The whole apple thing can't be sanitary.


Okay, I was debating on whether or not I should write about this. I love all my online friends and with this topic I could tick some off and they would never return to Monkeyville, and then other peeps could think I'm a big wacky Bible beater and never come back. So since I've never been one for keeping my mouth(?keyboard) shut, here we go.

I know this is a very sensitive topic for some, and for others you've probably never given it a second thought. Halloween. I never even looked at it from any other viewpoint than- it's a silly holiday where people dress up and get candy, have parties maybe, where you stick your hands in peeled grapes and pretend they're eyeballs...

...until I became a Christian. Why would that make a difference, you ask? Well, many Christians look at Halloween as evil disguised in a happy costume carrying a candy bucket. The point made by them is that the roots of the celebration are based in the Occult, Satanism, religious (nonChristian) Celtic festivals and Neopaganism. Therefore, since the day is evil, it is wrong to have anything to do with it.

True, the majority of Americans think that's a big ball of wacky baloney. Why else would stores be filled with candy, costumes, scary noise making thingies, and motion activated mummy dolls? Halloween is actually the third highest grossing retail holiday, after Christmas and Easter. It's obvious that Americans dig Halloween. Adults get to dress up in crazy costumes and party; kids get to consume massive quantities of sugar. I remember vividly coming home after trick or treating and dumping out our plastic pumpkins to count and divide up all our loot. What could possibly be so bad about that?

Ask conservative/fundamendalist Christians. The general point of viewfrom this perspective is that Halloween is derived from an ancient Celtic/Druid festival of the dead, and to participate in Halloween is to serve the devil. Along those same lines, they also add that "Pumpkins were cut with faces representing demons and was originally intended to frighten away evil spirits,"
and "The various activities traditional to Halloween are mostly associated with the idea of obtaining good fortune and foretelling the future. Samhain was a time when it was customary for the pagans to use the occult practice of divination to determine the weather for the coming year, the crop expectations, and even who in the community would marry whom and in what order." And so on, and so on, and so on...there is a evil shadow over each of the Halloween traditions we know, they say, and use alot of reference sources, including the Bible, to back up their point.

"So k8, tell us, what's your point of view on this!" you demand impatiently. "Wait juuuuust a minute, please," k8 responds jovially.

Before I was saved I celebrated Halloween exuberantly. I had this opinion:
People who are against kids looking cute and having fun are straight up crackpots. (That's probably your take too.) But I can see both sides very clearly.

I am the kind of person who likes to form my own opinions about issues. I like to hear all sides of an argument and I want the nitty gritty intellectual evidence to convince me about something. When I started learning about Christianity and its' ways and the Bible, I started questioning the celebration. I read alot of websites like this and this and this. That was several years ago.

Lately, due to some discussions with friends both in and out of church, I have been led to seek more and more info about Halloween from a Christian perspective. I have been reading alot about it from all points of view. Here's a nonbiased factsheet I came across. I have read alot more writing like those first websites, and I have also read some new websites that charge that Christians can celebrate Halloween. I think this one is the most detailed argument on that position. I also went to a Christian website I have found to be straight up Biblical and intellectual- here it is. (short and sweet but a concise read)I always go to carm.org when I have any Christian questions I can't find in the Bible- this dude knows his Scriptures. Of course, just like with anything, folks with a different point of view can fire back with responses to the contrary.

Well, if you're still here this far and not bored out of your gourd, maybe you want to know what I think after alot of prayer and reading and thinking and considering alot of stuff.

I'm not telling you right now. I want to know your thoughts, dear reader. All opinions are welcome here, as long as you're not a meanyhead.


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My comments are wacked out. They won't open on some browsers now. If you can't open the comments, right click the talking bananas link and choose open in new window. If anybody knows how to fix this please tell k8. gracias.