Well, Hallowe'en is over, and the children's blood sugar level is slowly descending back to normal, the bats are back in the basement, and the pumpkins are nestled in the compost pile, leaving us to contemplate the meaning of this annual Satanic orgy of costumes and chocolate that so defiles the moral fiber of our innocent young.

I noticed that we had far fewer trick-or-treaters this year than for many years past. And it occurred to me that the Religious Right has been preaching vociferously for some years that Hallowe'en is a pagan holiday (a quality it shares with Christmas and Easter, by the way)given over to worship of the Devil. As though these children are worshipping anything other than the candy you give them. But maybe that's it: worship the Devil and you get candy. An insidious undermining of their moral fiber.

Anyway, their campaign appears to have borne fruit, as the serpent said to the apple tree, and a harmless holiday that has been leached of any moral meaning for well over a century appears to be on its way to becoming demonized. But I do wonder which it is that offends these fundamentalists the most: the idea that this holiday seriously celebrates Satan, or the idea that children are enjoying themselves.

A number of these people live near us, and I've noticed that they don't seem to like the idea of children enjoying themselves. Or anyone else, for that matter. One of them told me once, in all seriousness, that a friend of his, dying of cancer, was committing mortal sin by drinking alcohol to dull the pain.

Happy Hallowe'en.

It's nothing to do with any moral campaign - more the fact that having your kids wander the streets begging sweets from strangers is a very odd concept at best. Not something I'm excited about my kids getting involved in.

If it weren't for 'that pagan Satanist holiday', there would be no All Soul's Day to celebrate. :holy: :rolleyes:

I personally find nothing at all wrong with halloween. We don't get so many trick'or'treaters now-a-days, but that's because we've moved down a long dark driveway, with a "Beware of Sleeping Dog" sign up on it.

In the community I use to live in - Pukerua Bay, had about 1200 people in it, and was where Peter Jackson grew up, fwiw - halloween was always a massive event. Everyone in the primary school (all 200 of them!) would be dressing up and parading around the town knocking on everyones doors! Then by about 8.30 when it got darker the college kids would come out, and there would be big egg fights on the streets! Was always one of the best times of the year there - after the waterfights on the beach at xmas.

Saddly the place I live now isn't so lively come halloween. I put it to the fact that I live in a semi-rural community now... But who knows. I guess when you get into the bigger towns and cities it starts to become a bit more dangerous. Over in Pukerua Bay you knew nearly everyone, so it was fine.


As to the fact that it involves devil worshipping, correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've read Halloween, although originating as a pagan ceremony, was captured by the Roman Catholic church and transformed into their own "celebration". Nothing at all to do with devil worshipping.

Its a Celtic holiday to celebrate the harvest of Lugh, its much older than Christianity, so therefore the devil does not even come into it.

The reason for dressing up, is to blend with the spirits, as the border that separates us with the spirit world is at its weakest point.

There are far too many people reading Chick.com comics and watching the God channel. If they don't like it, they can watch 'Songs of Praise' re-runs!

This must be a growing trend around the world. We too have noticed that the number of trick-or-treaters coming to our house has plummetted. And it's not like I'm talking about over the course of decades here - there were more trick-or-treaters when my wife and I moved into our house just a few years ago. It seems like every year the number decreases by 10%. A few years ago, we'd buy a few big bags of candy, and give away almost all of it. This year, we bought a single bag of candy and only went through about 3/4 of it.

Trick-or-Treating has been replaced to a large extent by Halloween (or "Harvest" for those morally opposed to it) Parties. This year my kids had numerous choices of places to go and activities to take part in. Trick-or-Treating seems to kind of pale in comparison. Good prizes for the best costume, games and plenty of candy to take home seems to be winning out over a pillow case full of bruised apples, crushed Reese cups and sticky Good n Plenties.

We have had no guisers this or last year. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. More jelly spiders for me, after all.

Most trick-or-treaters think they could get some candy just because it's Halloween. And if you refuse they will do no trick to you :p

Dressing up as undead creatures isn't really worshipping Satan, now is it? Of course, if kids actually pretend to worship Satan, that's a whole different story. Personally, I find the custom annoying. I don't like the idea of bands of kids in silly costumes roaming the streets and being loud. Let alone the trick part of trick or treat.

In my opinion, at least in the US, it seems to me that the discouragement of Trick-or-Treating on Halloween stems more from the over-all increase in fear of everything, obsessiveness over safety, and less neighborliness in over-crowded neighborhoods.

People hear stories about razor blades in apples or the sexual predator supposedly around the corner in every neighborhood, and since people really don't know all their neighbors very well, they're afraid for their children's safety. It's safer to throw a party where everything's under control and everyone knows everyone else.

I like Hacken Slash's comments. I'd rather my kids dress up and go to a nice party than go cruising the streets begging for food.

That's just looking at it in a poor light. The way it used to be was little kids dressing up in home-made costumes going to their friendly neighbor's house for a little social interaction and fun.

Now, 16 to 18-year-old strangers wearing a plastic K-mart mask with their street clothes are bussed in from poor neighborhoods so they can get the "good" stuff from upscale places :rolleyes:

Of course, if kids actually pretend to worship Satan, that's a whole different story.I've never even heard of anything like that.

Then again, I haven't heard of people being bussed to upscale places to get the good stuff, either, so wtf do I know?

When we lived in Oakland CA it was quite common for poor, i.e., black, parents to take their children to affluent, i.e., white, neighborhoods so they could trick-or-treat for the "good stuff".

One if the big problems in Barcelona are the immigrants, most of them from Africa and east countries; many of them are kids (12 - 15) and go around stealing, disturbing people on the metro, etc., and they are almost free to do whatever they want because they are too young to go to jail or to even be expeled from Spain. They are also muslim. That night, Halloween night, (by the way, just started to being celebrated 3 or so years ago because big candy companies started to promote their 'Halloween products'), we were on the metro train and 6 of these kids, wearing mask (but above, not in the face, like a hat) came babling 'sweets, is Halloween' in bad spanish and if you don't have (of course, who would be carring sweets on the metro) theys asked for money to buy them, and of course, if you don't give them anything they get mad.

Such problems with youngsers from poor families is also common in my country. And sometimes when one refuses to give them anything they react with aggression.
There is also another problem, when they come to your door asking for money. When you offer some cash in exchange for some work they are offended.
But that's off topic now ;)

Another thing I'm hearing is called a Trunk or Treat. Basically our church, to avoid families having their kids trick or treating on the Sabbath or Family Home Evening or in dangerous areas, they get the members together in the church parking lot and allow the kids to go around to each one. This helps them get safe goodies, and in some cases healthier stuff than normal...

I was happy enough with the youngsters doing it last year, it's the teenagers that use it as an excuse for vandalism I had a problem with...