# Christian Fundamentalists vs. Halloween **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 28, 2002, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226 "2002-10-28T07:52:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/81 "2003-10-06T06:33:32Z")
Where I live, some of the stores were putting up Halloween candy and costume displays in _August_. > [@](#): > > Oddly enough, I can’t seem to come up with anything for Easter or New Year’s. Help me out here, folks. Well, last Easter I remember stories warning about the use of hard-boiled eggs in Easter egg hunts because of the danger of salmonella. As for New Year’s, there always seem to warnings about the excessive consumption of alcohol at New Year’s Eve parties and drunk driving (which is why the highway patrol is always out in full force on that evening). I guess that should cover both holidays. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/82 "2003-10-06T13:03:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diogenes the Cynic \* > \*\*I don’t care about the name, I’m talking about the trappings. Easter eggs and bunnies and all that stuff. They’re Pagan fertility symbols. An Easter egg hunt is just as Pagan a ritual as trick or treating. The day itself is a celebration of the spring equinox. > > You’re completely wrong about the origin of the name, by the way. It absolutely comes from Eoster. Look in any dictionary. > \*\* Please tell me, just HOW the words “Pascha” comes from “Eoster”? Please do tell. I challenge you to do so. If you do not, I will take it as complete and total public admission that you prefer wallowing in stupidity and ignorance to actual education. The Greeks, Russians, Italians, Spanish, and many other Christians DO NOT USE “Easter” or any form of the word. They use some form of “Pascha”. This is the OLDEST term used for the holiday. Show us all how “Pascha” comes from “Eoster”. We await your knowledge? Or are you just blowing gas out your ass. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/83 "2003-10-06T13:04:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NDP \* > \*\*Where I live, some of the stores were putting up Halloween candy and costume displays in _August_. > Well, last Easter I remember stories warning about the use of hard-boiled eggs in Easter egg hunts because of the danger of salmonella. \*\* You must get warnings from particularly stupid people. Hard-boiled eggs are COOKED in what is probably most parts of the non-cartoon universe. Real health-department warnings are against raw eggs. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/84 "2003-10-06T13:10:47Z")
Here’s a quote from the book _Stations of the Sun_, by Ronald Hutton, Oxford University Press, 1996: > [@](#): > > "At the end of the nineteenth century , two distinguished academics, one at Oxford and the other at Cambridge, made enduring contributions to the popular conception of Samhain. The former was the philologist Sir John Rhys, who suggested that it had been the “Celtic” New Year… Rhys’s theory was further popularized by the Cambridge scholar, Sir James Frazer. At times the latter did admit that the evidence for it was inconclusive, but at others he threw this caution overboard and employed it to support an idea of his own: that Samhain had been the pagan Celtic feast of the dead. He reached this belief by the simple process of arguing back from a fact, that 1 and 2 November had been dedicated to that purpose by the medieval Christian Church, from which it could be surmised that this was been a Christianization of a pre-existing festival. He admitted, by implication, that there was in fact no actual record of such a festival, but inferred the former existence of one from a number of different propositions: that the Church had taken over other pagan holy days, that “many” cultures have annual ceremonies to honour their dead, ‘commonly’ at the opening of the year, and that (of course) 1 November had been the Celtic New Year. He pointed out that although the feast of All Saints or All Hallows had been formally instituted across most of north-west Europe by the emperor Louis the Pius in 835, on the prompting of Pope Gregory IV, it had already existed, on its later date of 1 November, in England at the time of Bede. He suggested that the pope and emperor had, therefore, merely ratified an existing religious practice based upon that of the ancient Celts. > > The story is, in fact, more complicated. By the mid-fourth century Christians in the Mediterranean world were keeping a feast in honour of all those who had been martyred under the pagan emperors; it is mentioned in the _Carmina Nisibena_ of St. Ephraem, who died in about 373, as being held on 13 May. During the fifth century divergent practices sprang up, the Syrian churches holding the festival in Easter Week, and those of the Greek world preferring the Sunday after Pentecost. That of Rome, however, preferred to keep the May date, and Pope Boniface IV formally endorsed it in the year 609. By 800 churches in England and Germany, which were in touch with each other, were celebrating a festival dedicated to all saints upon 1 November instead. The oldest text of Bede’s Martyrology, from the eighth century, does not include it, but the recensions at the end of the century do. Charlemagne’s favourite churchman Alcuin was keeping it by then, as were also his friend Arno, bishop of Salzburg, and a church in Bavaria. Pope Gregory, therefore, was endorsing and adopting a practice which had begun in northern Europe. It had not, however, started in Ireland, where the _Felire_ of Oengus and the _Martyrology of Tallaght_ prove that the early medieval churches celebrated the feast of All Saints upon 20 April. This makes nonsense of Frazer’s notion that the November date was chosen because of “Celtic” influence: rather, both “Celtic” Europe and Rome followed a Germanic idea…" Of course, since the above is real scholarship, I expect it to be ignored by the fundie anti-Christians and fundie Christians who would rather keep spewing ignorance about “Samhain” at each other. