It's October, which means for the next month I'll be beset with questions and random claims about Halloween: how it's demonic, encourages Satanism in children, summons spirits, is part of occult conspiracies, and is part of ancient celebrations for Samhain, Celtic Lord of the Dead (who is entirely fictitious).
If you haven't been overly exposed to this nonsense previously, I'd like to offer "The Dark Side of Halloween" as a sort of primer to conservative Christian Halloween insanity. This article, offered by one Pastor David L. Brown, is a veritable checklist on nonsensical historical claims made by Halloween haters.
Well leave it to the religious nut jobs to come up with a full load of bull shit. Their reality is that they don’t like Halloween because it is the one major holiday that they have not been able to bastardize into a Christian holiday, not that they aren’t still trying. In the last few years there has been a rise in Christian “haunted houses” where they show what will happen to you if you commit different sins.
It is also highly suspected that it is the religious nut jobs who have spread all of the false fears and rumors about poisoned or drugged candy.
There is only 1 known case of someone putting pins or razor blades into candy. In every other case it has proven to be family members (1 case of poisoning a pixie stick with cyanide turned out to be the father.) Or it has been the person who brought in the suspect item themselves.
Fortunately I grew up an atheist and was never bombarded with such drool. This is what I was taught about Halloween.
It is a celebration of the fall equinox and the harvests and the last bit of frivolity and feast before the coming of the dark time of winter.
Recognition is given to the dead and the spirits of the dead because winter is the “time of dying” Why is this so?
There is much more disease and death in winter for a few reasons. First there is the cold which lowers resistance to diseases. The people and animals are brought into much closer contact as they shelter from the cold so diseases are more apt to spread.
There is far less fresh food and sun so there is much less vitamin C and lower nutrition in general.
My!!! What a mentally disturbed man Mr Brown is! There are Medications for his mental illnesses, if only he would seek them out. Being a retired Anthropologist and an Hereditary follower of the Old Way, titled a “Witch” by the christian estabulishment, and a life-long seeker of Truth, I find his childish remarks to be offensive, much less uninformed. His arrogance is surpassed onlly by his ignorance… I’m curious whether he even has any kind of recognized, accredited Degree of any kind, much less a Doctorate of Divinity. The material he claims to be true is so much christian fear-mongering to strengthen their ever-dwindling ranks (thank the Gods!). His research is laughable, deplorable and extreemly limited in the christian venue. What a farce! We can only hope most people will recognize him for what he really is, a bigot, hate-filled dangerous man who should be “deflocked” & drummed ouut of the business of religion. Enough! Thank you for the data & forum. Kathleen the Elder
Well on my path I have been aske “what have I been smoking” many a time. This atricule dose not fallow any history I have read. Durids worshiped trees, mostly it was a triad of seers, prist & pristes, and healers. The best way I tink to relate to Drids is as teachers, historins and guide in responding to life instead of reacting. the article seems to be a reaction not a response. Reaction = emotional out burst, Responce + logical reply or thought out reply. I aqm working on responding mor3e and reacting less.
Dr. Brown apparently isn’t aware that the major Xian holidays of Easter and Xmas are both well documented Pagan holidays. I shall spend a few minutes this evening searching out the articles he’s written that are equally critical of those two holidays.
Because misinformed attitudes like Dr. Brown’s permeate the inboxes of so many Xian faithful at this time of year, the perpetuation of these kinds of lies and fallacies are all but impossible to stop. Truth never wins the flock more members. Fear is a much more effective recruitment tool.
I posted this before but it seems to have disappeared.
When I was growing up I was taught that Halloween stemmed from the celebration of the fall equinox.
This is recognized in virtually every ancient religion as are the other “4 points of the year”, the winter and summer solstices and the spring and fall equinoxes.
The feasting and goodies are in recognition of the harvest.
The tribute to the spirits of the dead is recognition of winter’s coming.
Winter has always been the time of dying. Especially in ancient times far more people die under the stresses of winter.
The Christians have long sought to annex Halloween, the fall equinox, into their religion just as they have others. (Christmas = winter solstice, Easter = spring equinox) but have, so far, failed. Christians are still trying even harder and their latest scams are the “Harvest Festival” (I don’t know if this is only an American thing) and the advent of Christian “haunted houses”, where each room shows the punishment for a specific sin, to compete with traditional haunted houses.
Actually, the idea that Christian holidays are “well documented Pagan holidays” is one of my pet peeve fallacies. The relationship between pagan and Christian holidays in complex, and a lot of information comparing the two is just flat out wrong.
