Ryan: “So this lady was making a huge deal that the church call it a harvest festival and not a Halloween party.”
Jeff: “Well, why don’t you call it a festival of darkness instead, that would really screw with people.”
I know my colleague Ryan has already posted a blog about Halloween and I am sure he is much more convincing than I but since it’s that time of year I thought why not give it a shot too. The thing that really pisses me off about this time of year is the ignorance it brings out it many Christian communities. I can’t tell you how many churches and church goers are adamant about not celebrating Halloween and instead focus on producing harvest parties. The sad thing is this just shows the lack of thought, research, and historical perspective these Christians bring to the table. Lets ponder this first, how the holiday is celebrated. It is the same whether you call it Halloween or a harvest festival. Both ways you let people get dressed up for a party and provide games and free candy for the attendants. So really though if you are trying to move away from the “dreaded pagan origins” and you think that calling it a harvest festival is doing that let me enlighten you. The holiday is believed to have originated in Ireland, and is known in Irish as Oíche Shamhna, literally "Samhain Night". Pre-Christian Celts had an autumn festival, Samhain, "End of Summer", a pastoral and agricultural "fire festival" or feast, when the dead revisited the mortal world and large communal bonfires would hence be lit to ward off evil spirits. In summary the original pagan event was pretty much a harvest festival. Halloween is actually a holiday instigated in part by the church. Pope Gregory IV standardized the date of All Saints' Day, or All Hallows' Day, on November 1 in the name of the entire Western Church in 835. As the church day began at sunset, the holiday coincided exactly with Samhain. So really if a historical and even logical approach is taken is makes more sense that we call our celebrations Halloween celebrations rather than calling them harvest festivals. Now a lot of people object to the pumpkins, costumes, and trick or treating because of supposed roots in evil but I think this too is rather foolish. These symbols even if they were at one time symbols of darkness have by this point lost any connection to their past. The vast majority of celebrators world wide have no idea where the symbols come from or regard the holiday as anything more than another excuse to dress up, party, and get loads of free candy. I would argue that most of the Christians who object have very little idea of the origins of the things to which they object. Let me run down the list of the top three focusing primarily on their appearance in the States.
The jack-o'-lantern can be traced back to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a greedy, gambling, hard drinking old farmer who tricked the devil into climbing a tree, and trapped him by carving a cross into the trunk of the tree. In revenge, the devil placed a curse on Jack which dooms him to forever wander the earth at night. For centuries, the bedtime parable was told by Irish parents to their children. So basically the origin is a superstitious urban legend and just because the story involves the devil it doesn’t make it anymore than a story. Many early American folklore tales involve similar storylines. The carved pumpkin was associated generally with harvest time in America, and did not become specifically associated with Halloween until the mid to late 19th century. So honestly the American association is almost entirely benign. You who are objecting to these, do you know the legend of stingy jack and more importantly does it matter? When you watch those anti-Halloween propaganda films they usually tie the tradition to Scotland where Children used to dress up in costumes and carry around a "Neepy Candle," a devil face carved into a hollowed out Neep, lit from inside, to frighten away the evil faeries. Yes ladies and gentleman fairies, not evil spirits as the narrator will try to convince you. Are you really worried that your children will be influenced to believe in fairies if they light a pumpkin? And if so did you let your kids watch Peter Pan or read Anderson’s Fairy Tales? I rest my case.
The main event for children of modern Halloween in the United States and Canada is trick-or-treating, in which children disguise themselves in costumes and go door-to-door in their neighborhoods, ringing each doorbell and yelling "trick or treat!" to solicit a gift of candy or similar items. Halloween was perceived as the night during which the division between the world of the living and the otherworld was blurred so spirits of the dead and inhabitants from the underworld were able to walk free on the earth. It was believed necessary to dress as a spirit or otherworldly creature when venturing outdoors to blend in, and this is where dressing in such a manner for Halloween comes from. This gradually evolved into trick-or-treating because children would knock on their neighbors' doors, in order to gather fruit, nuts, and sweets for the Halloween festival. Once again I want to point out that the origins of the costumes are almost entirely unknown to the majority of and therefore irrelevant. People don’t dress up to fit in with the spirit world they, at present, dress up to fit in at the office party. Furthermore in an American context although the practice resembles the older traditions of guising in Ireland and Scotland, ritual begging on Halloween does not appear in English-speaking North America until the 20th century, and may have developed independently.