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/85 "2003-10-06T14:06:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ben \* > \*\* people who give health food to trick-or-treaters, etc. > > \*\* TOFU!!! RUN!!! ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/86 "2003-10-06T14:18:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elucidator \* > **It ain’t likely the Lord has any objection to children connecting with their neighbors, getting some experience in sharing, and just plain having some _fun_.** I understand (no cite) that in Aramaic, the line about swallowing camels and straining at gnats is a pun. Apparently, there are other puns throughout the Gospels. So, we have to come to one of two conclusions: either Jesus was using cynical rhetorical tricks to pump up his sermons, or, he had a pretty decent sense of humor. I much prefer the latter. And on another note: I think it was Gary Shandling who noted that the Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t like Holloween: “Apparently they don’t like it when total strangers come up to their houses, ring their doorbells and bother them”. ---
**Author:** ![serenitynow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@serenitynow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/serenitynow)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/87 "2003-10-06T15:36:30Z")
I must confess that I don’t understand all of the hubbub. When I was a kid, once a year I got to dress up and go get candy from friends, neighbors and semi-strangers and eat it all until I was sick. Where’s the religion in that? Whether something that came about in the middle ages meant something to the people at the time that is different than now is a moot point to me. I just don’t understand why what the intent of people in the middle ages (which intent we are not even sure of) should effect the meaning or purposes for which I choose to celebrate a holiday. IIRC, the whole jack-o-lantern came about because people believed that they warded off evil spirits. Does anyone really buy into that today? Any demonic force that will turn tail and run because it sees a hollowed out pumpkin with a candle in it is not a threat I take too seriously. Let’s face it, a lot of the things they believed in the middle ages are pretty whacky when judged by today’s standards. I am a Christian. I don’t attach any religious significance to Halloween, and I don’t celebrate it as a religious holiday. I recognize that some might do so, and that is their right. But their beliefs do not have to dictate the meaning that I take from the holiday. I may be conservative, but I am not so mindless that I will let the Falwells and Robertson’s of the world tell me what a holiday is supposed to mean to me. If Halloween means something offensive to them, then they are right not to celebrate it, but when they tell me what it should mean to me, they are off base. Dress up. Act goofy. Get candy. Life is short. Take the times meant for enjoyment and milk them for all their worth. In the end, such times are far too few. Why waste them? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/88 "2003-10-06T16:40:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lynn73 \* > \*\*As far as Halloween goes our church does a thing called Truth or Treat as an alternative. The kids go from room to room learning Bible truths and get candy. They’re told not to wear any spooky costumes such as ghosts, goblins, or withces, etc. \*\* **Flanders?** Is that you? Leave it to the Christians to suck the fun right out of life. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Heathen\_DJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@The\_Heathen\_DJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Heathen_DJ)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/89 "2003-10-06T16:53:59Z")
Wow. I KNEW this topic would be around again…it’s THAT time of year. I am a Witch. Have been all my life. Spiritually, I am Wiccan, with the naggings of hereditary Stregheria. Have been, for nigh 300 Moons. I am (happily) 100% out of the “broom” closet. I am not a Pagan Apologetic, I am not a victim of the “Burning Times”, and I have not suffered any persecution, prosecution, or even slight irritation for my beliefs. Most of the Neo-Pagans you know, you probably _DON’T_ know. Most of us, who have grown out of the “Wicca-is-fluffy-bunnies-and-white-light” stage are decent, moral, and above all…NORMAL citizens. We tend to be environmentally aware, (it IS an “Earth-centric” religious path), and TOLERANT of other’s beliefs. Many of us are more religiously educated than many others who would see our souls either saved or damned. BTW…As a professional DJ, my (obvious) pentacle hasn’t slowed down anyone from hiring me to handle ANYTHING, from Christenings to Bar Mitzvahs and the like. If I had to cite something that BOWLS me, it’s Fundies (on ANY path…) who would razz me, but be a MASON! To fight the widespread, debilitating condition known as ignorance, I bid you click on: [http://www.religioustolerance.org](http://www.religioustolerance.org) or [http://www.witchvox.com](http://www.witchvox.com) Merry Part! ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/90 "2003-10-06T16:55:42Z")
