Are we being whooshed? Or do you need an invitation to someone’s Samhain party? I’m gettin’ out my woad and goatskin chaps, yee haw, Cernunnos-cocktails here I come!
You are likely referring to All Saints Day, which is November 1st. It was put on that date by Pope Gregory III in the mid 700’s CE. Samhain, the celtic festival that halloween comes from has been around for several millenia.
hajario is being the jerk here
Let’s get even – come December, everybody start decorating for Texas Independence Day! (March 2)
Hallowe’en happens to be stilted archaic English for the Night Before All Saint’s Day.
Essentially.
So the business of Hallowe’en being a Catholic holiday isn’t entirely baseless.
True, the word commonly used is from that. But what most people think of as halloween draws more from Samhain than it does from All Saints Day (Hallowmas)
I think everybody and his or her dog knows that. The contention was that it was holiday with pagan roots that wore it on its sleeve. Unless we have traces of a tradition of late Roman empire Christian families in their domus-ecclesiae carving pumpkins and such in late October. I think the early Christian All Saints Day, BTW, started in May until later changed in the 700s.
Sure, but I thought everyone was talking about holidays; literally, holy days, not pagan festivals and revelries. Under the circs, it seems appropriate to attribute it to the folks who (mis)approptiated it.
Don’t take me too seriously, though. I’m just marking time until poopah chalupa’s thread can be reopened without raising the ire of the admins.
Peanuts, second week of October, 1959 (don’t remember the exact date):
Charlie Brown is complaining that all the stores in the neighboorhood have stopped selling Halloween costumes and are selling Christmas decorations instead.
What, and pagan festivals and revelries aren’t holy to the pagans celebrating them and revelling in them?
Diwali–isn’t that Indian Halloween? What are you going as?
Diwali
A festival of lights
Let me tell you something
Tonight has been
One cra-a-a-zy night
So put on your saris
It’s time to celebrate Diwali
Everybody looks so jolly
But it’s not Christmas, it’s Diwali
The goddess of destruction Kali
Stopped by to celebrate Diwali
Don’t invite any zombies to a celebration of Diwali
Along came Polly
To have some fun at Diwali
If you’re Indian and you love to party
Have a happy, happy, happy, happy Diwali
Happy Diwali!
Over one month ago (around the beginning of September), I took a shortcut through Macy’s to get to where I was going, and they had the Christmas trees up on the 3rd floor- they were just beginning to decorate. Flabbergastation! (I was going to write “flabbergasting” but that’s not in my online dict. “Flabbergastation,” however, is, so there you go…)
Meh. Beats me. From where I sit, they look a lot too much like fun to deserve the same classification as solemn occasions of public piety.
So, did Santa teach the owl how to fly, did he simply forget that he needed a parachute, or is he a cold-blooded bird-murderer?
I went to the Ikea store today. Got some sheets. In the little area before the cash registers they had a nice display of Ramadan lanterns. Ramadan ended a few days ago. Next to them were some very nice red-and-green Swedish, non-religious reindeer-embossed napkins.
They were across from the candelabras seven candle types, with red-and-green candles.
Wonderful. Both the Christmas and Hanukah decorations are up already.
I live in Saudi Arabia. Is there no escape?
For everything there is a season, and to each outrage, a *South Park * reference: Merry Fucking Christmas!