That is as bad as celebrating Christmas and Easter. Both pagan holidays.
2007-10-27 05:48:26 · 38 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
It's pagan just like Xmas and Easter so who cares if it's pagan , just shows Christians are a bunch of Hypocrites.
2007-10-27 06:01:08 · answer #1 · answered by an-noy 4 · 7⤊ 4⤋
Halloween (aka All Hallow's Eve) was originally a Christian holiday created by the Catholics in the Middle Ages. Like Christmas and Easter, it was "borrowed" from the Pagan sabbat Samhain, but it was morphed into a Christian celebration. Which I find to be hypocritical, because while many Christian churches celebrate Halloween by having harvest parties and dressing up, there is an equal number who rant about it being the devil's holiday when it is no such thing and there is no evidence in history that it ever was.
2007-10-27 05:59:25 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
Maybe for the same reasons they started doing Easter and Christmas. Pagan celebrations were all the rage what with their spring equinoxes and winter solstice parties when Christianity was cranking up. Easter and Christmas evolved as celebrations to complete with the parties the heathens were throwing. Maybe they "celebrate" (or at least acknowledge) Halloween to keep Christians from checking out the awesome Wiccan bash going on down the street.
2007-10-27 06:04:25 · answer #3 · answered by parsnipianna 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
The Christian/Catholic church incorporated the customs of the non-Christian peoples to attract more members.
They chose the festival of the lights to celebrate the birth of Christ even though most Christian scholars agree Christ was born in the spring or early summer.
It is more obvious why they chose the Spring Equinox celebration for Easter because it fits right into the idea of Rebirth and life anew.
Halloween, as has been explained several times in all the previous answers given, is actually All Hallow's Eve, when the veil that separates the living from the dead thins or lifts for one evening, allowing us the chance to honor and communicate with our dear departed loved ones and put old negative feelings finally to rest.
Consider this, my fellow human, that maybe your question is rife with ignorance and that maybe you should educate yourself in the whole world's cultures and religions. I believe you might find a bit of tolerance along the way, and find the Christian Love that Christ taught the people with his charming parables, most of which probably came from the parables of the eastern peoples.
Me? Your friendly neo-pagan with love for all as Christ taught us to do.
2007-10-27 06:03:55 · answer #4 · answered by Pixie 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Halloween means, the evening before All Saints' Day; often devoted to pranks played by young people.
Halloween, or Hallowe'en, is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, Halloween festivals, bonfires, costume parties, visiting "haunted houses" and viewing horror films. Halloween originated from the Pagan festival Samhain, celebrated among the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century. Halloween is now celebrated in several parts of the western world, most commonly in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom.
The term Halloween (and its alternative rendering Hallowe'en) is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the eve of "All Hallows' Day",[1] also which is now known as All Saints' Day. It was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions, until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints' Day from May 13 to November 1. In the ninth century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although All Saints' Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween, the two holidays were, at that time, celebrated on the same day. Liturgically, the Church traditionally celebrated that day as the Vigil of All Saints, and, until 1970, a day of fasting as well. Like other vigils, it was celebrated on the previous day if it fell on a Sunday, although secular celebrations of the holiday remained on the 31st. The Vigil was suppressed in 1955, but was later restored in the post-Vatican II calendar.
Many European cultural traditions, in particular Celtic cultures, hold that Halloween is one of the liminal times of the year when spirits can make contact with the physical world, and when magic is most potent (according to, for example, Catalan mythology about witches and Irish tales of the Sídhe).
History:
The modern holiday of Halloween has its origins in the ancient Gaelic festival known as Samhain (pronounced /ˈsˠaunʲ/ from the Old Irish samain). The Festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is erroneously regarded as 'The Celtic New Year'. Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The Ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, where the bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them. When the Romans occupied Celtic territory, several Roman traditions were also incorporated into the festivals. Feralia, a day celebrated in late October by the Romans for the passing of the dead as well as a festival which celebrated the Roman Goddess Pomona, the goddess of fruit were incorporated into the celebrations. The symbol of Pomona was an apple, which is a proposed origin for the tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.
2007-10-27 05:53:57 · answer #5 · answered by PSSR 3 · 2⤊ 2⤋
You don't win new christians by preachin' to the choir. The church has often tried to incorporate secular/pagan holidays into christian celebrations or vice/versa in an attempt to expose non-believers to the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You have a better chance of gettin' someone saved if you can actually get them comfortable enough around church folks to come to church.
2007-10-27 05:56:23 · answer #6 · answered by Dirt E. Deeds 3 · 3⤊ 2⤋
Churches celebrate halloween 2 b gracious 2 the children. The lord loves the children, so we must do so as well.
By the way, Christmas is the celebration day of Jesus's(the Lord's)birth.
Easter is the day Jesus(the Lord)rose from the dead. He was crucified on the cross for preaching and saying he was king of the Jews(for king Pontious Pilot didn't know Jesus meant spiritually, not physically).
It's called Holy Week. Maundy Thursday he was captured, Holy Friday he was crucified, Saturday Jesus was put in the tomb, and Sunday he rose again(from the dead). They say he came 2 his disciples in spirit, and brought them together. He told them he loved them and would return, before he rose 2 heaven.
2007-10-27 06:05:14 · answer #7 · answered by Adreanna A 4 · 0⤊ 4⤋
The Christian churches I have attended do not celebrate Halloween. Celebrating the birth and resurrection of Christ is bad? OK, maybe they were originally holidays with different meanings, but they have come to be wonderful Christian holidays. These are wonderful times to remember God's goodness.
2007-10-27 05:53:57 · answer #8 · answered by Cee T 6 · 2⤊ 5⤋
The early church deliberately (and successfully) overlaid it's holidays on top of already established rituals.
People were going to celebrate anyway, and by going with the flow, the church was able to "brand" these events for their new religion.
It's was a little like noticing a stampede and then racing to where it's going and erecting an arch with your name on it, or like watching your cat wake up and quickly ordering it to "Stretch, Kitty, stretch!"
It was like using martial arts to go with the "enemy's" movement.
And it was really successful.
2007-10-27 06:06:18 · answer #9 · answered by thenwhen 5 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Rabbi Paul said in his letters to the Corinthians, that he has the freedom through Jesus Christ to "eat meat sacrificed to idols".
What the rabbi meant was, we have the freedom to use rituals that were once meant for idols and false gods, and use them for the glory of the one true God. This would include celebrating Christmas, Easter, Halloween, etc. We have the freedom in Christ to celebrate these pagan rituals for the glory of the true God. That's what Paul meant by having the freedom to eat meat which was sacrificed to idols.
It's ok to celebrate Christmas, Easter, Harvest, or whatever, because we are not giving glory to the pagan gods when we do it, we are giving glory to the true living God. The bible says it's ok. Don't you read the bible?
2007-10-27 05:58:07 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 4⤋