Line #34 UsefulNotes/AllHallowsEve


1	[[quoteright:350:[[Creator/ECComics https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hallxxces.png]]]]
2	->''"Halloween is bigger than Christmas in America. I've experienced it in New York, Los Angeles and Washington D.C., and if you're in the right neighbourhood, every house is decorated with spooky ghosts, spider webs, and jack-o-lanterns.''"
3	-->-- '''Creator/RhysDarby'''
4
5	All Hallows' Eve. All Saints' Eve. Allhalloween. November Eve. Samhain. October 31. Whatever you happen to call it – and whether you like it or not – [[AntiquatedLinguistics Hallowe'en]] is one holiday which has long since ingrained itself in American ([[EaglelandOsmosis and therefore global]]) popular culture.
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7	Let's dig into some of the gory details, shall we?
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10	!![[AC:Origins and history]]
11	The roots of what we now know as Halloween are often thought to be descended from the Irish Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced "sah-win"), which is believed to mean "summer's end". Very little is known about the original Samhain, but during the Celtic Revival movement of the 19th century a lot of speculation was put forth about the holiday, which seems to have stuck in the public consciousness: supposedly, the ancient Celts believed that the "veil" between the worlds of the living and the dead was thin from the night of October 31st through to the night of November 1st; anybody who knows anything about Halloween knows where this is going. Of course, Halloween was already a popular holiday by the time these theories were put forth, so most serious modern historians agree that it was Halloween that shaped our perceptions of Samhain, rather than Samhain shaping Halloween itself. What we do know is that Samhain marked the last harvest, the end of foraging for livestock, and the beginning of winter. It may have been a religious holiday or a purely practical harvest festival; we're really not sure. Historical records by the Romans claim that Samhain involved ritual HumanSacrifice, although archaeological evidence of this is lacking. It is also worth remembering that "the Celts" were not a single people with a single set of traditions, but a disparate group of many tribes stretching from Ireland all the way to the Adriatic Sea, so the traditions of one Celtic people would not have lined up with those another.
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13	During the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church put forth the observance of All Souls' Day (aka All Hallows' Day or Hallowmas), becoming "All Hallows' Evening", which was then contracted into "Hallowe'en". It was a day on which the living would pray for the souls of the dead who were thought to still be in Purgatory. Originally, in the seventh century, All Saints' Day was celebrated on May 13th, right after Easter. A few centuries later, it was shifted to November; there are multiple theories as to why. Some Orthodox churches continue to celebrate it in April, as did the Irish for a time. During the Reformation, Protestant monarchs tried to ban the practice (Protestantism largely rejecting the idea of Purgatory), but by then it had entered into too many folklore traditions, and was hard to stamp out, but the traditions were strongest in places where Catholicism remained -- specifically, Ireland, parts of [[OopNorth Northern England]], and the Scottish Highlands. Over time, it had absorbed a number of other autumn traditions, including the practice of "souling", also known as "wassailing", in which people -- usually out-of-work plowmen or other seasonal workers -- would go door-to-door begging for food and drink. Those who were generous to the soulers would be rewarded with a song, a display of acrobatics, or a prayer for their recently departed, shortening their time in Purgatory, while stingier homeowners might be punished with retaliatory pranks from the rough-and-tumble plowmen. To avoid the shame of begging, and to avoid reprisals for their pranks, the soulers would often wear frightening disguises, hence the Scottish name for the practice: "guising". This tradition would eventually evolve into the modern ritual of trick-or-treating, but was also the forerunner of [[ChristmasCarolers Christmas caroling]] later in the year -- some older carols still have references to praying for the host's household, or veiled threats of mischief, in the lyrics.