For example, there is no real evidence connecting Easter to a pagan holiday. The word “Easter” in English might have come from a pagan holiday (although we only have one source suggesting it, and that was written long after the pagans were gone), but the name for Easter in many other languages is derived from “passover” and it was certainly being celebrated long before there was a major Christian presence in Britain, which is where the spurious “Eostre” is mentioned.
In this sense, Catherine, I refer to “Pagan” as an older concept of religion – dating back thousands of years. My comment was not intended to draw lines between linguistic or orthographic similarities in the spellings of Easter/Oestre/Ostara etc. Instead, let’s consider the date upon which Easter is set: it is the Sunday following the first full moon in spring. Few things say Pagan quite like a holiday established on the Lunar Cycle.
Further, Xmas is simply one of many celebrations of the return of the “light of the world” that occur in at or on the Winter Solstice. Such celebrations derived from ancient observations of solar cycles in the northern hemisphere. The sun would appear to weaken between the Summer Solstice and Winter Solstice. From Dec. 21ish to 23ish it would be its weakest (sometimes not even eclipsing the horizon, depending on locale) before it began its ascent. The birth of the sun (again, not trying to draw conclusions regarding the “sun” and “son” homophones) was a celebrated event. This kind of astronomical/astrological celebration is distinctly Pagan in nature.
To me there is a fundamental dishonesty about Christianity in that they write or rewrite their history so that their holidays just happen to fall on the holidays of other religions, primarily those who’s followers they wish to convert.
Christ just happened to be born on the winter solstice, even though theists now admit that it is far more likely that, he would have been born in September.
He then magically rouse from his tomb and it just happens to have happened on the Spring equinox.
In fact there just happens to be some Christian holiday, some more obscure than others like the Feast of St. John falling on the summer solstice, on virtually ever day celebrated by more ancient religions and non-religious groups.
If they want to celebrate some terrestrial event then just say so. Don’t make up some crap about a saint or some son of a god.
@Borsia: How about “All Hallow’s Eve” which is the night before “All Saints Day” on November 1st…
There’s only 365 days the the year. Of course Christianity is going to share holiday dates with other belief systems. There’s only so many days to spread around.
The Catholic Church was renowned for co-opting Pagan holidays. The proximity of Xian holidays to Pagan ones is no coincidence. It was a way to convert the ‘godless’ Pagans to belief in Jesus. The end date of Roman Saturnalia was declared Xmas by Early Xians. Saint Jerome admits that the Easter celebration was stolen by the church (speaking about Deis Solis).
The “big” Xian holidays are not incidental to Pagan celebrations due to a shortage of days, as you suggest. They were intentionally placed for very a specific reason – to convert Pagans.
@Scolai: It’s not quite right to say that the Roman Catholic Church simply “co-opted” other religious holidays, but it is a rather commonly held belief. What really happened was a slow process of what is called “syncretism,” as religions fused together to a degree.
Take, for example, Irish worshipers of the goddess Brigid in Ireland back in the good old days. As the RCC spread into Ireland and the priests built churches in the area, they began converting the local masses to Catholicism.
However, the people there didn’t just suddenly give up the “old ways” in favor of the “new ways” like dropping a hot potato. Rather, there was a period where people worshiped both the Christian God while keeping the cult of the Goddess alive. True they may not have been as visible in such worship, but it continued, and slowly waned in favor of Christian belief, and *some* of those beliefs were transferred into the newer faith.
Complicating the matter further is that there was most likely a real historical person named “Brigid” who was a nun and a saint of the RCC. She may have been named after the goddess, or perhaps a priestess of the goddess who converted, but the historical record is rather dim. Exactly how the goddess Brigid is connected to the person Brigid, and the Saint Bridget who shares the holy day of Candlemas with the goddess Brigid is really lost to time.
All that said, the fact that there was syncretism between former pagan faiths and the beliefs of the RCC (and Christianity in general, for that matter) is certain. We just don’t know how it occurred, how they mixed or how long it took. Certainly ancient people were more sophisticated than we usually think, and wouldn’t have fallen hook, line and sinker for having their faith co-opted overnight.
Dani
Misinformed nutjobs like Pastor Brown are one more reason that I’m glad I follow the path. The fundies rely on fear and intimidation to recruit followers. When I went to my first Samhain ritual in 2006, as soon as I walked in the room, I knew I belonged and had found a home. I didn’t have to grovel or renounce anyone or anything. I just had to be me. Glad I’m Wiccan.
@Dani – I absolutely agree. Thank you for a very clear elaboration of the point. Blessings to you!