manufactured holiday? ( 2 in 1 question )?

Question

i posted a question about the effects halloween has on the different religions out there. ( this question has nothing to do with my OTHER question i am just making refrence )

one person said in his answer that children would taunt their parents on halloween by pretending to be demons and ghosts from " the underworld " . he said that these " demons " kidnapped their children and demanded "Treats" for there safe return. what is your opinon on that?

something else this person said was " All modern holidays can be traced back to the pegans, even Christmas and Easter" do you think this person is saying that people just make up days so they have something to celebrate? i would just love to hear other peoples opinion on all of this. is halloween ( and other holidays ) just a manufactured day?

just to let you all know i did email this person and ask his permission before posting this. sometimes i get answers to previous questions that just sparks my intrest further. i find what he said very intresting and hope he sees this question also and can comment further.

thanks all

did you copy this from somewhere pinpacker? it was nicely put and thanks for answering. i cant help but think you got your information from somewhere though

Answer 1

Hi, the Christians were trying to recruit members to it's church many years ago. Some of these people were pagans. The Christians knew that the only way to get them to convert was to let them hold on to a little piece of what they used to believe. This is why Easter for instance is celebrated every year on a different date. The original holiday it coincides with was celebrated on the first full moon in spring. Easter is celebrated after the first full moon in spring. The original holiday (sorry I don't know the name of it) was celebrated during the first full moon after the spring equinox to celebrate the fertility of the earth, this was when they planted crops in the ground. Popular symbols of fertility were rabbits and eggs, hence the Easter bunny. The Goddess of fertility they worshiped was named Ester, which sounds allot like Easter. The holiday was celebrated during the full moon because of the moon's symbolism toward fertility, basically a women's monthly cycle. Even the name Ester is derived from the word Estrus meaning ovulation.

Answer 2

Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? And how did this peculiar custom originate? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon worship? Or is it just a harmless vestige of some ancient pagan ritual?

The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.

One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.

Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.

Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was not to discourage spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.

OK there is something about Halloween.



The History of Christmas



In the Western world, the birthday of Jesus Christ has been celebrated on December 25th since AD 354, replacing an earlier date of January 6th. The Christians had by then appropriated many pagan festivals and traditions of the season, that were practiced in many parts of the Middle East and Europe, as a means of stamping them out.