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15	What really took the festival beyond a few rural folk traditions and into the cultural mainstream was Creator/RobertBurns' poem "Halloween", published in 1785. Burns, a chronicler of Scottish cultural practices, was not the first to write a poem on the subject, but his poem was by far the most successful, and he is often considered the godfather of the entire holiday today. Nearly a hundred years later, the Irish Canadian poet and political leader Thomas D'Arcy [=McGee=] would refer to Burns simply as "the Bard of Hallowe'en" in his own poem "Hallowe'en in Canada, 1863". (Burns, by the way, also wrote the lyrics to "Auld Lang Syne", the undisputed [[NewYearHasCome New Year's]] anthem, making him a defining figure for ''two'' major holidays.)
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17	By the 19th century, the aforementioned Celtic Revival movement was launching, bringing with it a new wave of interest in the traditions and beliefs of pre-Christian Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. It was here that Samhain was finally dug up as a possible antecedent to Halloween, and relatively-recent traditions derived from Christian folk theology backdated to new origins in pagan antiquity.
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19	The 19th century also saw substantial [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishDiaspora Irish]] and Scottish migration to the New World, and these immigrants brought Halloween traditions with them. Back in this time, Halloween in North America was more of a celebration of Irish and Scottish heritage than anything else, much like Columbus Day is for Italian Americans. It was commemorated with parades, large feasts, apple bobbing, and other divination games (mostly based around romance and marriage), as well as with pranks and mischief. By the early 20th century, said "pranks and mischief" had become the defining feature of Halloween, turning it into a night of hooliganism and vandalism. As a result, the Boy Scouts and neighborhood groups started working to shift the holiday back into a safer and more family-friendly celebration by organizing trick-or-treating events based around the old practice of "guising", to redirect the focus of the festivities away from pranks and violence. With Halloween now becoming a popular celebration outside of Welsh, Irish and Scottish neighborhoods, retailers jumped at the opportunity for promoting a new holiday to commercialize. While this commercialization first began in the early decades of the 20th century (mass-produced costumes started appearing in [[TheGreatDepression the 1930s]]), it really took off after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and it hasn't stopped since.
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21	Today, Halloween is considered a major holiday in the US, Canada, Mexico (where it retains more of a Catholic bent, as it falls right before the Día de los Muertos celebrations), and the British Isles (where it tends to be more strongly influenced by the older traditions). It's also caught on in mainland Europe (especially in those regions with a strong Celtic influence, such as northernmost Spain, where it is often also closer to the older traditions), Australia and New Zealand, India, the Philippines, and Japan, largely through exposure to American media. It's that part about American media, however, that tends to provoke the most criticism of Halloween outside of North America and the British Isles. France, for instance, has long been resistant to celebrating the holiday, seeing it as a form of American cultural imperialism, and celebrations are largely limited to the expat communities. The Australians are more accepting, especially in recent years (it helps that many Australians claim Irish or Scottish ancestry), but Halloween is still fairly controversial there for the same reasons that it is in France; a typical sight in newspapers around October is one or more articles railing against the holiday, and the "creeping Americanism" it is held to represent (especially given that, in Australia, October marks the beginning of ''spring''). Even in the UK, you can encounter quite a number of people who bemoan the degree to which Halloween has displaced the more traditional UsefulNotes/GuyFawkes Night or Bonfire Night observances of a few days later. Thus, a new myth is emerging about the origins of Hallowe'en: whereas Victorian mystics put forth the idea that the holiday was derived from ancient pagan Irish traditions, today we're seeing the idea that it is a purely modern, American invention.
