Loren Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 For many years I worked in a Baptist Hospital that really took the religious thing seriously. I may have some stories to post regarding the Christian Family Practice Residency program there. I'd enjoy that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AC Skeptic Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 First off, Halloween rocks! In what other Holiday do so much of the community come out of their homes and mingle. Lots of cultasacs have Halloween parties, and people open their doors and hand out candy to very excited children. My kids start talking about their custooms months in advance. The only thing I dislike about Halloween is that my children can incentenly nag for the candy over for a few days following the event. My family and most of my church enjoyed Halloween growing up. One year I dressed up as a Axe Murderer complete with blood on my cardboard axe, and my parents nixed that before I left the house. There was probably an unspoken rule about dressing up as the Devil, though I don't think any of us ever tried it. Some in my church were more fundie and they encouraged a harvest party, which I actually attended several years though we would also trick or treat that night. The PR on the event was about keeping children safe and off the street as much as it was about the evils of Halloween, though that might have been just been an addition to help ease any tension that might arise between the more liberal and more fundie camps. My wife on the other hand, grew up totally fundie where Halloween was of the devil. Her church would have harvest parties, and she was allowed to dress up, though they never bought any costumes so she would dress up in her Grandmothers clothes and I guess be an old lady for Halo...Harvest Party. Now my wife is totally pissed off because of how much fun my children have for Halloween and she likes to trick or treat just to relive her missed childhood. And yet her childhood indoctrination is still ingrained in her a bit because she was at first hesitant to let my youngest daughter dress up as a skeleton. It wasn't all about the "evilness" of the skeleton, we want our cute little girl to dress up in a cute little costume, but it played a role. We let her wear a skeleton body suit, but nixed the mask, because she is to cute to hide her face. Grandma calls and my wife and her briefly chat, in which Granda who has now lightened up a little bit and gives up candy expresses concern about saying "happy Halloween" because of the evil connotations. My wife puts a positive spin on the holiday but doesn't push it, truthfully her parents don't yet know we are unbelievers. But when my wife tells her our daughter was a skeleton, Grandma is none to happy. Later that night I emailed Grandma some pictures, she probably prayed immedietly upon seeing them. My other daughter was a butterfly and my dog was a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader. But if you asked me I would have said it was for the LA Dodgers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabula Rasa Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 My folks were ok with Halloween. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vomit Comet Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 Phanta: It must have been neat, Halloween over in old New England. I remember sitting in toasty warm Los Angeles County, where the only trees that change color are the non-native ones, and really tripping out over the Disney "Sleepy Hollow" cartoon that they'd always show around Halloween time. Not to mention that most of the best and oldest ghost stories seemed to come from New England. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilentLoner Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 No real problem with it even though I was in a catholic central american country, only a handful of kids I new didn't partake in Halloween. Heck, the entire school (K-12) would dress up and parade around the building. Good times... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HRDWarrior Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 Once my family turned to fundyville (about the time I was 7ish) all Halloween celebrations stopped. For a few years my mom tried to make up for it by having a fall festival with the other homeschoolers in the area, and we were even allowed to dress up in "appropriate" costumes and got lots of candy, but that stopped after a few years. After that the only time I got to go trick or treating was once when visiting a friend's house, and my mother still wasn't happy about it and still had to approve my costume - but since all my friends were going (it was out of town and I was going there with dad) she figured I couldn't be stuck sitting at the house while they all went out, so she conceeded that one time - as long as we were in before dark So, now that I have no religion holding me back, I try to at least do a little something - I still enjoy dressing up for it, and now I can be all the things I wanted to be but never could have before! My best one so far was when I went as a Sith Lord, I got the contacts and everything, it really creeped people out Tried an elegant vampire this year, but the teeth I got were horrible, so I went without them, making me not much of a vampire since I had the dentist file my canines down several years ago because I was sick of biting holes through my mouth and tongue (they were abnormally long)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qec Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 All soul's day. Requiescant in pace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franko47 Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 Love Halloween; always have. Course, I like anything that's surrealistic. Including Xmas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
movingon Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 Halloween was a pagan holiday we didn't celebrate in their minds. If we were going to do anything for Halloween we were going to the churches "hallelujah harvest" or staying at home passing out tracts with the candy. I carved my first jack-o-lantern this year. I've carved a few pumpkins before, but always in the shape of something spiritual, or at the very least not something that had its roots in that "awful" holiday. I quite enjoyed this year. I didn't have to worry about finding i liked something. Granted, it was all done with my boyfriend, and in secrecy from my family as they would have a cow... but I still very much enjoyed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoneyardDiva Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 Yes, we were allowed to Trick or Treat in North Carolina & my mom made our costumes. A lot of kids around the neighborhood went out, so Halloween was encouraged, not seen as satanic. BYD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FiddlingAround Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 My folks had no problem with Halloween, but we didn't do Santa. My mother was afraid that if she told us Santa was real and then we realized he wasn't, then we wouldn't believe her when she said Jesus was real. Just look how that worked out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurari Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 Halloween was never an issue. I normally went to a church party on Sunday morning and they encouraged dressing up, just not anything gruesome. No being a hatchet murderer or anything. My pastor often dressed in Star Trek Uniform. Then on Halloween it was business as usual with ToTing and any costume I wanted...and I perfected being gruesome. I have a talent for blood. *L* For witches and pagans (I used to be one, and still enjoy many of the spiritual elements and traditions from it), Halloween, called Samhain (Sow-When) is the pagan New Year and honoring of the dead. It's the final harvest, and it's celebrated with feasting, paying tribute and contacting the dead, reflecting on the turning wheel of the seasons and observing nature as it prepares for winter, and doing rituals and spells to encourage personal growth for the coming year. The Dark Goddesses and Gods are recognized, and many traditions symbolize the darkening days as the "death" of the God (the sun) while He prepares to be born again of the Goddess at Yule (Christmas). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hereticzero Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 I loved Halloween as a preacher's kid. We did not get into many of the smarmy church Halloween parties, we went trick-or-treating. Sometimes we went to the church parties but mostly we had lots of fun on Halloween, perhaps more than Christmas since it was cheaper and the candy lasted almost all year. My wife, as a former Pentacostal, did not like Halloween and it took me a couple of years to get her to lighten up so the kid could go trick or treating. Since her deconversion, she has no problems with Halloween, in fact, she is the one that wants to hand the candy out every year! I sit up on the roof of the house scaring the crap out of the kids when they come over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OpheliaGinger Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 Despite my father being the son of a CoC preacher and my mother the daughter of a strict Roman Catholic, my mum and dad had no problem with allowing the kids celebrating Halloween, and they still continue to use "From Santa" on gifts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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