My experience with kids who grow up in the kinds of churches that would have a substitute Halloween (including kids in the church where I grew up, though this is something which came to the fore after I moved away) is that they spend a lot of time with their church friends, and would consider such an event to be a fine evening of fun because their friends are there. Friends and candy, that’s fine by them. Learning Bible lessons in between the games or hearing a kids’ sermon? Nothing unusual to these tots, and the unusual parts – the games and fun and candy – more than make up for it. Whatever their parents believe about the origins of Halloween or why they cannot be out doing what their school or neighborhood friends are doing is rather subsumed by the sacred kiddie trinity - friends, fun and yummy things to eat. It seems to me that the movement to “avoid” Halloween or substitute it in some way is part of an overall ideal within certain Christian circles to put the focus on God in every observance, even if that means redirecting the observance as a whole, like Halloween. The same churches that are doing things like this are pushing for an emphasis of the religious underpinnings of Easter (Resurrection Sunday, in certain places) and Christmas with a concurrent de-emphasis of the candy and toys and decorations and other trappings. They’re also holding special prayer meetings for Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, and there’s no lack of rhetorical commingling of God and patriotism on Independence Day. Valentine’s Day brings a special banquet for the married folks in the fellowship hall while the kids get popcorn and movies in the gym under the supervision of the young unmarrieds. Memorial Day brings special recognition of all of the veterans in the congregation, special prayers for them and those currently in the services. There are special programs for Mothers’ and Fathers’ Days, and Labor Day is the day for the annual church picnic. The secular calendar of holidays becomes a church calendar of reasons to gather as a Christian body and engage in prayer, praise, teaching, preaching, and other typical Christian endeavors, just centered around the holiday’s theme. Those things which can be co-opted (for lack of a better word) for Christ are brought in line, those things which cannot be made to fit the mold are reconceptualized in a manner which makes them fit. Make of it what you will, but I wouldn’t advise that anyone think for even a moment that this kind of “Christianity as the baseline for an entire lifestyle” begins or ends with Halloween. But then, in theory, it shouldn’t, though the theory and the actual practice are sometimes at odds with one another in their form. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Heathen\_DJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@The\_Heathen\_DJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Heathen_DJ)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/91 "2003-10-06T17:00:10Z")
Two more WORTHY links, a bit more appropo of the topic… [http://www.fabrisia.com/dispelmyth.htm](http://www.fabrisia.com/dispelmyth.htm) [http://www.witchvox.com/holidays/samhain/1031\_samhain\_history.html](http://www.witchvox.com/holidays/samhain/1031_samhain_history.html) Merry Part, Lou The Heathen DJ ---
**Author:** ![FriendRob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecc23a/32.png) [@FriendRob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriendRob)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/92 "2003-10-06T17:00:21Z")
Thanks for the quote, **Dogface**. Clearly the Samhain connection is ruled out. But that still leaves open the question of why the Saints festival _was_ moved to November 1 in northern Europe. Does Hutton give any clues? ---
**Author:** ![dantesorrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@dantesorrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantesorrow)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/93 "2003-10-06T19:49:59Z")
Perhaps upon arriving upon this issue one should consider that not everyone is Christian and those that are often share a different view of theology in actuality. As an example I present myself. This is meant to offend no one and reflects only my view on my situation and is not a generalization of any sort. I am personally not on “good terms” with God as I feel that he is against me, perhaps because of my own fault, but I cannot drop the Christian religion because of this, for I still believe in the Christian God and the values that go with it. I believe in humans using energy attributed to a heavenly power but they must obtain this through their own union with God. Pagan religions are derived form this I believe. Could there be other creatures on Earth that are on another spiritual level? If you do not believe that, I cannot stifle my laughjter at your small-minded fear. Halloween is just a celebration of these ceatures existences that are normally persecuted. It can be both Christian and Pagan on an acceptable level for each. If still you refuse to believe, what if it was unholy? Wouldn’t those who celebrate it deserve their celebratrion as you deserve your Christmas? Keep an open mind. -Dante Sorrow ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/94 "2003-10-06T20:14:35Z")
> [@](#): > > Could there be other creatures on Earth that are on another spiritual level? If you do not believe that, I cannot stifle my laughjter at your small-minded fear. Fear of what? The likelihood of invisible beings affecting our destiny who can be placated with prayers and offerings is vanshingly small. If you wish to believe in gods or demons, do so, but barring any evidence for their existence, you cannot expect anyone else to share your belief. