HALLOWEEN: Other Views, Facts & Such

Below this article is one about Halloween “history”. Knowing before posting it that the “history” was not 100% factual (even prove-able), I posted it nonetheless: 1) because I’d published it in past newsletters; 2) I’ve seen it lots of places, even Orthodox places, over the years; 3) I thought it would generate some discussion. Nothing like the topic of Halloween (save maybe Calendar arguments) to get the Orthodox all in a dither.

In fairness, here’s a site & another with some different historical info on Halloween.

Here’s a site on tolerance … and here’s even a Greek Orthodox priest in favor of the day!

Finally, this from a neo-pagan webpage:

Halloween is the modern name for Samhain, an ancient Celtic holy day which many Neopagans — especially Wiccans, Druids and Celtic Reconstructionists — celebrate as a spiritual beginning of a new year.

Halloween is a time to confront our personal and cultural attitudes towards death and those who have passed on before us.

Halloween is a time to lift the veil between the many material and spiritual worlds in divination, so as to gain spiritual insight about the pasts and futures.

Halloween is a time to deepen our connection to the cycles of the seasons, to the generations that have come before us and those that will follow, and to the Gods and Goddesses we worship.

Halloween is a time to let our inner children out to play, to pass on our childhood traditions to our children, and to share the fun with our friends and neighbors of many other faiths.

I don’t know about you, but that’s reason enough for me to still believe that an Orthodox Christian has no dog in this h[a]unt.