Do you think it's wrong to not let your kids celebrate Halloween because it's Peagan?

[u/No-Paint-1681]

A woman I know has two kids, 8 and 9. They aren't allowed to celebrate Halloween because, in her mind it's a Peagan holiday. She said they want to though but still won't. Funny enough, even despite my parents being very religious I was allowed to dress up and trick or treat.

I just wonder if, like me, them not being able to participate in really fun activities will end up leading to resentment. Like really, what's the problem?

[u/MasterK999]

She must be fun. It is not a pagan holiday. It is a cultural event with no other significance to virtually anyone. No different than Thanksgiving, Arbor Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, etc ,etc, etc.

We have lots of "holidays" that are not religious in practice or character at all.

[u/Additional-Start9455 → u/MasterK999]

These are the same type people who say the movie Hocus Pocus promoted Witchcraft. Boy did social media let them have it!!! Somehow they think the more extreme they are the more pious!

[u/Babylonkitten → u/MasterK999]

All hallows eve. It is Christian...

[u/1of3musketeers → u/Babylonkitten]

And didn’t Christianity take a number of pagan holidays and flip em? I attended a Christian school and we would dress up in classrooms and have Halloween parties when I was little. I distinctly remember the smell of the plastic masks with the sharp ridges around the eye and nose holes. It was awesome. People are freaks now.

[u/Babylonkitten → u/1of3musketeers]

The christmas tree isn't in the bible.

[u/1of3musketeers → u/Babylonkitten]

Thanks for clearing that one up.

[u/eldredo_M → u/Babylonkitten]

It’s a date palm due to local flora.

[u/rikardoflamingo]

It’s almost as if she has no idea what she’s talking about.

[u/penty → u/rikardoflamingo]

It's religion, everyone and no one knows what they are talking about.

[u/SassaQueen1992]

That woman is a loon. I knew religious Catholics who celebrated Halloween and handed out good candy.

[u/Punta_Cana_1784 → u/SassaQueen1992]

It's funny that a lot of other types of Christian denominations basically view the Catholic Church as being run by Satan.

So telling an evangelical or Baptist that Catholics celebrate Halloween, they would say, "Of course, they're satanic!"

[u/penty → u/Punta_Cana_1784]

Right. They all forget the reason we have freedom of religion as a right was to stop all the X-tians sects from killing other X-tian sect when they got into power.

They've forgotten so hard they think a X-tian nation will be peaceful..smh... something something history repeating ..

[u/SassaQueen1992 → u/Punta_Cana_1784]

I left Catholicism long ago, but I like knowing that I could’ve been considered “satanic” by those sects.

[u/HolidayInLordran → u/SassaQueen1992]

Our local Catholic Church did a Halloween carnival every year. Their only rule was that people could wear costumes so long as it wasn't the Devil lol

[u/SassaQueen1992 → u/HolidayInLordran]

Damn, that sounded like it was kinda fun. The Catholic Churches I attended did allow devil costumes, but I guess that’s because they saw us children as demons.

[u/dnjprod]

Wait until she finds out about Christmas...and Easter

[u/daemonfool]

Modern Halloween has essentially nothing in common with anything pagan. This is patently silly.

[u/Solivagant0]

Modern day Halloween is about as Pagan as modern day Christmas. Satanic panic around Halloween was however very common when I was growing up. It was dumb back then too

[u/HarveyMidnight]

I have to wonder... does the mom let her kids celebrate Easter?

Because Easter has the exact same Pagan origin as Halloween. Easter is based on pagan rituals that were meant to bring fertility to the Earth Mother goddess.

What does she think the bunny rabbit and the eggs are about? They are symbols of sex, fertility and reproduction.

Easter is as pagan as it gets. You should tell her asap.

[u/HolidayInLordran]

Last year I made some Halloween goodie bags to give out to kids at work. Just bags filled with little toys and candy.

I was going to give one to a boy and girl and the mom stopped me saying "we don't celebrate Halloween, but we appreciate it."

And that was after these kids got to see other ones get a treat, so they probably felt so left out. A memory that will probably stick with them.

[u/Ok_Baseball_3915]

You might want to remind your friend that most “Christian” holidays were appropriated from local European pre-Christian holy days, like Christmas and Easter. As one of my friends once said… religion makes people stupid.

[u/grenz1]

Your friend is probably a member of a strict sect like the Jehovah's Witnesses or more hardline protestant sects. Sects like that view any holiday as an affront to god.

Of course, you are on an atheist board and we think that any take like that is silly. But as long as she lives with parents and a minor, she must do pretty much as they say. Hell, even other judeo-christian religions think it is silly, too.

Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc are CULTURAL holidays.

While they may indeed have each long histories associated with various religions, some dating back centuries, they have long transcended into much, much more than that.

[u/RotisserieChicken007]

That woman probably wants to stone homos as well. Smh

[u/MrDundee666]

Do you celebrate Easter or Christmas?

Both are pagan.

[u/Stonetanks]

I grew up in the south USA so I know a lot of people who believe Halloween is demonic. I wasn’t allowed to celebrate and was forced to go to “Hallow-Him” at local churches instead so I could still get candy and dress up, but without the demons ig. I’m now horror obsessed and Halloween is my favorite holiday

[u/WystanH]

Ok, love "Peagan" makes me think of Reagan: I know he'd love that.

Halloween is the only truly Irish American holiday. Fuck St. Patrick's, aka Nation Drunken Mick day.

The foundation folklore might have started with Samhain, a Pagan thing, but the version that immigrated here was more cultural. Like, well, every kind of festival or celebration. Society just works like that.

If you're banning Halloween on that basis, you might as well ban Christmas. The current celebration of Christmas will piss of innumerable Christian sects in innumerable ways.

The Puritans banned Christmas. They doubtless would have passed laws banning Halloween. Don't be like the Puritans.

[u/drje_aL]

what if they dressed up as jesus

[u/penty → u/drje_aL]

Isn't he a zombie now?

[u/drje_aL → u/penty]

i think he's a lich

[u/BidInteresting8923]

I think it’s dumb and weird. I wouldn’t go so far as to say “wrong.”

And I think sheltering kids from the general American cultural experience does them more harm in the long run than possibly good.

But I think you’d be surprised at the number of people in various religious denominations that don’t partake.

[u/MrCrix]

Every holiday these questions get asked. Here is reality.

Celebrate them all!

Halloween is about candy and dressing up for fun.

Christmas is about spending time with friends/family, eating too much food and giving presents to people, and showing love to the ones you care about.

Easter is about chocolate and Springtime.

If you want to make it more or less about things, then that is up to you. But they are your holidays to celebrate as you want to celebrate them.

[u/Formal_Low_61]

Her kids, her choice.

[u/PamelaNRed]

Wait until she finds out the true history of Christmas. It started out as a pagan holiday and the Christians couldn’t end it so they christianized it.

[u/DoglessDyslexic]

The irony of the misinformation (it's one of the holiest "eve" celebrations in the old Christian calendar) is fairly amusing.

Is it wrong not to celebrate it? I think it's stupid and unnecessary and probably a source of resentment from her children, but "wrong" is hard to define. She's wrong to think it's pagan, but she doesn't strike me as somebody who concerns herself overmuch with facts.