The imagery surrounding Halloween is largely an amalgamation of the Halloween season itself, nearly a century of work from American filmmakers and graphic artists, and a rather commercialized take on the dark and mysterious. If you are against Halloween I would suggest that the position is largely one you were likely fed by another uninformed person and I suggest looking into it yourself. If the “suspect origins” bother you let me give you another reason to just get over it. Let’s, just for kicks, lay out the origins of Christmas. A winter festival was traditionally the most popular festival of the year in many cultures. Reasons included less agricultural work needing to be done during the winter, as well as people expecting longer days and shorter nights after the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. In part, the Christmas celebration was created by the early Church in order to entice pagan Romans to convert to Christianity without losing their own winter celebrations. Most of the most important gods in the religions of Ishtar and Mithra had their birthdays on December 25. Various Christmas traditions are considered to have been syncretised from winter festivals including the following: Saturnalia, Natalis Solis Invicti, and Yule. Another example of a tradition with pagan origins that was lost its association with them entirely and become benign would be the twelve days of Christmas which were derived from the winter festival called Yule, held in the late December to early January period. Yule logs were lit to honor Thor, the god of thunder, with the belief that each spark from the fire represented a new pig or calf that would be born during the coming year. Feasting would continue until the log burned out, which could take as many as twelve days. I would argue that if you are overlooking all the associations on other holidays why then do you focus your lens on Halloween? Admit it’s just because it seems darker than others but if all you have is a gut feeling without evidence than it is useless for arriving at truth.
In closing I have this to say. This Halloween spend time with the people you love, get dressed, go to a party, give kids candy and try to make everyone’s night splendid. Let the church provide kids with safe places off the streets to get their sugar fix, let them be artistic with a gourd. Honestly I am positive you will be a better witness for Christ, more loving to others, and make better use of the life God has given you.
Jeff: “Well, why don’t you call it a festival of darkness instead, that would really screw with people.”
I know my colleague Ryan has already posted a blog about Halloween and I am sure he is much more convincing than I but since it’s that time of year I thought why not give it a shot too. The thing that really pisses me off about this time of year is the ignorance it brings out it many Christian communities. I can’t tell you how many churches and church goers are adamant about not celebrating Halloween and instead focus on producing harvest parties. The sad thing is this just shows the lack of thought, research, and historical perspective these Christians bring to the table. Lets ponder this first, how the holiday is celebrated. It is the same whether you call it Halloween or a harvest festival. Both ways you let people get dressed up for a party and provide games and free candy for the attendants. So really though if you are trying to move away from the “dreaded pagan origins” and you think that calling it a harvest festival is doing that let me enlighten you. The holiday is believed to have originated in Ireland, and is known in Irish as Oíche Shamhna, literally "Samhain Night". Pre-Christian Celts had an autumn festival, Samhain, "End of Summer", a pastoral and agricultural "fire festival" or feast, when the dead revisited the mortal world and large communal bonfires would hence be lit to ward off evil spirits. In summary the original pagan event was pretty much a harvest festival. Halloween is actually a holiday instigated in part by the church. Pope Gregory IV standardized the date of All Saints' Day, or All Hallows' Day, on November 1 in the name of the entire Western Church in 835. As the church day began at sunset, the holiday coincided exactly with Samhain. So really if a historical and even logical approach is taken is makes more sense that we call our celebrations Halloween celebrations rather than calling them harvest festivals. Now a lot of people object to the pumpkins, costumes, and trick or treating because of supposed roots in evil but I think this too is rather foolish. These symbols even if they were at one time symbols of darkness have by this point lost any connection to their past. The vast majority of celebrators world wide have no idea where the symbols come from or regard the holiday as anything more than another excuse to dress up, party, and get loads of free candy. I would argue that most of the Christians who object have very little idea of the origins of the things to which they object. Let me run down the list of the top three focusing primarily on their appearance in the States.
