tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14612596.post5785253151634094412..comments2023-10-23T16:39:35.545-04:00Comments on Gretchen's Travels: The History of HalloweenGretchenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886407743790676145noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14612596.post-7397892039880985772010-10-30T14:31:37.301-04:002010-10-30T14:31:37.301-04:00Happy Samhain or Halloween or All saints or Hallow...Happy Samhain or Halloween or All saints or Hallows eve, whatever make people happy. It's a celebration a chance for people to come together and have fun. Communicate have a laugh and a drink. Kids love it a chance to dress up and eat sweets. Let's not get too religious about it. However it is a Pagan festival it was called Samhain like your post explains. This is fact not fiction. Great informative post. Enjoy Your night of ghosts and witches. HOOOOOOHAAAAAAA( evil laugh)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13326013158100328181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14612596.post-86094604045775342142010-10-30T11:18:48.405-04:002010-10-30T11:18:48.405-04:00The seriously religious and pious are not threaten...The seriously religious and pious are not threatened by quasi-religious celebrations. They can sort out the "religious" elements from the rest. <br /><br />I like to remember that there was a time in Massachusetts when Christmas celebrations were banned. In as secular society there is not place for Christian taliban telling others what they should or should not do.Tossing Pebbles in the Streamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04354065895900279070noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14612596.post-14797022801052076662010-10-29T07:10:57.420-04:002010-10-29T07:10:57.420-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Gretchenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00886407743790676145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14612596.post-60836446457856556162010-10-28T19:52:29.687-04:002010-10-28T19:52:29.687-04:00Christians didn't want to "wipe out pagan...Christians didn't want to "wipe out pagan holidays and convert the heathens, so they would create a holy day to coincide with an established pagan festival."<br /><br />Christians were the people of the land, and they were the people with the festivals. No other religion allowed converts to keep their celebrations; only Christianity did. Far from wanting to wipe out anything, Christianity encouraged every culture to continue with its fullest expressions, and worked hard to simply change the focus from the old gods to Christ and the saints. In most cases, that was just a simple name change. Very few practices changed, except for the ones that were blatantly anti-Christian: human sacrifices, orgies, selling children, leaving daughters to die from exposure, adult-child sexual relationships, etc.<br /><br />All Christian holy days begin the night before (as do Jewish and Muslim holy days). The name Halloween used to be Hallowe'en, or Hallows' Even, from All Hallows' Day, or All Saints' Day. Samhain, of course, was the end of year festival, the 3rd and biggest in the series of harvest festivals. But it's not accurate to say that Halloween and Samhain are the same thing--Samhain is a Pagan/Wiccan harvest festival. It's a religious holiday. All Saints' Day is also a religious holiday. Contemporary Halloween is a fun but completely secular holiday that has nothing to do with the two great religious festivals that influenced it in the past.<br /><br />The problem with much of the information you find about Hallowe'en on the internet is that it's written either by the anti-Christian who talk like the evil Christians came in and stomped all over the peace-loving customs of the simple pagan peoples, or it's written by equally ignorant Christians who think that to put on a costume and eat candy somehow means you could accidentally worship Satan.Katherine C. Teelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09196450921516846481noreply@blogger.com