Halloween or Fall Festival?

[Si modo]

Prolly some goofy Christians. They can't stand anything connected, however loosely, to the devil.

Utter ignorance. November 1st is All Saints Day (sorta Christian). The word 'Halloween' has morphed from 'hallowed eve', for the eve before the hallowed saints.

 

[random3434]

Damn adults, take the fun out of all the kids holidays. Kids should be kids and have some magic in their lives while their young.

Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Saint Patrick's, Valentines, et all , the more the better.

All too soon, the magic of youth is torn away to the childish nature and goings on of adulthood and all that goes with it, sex, violence, weirdo's and the rest.

I find it heartbreaking that kids lose the magic, the purity and the simple joy of living at an earlier and earlier age, in a word, IT SUCKS......... ok.....(2 words)

Calm down there mister doom and gloom. We, and my daughter's school, also have Valentines Day parties, with the cards and all, and Easter ( I hide the plastic eggs with treats for the kids and we make Easter Baskets) and being Irish, I even have a St. Patty's Day party for them.


Jumping to conclusions is harmful to your health Lumpster!

What if there was one kid who didn't celebrate Valentine's Day . . . for whatever reason . . . and because of that the entire class changed not just what is was called but the context of the day itself for the party? No hearts or candies or cards or what have you. That's what my daughter's class was going to do because one kid didn't celebrate Halloween.

I don't know what to tell you Zoom. Like I said, the Jehovah's Witness kids don't/can't participate in any parties or holiday programs in our school, so they just go to a study hall during those times. Perhaps you could suggest that to the teacher?

 

[Zoom-boing]

66% See No Need to Change “Halloween”


Many schools are replacing the word "Halloween" with “Fall Festival” because of negative connotations some see in the long-standing holiday name. But a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 66% of adults do not think it’s a good idea to change the name.

Nineteen percent (19%) say a name-change is a good idea, and 15% are not sure.

Regardless of name, children all across the country will get in the spirit of Halloween and dress up for school. A sizable majority of adults (72%) say public schools should allow children to wear costumes to class in celebration of the holiday. Only 18% feel children should leave their costumes at home.

Seventy-six percent (76%) of adults with children say school students should dress up for Halloween, and 69% of adults without children feel the same way.

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of all adults feel that children should be allowed to bring candy to school for Halloween. Twenty-three percent (23%) disagree.

66% See No Need to Change “Halloween” - Rasmussen Reports™


Fall Festival my ass. Last year my youngest came home and said they were going to have a FF party. I said you mean a Halloween party. She said well it was a Halloween party but ONE kid --ONE KID -- didn't celebrate Halloween so the teacher was going to have a FF party because of that kid. Which meant no Halloween type stuff just generic 'fall' crap. The kid told the teacher a week prior to the party that she wouldn't be in school that day so they had Halloween party instead. Can someone explain the moronic logic of catering to the one?

Shhh ... don't tell the wingnuts this, but Fall Festival is what All Hallows Eve means, and that's what Halloween means to. It's more pagan to call it Fall Festival, Halloween was actually a word coined to "cushion" the holiday for the masses.

KK, it's not about that. Taking my daughter's class an example . . . it's about 26 kids who celebrated Halloween and were set to have a Halloween party with Halloween stuff who suddenly weren't going to have this because ONE kid didn't celebrate Halloween. So the 26 had to bend to the one, call it a Fall Fest and do away with the Halloween. Why should they? Why didn't the ONE kid bend to the 26? That's what I don't get. It's not about Halloween or pagan or Christians or whatever. I don't care what the reason was that the kid didn't celebrate, it was that the teacher thought it was ok to change something for the 26 to accommodate the 1, rather than have the 1 accommodate the 26.

 

[Zoom-boing]

Halloween (also spelled Hallowe'en) is an annual holiday celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints. It is largely a secular celebration but some have expressed strong feelings about perceived religious overtones.[1][2][3]

The day is often associated with orange and black, and is strongly associated with symbols like the jack-o'-lantern. Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, wearing costumes and attending costume parties, ghost tours, bonfires, visiting haunted attractions, pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.

Halloween has origins in the ancient celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced sow-in or sau-an)[4][5], which is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end".[5] A similar festival was held by the ancient Britons and is known as Calan Gaeaf (pronounced kalan-geyf). The festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half", and is sometimes[6] regarded as the "Celtic New Year".[7]

The name Halloween (or at least an Old English name which the modern term derives from), and many present-day traditions, derive from the Old English era.[8][9][10][11][12]

The celebration has some elements of a festival of the dead. The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family's ancestors were honoured and invited home whilst harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm. In Scotland the spirits were impersonated by young men dressed in white with masked, veiled or blackened faces.[13][14] Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. All other fires were doused and each home lit their hearth from the bonfire. The bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames.[15] Sometimes two bonfires would be built side-by-side, and people and their livestock would walk between them as a cleansing ritual.

