(no subject)
This is something that I found while I was in Iraq back in 05. I'm reposting it, and seeing if I can re-word my original responses.
HALLOWEEN ... Harmless or Hazardous?
You Decide!
THE CELTS settled in Europe and were involved in the occult (worshipping nature and supernatural spirits). One of their festivals was called Samhain (October 31). This was the official end of summer, when the herds returned from the pasture. THE ANCIENT DRUIDS (the Celtic priests) believed in reincarnation (people being reborn as animals). On October 31, they believed that Samhain, the Lord of Death, gathered the souls of the evil dead and condemned them to enter the bodies of animals. They also believed that the punishment of the evil dead could be lessened by offering sacrifices, prayers and gifts to Samhain on behalf of their loved ones. On the night before the dead were given new bodies, Samhain allowed their spirits to return to the places they used to live. This terrified the people who would build huge bonfires, to "frighten away the evil spirits."
ON THIS NIGHT evil or frustrated spirits would bring harm to some houses ("tricks"). At other houses, food was left out to welcome the returning good spirits. Because there was so much "interaction" with the "spirit realm," this day became the most favored time for spells and séances.
CATHOLIC TRADITIONS ... In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church attempted to stop the demonic festival by making November 1, All Saints' Day. But they then adopted the practice of praying for their dead on the night before. In the late 1800's, it was customary for English Catholics to assemble at midnight on "Halloweve" (a shortened version of "All Hallowed Saints Eve") to pray for the souls of their dead friends. They would take special bread called "souls" to the cemeteries, place it on the graves of their dead and then eat the cakes. It was thought that these "soul cakes" would protect them from trouble that the returning ghosts might inflict upon them. Lighted candles were also placed on graves and in windows to guide the dead back home.
MODERN TRADITIONS ... Halloween (formerly "Halloweve") was never practiced by early Americans. It was not widely observed until the 1900's, when it was introduced by the Irish Catholic settlements back East. Today, Halloween has for most people become a social event, which mixes candy with what they suppose are harmless witchcraft and satanic symbols. It has become a "crossover" where innocent games can lead to serious encounters with real Witches, Satanists and other Occultists. While kids are playing around with Ouija boards, attempting to contact make believe ghosts or spirits there are very real séances being conducted up the street. The United States may have the fastest growing body of Satanists and Witches in the world. Interest in the Occult is at an all-time high. Games like the Ouija board are becoming popular but are a very real "doorway" into making contact, not with ghosts, but demonic spirits, who desire to hurt you. WITCHCRAFT is the most common theme of Halloween. You can hardly keep up with the amount of TV shows & movies with "Witchcraft" as their theme. Never has there been such an obsession with witchcraft as we are seeing in our day and age. The current craze among children and teens who are fascinated with witchcraft is frightening! Witches and Neo-Pagans are being painted as harmless "earth lovers". Wicca or "white witchcraft" is being sold as harmless fun. There is a famous quoet, "When you eat dinner with the Devil, you'd better bring a very long fork." Halloween practices open the door to the occult and can introduce demonic forces into people's lives. There is genuine demonic power in the occult, and it can destroy you.
Here are some things to consider about Halloween:
1. It is a sacred unholy day for Witches and Satanists, and throughout history has centered on witchcraft.
2. Human sacrifice was and is offered on this day, while people are bobbing for apples and eating candy.
3. It encourages playing around with the occult and increases interest in Satanic elements.
4. It supports, encourages and joins in pagan practices.
5. Probably no Halloween activity or symbol can be found that does not go back to paganism.
6. Christians participating in Halloween, may in fact be a ploy of the Devil to mock God.
Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 18:10-13 (NIV)
Hate what is evil, cling to what is good. Romans 12:9 (NIV)
Abstain from all appearance of evil. 1 Thessalonians 5:22 (KJV)
Ok now, let's look at this; now according to this, the practices that are observed during Halloween are entirely "pagan" which seems to stem from the celts which has become a term for the people who lived in Briton before christianity arived, (quick bit of trivia here, my bloodline is pretty much celtic, pict, briton, and scot. so watch out, I'm evil) yes I know that they lived in france, spain, and even into germany but most of them were either wiped out or asimilated by the Romans so Briton had them for the longest.