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23	----
24	!![[AC:Traditions]]
25
26	* '''Costumes:''' One of the standout features of the holiday. The Halloween costume has traditionally been some form of [[OurMonstersAreDifferent monster]] -- popular choices include [[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghosts]] (particularly of the [[BedsheetGhost bedsheet]] variety), [[DemBones skeletons]], [[WickedWitch witches]], [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demons]], [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]], [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]], [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]], and [[SlasherMovie masked slashers]]. Big rubber masks are often a component, as is [[KensingtonGore fake blood]]. Other popular (and less scary or supernatural) choices include [[EmergencyServices police officers, firefighters]], {{pirate}}s, soldiers, doctors, [[NaughtyNurseOutfit nurses]], animals, princesses, [[HalloweenCosplay TV and movie characters]], athletes, Presidential candidates in election years,[[note]]Election Day in the US falls no more than eight days after Halloween, meaning that the holiday occurs at the climax of the campaign. In fact, [[https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/halloween-mask-sales-predict-the-presidential-election connections have been made]] between the candidate who sells the most masks and the one who wins the election. 2020 was the first election where this rule did not hold, as UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump still lost to UsefulNotes/JoeBiden despite [[https://theojt100.com/halloween-mask-sales/ leading him]] in the mask race (though the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic did put a crimp on Halloween celebrations that year). [[NixonMask Masks of]] UsefulNotes/RichardNixon, of course, are also a perennial favorite.[[/note]] and costumes that parody the year's events, often in [[GallowsHumor a macabre and deliberately provocative fashion]] (such as a celebrity who died recently, or a victim of a recent disaster). Historically, costumes based on [[NationalStereotypes ethnic groups and stereotypes]] (particularly UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans) were also popular, and many stores still carry them, but [[ValuesDissonance these days]], going out in such a costume is at least as likely to get you an earful (or worse) as it is to get you a compliment.\
27	A recent trend has been for women's Halloween costumes to crank up the {{fanservice}} with plenty of [[NavelDeepNeckline cleavage]], [[ShowSomeLeg leg]], midriff, and [[HellBentForLeather leather]]. In fact, as noted on the page for HotterAndSexier, the "[[{{Stripperiffic}} slutty]] [[SexyWhateverOutfit Halloween costume]]" has almost become a trope in itself, with [[https://www.yandy.com/halloween-costumes entire companies]] specializing in making sexy costumes. Halloween has been described (most famously by [[Film/MeanGirls Cady Heron]]) as the one day on which women are allowed to pretty much dress like strippers without any repercussions, no matter how strait-laced they are on the other 364 days of the year, while Creator/DanSavage has [[http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happy-heteroween/Content?oid=2594616 called it]] the closest thing that straight people have to a gay PrideParade, or that Americans have to Mardi Gras or Carnival. That said, it does make a good target for snark, with lists of the most [[FetishRetardant laughable]] "sexy" Halloween costumes cropping up every October. And just in case you were wondering, while it is less common, guys get in on this too; the usual male variant of the above is either the WalkingShirtlessScene, or something that [[DoubleEntendre calls attention to the guy's junk]], such as elephants, hot dogs, genie bottles, or "ball pits". The [[MemeticMutation meme]] [[https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/036/460/078.jpg "Is Halloween getting too sexy for kids?"]] parodies this by showing someone crawling in an Creator/{{Amazon}} box.
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30	* '''Decoration:''' Halloween trails only UsefulNotes/{{Christmas\|InAmerica}} in the US as the most popular holiday for decorating one's house, and as with Christmas, said decoration nowadays can take place [[ChristmasCreep weeks ahead of time]]. The Celtic jack-o'-lantern tradition has been imported largely intact, the main difference being that pumpkins long ago replaced turnips as the carved vegetable of choice in North America (with pumpkins being larger, easier to carve, and more plentiful than in Europe). Most people carve the usual scary faces into their jack-o'-lanterns, although some will carve (or paint) funny faces, words, or images instead. In addition to jack-o'-lanterns, people will decorate their houses and property with things like scarecrows, witches, skeletons, black cats, spiders, tombstones, hands reaching up out of the ground, and various items (blood splatters, hand prints) in their windows. Occasionally a home's decorations will turn out to be a little ''too'' realistic, leading to the police being called to the "murder scene" and the very pleased-with-themselves homeowner getting on the news as a human interest story. (And, in the other direction, there was [[http://www.people.com/article/murdered-woman-body-hanging-fence-initially-mistaken-halloween-decoration one time]] when an actual murder victim was mistaken for a decoration.)