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/95 "2003-10-06T21:19:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dogface \* > \*\*Please tell me, just HOW the words “Pascha” comes from “Eoster”? Please do tell. I challenge you to do so. If you do not, I will take it as complete and total public admission that you prefer wallowing in stupidity and ignorance to actual education. The Greeks, Russians, Italians, Spanish, and many other Christians DO NOT USE “Easter” or any form of the word. They use some form of “Pascha”. This is the OLDEST term used for the holiday. Show us all how “Pascha” comes from “Eoster”. We await your knowledge? Or are you just blowing gas out your ass. \*\* I didn’t say _Pascha_ came from Eoster, I said _Easter_ came frome Oester and it did. Regardless of what it’s called in other languages, it’s called _Easter_ in English and the _English_ word Easter comes from Eoster. The spring celebration was relatively close to the Jewish Passover and the two holidays were combined into Easter. I’m not trying to sat that _Passover_ (or “Pascha”) came from a Pagan holiday, I’m saying that early Christians conflated Passover with the Spring celebration to create a what we know of as Easter. [http://www.wordorigins.org/wordore.htm](http://www.wordorigins.org/wordore.htm) > **[Definition of Easter | Dictionary.com](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/easter)** > > Definition of Easter from Dictionary.com, the world’s leading online source for English definitions, pronunciations, word origins, idioms, Word of the Day, and more. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Heathen\_DJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@The\_Heathen\_DJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Heathen_DJ)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/96 "2003-10-07T00:07:42Z")
Merry meet, again… Margaret Murray believes that the Christian holidays were moved about to coincide with the existing festivals. Largely, because that’s when the (lower-case) pagans would be in the towns trading seed, trading harvests, celebrating the existing holidays, or whatever. It has also been postulated the the early Christian churches were established on their holy grounds because…well…it’s where they were habituated to. Indeed, many of the earliest buildings show signs that the builders themselves were still, at least to some extent, “into” the old ways. Look in the high reaches of some columns, and you’ll see Greenmen, representations of sacred herbs/plants, local deities, occult symbols, and the like. The Easter/Eostre/Ostara issues can also be linked etymologically to estrus. (it IS a fertility religion…) Imbolc/Imbolg/Oimelc (lit: “ewe’s milk”) is celebrated at Candlemas. It’s root is the first lambings of early spring. As to Samhain, days to mark the dead are to be found in most cultures. All Souls’ and All Saints’ days, and el Dia de los Muertos are just some of the more notable. There are eight Sabbats celebrated by most modern-day Wiccans, the sum of which make up the “Wheel Of The Year” As was stated previously, the people of that period only had two seasons. Summer and Winter. Whose demarcations were pretty important in the days before 14.4 modems. Irregardless of the opinions of Mr. Chick. Merry Part, Lou ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2003, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/97 "2003-10-07T00:11:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Heathen DJ \* > \*\*Merry meet, again… > > Margaret Murray believes that the Christian holidays were moved about to coincide with the existing festivals.\*\* Uh-yup, yeah, heh. The Christians FORCED THE JEWS TO MOVE PASSOVER!!! Furthermore, the Christians FORCED THE JEWS TO INVENT PASSOVER so they could FORCE it to be MOVED to the date of a pagan “goddess” that they hadn’t even heard of yet. I guess people prefer 19th-century trash and rubbish to real scholarship. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2003, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/98 "2003-10-07T00:14:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Heathen DJ \* > \*\*As was stated previously, the people of that period only had two seasons. Summer and Winter. \*\* Only stated by the monumentally ignorant. The Hellenistic world knew four seasons. The seasons of the Levant were certainly not that of northern Europe. It’s amazing how utterly ethnocentric and blinkered the view of these newfangled “pagans” can be… ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2003, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/99 "2003-10-07T00:18:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diogenes the Cynic \* > \*\*I’m not trying to sat that _Passover_ (or “Pascha”) came from a Pagan holiday, I’m saying that early Christians conflated Passover with the Spring celebration to create a what we know of as Easter. \*\* You speak of but a single “Spring celebration”. Tell me, what was the nature of this unitary and single “Spring celebration” that covered North Africa, the Levant, Greece, Anatolia, Skythia, Rus, etc? How can you explain that my own Church has no knowledge of this “Easter”? We have Pascha. Likewise do our Russian brothers, our Romanian brothers, and indeed, all the way east to India among the St. Thomas Christians there. All have Pascha. There is none of this “Easter”? You’re not taking some sort of ignorant, ethnocentric “Western Christianity is the only way it’s done” viewpoint, are you? ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2003, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226/100 "2003-10-07T00:23:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TeaElle \* > **The same churches that are doing things like this are pushing for an emphasis of the religious underpinnings of Easter** Pushing for it? What more is there to push for? There’s a Liturgy every Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday throughout Lent. There are services every single day during Holy Week. There is the Liturgy of Holy Thursday, the services all day long on Great and Holy Friday, the Holy Saturday morning Liturgy, and then the great and magnificent Pascha service that begins around 9:00 pm and doesn’t end until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. How much more can we Orthodox do than we already have been doing for millenia? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-fundamentalists-vs-halloween/134226.md?page=6)