What kind of an asshole puts a jack-o-lantern in his window but then doesn’t give out candy?
If you don’t want to give out candy, just go about your life as usual.
If you think a harmless chidhood ritual would be a great opportunity to indoctrinate children (further indoctrinate, since you have them the other 364 days anyway), go ahead and put up a bouncy tent in your church parking lot, have the parents bring treats, etc. instead of going trick-or-treating.
But don’t lament that it’s not your fault that the social fabric is decaying: because, by golly, everyone is welcome to come to your church. (But you and your kids greeting your neighbors at their door on one special night of the year - hell no!) And you say I’m not respecting diversity.
Sounds to me like you picked a shitty neighborhood to buy a house in. Me, I bought a house in a neighborhood named after John Irving and has Masonic Lodge #666 - it has, as you can guess, a thriving Halloween season. Better luck next time.
Yep Trunk-or-Treat! In the case of our local (United Methodist) church that does it, it’s usually on the Saturday or Sunday night before “official” Halloween. And it is an unabashed Halloween party. Kids love it, grown-ups plan for it for months (it’s amazing what some of these folks put together for it). Fun time and we are going!
If they are giving out free candy, yes. Most of the kids could care less about the message as long as there’s free candy. My neices and nephews usually hit every Fall or Harvest Festival can. They also go trick or treating and attend Halloween parties. I have long suspected they would attend an Osama bin Laden Festival if they gave away full size free candy bars.
No, you just want everybody to do it your way. You first say in your OP it’s okay if people don’t want to participate in your Halloween tradition, they can just turn off their porch light. But they shouldn’t be hosting a fall festival at their church. In the above post, you now say they should be following your tradition by answering their doors for trick or treaters. Can you not decide where your tolerance lies?
Clearly Christmas is a bigger tradition in our country than Halloween, how would you feel if your neighbors bitched you out for not attending the Christmas eve service at their church and accused you of destroying the social fabric of our nation! :rolleyes:
I will say this that if this is the biggest gripe you got going on in your life right now…you got it pretty damn good. Lighten up Francis.
Let me guess: at Renfair you’re the guy who likes to dress up as the prosecuter from the Bloody Assizes.
But I can see the consensus of this thread is that a secular American tradition will disappear, as all things do in time. I’m just an old man yelling “hey you kids, get on my lawn.”
Around here, someone’s been posting a certain Chick tract in bus shelters. I doubt they got permission to put those things up so they’ve been breaking the law.
It’s not non-Halloween-celebrating Christians who will kill Halloween, it’s our increasingly car-centric society, urbanization, and “helicopter” parenting.
So’s the book of Esther, but good luck convincing great aunt Esther that she’s named after some Babylonian Floozy Goddess. If you’re lucky, she’ll crack you across the knuckles with a ruler. If you’re unlucky, she’ll believe you, and start dancing skyclad in the afternoons.
Well, actually, there’s like NOTHING on the Deity Eostre except this by the Venerable bede: *Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated “Paschal month”, and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance.
*
wiki The modern English term “Easter” is the direct continuation of Old English Ēastre, whose role as a goddess is attested solely by Bede in the 8th century.[2]
In other words, the holiday is named after a ancient name for the Month- which may or may not be named for a deity. Maybe the Bede was just making shit up and using reverse entomology . In other words, he knew that the old name for the Month was Eosturmonath, thus there must have been a Eostre. Otoh, the root word seems to come from the moon, not any particular deity.
So yeah, it’s Old English. But there’s little evidence there was ever a deity by that name. Nor do we have anything at all about her worship, if she did exist.