Another common practise was divination, which often involved the use of food and drink.
Origin of name

The term Halloween, originally spelled Hallowe’en, is shortened from All Hallows' Even – e'en is a shortening of even, which is a shortening of evening. This is ultimately derived from the Old English Eallra Hālgena ǣfen.[16] It is now known as "Eve of" All Saints' Day, which is November 1st.

A time of pagan festivities,[7] Popes Gregory III (731–741) and Gregory IV (827–844) tried to supplant it with the Christian holiday (All Saints' Day) by moving it from May 13 to November 1.

In the 800s, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although All Saints' Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween, the two holidays were once celebrated on the same day.

Halloween - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Zoom-boing]

Calm down there mister doom and gloom. We, and my daughter's school, also have Valentines Day parties, with the cards and all, and Easter ( I hide the plastic eggs with treats for the kids and we make Easter Baskets) and being Irish, I even have a St. Patty's Day party for them.


Jumping to conclusions is harmful to your health Lumpster!

What if there was one kid who didn't celebrate Valentine's Day . . . for whatever reason . . . and because of that the entire class changed not just what is was called but the context of the day itself for the party? No hearts or candies or cards or what have you. That's what my daughter's class was going to do because one kid didn't celebrate Halloween.

I don't know what to tell you Zoom. Like I said, the Jehovah's Witness kids don't/can't participate in any parties or holiday programs in our school, so they just go to a study hall during those times. Perhaps you could suggest that to the teacher?

That's it! I don't get why the one kid just doesn't participate, rather than the entire class pacifying her and changing everything so she 'wouldn't be offended'. This was last year and the kid didn't go to school anyway that day so it was a Halloween party anyway. It's just the point of catering to the minority --- that was what really bugged me.

 

[Big Black Dog]

Prolly some goofy Christians. They can't stand anything connected, however loosely, to the devil.

Goofy Christian here. We don't celebrate dressing up as a "Demon", going door to door and begging for candy, it's pointless. We don't give out any either, we just keep the light off. If any kid rings the door bell we just say we don't celebrate Halloween. If you want to do it, go ahead.

And I would guess that Muslims or the Amish don't celebrate it either.

By the way, we don't celebrate Easter with chocolate candy baskets and egg hunts either. You probably think that's "goofy" as well but I ask you this:

How does that fit in with The Resurrection?

I'm a Christian and I celebrate all of the holidays in the traditional way. I must be a "Christian Light" or something. God will still love you if you let your hair down a little and have some good old fashioned fun. Does an Easter Basket or an Easter Egg hunt mean more to me than the meaning of Easter? No. Do I think the traditional Halloween things kids do are less than Christian? No. You are most likely a good person but you come across as one of those "Holier than thou sticks in the mud."

 

[Foxfyre]

Okay, I've really tried to behave myself on USMB. I've been calm, reasonable, logical, and polite. So please forgive me when I say that this kind of political correctness galls me no end. It's pure crap.

Thanksgiving has been called Thanksgiving since a handful of Pilgrims put a feast together to thank God for surviving the winter and providing good crops. In 1939 FDR declared it a national holiday to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. This was approved by Congress in 1941 and has been celebrated as Thanksgiving ever since. Some treat it as a religious holiday; probably most don't. There has never been a mandate for that. It has been part of American history and American culture now for more than 300 years and if anybody gets their feelings hurt about that, they should MOVE!!!!
'
The Founders of this country made sure that no religion would ever be given power over it nor would the government be able to reward or punish anybody for their religious beliefs, but they intended that it be a Christian nation guided by the best of Christian virtues. They believe it would never survive otherwise. That is also part of our American history and culture and anybody who gets in a snit about it should MOVE!!!

Valentine's Day is generally celebrated as a secular holiday, but it did originate with a religious figure. That's what it is. Anybody who dislikes that fact should MOVE!!!!

Halloween has been a mostly harmless, fun, pleasurable mini holiday recognized for the entertainment of the children (and the profit of the merchants who cater to them.) Those who don't want their kids to participate should plan other activities for them that day or just skip it. But those who don't like it to the point they want it denied to everybody else should MOVE!!!!

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth as recognized by hundreds of millions--even billions--of Christians around the world. That is what it is, what it is all about and it too has become part of our American history and culture, and anybody who is offended by that should MOVE!!!

I am sick to death of people so emotionally fragile that they cannot tolerate celebrations of actual events or history or of cultural significance and demand that it be removed from their sight or changed into something they can philosophically embrace or tolerate. I am sick to death of some of the most beautiful, meaningful, enjoyable, and important bits of our history and culture being dismantled because of the mean spirited intolerance of a few. Those so fragile (and/or mean spirited) should MOVE!!!!

There. I feel better. I'll probably not display another such screed for some time.

Carry on.

 

[Ravi]

Prolly some goofy Christians. They can't stand anything connected, however loosely, to the devil.

Goofy Christian here. We don't celebrate dressing up as a "Demon", going door to door and begging for candy, it's pointless. We don't give out any either, we just keep the light off. If any kid rings the door bell we just say we don't celebrate Halloween. If you want to do it, go ahead.

And I would guess that Muslims or the Amish don't celebrate it either.