The jack-o'-lantern can be traced back to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a greedy, gambling, hard drinking old farmer who tricked the devil into climbing a tree, and trapped him by carving a cross into the trunk of the tree. In revenge, the devil placed a curse on Jack which dooms him to forever wander the earth at night. For centuries, the bedtime parable was told by Irish parents to their children. So basically the origin is a superstitious urban legend and just because the story involves the devil it doesn’t make it anymore than a story. Many early American folklore tales involve similar storylines. The carved pumpkin was associated generally with harvest time in America, and did not become specifically associated with Halloween until the mid to late 19th century. So honestly the American association is almost entirely benign. You who are objecting to these, do you know the legend of stingy jack and more importantly does it matter? When you watch those anti-Halloween propaganda films they usually tie the tradition to Scotland where Children used to dress up in costumes and carry around a "Neepy Candle," a devil face carved into a hollowed out Neep, lit from inside, to frighten away the evil faeries. Yes ladies and gentleman fairies, not evil spirits as the narrator will try to convince you. Are you really worried that your children will be influenced to believe in fairies if they light a pumpkin? And if so did you let your kids watch Peter Pan or read Anderson’s Fairy Tales? I rest my case.
The main event for children of modern Halloween in the United States and Canada is trick-or-treating, in which children disguise themselves in costumes and go door-to-door in their neighborhoods, ringing each doorbell and yelling "trick or treat!" to solicit a gift of candy or similar items. Halloween was perceived as the night during which the division between the world of the living and the otherworld was blurred so spirits of the dead and inhabitants from the underworld were able to walk free on the earth. It was believed necessary to dress as a spirit or otherworldly creature when venturing outdoors to blend in, and this is where dressing in such a manner for Halloween comes from. This gradually evolved into trick-or-treating because children would knock on their neighbors' doors, in order to gather fruit, nuts, and sweets for the Halloween festival. Once again I want to point out that the origins of the costumes are almost entirely unknown to the majority of and therefore irrelevant. People don’t dress up to fit in with the spirit world they, at present, dress up to fit in at the office party. Furthermore in an American context although the practice resembles the older traditions of guising in Ireland and Scotland, ritual begging on Halloween does not appear in English-speaking North America until the 20th century, and may have developed independently.
The imagery surrounding Halloween is largely an amalgamation of the Halloween season itself, nearly a century of work from American filmmakers and graphic artists, and a rather commercialized take on the dark and mysterious. If you are against Halloween I would suggest that the position is largely one you were likely fed by another uninformed person and I suggest looking into it yourself. If the “suspect origins” bother you let me give you another reason to just get over it. Let’s, just for kicks, lay out the origins of Christmas. A winter festival was traditionally the most popular festival of the year in many cultures. Reasons included less agricultural work needing to be done during the winter, as well as people expecting longer days and shorter nights after the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. In part, the Christmas celebration was created by the early Church in order to entice pagan Romans to convert to Christianity without losing their own winter celebrations. Most of the most important gods in the religions of Ishtar and Mithra had their birthdays on December 25. Various Christmas traditions are considered to have been syncretised from winter festivals including the following: Saturnalia, Natalis Solis Invicti, and Yule. Another example of a tradition with pagan origins that was lost its association with them entirely and become benign would be the twelve days of Christmas which were derived from the winter festival called Yule, held in the late December to early January period. Yule logs were lit to honor Thor, the god of thunder, with the belief that each spark from the fire represented a new pig or calf that would be born during the coming year. Feasting would continue until the log burned out, which could take as many as twelve days. I would argue that if you are overlooking all the associations on other holidays why then do you focus your lens on Halloween? Admit it’s just because it seems darker than others but if all you have is a gut feeling without evidence than it is useless for arriving at truth.
In closing I have this to say. This Halloween spend time with the people you love, get dressed, go to a party, give kids candy and try to make everyone’s night splendid. Let the church provide kids with safe places off the streets to get their sugar fix, let them be artistic with a gourd. Honestly I am positive you will be a better witness for Christ, more loving to others, and make better use of the life God has given you.
1 comment:
Whew, I read that whole thing. I could make a much longer comment but I'll just sum it all up with "good point". And, later on I'll email you pictures of your nieces. Charlotte was a zebra and Taylor was a pumpkin. Scott took Charlotte trick or treating around our neighborhood and then we went to a humungus "harvest" party. It was fun.:)
Pammy
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