Day: October 23, 2012

My Thoughts on Halloween…

Published on by Sandie DLeave a comment
Halloween
Would Christ Approve? I say NO!

For those of you who know me, you know I do not celebrate Halloween… I have my own reasons for not celebrating this day… For me, I don’t because of the origins of the day… I will go into that more in a few…

I can’t wrap my head around the idea of how throughout the year, we tell our children to be safe and not talk to strangers… We tell them to not cross the road or accept candy from anyone that we don’t know without permission from the parents… For some reason all of that goes out the window on Halloween… We send our kids door to door to ask for candy treats…

This is something that gets me even more… Those who know the origins of Halloween will say that they know what it is about, but my kids love it so much… We don’t dress them up in scary costumes… We only dress them up as cute princesses or pirates or kitty cats… I have no problem with kids dressing up in costumes… The thing that bugs the heck out of me is that  even though they know the history and meaning of Halloween, they still participate…

I’m not going to come down on anyone who chooses to celebrate… But, me being a Christian and wanting to please Christ, I can’t see doing this… Even Christians try to justify sending their kids out collecting candy… They will rename it “Harvest Festival”… No matter what you call it, it is what it is… It is Halloween… It is celebrated on October 31st just like Halloween… Kids and adults dress up and go through the motions… You just don’t see witches for the most part or devils… Even though I have seen that at some Harvest Festivals…

My daughter Jessica and her Family…
My daugher Beckiah and her family…

I have been pretty darn proud of my daughters Jessica and Beckiah… Well their hubbies too… They don’t celebrate Halloween either… Now JJ, doesn’t understand why he can’t, but he will in time… Kids can dress up in costumes and have a party and still have fun and not have it be based around Halloween… I think many times when people say that kids are missing out it is more that they don’t get it… It drives me nuts when the schools do all the Halloween stuff and of course the kids who don’t has to participate… I think there needs to be other options for these kids instead of staying home… Others make them feel like they are missing out… The kids don’t think about it until someone will look down at the kids and tell them, “I’m sorry you can’t dress up and have fun like the other kids”… OK, now that person is the one making them  feel bad because they made it seem like they are being left out… This one gets me too and a family member is great at driving this home… When they look at the child and tell them that they have mean parents because the parents decided to tell the child the truth instead of lying to them about the holidays… For example, my daughters both told my grand-kids the truth about Santa and the Easter Bunny… But the kids know that those symbols are not the true reason for Christmas and Easter… They still enjoy it, but they don’t get lied too… Now when my girls were younger, I didn’t know all the history of the holidays… Once I gained the knowledge, we no longer took part in those things… I know I may be hitting a nerve… But I can’t just sugar coat what I think and what history says…

If people want to celebrate, then by all means do it… But I think there needs to be some respect to those families that choose not to… My grandchildren are very much NOT deprived of anything by not celebrating Halloween… To those who have a problem, then that is your problem… If my grandkids and their parent’s don’t, then it shouldn’t be a concern… What’s important to them and me is that we are pleasing God, not what the world thinks is an atrocity for not letting kids go door to door trying to get candy and treats…

As I said earlier, I will post what the history of Halloween is.. I will also include some followup links if you would like to read more about it… And if I have offended someone, well, “it is what it is”…

History of Halloween…. 

Halloween is one of the oldest holidays with origins going back thousands of years. The holiday we know as Halloween has had many influences from many cultures over the centuries. From the Roman’s Pomona Day, to the Celtic festival of Samhain, to the Christian holidays of All Saints and All Souls Days.

Hundreds of years ago in what is now Great Britain and Northern France, lived the Celts. The Celts worshipped nature and had

The Celts celebrated their New Year on November 1st. It was celebrated every year with a festival and marked the end of the “season of the sun” and the beginning of “the season of darkness and cold.”many gods, with the sun god as their favorite. It was “he” who commanded their work and their rest times, and who made the earth beautiful and the crops grow.

On October 31st after the crops were all harvested and stored for the long winter the cooking fires in the homes would be extinguished. The Druids, the Celtic priests, would meet in the hilltop in the dark oak forest (oak trees were considered sacred). The Druids would light new fires and offer sacrifices of crops and animals. As they danced around the the fires, the season of the sun passed and the season of darkness would begin.

When the morning arrived the Druids would give an ember from their fires to each family who would then take them home to start new cooking fires. These fires would keep the homes warm and free from evil spirits.

The November 1st festival was called Samhain (pronounced “sow-en”). The festival would last for 3 days. Many people would parade in costumes made from the skins and heads of their animals. This festival would become the first Halloween.

During the first century the Romans invaded Britain. They brought with them many of their festivals and customs. One of these was the festival know as Pomona Day, named for their goddess of fruits and gardens. It was also celebrated around the 1st of November. After hundreds of years of Roman rule the customs of the Celtic’s Samhain festival and the Roman Pomona Day mixed becoming 1 major fall holiday.

The next influence came with the spread of the new Christian religion throughout Europe and Britain. In the year 835 AD the Roman Catholic Church would make November 1st a church holiday to honor all the saints. This day was called All Saint’s Day, or Hallowmas, or All Hallows. Years later the Church would make November 2nd a holy day. It was called All Souls Day and was to honor the dead. It was celebrated with big bonfires, parades, and people dressing up as saints, angels and devils.