By the way, we don't celebrate Easter with chocolate candy baskets and egg hunts either. You probably think that's "goofy" as well but I ask you this:

How does that fit in with The Resurrection?

Who cares? I celebrated all those things growing up and I was a "Christian" but of course Catholics aren't real "Christians" are they?

 

[KittenKoder]

Prolly some goofy Christians. They can't stand anything connected, however loosely, to the devil.

Utter ignorance. November 1st is All Saints Day (sorta Christian). The word 'Halloween' has morphed from 'hallowed eve', for the eve before the hallowed saints.

You are ignorant to.

It was originally morphed from "All Hallows Eve" ... because oddly on that one day, across the globe, every culture thought the dead visited this world in some form or another. The christian religion milked it but changed it just enough to claim it their own (remember, christianity is very new compared to other religious beliefs). Halloween is literally a contraction of "All Hallows Eve" ... nothing to do with saints. The traditions we use here for Hallows Eve are a mixture of many different cultures, including the Chinese and Native Americans, as well as a few from the European pagans. This is why Halloween cannot be commercialized like other holidays, the nature of it has a lot of commercialism built in. The Chinese, for instance, put out "treats" (mostly fruits) for the dead on this night so the spirits wouldn't haunt them. The European pagans would dress up like the spirits and have a festival, the masks were so the spirits thought the pagans were like them and not take them. Trick-or-Treat was the American additive, though taken from the other cultures the idea of going door to door was new. This is actually not really a kids holiday either, it just morphed into that here. Most cultures have very frightening tales about it.

 

[Smartt33]

Okay, I've really tried to behave myself on USMB. I've been calm, reasonable, logical, and polite. So please forgive me when I say that this kind of political correctness galls me no end. It's pure crap.

Thanksgiving has been called Thanksgiving since a handful of Pilgrims put a feast together to thank God for surviving the winter and providing good crops. In 1939 FDR declared it a national holiday to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. This was approved by Congress in 1941 and has been celebrated as Thanksgiving ever since. Some treat it as a religious holiday; probably most don't. There has never been a mandate for that. It has been part of American history and American culture now for more than 300 years and if anybody gets their feelings hurt about that, they should MOVE!!!!
'
The Founders of this country made sure that no religion would ever be given power over it nor would the government be able to reward or punish anybody for their religious beliefs, but they intended that it be a Christian nation guided by the best of Christian virtues. They believe it would never survive otherwise. That is also part of our American history and culture and anybody who gets in a snit about it should MOVE!!!

Valentine's Day is generally celebrated as a secular holiday, but it did originate with a religious figure. That's what it is. Anybody who dislikes that fact should MOVE!!!!

Halloween has been a mostly harmless, fun, pleasurable mini holiday recognized for the entertainment of the children (and the profit of the merchants who cater to them.) Those who don't want their kids to participate should plan other activities for them that day or just skip it. But those who don't like it to the point they want it denied to everybody else should MOVE!!!!

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth as recognized by hundreds of millions--even billions--of Christians around the world. That is what it is, what it is all about and it too has become part of our American history and culture, and anybody who is offended by that should MOVE!!!

I am sick to death of people so emotionally fragile that they cannot tolerate celebrations of actual events or history or of cultural significance and demand that it be removed from their sight or changed into something they can philosophically embrace or tolerate. I am sick to death of some of the most beautiful, meaningful, enjoyable, and important bits of our history and culture being dismantled because of the mean spirited intolerance of a few. Those so fragile (and/or mean spirited) should MOVE!!!!

There. I feel better. I'll probably not display another such screed for some time.

Carry on.

 

[Zoom-boing]

I am sick to death of people so emotionally fragile that they cannot tolerate celebrations of actual events or history or of cultural significance and demand that it be removed from their sight or changed into something they can philosophically embrace or tolerate. I am sick to death of some of the most beautiful, meaningful, enjoyable, and important bits of our history and culture being dismantled because of the mean spirited intolerance of a few. Those so fragile (and/or mean spirited) should MOVE!!!!

You put into words exactly how I feel about all of it. Outstanding!!!

You have given out too much Reputation in the last 24 hours, try again later.

Damn it!!

 

[Lumpy 1]

Thankfully Halloween is on Saturday this year, so no problem. Not usually that lucky most years though. It seems I'm not the only one that buys Halloween candy a few weeks before, kids start coming sugared about 2 weeks before. LOL!

A few years ago the principal said, "No costumes or parties! The kids have too much sweets already!" That rule was bent for preschoolers, who parade through the school. PTO brings donuts and juice in the morning and we have an assembly in the afternoon. The Friday before Halloween a note goes home with a 'trick or treat' bag saying to not send 'treats' to school, but if the parents wish, to send the $$ in the bag for UNICEF. While it's not my favorite charity, I think the thought is good. I know we get to teach in the morning, which would NOT happen if they were in costumes.

Truth moment: a couple years ago I did let my homeroom class 'goth' me for the day. Still get letters about that!

I'm sorry Super Puff Mama but that's a pathetic development...