their view about software "creation".

Still very wrong though, and it was never officially ended, as far as I know.

[TripleRLtd]

BTW, that Encarta article about Halloween and witchcraft refers to the Inquisition as being a witch-hunt, which we know today was more of a hunt for money, land, power and political clout. Anyone who disagreed with the established church was fair game, not just witches.

Microsoft's view of history. Kinda like their view about software "creation".

Still very wrong though, and it was never officially ended, as far as I know.

Exactamundo.
But, it wasn't just Catholicism and their Inquisition. Remember the Salem Witch Trials? Nary a Catholic in sight.
Anyway, hey Smitty: wiccan, huh? Wow! How about you?

[+Daemon+]

more morons....

[gazzak]

stuff the witches just cancel halloween

[Tacklebox]

"According to a Seattle TV station, Hanson said there were three reasons that the parties will be canceled. The first reason was that Halloween parties and parades waste valuable classroom time. The second reason was that some families can't afford costumes. The third reason is that it may offend real witches."


The first two reasons are an excuse for being a d!ckhead.

[hudsonsmith]

Exactamundo.
But, it wasn't just Catholicism and their Inquisition. Remember the Salem Witch Trials? Nary a Catholic in sight.
Anyway, hey Smitty: wiccan, huh? Wow! How about you?

Nope. I'm agnostic for the most part, but we both belong to a Unitarian Universalist fellowship.

[Diver01]

I didn't know there were real witches...

Trust me, most of the women ive dated turns out to be a freakin witch!

[Radical Dreamer]

I'm offended by people who are offended all the time......