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33	* '''Trick-or-treating:''' A practice that is mostly celebrated by children and their parents (although some will tell you that you're never too old to trick-or-treat), in which the kids go from door to door asking for candy, saying "Trick or treat!" whenever the door is opened. The "trick" refers to the mostly-idle threat of performing mischief against the homeowners or their property if no treats are given. (No, most people do not view this as extortion.) A house is marked as "open" for trick-or-treaters by the presence of a lit jack-o'-lantern and front door/porch lights. Trick-or-treating usually takes place at very specific hours of the evening (often 5-8 PM) so that kids won't stay out too late. The treats are almost always wrapped candies bought from a store, such as chocolate bars, lollipops, Twizzlers, and candy corn. Sometimes, people giving out candy who don't want to be bothered to answer the door choose to rely on the honor system, leaving a bowl of candy from which kids are expected to only take small amounts. (Kids being kids, the bowl will usually be empty, if not outright gone, well before the night is half over). A similar, older tradition in Scotland and Wales is "guising", in which the children are expected to do a "turn" (e.g. recite a poem or tell a few jokes) before they get any sweets. Incidentally, the first written record of the phrase "trick or treat" dates back to 1927 and an article in the ''Blackie Herald'', a local newspaper from Blackie, Alberta, Canada.\
34	Candy apples (apples coated with caramel or toffee) used to be a popular treat, but that ended due to [[MediaScaremongering a scare]] in TheEighties over people [[RazorApples putting pins or razor blades]] in the apples. The same period saw rising fears about [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink poisoned candy]]. [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer In reality]], the [[http://www.snopes.com/horrors/poison/halloween.asp only proven cases]] of people deliberately spiking kids' candy with poison or drugs were crazy parents who were trying to kill their own children (and one of the most famous cases involved Pixi-Stix, a "safe" wrapped candy), not strangers handing out poison at the door. And although hiding pins or needles in Halloween goodies [[http://www.snopes.com/horrors/mayhem/needles.asp has indeed been known to happen on occasion]], this is usually done as an easily-discovered prank by one's friends – and it can just as easily be done with a wrapped Snickers bar as with an apple. In any case, there certainly wasn't any conspiracy by [[HollywoodSatanism Satanic cultists]] to murder children as sacrifices to the Dark Lord, as has been claimed.[[note]]Perhaps not coincidentally, the rise of this legend came at the same time as the SatanicPanic of TheEighties, when so-called "Satanic ritual abuse" (now believed by most serious investigators to be an {{urban legend\|s}}) was being hyped up by churches and even law enforcement as the latest threat ''du jour''.[[/note]] So basically, nice job ruining our fun, [[MoralGuardians assholes]]. Starting in TheNewTens, as more states have begun to fully legalize recreational marijuana, the new big Halloween candy worry is people giving out THC edibles to children; of course, the fact that a small container of THC gummies runs ''much'' more expensive than regular candy (on average, a container with 10 gummies will cost somewhere in the ballpark of $20) doesn't seem to cross the worriers' minds.