But the spread of Christianity did not make people forget their early customs. On the eve of All Hallows, Oct. 31, people continued to celebrate the festivals of Samhain and Pomona Day. Over the years the customs from all these holidays mixed. October 31st became known as All Hallow Even, eventually All Hallow’s Eve, Hallowe’en, and then – Halloween.

The Halloween we celebrate today includes all of these influences, Pomona Day’s apples, nuts, and harvest, the Festival of Samhain’s black cats, magic, evil spirits and death, and the ghosts, skeletons and skulls from All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day.

Additional Links to Other Sites: 

This link expresses all of my thoughts about Halloween… They put it into words perfectly… Click here to read more... 

One last thought… The only good thing about celebrating Halloween as a Christian would be that you can take this as an opportunity to witness to those who come to your door… It’s the one time of the year they come to you, lol…

Slave Days and Bullying

Published on by Sandie D2 Comments

Since I did a piece on Bullying, I decided to share an experience with you… This isn’t as much about me, but about those I went to school with…

I loved my school and had many friends from all walks of life… That was great for the most part, but there were times it became a problem…

Our school had this ritual for freshman’s each year… What would happen was a two part thing…. First off there was Slave days… If you are wondering what that means, it is what it is… The upper class man would put the freshman’s on the block to be sold as slaves… Whoever bought you, you had to do that they said to do… Even if that meant humiliating yourself by wearing diapers or whatever unimaginable things… I was very lucky because my sister’s boyfriend or friend decided to spare me from having to do part two of this horrible ritual… So Brian bought me and that was that… He had a heart of gold and never made me do stupid things…

Before I continue I want to share with you the definition of what and who a slave is…

  1. (v. i.) To drudge; to toil; to labor as a slave.
  2. (v. t.) To enslave.
  3. (n.) A person who is held in bondage to another; one who is wholly subject to the will of another; one who is held as a chattel; one who has no freedom of action, but whose person and services are wholly under the control of another.
  4. (n.) See Slav.
  5. (n.) One who has lost the power of resistance; one who surrenders himself to any power whatever; as, a slave to passion, to lust, to strong drink, to ambition.
  6. (n.) An abject person; a wretch.
  7. (n.) A drudge; one who labors like a slave.

So, I will continue now!

Now if you didn’t get bought for Slave Days and made to do stupid things to embarrass yourself, then you were initiated for initiation days… That was even worse… They would have an assembly and those who weren’t bought would be ordered to do what they were told in front of the entire school…  I had a couple friends who had to go through the humiliation in front of everyone… When their names were called I told my friends they shouldn’t go… They did anyhow because they were afraid they would get in trouble… My one friend, no names mentioned was told to dress up as a dog and eat from a dog bowl in the middle of the gymnasium… Another guy was to wear his gym shorts with a rope attached to the back and then he had to climb to the top of the rope… I was ticked… I didn’t stick around after that… I left and told my friends there is no way they should have gone along with that… This was back in 1980 and I still remember how humiliated and demeaning that was for my friends… I remember the tears on the faces of the other classmates as they were being told what to do and be put on the auction block… I don’t know if Willcox High still does this ritual… But if they do, shame on them… A lot of the classmates thought I was being sensitive… OK! Yeah, I will give them that one… What is wrong with treating each other with some dignity…

I should add one thing too… On Initiation Day, somehow the list of kids who didn’t get bought got lost… They were guessing to some degree on who was on the list… One of the girls did come up to me and told me I was on the list… Let me say that my language was quite colorful and I was less than impressed… I’m sure there were a whole lot of students who heard my thoughts on that…

After 30 years when I think of my high school years, I always think of that first… There were good things like the Hot Pickles at Rays Market, El Taco, and McDonalds… I was there when that first was built… Us students were happy over that… I loved Carters and cruising… But in my mind the Slave Days and Initiation Days were the worst… Then the way they would pick on this boy named Stevie… He was large and a lot of students were horrible to him… He eventually lost weight, but I know he had some horrible times in school…

I went to Google to see if there were any pictures by chance of slave days or someone posting… And it was sad that there were links to questions on yahoo just recently asking for good ideas to embarrass the two slaves they bought on slave day… This was a post a couple years old… I can’t believe that schools still do this and they get away with it…  I know… I’m a party pooper… This is the post from someone named Deborah:

Tomorrow is Senior Slave Day at School…?

tomorrow is senior slave day at school and i need ideas as to what to make my slaves do… i have 2 slaves that i bought at a auction about two weeks ago and i don’t know what embarrassing things to make them do…… please help 🙂

I wish I was still able to comment or I would have said that it is a horrible ritual that belittles a person… I have also noticed when goggling this topic to find images that some schools will call it “Rent a Student”… OK! So the name has changed, but the purpose is still the same… Some people don’t see what the problem is, but knowing people who had to be put on display because you didn’t get bought on “Slave Day” is not fun, it is humiliating… I can’t even imagine what it would be like for the slaves’ way back when… They lived every day that way…

I hear some people trying to justify it as a way to raise funds and nothing is wrong with it… I find alot wrong with it and just because it is for a fundraiser or activity, doesn’t make it right…

Here is a link to a video of a young man that was sold as a slave in a classroom activity…

But I will get off this topic now… I could go on and on about this topic and how inappropriate it is…