Thoughts on Halloween

Last weekend was Halloween, an excuse for girls to dress suggestively and for guys to act creepily. But hey, it's ok! It's Halloween!

Halloween is a Pagan-Christian hybrid holiday which finds its roots in the combination of two distinct holidays: The first being Celtic festival of Samhain (beginning sometime in the 1500's). Basically, it was an event marking the end of the "light" half of the year and the beginning of the "dark" half of the year. Another way of putting it, is that Halloween began as a harvest festival. The second root of Halloween is All-Saints Day, a Catholic event began in 609ish by Pope Boniface IV to commemorate all the Saints of the Christian religion.

Dressing up for Halloween comes from Samhain, where people wore costumes to imitate and please the gods. Trick or treating comes from early European All-Saints Day traditions of children going from door to door to receive cakes and from families visiting dead relatives in cemeteries.

In modern America, it seems as if Halloween has become an excuse for us to mock what we fear in an attempt to try to execute some control over the very thing we cannot control and all must face: death.

But I digress. In your blog, please take some time to consider Halloween and to reflect on these simple questions:

What do you think of Halloween? How did you spend your Halloween night? How do you usually spend it? Is Halloween a holiday worth celebrating (even if you don't)? There has been an overall drop in people who actually go trick-or-treating, why do you think this is (keeping in mind that the only kids who were ever actually poisoned were harmed by their own family - despite all the rumors)? Is it more or less valuable than other holidays? which ones? Any other thoughts on Halloween?