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37	* '''Haunted attractions:''' Starting in late September, {{amusement park}}s go on a massive Halloween splurge, giving all of their attractions a horror theme, dressing the employees in spooky costumes and makeup, and putting up most of the aforementioned decorations. It helps that, north of the snow line, most amusement parks close for the winter at the start of November, making Halloween their last hurrah for the year. This practice died down for a couple of years after September 11th, 2001 due to the perception that it was too soon to be glamorizing death and horror, but it quickly kicked back in with a vengeance. Many parks are famous for their big-budget Halloween attractions, such as Ride/UniversalStudios for Theatre/HalloweenHorrorNights and Ride/BuschGardens and Ride/SeaWorld for Theatre/HowlOScream, both of which draw in millions of visitors from across America and beyond.\
38	For those with a smaller budget than the big amusement parks, the HauntedHouse (or [[AbandonedWarehouse abandoned factory]], {{prison}}, [[BedlamHouse mental asylum]], or other spooky place) is a popular attraction, as are the haunted hayride, the corn maze, the haunted airboat ride (in the southern US), and the haunted trail in less urban areas, with people jumping out of the shadows to scare the bejesus out of the visitors. The "scariness" of attractions varies widely, depending on the target audience -- some may be family attractions (the haunted hayride in particular is seen as this), while others are [[BodyHorror most definitely]] ''[[{{Gorn}} not recommended]]'' for children or those with weak stomachs. In recent times, due to their popularity, many major haunted attractions have grown to be highly elaborate and sophisticated, with Hollywood-quality special effects and production values.\
39	A popular {{urban legend\|s}} claims that there exists [[http://www.snopes.com/holidays/halloween/haunted.asp a haunted attraction]] somewhere in the country that is so scary, it offers cash rewards or full refunds to anybody who can complete it -- and of course, nobody ever succeeds. To the best of our knowledge, such a place does not exist, though as described above, people have tried their damnedest to come close. Direct contact with the guests can easily cause an accident that can lead to a lawsuit, which is why, usually, the performers stop ''just'' short of doing this. In recent years, there has been a wave of "extreme" houses where guests are physically restrained and even abused, but such houses require guests to sign waivers clearing them of any liability -- and they don't give refunds. Some of the most famous/notorious examples include [[http://downtowntraveler.com/2014/10/22/review-what-to-expect-at-blackout-haunted-house-in-new-york-city-halloween-2014/ Blackout]] in New York and [[http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/30/extreme-haunted-house-masochists-mckamey-manor McKamey Manor]] in San Diego, which are designed to simulate the experience of being in a TorturePorn film. For some time now, [[Ride/UniversalStudios Universal Orlando]] has been trying to create such a house for Theatre/HalloweenHorrorNights, but for the longest time, their efforts were [[WhatCouldHaveBeen derailed]] due to concern over injuries and lawsuits; the closest they got was [[http://www.horrornightnightmares.com/forums/index.php/topic/2660-severe-fear-hhn-13-2003 the "Severe Fear" house in 2003]] that was scrapped at the very last minute. They finally pulled it off in 2016 with "The Repository", a combination of an extreme haunted house, an escape room, and VirtualReality.
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42	* '''Mischief Night, [[IHaveManyNames aka]] Devil's Night, Gate Night, Goosey Night, Moving Night, Cabbage Night, Mystery Night, Mat Night, or October 30:''' Remember how we said that there was a conscious effort to de-emphasize the "pranks and mischief" elements of Halloween in favor of more family-friendly activities such as trick-or-treating? Well, those former elements never went entirely away, and nowadays the night ''before'' Halloween (by whichever name you wish to call it) is when many teenagers choose to go out and raise a little hell, thereby keeping alive the tradition of Halloween as a night of pranks and mischief long after the day itself became more sanitized. Pranks usually involve petty vandalism -- such as [[ToiletPaperPrank strewing toilet paper]] around trees and bushes, [[ProducePelting throwing eggs]] (preferably [[{{Squick}} rotten]]) at houses and cars, rubbing soap or wax on windows, and smashing jack-o'-lanterns -- and/or harmless practical jokes like [[DingDongDitchDistraction ding-dong-ditch]].\
43	However, in certain places (most infamously [[UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} Detroit, Michigan]] and [[OopNorth the north of England]]), the night has become associated with far more serious acts of vandalism, including [[PyroManiac arson]], putting fireworks in mailboxes, breaking windows, and setting fires in the street. As a result, the police tend to step up their patrols on October 30 to deter would-be vandals. In addition, some parts of the UK have instituted age restrictions on purchasing items like eggs, flour, and toilet paper around Halloween, in order to prevent under-16s from buying such items for vandalism.
