I might be a bit late to all the Halloween talk but I don’t care, I’m going to talk anyway. This was my first Halloween in the US and I must say I loved it. Seeing houses in our neighborhood dressed up for this day was just fascinating. I loved seeing the creative ways of carving pumpkins and the various "scary items" displayed on front porches. I really didn’t know that Halloween was such a big deal.
We celebrated it the traditional way: Picking out a wonderful pumpkin from a local patch then carving it and putting it out on the porch. The picture speaks for itself [click to enlarge].
But I guess the part I enjoyed most about Halloween was the "trick or treat" bit. We prepared Halloween candy the night before and the next evening we were ready to welcome kids that came knocking on our door asking for treats. It was loads of fun.
I loved seeing all of those cute kids dressed up in various customs. We were visited by a spider, a Cinderella, an angel and some sort of vampire, among other creatures. Some were accompanied by their parents and others came on their own. The intriguing part for me was actually experiencing Halloween in real life after seeing it on TV — mostly in American movies — many, many times. Indeed, it was fun and a major distraction from the daily banalities of life.
Linda,
No I did not dress up this year. Maybe next year as my mom is sending me a Bedouin thobe;-)
Karegi,
I am sorry that I annoyed your masters.
Karegi,
You don’t need to cut down Jareer to make a point, nor someone else’s faith. I do agree that Chick tracts are at best worthless, and an embarassment to other Christians.
Do you know exactly what happened in the emerging Dark Ages of England? No, none of us do. We all read the same history and make our own conclusions. It fits your stereotype, so believe it if you will.
My point it, today where it counts for us, there is Wicca (Paganism) and Satanism. I used to practice Wicca, or so I thought until a true Wiccan told me what I was involved in was Satanism.
There is real power in it, a real enemy of souls real death, real sexual perversion. And real ceremonies that go on Halloween (because it is to go against All Saints Day, just as their as ceremonies before Christmas and Easter – pagan holiday alternatives)where blood is drunk, covenants with evil are made and people are hurt.
When my life began to be filled with activities like a scene from “Poltergeist”, I called out to Jesus Christ (hearing from a Christian He had power over evil) and it all stopped and I was free of the darkness of soul.
Obviously, you’ve never been there. And children’s Halloween fun doesn’t hurt anyone. But don’t tell me personal evil doesn’t exist, nor box me or my faith into a stereotype of your making to try and explain what you may not want to face.
okay, while i hate the corporate aspect of our holidays in America, I have to confess, I love Halloween. It is the only time where I can eat so much candy and have a legit excuse for it.
I too love the little kiddies who show up in their cute costumes. so adorable.
We didnt decorate the house much this year just because so much was going on but I took a few pics that I have ben wanting to post on my blog. I should do that soon.
Natasha, did you dress up? You gotta do that once and go to a real halloween party. thats the best way to do it.
Lets see, I have dressed up as a clown, and Indian, a baby, a cheer leader, a doctor and of course, once in the first grade, I dressed up in a traditional Jordanian bedouin female outfit. that was fun. the little eboys in my class liked that one 😉
okay natasha you gotta dress up next year and take pictures.
You are going too far, man. We`are the silly people! At least, we have dignity, and self respect and refuse to go after every madness this world brings. When you are empty from inside, it does not matter ; you do whatever to please yourself. I am not against the carving, and the artistic side of Halloween; I carved a pumpkin my self (and like pumpkin pies), but people take it too far.
I have to wonder what problem Jareer has with Halloween. Maybe he is a Chick fan:
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1053/1053_01.asp
Too bad then, since Chick gets 99.9% of everything he sputters “wrong”.
And as for the problem of dressing up like a) witches, b) demons, etc. Well, guess what! Those are all made up images of things invented by churches to give something for people to fear. Real witches looked nothing like that (you couldn’t tell them from anyone else), real demons, if any exist, don’t look like guys in red suits with horns, etc. The original purpose of Halloween was for *adults* to have a way to confront their fears of death and all the made up nonsense the church insisted was hiding in every dark cave and unlit closet. It had nothing to do with the original pagan holiday, other than the fact that the church insisted anyone not Christian was satanic, much the same way some Muslims insist anything not Muslim is satanic.
Modern Halloween is a childrens holiday, that some idiots insist on making into something that it *never* was, is disturbing, but not surprising. When all your history comes from a priest, your *told* what the proper interpretation of things are by priests and ignorance of anything not told to you by a priest is considered devine, while thinking is evil, its not surprising that fundimentalists, who opitimize this kind of irrationality hate and fear things they don’t just lack understanding of, but completely refuse to understand. Thus you get stupid, like one idiot that literally proclaimed that logic and reason based on *evidence* was evil, because it undermines logic and reason as defined by fundimentalists. Huh?!?
Sorry Jareer, but people whose heads are not buried in sand, with a Bible (or Koran, etc.) jammed on top like a tomb stone, rigthly consider people that complain about satanism in Halloween as the ‘silly’ ones.
Halloween…An excuse for skimpy outfits…and candy…I love it, wholesome fun mmhmm.
Halloween is great .. hahah my last halloween in the US i went trick or treating as the Cat in the hat …. it was 2 years ago .. i was 20
free candy .. i was in college … who could resist ?
Well put Natasha, it is a much needed release from the daily pressures. No psycho babble needed, it’s just plain old fun. Take care.
I can’t believe how people become so silly, and some even dress like demons when it comes to halloween; it only shows emptieness inside.