Halloweenie

[nightwind]

Harvest

Ha, yea I remember when I was in school we always had a "Halloween Carnival". They were a blast, with all kinds of games, folks dressed up like ghosts, witches, etc. It also is a real money maker for the Parent Teacher Assoc.

Well now, it has evolved into a "Harvest Festival", and you are not supposed to wear anything "scary". But you can dress, like a cowboy, cartoon character, or other non-spooky creature.

This was done a few years ago to pacify complaints from religious conservatives who said that this would inspire everyone to turn to the darkside, or something like that.

It is amazing to me with all of the true evil in the world, that anyone could perceive these carnivals, trick-or-treating, etc. as being some kind of evil.

I know I always participated just to have fun, and never thought I would become possessed by demons because of it.

But gosh, I am from a very conservative part of Texas, and we are a little weird, and sometimes over react to relatively harmless activities.

 

[triadboy]

Re: Re: Halloweenie

I don't see anything obvious in that since "Halloween" is a contraction of "All Hallows Eve" and "Hallow" is an old word meaning "Saint". The OED puts earliest written use of "hallow" in his sense to 885. This predates the word "Halloween" by roughly 500 years.

I would say that "Harvest Party" is much more pagan than "Halloween".

Agree, LW. But over here in the states, the puritanical faction deems Halloween as some kind of satanic celebration - the devils night. I don't want to give you the impression that it's that way all over the states, but lately I've encounter children who aren't allowed to go trick-or-treating because their parents are offended by the fun the children are having. Changing the name to Harvest party is an attempt to replace Halloween. Everyone is correct - it is rather pagan, but only because it is referring to nature - Mother Earth.

 

[whitefork]

There are four great seasonal holidays, for the quartering of the year, I think, in addition to the solstices and equinoxes, and they're suppose to be of ancient provenance:

Walpurgisnacht (Beltane) - April 30
Candlemas - February 2 (now mostly remembered as Ground Hog Day)
Hallowe'en - October 31
Lughnasadh - July 31/August 1

I think they've been pretty well co-opted by various Christian or Catholic feast days.

Tricky would probably have better information. Hallowe'en just happens to be the most popular.

We used to do a Maypole dance back in elementary school. I'm sure it's very phallic and obscene if done correctly.