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46	* '''Movies and television:''' While new {{horror}} flicks usually come into theaters at a steady clip year-round (about once a month), October is when the studios decide to stack their release schedule with these films, releasing a new one at least once a week, often with an explicit Halloween tie-in. For instance, during the TurnOfTheMillennium the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' franchise marketed itself as a modern-day Halloween tradition, with at least one entry bearing the {{tagline}} "if it's Halloween, it must be ''Saw''", and new installments coming out every October like clockwork... or at least until the ''Film/ParanormalActivity'' franchise blew it out of the water and took its place. Stores that sell or rent out movies will dramatically expand their horror sections around this time, and most customers will be more than happy to oblige. With the rise of home video, the release of new horror movies often gets pushed ahead to August, thereby providing ample time to get them onto DVD and streaming by October without also running into SummerBlockbuster season.\
47	TV channels, particularly cable channels, will air marathons of horror movies in the days or even weeks leading up to Halloween, from [[Franchise/UniversalHorror the old]] [[Film/HammerHorror classics]] (''Film/{{Dracula\|1931}}'', ''Film/{{Frankenstein\|1931}}'', ''Film/{{The Wolf Man\|1941}}'') to modern ones (the ''Film/{{Living Dead\|Series}}'' series, ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'', ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'', ''Film/TheExorcist'', ''Film/{{Scream}}'', and--of course--''Franchise/{{Halloween}}''), as well as shows like ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'', ''Series/TheMunsters'', and ''Series/{{The Twilight Zone\|1959}}''. For kids and those not in the mood to be scared, ''WesternAnimation/ItsTheGreatPumpkinCharlieBrown'' is usually on the air somewhere, as are other {{Halloween Special}}s both classic and modern. And most [[LongRunners long-running]] TV shows will do at least one HalloweenEpisode during their run; among the most famous of these are ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''[='=] annual "WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror" anthology episodes.
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50	* '''Parties:''' As noted under UsefulNotes/AmericanHolidays, Americans will never resist the temptation to go out and party. After trick-or-treating ends, kids and their parents usually go to their friends' houses to bob for apples, search for candy in the backyard, tell spooky stories, and compare their respective hauls for the night. Pumpkin pie may be served. Teenagers and young adults, meanwhile, often have parties of their own. Horror movies (or ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'') are played on the TV, the guys go to check out how sexy/slutty the women's costumes are, and [[HalloweenSongs holiday-appropriate songs]] like "[[Music/MichaelJacksonsThriller Thriller]]", "Somebody's Watching Me", "Monster Mash", and the ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'' and ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'' themes can be expected to get played at least once during the night. These events may run the chance of turning into the WildTeenParty, although oftentimes, they are held at bars and similar establishments that can deal with rowdiness better than the parents of a teenager. In places with a lot of countryside, Halloween parties traditionally involve bonfires and activities like {{snipe hunt}}s.
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53	* '''Other traditions:''' In Ireland, barmbrack (a sort of light fruit cake) is made with a ring and other minor charms baked into it -- the idea being that the person who finds the ring in their slice will also find their true love within a year (commercially produced brack include a toy ring.) In some Wiccan and neo-pagan religious groups, the holiday actually starts during the Autumn Equinox (September 21st or 22nd) and lasts until November 2nd or 3rd depending on the year, although it's a fairly lite practice as fewer then 3 or 4 known groups do openly admit this.
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55	----
56	!![[AC:Religious views]]
57
58	Remember what we said up at the top of the page about how Halloween is (allegedly) descended from the Celtic pagan festival of Samhain? Well, there are some people and places that don't take too kindly to this little tidbit.
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60	For the most part, Catholics and mainline Protestants are tolerant of the holiday, regarding any ties to paganism as having long since been buried by centuries of Christian and secular tradition. (After all, does anybody, apart from Jehovah's Witnesses and [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalist]] churches, complain about the connections between [[UsefulNotes/ChristmasInAmerica modern Christmas celebrations]] and the pagan solstice holiday of Yule, or the fact that the mascot for St. Valentine's Day is Cupid, a literal pagan god?) To them, Halloween is seen as a harmless, secular event built around dressing up as imaginary monsters and handing out candy. Catholic schools often hold Halloween celebrations, and a Vatican exorcist has stated that the day is harmless. True, the Catholic and Anglican Churches may emphasize All Saints' Day, the celebration that comes on November 1, while Protestants may observe Reformation Day -- commemorating the day when Martin Luther posted his ''Ninety-Five Theses'' on the Wittenberg church door to launch UsefulNotes/TheProtestantReformation in 1517 -- on October 31. However, these celebrations are typically held simultaneously with Halloween, rather than in opposition to it. The laissez-faire attitude that Catholics hold toward Halloween makes sense, as the holiday's roots are Catholic, and it was Irish and Scottish Catholics who brought it to the Americas in the first place.
