It cracks me up that some Christian churches, deeming Halloween too "Pagan," hold a Harvest Festival instead. Because there's nothing Pagan at all about celebrating the harvest.
It's Like Arguing on the Internet
Halloween is short for All Hallows' Eve, which in Catholicism is the day before All Saints' Day, so there's really no need for Christians to change it to "Harvest Festival" in the first place. Yes, a lot of the traditions were ripped off from pagan festivals like Samhain, but by that logic Christians shouldn't celebrate Christmas or Easter either...
On a different tangent, who's dressing up this year? A friend and I may go as the Blues Brothers. I kind of want to go as Big Boss (in his MGS 4 incarnation) one year as well.
Somehow you know that the time is right.
I don't know who made it up but it sounded very catchy.Besides there has been many non-pagan celebrations of the Harvest.Hey,at some churches they really go out of their way to make a good alternative to trick or treating.I know my church has been lack luster these couple of years but when I was younger they really knew how throw a Harvest Festival.
I wonder why no one really celebrates All Saints Day,oh yeah,like no one really celebrates Ash Wednesdays.
I am going to go as a g-rated catwoman.
edited 8th Sep '11 9:30:32 AM by joyflower
scratching at .8, just hopin'
In Korea, they're celebrating Chuseok soon. If you're in the country and have Korean friends, you may be in luck. I was invited to my friends house for the dinner and "three bows" ceremony (forget the name in Korean), it was quite a treat.
Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.
I have a feeling that Halloween got flak because it started getting more and more pagan.Or then again the Puritans like the did with Christmas banned the holiday until it became popular again the 1800's.
Puritans also banned dancing and having fun, soooo...
=P
"You fail to grasp the basic principles of mad science. Common sense would be cheating." - Narbonic
Halloween always was Pagan. It's not even like other holidays where the Church wanted it anyway but set the date to match an existing Pagan festival with similar themes in order to minimize the upset to people's lives and make conversion easier. All Hallows' Eve was invented out of whole cloth just to be the Christian equivalent of Samhain.
Given that Samhain is a high holy day to Neopagans, I wonder if I should organize a protest against the commercialization of Halloween and bastardizing of the themes by Christians. You think it would take? Would anyone care? If they thought we were being silly, would they make the connection to the "War on Christmas" hysteria?
Moar and Moar and Moar
Probably not. The entitlement and privilege go DEEP.
Democracy is the process in which we determine the government that we deserve
Each year our renfest does a B-movie-esque dinner show - Phantom's Feast - for the last couple weeks of October. This year's show is called "Zombie Prom". Therefore... this year's costume will be a prom zombie! ![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
We're going to go to thrift stores and find horrible prom dresses, tear them up, cover them in various brown and crusty substances, and shuffle off to the Zombie Prom. 
Pro-Freedom Fanatic
Me and the crew are gonna dress up as Batman villains: One of'em is gonna be the Joker, other one's gonna be Poison Ivy, another's gonna be Harley Quinn, and I'm gonna be either Dr. Strange or Ras'al-Ghul.
edited 8th Sep '11 12:11:36 PM by SavageHeathen
You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.
Oh My
Sadly Kara the joke would go by most people I am thinking. If anything you'd probably get a few confused stares and people talking about you briefly. At least I assume that...
I intend to travel about the town with a friend of mine on Halloween night. With the costume
◊ I spent time making. I'll also be spending the whole month watching horror films, reading horror classics like Dracula, and playing survival horror games.
That and watching lovely making of's and reading about the history of horror films and the like.
Because my favorite thing about Halloween and horror films are the costumes, special effects, sets, and decorating.
There's a history behind the day and its Pagan origins, but Halloween is by and large, for myself, a celebration of costuming and set building with, generally, a morbid fashion sense. That and "Free Candy From Strangers" day.
edited 8th Sep '11 11:57:14 AM by Aondeug
If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah
Puritans also banned Christmas and moving around on a sunday.
I think that is another reason why a lot of Christian parents don't do trick or treating because who knows what they might have done to the candy.
But come on you gotta admit some churches really make great attempts to make the holiday fun.I know about the hell houses and I can proudly say I haven't been to one.Don't worry many churches don't do hell houses but I can say Harvest festivals are a big part of a lot of Christian upringing kids lives.
edited 8th Sep '11 12:11:28 PM by joyflower
Oh My
I've been to a few Church events for the holiday and they were quite nice. They get tons of candy and have people in various costumes hand it out either randomly or at stations. At said stations there's a number of things going on from face painting to short little carnival games. They also get out the church vans to act as a shuttle bus system to get families home safely.