Now most of the historical data given here is fairly accurate, the early christians did indeed feel the need to destroy the culture of the Celts by assimilating Druidic holidays into Catholic holidays. My problem in this comes not from that, but from the mind numbingly closeminded comments made after the facts.
1. It is a sacred unholy day for Witches and Satanists, and throughout history has centered on witchcraft.
Sacred Unholy, WTF. Oh I get it, this is one of those instances of "If it's not Christian, it's EVIL" philosophy's coming out. Also, sacred and unholy? Really? Isn't that like matter and anti-matter? Shouldn't those two things combine and explode in a puff of logic?
2. Human sacrifice was and is offered on this day, while people are bobbing for apples and eating candy.
Personally I think that some people really sort of deserve to be sacrificed.
3. It encourages playing around with the occult and increases interest in Satanic elements.
And what is wrong with that, honestly? I'm serious. Shouldn't young christian children have the option of learning about the other side of the coin (or rather since we're talking about religion, I think it's more like learning about the other sides of the d20) Also, the Celts, the Druids and all of them were around quite a bit before Satan came into the picture, so let's just leave him out of it. But occult? What's really wrong with the occult?
4. It supports, encourages and joins in pagan practices.
Again, sometimes people need to experiment with things, it's what I like to call the "That's Hot" Theory, pretty much eveyone here at one time or another touched a hot stove, or put their hand in fire as a young child. And all of you were probably told that it was hot before you did it, yet you still did it. Why, because we don't learn things half as well from other people's experiances as we do from our own.
. Probably no Halloween activity or symbol can be found that does not go back to paganism.
True, the same can be said of Easter and Christmas. Like for example, what is the one single most pervasive symbol of Christmas? The Christmas Tree. look it up some time, look up the history of the Christmas tree, I promise you that it will have nothing whatsoever to do with a kid being born in a manger while a bunch of voyeurs keep watch.
6. Christians participating in Halloween, may in fact be a ploy of the Devil to mock God.
...
Mock god? Really? Even by the Timeline that the good old Church has proffered, the guy is at least 6000 years old. I think he's probably mature enough to take a joke.
HALLOWEEN ... Harmless or Hazardous?
You Decide!
THE CELTS settled in Europe and were involved in the occult (worshipping nature and supernatural spirits). One of their festivals was called Samhain (October 31). This was the official end of summer, when the herds returned from the pasture. THE ANCIENT DRUIDS (the Celtic priests) believed in reincarnation (people being reborn as animals). On October 31, they believed that Samhain, the Lord of Death, gathered the souls of the evil dead and condemned them to enter the bodies of animals. They also believed that the punishment of the evil dead could be lessened by offering sacrifices, prayers and gifts to Samhain on behalf of their loved ones. On the night before the dead were given new bodies, Samhain allowed their spirits to return to the places they used to live. This terrified the people who would build huge bonfires, to "frighten away the evil spirits."
ON THIS NIGHT evil or frustrated spirits would bring harm to some houses ("tricks"). At other houses, food was left out to welcome the returning good spirits. Because there was so much "interaction" with the "spirit realm," this day became the most favored time for spells and séances.
CATHOLIC TRADITIONS ... In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church attempted to stop the demonic festival by making November 1, All Saints' Day. But they then adopted the practice of praying for their dead on the night before. In the late 1800's, it was customary for English Catholics to assemble at midnight on "Halloweve" (a shortened version of "All Hallowed Saints Eve") to pray for the souls of their dead friends. They would take special bread called "souls" to the cemeteries, place it on the graves of their dead and then eat the cakes. It was thought that these "soul cakes" would protect them from trouble that the returning ghosts might inflict upon them. Lighted candles were also placed on graves and in windows to guide the dead back home.
