I and my wife were forced to sit through a lecture, or rather a sermon, by my wife's aunt this weekend.
Her aunt is a very devout Christian, one of those who refers to herself and those in her church as Christians, while every other Christian-based denomination is whatever they call themselves, if you get my drift.
We were visiting, and were discussing the Halloween/birthday party my wife threw for her mom, who turns 50 on Halloween (the party was held on the 23rd).
We were informed that, even though our hearts were in the right place, we were glorifying satan by celebrating the pagan holiday called Halloween. I very much like her aunt overall, and she is a very nice lady when you're not discussing religion. Also, I was raised to respect my elders, so I kept my mouth shut and nodded in the right places.
If I am to understand completely, any acknowledgment of Halloween is considered, by many, to be satan worship. So, by extension, when little Sally dresses up like a princess and little Jimmy dresses up like a cowboy, and they go out into the neighborhood knocking on doors and getting candy, they're not just trick-or-treating, they're worshipping the Prince of Darkness (and I'm not referring to Ozzy Osbourne here).
What a load of crap.
I've been doing some thinking about this, and it irks me that some zealots insist on finding evil and darkness where none is intended.
When I dress up like Homer Simpson (last year...I won first prize..woohoo! It was a pumpkin snack dish. D'oh!) and go out to a Halloween party, or pass out candy to the kids at my door, am I intending to worship satan? Of course not. Now, on the other hand, when I walk into a church, I AM intending to worship God. If I'm not intending to worship satan, how can I be worshipping him? What good would be "unintentional" worship, anyhow? i always was under the impression that worship comes, intially, from the heart.
I do understand that some nutjobs take Halloween too much to heart and dress up in black robes, dance around a bonfire and sacrifice cats to appease satan (hm...satan's a cat person...I always knew there was something I didn't like about cats....hm.....), but I can't stop them from doing that. Their craziness is their own.
The majority of us, though, decorate our houses with cobwebs, ghosts, witches (another thing her aunt doesn't like....she hates Harry Potter, too. It irks HER that we own all the books and movies) and skeletons and give candy to kids.
The only evil I've ever taken part in during Halloween was when I was a teenager, and we egged and TP'd old man Markey's house. Now, if there ever was an evil being, it was old man Markey! Grumpy bastard. One of those "You hit it in my yard! It's mine now! You damn kids!" types.
I don't need a history of All Hallows Eve....I've done a little research, and I know about Samhain, the Roman celebration of the harvest, the Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations, and everything that has combined to create what we've come to call Halloween. I just want some opinions from all you joeusers out there....you know my opinion; Halloween is a harmless good time, but what do you think? Is Halloween just good, clean fun, or is it a celebration of evil?