That didn’t seem to take very long at all. Here it is; the last day of the month. And it’s Halloween…my least favorite holiday. I’m not bothered by the supposed irreverence or any possible links to Satanism. When little witches or devils come to my door I am bothered by having to get up and answer the knocking. Simple; I’m an introvert and Halloween requires far too much extroverting for me! I would be much more comfortable if I could leave a basket of candy on the front porch and trust the little devils to help themselves, equitably.
Of course I had to do some research on the holiday…
“Pagans first marked Oct. 31 as Samhain, a time of dwindling daylight when the living could most easily communicate with the dead. Christians later planted their own rituals for honoring the dead, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, now celebrated on Nov. 1 and 2, respectively. Oct. 31 over time became known to Christians as Allhallows Eve or Halloween…”
This holiday now marks the beginning of fall and is a bonanza for the candy merchants. And I have to wonder how different our Halloween is from the Mexican holiday, Día de los Muertos? Considering that they evolved in the same way; borrowed from a pagan culture, I would say that there is no difference.
Christians co-opted a lot of pagan festivals for their own use; Christmas and Easter are two other examples. Something to remember when accusations of “taking Christ out of Christmas” are hurled indiscriminately during the national shopping spree. Christ was never in it to begin with and I have always had this thought that Christians of all denominations could get together (fat chance!) and come up with an alternate date to celebrate the birth of the Christ child. That way we could leave the shoppers with a holiday all of their own and we could celebrate as we wanted.
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