...Up to Haunt in Their Masquerade...

With Halloween approaching, it makes me think of a little pet peeve of mine. I've heard people, especially Christians, make comments about not celebrating Halloween because they don't worship the devil or they don't recognize an "evil" holiday or they claim that Halloween is not a "holiday" because the word is derived from "holy day."
Halloween is not a day for worshipping evil or the devil or any such thing. In fact, some of the traditions are to ward OFF evil. Now, I've heard/read different origins, and yes, most of them are originally pagan, so if you want to go that route then no, it's not really Christian, I guess. But considering most traditions for any holiday begin from superstitions and paganism (yes, even Christmas traditions...but I'll touch on that probably closer to the season), why are you complaining?
The biggest tradition of Halloween I would think is dressing up. This is due to the belief that ghosts and goblins and demons and such came around to walk the Earth at this time of year. We dress up to either attempt to scare them off or blend in with them so they don't recognize us as being mortals, depending on which origin you read.
As far as it not being a holiday or "holy" day, another name for it is All Hallows' Eve or All Saints' Eve, the evening before a CHRISTIAN holiday. All Saints' Day or All Hallows' Day is a day to remember loved ones and important Christians whom have passed.
There's much more Christian influence behind this night than I could even think to write about without creating a book...plus I don't want to plagiarize, so I'll just add a link to "Halloween" via Wikipedia.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYONE!

Happy Halloween

It irks me a little when people say they don't celebrate Halloween because it's "against their religion" or "they don't worship the devil." It's fine if you don't like Halloween or don't feel like celebrating it, but these claims people make show that people don't really know what Halloween is and/or was.
There's a few origins of Halloween. Most of them are of Celtic or Western European heritage. One story is that it is the "end of the light," meaning the days are now getting shorter and the nights longer. Our ancestors believed that spirits were able to come forth during this period, both good and bad. The good were paid respects, whereas the bad were warded off. This is where the costumes come in. They are not to worship the devil or anything evil...they were used to try to scare the evil away.
Nowadays, we don't have any "evil" to scare away (at least we hope not!). It's more for fun than anything. And fun is to be had by all! The kids enjoy it because they play dress-up and get candy. I don't know about any other adults, but I enjoy it because I get to see all the kids having so much fun! This was my first "real" Halloween as an adult, meaning I got a TON of trick-or-treaters tonight! I saw the Mario Brothers, fairies, princesses, the puppet from Saw, the Hulk, Woody from Toy Story, cheerleaders, and so much more! It was so great! I kinda can't wait until next year...I'll definitely dress up the outside of the house a little more (I know, Sam Lambert, you were against spending so much money on the decorations!). I wouldn't do too much, though. Just some homemade ghosts in the trees, a pumpkin/Jack-o-lantern or two, maybe some cobwebs. We'll see. I have a whole year to think about it!

I took the following pictures from inside my house. Sorry they're a little dark. I didn't want to turn on the flash because 1) it would have reflected on the window and 2) I didn't want to freak people out with random flashes coming from our house!