MODERN TRADITIONS ... Halloween (formerly "Halloweve") was never practiced by early Americans. It was not widely observed until the 1900's, when it was introduced by the Irish Catholic settlements back East. Today, Halloween has for most people become a social event, which mixes candy with what they suppose are harmless witchcraft and satanic symbols. It has become a "crossover" where innocent games can lead to serious encounters with real Witches, Satanists and other Occultists. While kids are playing around with Ouija boards, attempting to contact make believe ghosts or spirits there are very real séances being conducted up the street. The United States may have the fastest growing body of Satanists and Witches in the world. Interest in the Occult is at an all-time high. Games like the Ouija board are becoming popular but are a very real "doorway" into making contact, not with ghosts, but demonic spirits, who desire to hurt you. WITCHCRAFT is the most common theme of Halloween. You can hardly keep up with the amount of TV shows & movies with "Witchcraft" as their theme. Never has there been such an obsession with witchcraft as we are seeing in our day and age. The current craze among children and teens who are fascinated with witchcraft is frightening! Witches and Neo-Pagans are being painted as harmless "earth lovers". Wicca or "white witchcraft" is being sold as harmless fun. There is a famous quoet, "When you eat dinner with the Devil, you'd better bring a very long fork." Halloween practices open the door to the occult and can introduce demonic forces into people's lives. There is genuine demonic power in the occult, and it can destroy you.
Here are some things to consider about Halloween:
1. It is a sacred unholy day for Witches and Satanists, and throughout history has centered on witchcraft.
2. Human sacrifice was and is offered on this day, while people are bobbing for apples and eating candy.
3. It encourages playing around with the occult and increases interest in Satanic elements.
4. It supports, encourages and joins in pagan practices.
5. Probably no Halloween activity or symbol can be found that does not go back to paganism.
6. Christians participating in Halloween, may in fact be a ploy of the Devil to mock God.
Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 18:10-13 (NIV)
Hate what is evil, cling to what is good. Romans 12:9 (NIV)
Abstain from all appearance of evil. 1 Thessalonians 5:22 (KJV)
Ok now, let's look at this; now according to this, the practices that are observed during Halloween are entirely "pagan" which seems to stem from the celts which has become a term for the people who lived in Briton before christianity arived, (quick bit of trivia here, my bloodline is pretty much celtic, pict, briton, and scot. so watch out, I'm evil) yes I know that they lived in france, spain, and even into germany but most of them were either wiped out or asimilated by the Romans so Briton had them for the longest.
Now most of the historical data given here is fairly accurate, the early christians did indeed feel the need to destroy the culture of the Celts by assimilating Druidic holidays into Catholic holidays. My problem in this comes not from that, but from the mind numbingly closeminded comments made after the facts.
1. It is a sacred unholy day for Witches and Satanists, and throughout history has centered on witchcraft.
Sacred Unholy, WTF. Oh I get it, this is one of those instances of "If it's not Christian, it's EVIL" philosophy's coming out. Also, sacred and unholy? Really? Isn't that like matter and anti-matter? Shouldn't those two things combine and explode in a puff of logic?
2. Human sacrifice was and is offered on this day, while people are bobbing for apples and eating candy.
Personally I think that some people really sort of deserve to be sacrificed.
3. It encourages playing around with the occult and increases interest in Satanic elements.
And what is wrong with that, honestly? I'm serious. Shouldn't young christian children have the option of learning about the other side of the coin (or rather since we're talking about religion, I think it's more like learning about the other sides of the d20) Also, the Celts, the Druids and all of them were around quite a bit before Satan came into the picture, so let's just leave him out of it. But occult? What's really wrong with the occult?
4. It supports, encourages and joins in pagan practices.
Again, sometimes people need to experiment with things, it's what I like to call the "That's Hot" Theory, pretty much eveyone here at one time or another touched a hot stove, or put their hand in fire as a young child. And all of you were probably told that it was hot before you did it, yet you still did it. Why, because we don't learn things half as well from other people's experiances as we do from our own.
. Probably no Halloween activity or symbol can be found that does not go back to paganism.
True, the same can be said of Easter and Christmas. Like for example, what is the one single most pervasive symbol of Christmas? The Christmas Tree. look it up some time, look up the history of the Christmas tree, I promise you that it will have nothing whatsoever to do with a kid being born in a manger while a bunch of voyeurs keep watch.
6. Christians participating in Halloween, may in fact be a ploy of the Devil to mock God.
...
Mock god? Really? Even by the Timeline that the good old Church has proffered, the guy is at least 6000 years old. I think he's probably mature enough to take a joke.