Was a nice thing if a bit crowded. I far prefer traditional trick or treating and looking at people's decorations, but it was a fun experience.
If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah
I only went trick or treating once, and that was in the US. Its mostly a thing that REALLY young children do around here, and its sufficiently adorable to get people to give out sweets.
Sneering Imperialist
<reads up on hell houses>
haha what
On topic: couple of years ago I caught swine flu on Hallowe'en and the symptoms only manifested themselves once I had dressed up as a zombie. That was fun.
With cannon shot and gun blast smash the alien. With laser beam and searing plasma scatter the alien to the stars.
Pro-Freedom Fanatic
Cm'on, everybody knows that Halloween's purpose is to dress up with da crew, get plastered and cruise all the hottest clubs and pubs of the city, taking metric shit-tons of pics.
edited 8th Sep '11 12:20:32 PM by SavageHeathen
You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.
Lead.
Halloween? Who gives a damn about it's long and convoluted history that none of you have even begun to scratch upon yet? It's the month of the corn candy! DE-FUCKING-LICIOUS.
edited 8th Sep '11 12:20:58 PM by Ramus
The emotions of others can seem like such well guarded mysteries, people 8egin to 8elieve that's how their own emotions should 8e treated.
It's not just Christian parents who are worried about their kids' safety, you know. But whatever your religion, if you suspect your neighbors of spiking the caramel apples, you're being paranoid. It's an urban legend. The very few people who have been found to have poisoned Halloween candy were, sickness of sickness, targeting their own kids.
Anyway.
All joking about protests aside, I don't think most Neopagans really have a problem with the secularized, commercialized form of Halloween. We aren't so insecure that we feel the need to demand that society at large reflect our values and celebrate things our way. Besides, I haven't met the Neopagan yet who was against a rollicking good time, regardless of the context. I wish I had the space to set up a haunted house for the neighborhood kids.
Oh My
Trick or treating is done by small children and teenagers out here. Many of the teens don't even bother dressing up. I personally would just shut my door on those kids. I have no problem with teens trick or treating as I admittedly still do it myself, but come the fuck on. Dress up. Put a pillow case on your head and doodle on it with some cheapo finger paint or something. Just dress up. It's Halloween.
Sadly trick or treating is dying a slow and hard death in my area. Many people don't do it anymore so you have to travel long and hard for much smaller hauls than you used to get. Decorating has also gone south. Many of those who do have candy have no decorations. Things like haunted houses and mazes are rare things and even the families who used to do it yearly have stopped for the most part.
However church events and events held at stores like Wal-Mart remain popular and seem to be growing in popularity. They're safe (though I honestly think most people are too paranoid about this), planned, and free for you (you know minus the costume). Some of these places even hand out free bags so you don't have to buy those. Hell many of them have face painting and such so costumes may not even be a necessary cost for you. Wal-Mart and such start these early in the day and have them going throughout the night so you can go when it's nice and bright out and then head home to do whatever the fuck.
Wal-Mart's events tend to be very "meh" so I personally would recommend that you head to a church's Harvest Festival thing instead. Those seem to be better quality wise.
^I have the space but lack the funds and props. I plan to accumulate a large number of them over my life though. Even if I don't have haunted house events I will damn sure dress the place up.
edited 8th Sep '11 12:27:46 PM by Aondeug
If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah
Space Wizard
When I shared a much larger apartment with my sister and BIL, one year we held a party with a Haunted Mansion theme. We borrowed some decorations from my dad, including a rotating "ghost projector" that he built. We set up one room as the graveyard, hung black crepe over all the furniture and put vases of black silk roses on the piano. And we played a recording of the hallway noises from the actual ride in our bathroom hallway. It was pretty slick.
I love themed parties, but my current apartment is too small.
Oh My
That sounds awesome, Kara...
My family used to hold Halloween parties yearly after we finished trick or treating. We had a huge ass old house with things like stairs, chandeliers, and awesome double doors. It fit the whole haunted house theme very, very well. Gave us a lot of room to work with too.
I was a young child then so I did not get to see what happened during the parties. I was sent upstairs to watch movies and sleep. And play with whoseverelse's kids were brought along.
If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah
betaalpha
If you've not yet played it, go download Costume Quest on X Box Live - a great little Halloween game 
People next month is that candy total centered holiday and I can't wait what my college does for it.Or at least I go do something else for people who want to celebrate it and are at college age.