Halloween (Paganism vs Christianity)

Until the 9th the celebration of All Saints day of the Catholic church was May 13th, after easter season. This is the time in which we remember all the faithful who have died, especially those whose witness to Christ is an inspiration. In 835 BC the date was deliberately changed to November 1 to Christianize the existing pagan time for remembering the dead—to bring light to the darkness, and hope to the most basic of human fears.DEATH

The first noted was a celebration by the Druids (an ancient, pagan religion fostered in the British Isles and finally supplanted by Christianity) in honor of the so called "god" of the dead. Accompanying this celebration was the notion that on Halloween the spirits of the dead would visit the households of their living kindred.

Also there was from the religion of witchcraft. It developed in the middle ages when "witches" would gather together on their "sabbaths" for feasting and revelry. One of these sabbaths was Halloween. On this sabbath the witches supposedly arrived, flying on brooms, and sometimes were supposed to have celebrated by changing themselves into black cats.

Most of these people would wear "costumes" made out of dead animal skins and pour blood on their bodies, some have also done their rituals of sacrificing during this time, and would parade into the streets in honor of the god of the dead.

The Christians that time, particularly the Catholic church tried to replace the so-called 'feast' with a feast of their own. They converted the date of All Saints Day to November 1, which is when a commemoration of the saints and the Holy ones should be celebrated instead.

Liturgically, the Church traditionally celebrated that day as the Vigil of All Saints, and, until 1970, a day of fasting as well. Like other vigils, it was celebrated on the previous day if it fell on a Sunday, although secular celebrations of the holiday remained on the 31st. The Vigil was suppressed in 1955, but was later restored in the post-Vatican II calendar.

IMO, kids nowadays enjoy wearing spooky costumes and going trick or treating, but do they know and understand what is it really about? Do you want your kids to mimic the old pagan days of celebrating Halloween?

Ok sure that kids are just kids and they enjoy this kind of things. But for me it's the same with doing something you are not suppose to do but you do it anyway because you enjoy it. So what do you think that is?

Yes halloween can be fun for the kids especially for the treats that they receive that night, but you can actually do something that does not entail wearing scary masks, or witch costumes.

There are lots of "good" ways to enjoy and celebrate Halloween. If you are a catholic, go to mass and pray for your lost loved-ones. Enjoy time with your family. Maybe in your neighborhood you can have a "good" costume party, where you can have prizes for the kids for the funniest costume, best costume, or have some outdoor games that the kids would really enjoy and will spend the time with the family as well.

There is a good reason why All Saints day was transferred to November 1st. That is for Christians to focus their life to whatever is good. I do not want my child to commemorate something that wears dead animal skins and witchcraft. I do not know about you but for me, I think I'll choose the good in this and teach my child to do the same.

Maybe I won't be able to erase the fact that spooky and scary things are parts of halloween already, but it will not be in my life, or even my family's.