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62	Some conservative Christians, however, maintain that Halloween trivializes (or outright celebrates) the occult and is therefore incompatible with the Christian faith. They will often bolster this stance by pointing to the holiday's alleged pagan connections, which they maintain to be [[UsefulNotes/{{Satanism}} Satanic]] in nature. There have consequently been many religious challenges to and protests against the celebration of Halloween lodged over the years, particularly in the evangelical "[[UsefulNotes/AmericanChurches Bible Belt]]" regions of [[DeepSouth the South]] and [[DownOnTheFarm the rural Midwest]]. A more recent tradition among many conservative Christians has been to hold "Halloween alternative parties", in which people dress up as Biblical characters, and to stage [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_house "Hell houses"]] as TheMoralSubstitute to regular Halloween attractions. At Hell houses, attendees are shown scenes meant to portray the decadence of secular culture, finally ending up in a room that represents either {{heaven}}, which is the reward for not behaving in the manner just witnessed, or {{hell}}, which is occupied by {{Satan}}, who claims that all of the characters they have seen (who usually reappear here) are now firmly in his grasp. In order to get out afterwards, attendees must agree to be "saved" (become born-again Christians) or traverse the length of the building. In some cases a Hell house will be marketed as a normal haunted house attraction, making it a BaitAndSwitch for those unwitting attendees who don't realize that they're going to a fire-and-brimstone sermon until they're already through the door.
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64	Similar dichotomies exist within Judaism and Islam. The Orthodox Jewish and conservative Muslim views on the holiday are not unlike the conservative Christian one: it has deep pagan roots, and is therefore incompatible with the proper observance of those respective faiths. It is for this reason that celebrations of Halloween have failed to gain traction in the conservative Middle East -- ''including'' Israel.[[note]]Although to be fair, Jews already have [[UsefulNotes/JewishHolidays Purim]], which has become almost exactly the same thing, [[DisSimile except that Purim has no real "spooky/scary" elements to it, all adults--not just young'uns--are supposed to get drunk, and the people in costumes going door to door asking for free stuff are probably plastered young men, not adorable little kids.]][[/note]] On the other hand, Reform Jews and the more secular and liberal Muslims[[note]]They do exist, and there are in fact quite a lot of them[[/note]] in the US and Canada tend to follow the more "who cares" view of their liberal Christian counterparts, holding it to be harmless fun that lost any semblance of being ''any'' religion's holiday once the marketers got a hold of it. Meanwhile, the Conservative Jews (as usual) stand half-here, half-there on the subject.
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66	And finally, with so much controversy over its alleged pagan history, what do actual pagans think about it? Celtic pagans (of both the [[UsefulNotes/NeoPaganism neo-pagan]] and reconstructionist variety) consider the season to be a holy time of year, and make offerings to the gods and the ancestors. A fair number of UsefulNotes/{{Wicca}}ns, however, feel that the modern, Western incarnation of the holiday is offensive, since they see it as promoting old stereotypes and caricatures of "{{wicked witch}}es" that serve to make people suspicious and fearful of real-life pagans and witches. (Incidentally, one ''Series/BostonLegal'' episode, "Witches of Mass Destruction", featured conservative Christians and hardline Wiccans [[EnemyMine teaming up against Halloween]], which is sad.), while others think it's nothing but an excuse to get drunk and wear cheap, spooky, dresses and decoration more than likely to end in the trash at the end of the day with the religious significance diluted.
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Context UsefulNotes / AllHallowsEve