What's wrong with Halloween anyway?

Nostalgiascape · Post by **Nostalgiascape** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 4:13 pm

I am going to sticky this topic only through the remainder of October, then unstick it.

It is an important topic. The topic of whether or not there is something truly wrong with Halloween or not. Feel free to pour your hearts out on this issue.

Tsunami59 · Post by **Tsunami59** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 4:26 pm

theres nothing wrong with it, but some people think its a 'step to far' if your Catholic, Im Catholic, and I dont find anything wrong with Halloween. Its just for fun.

mamawof2 · Post by **mamawof2** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 4:34 pm

Nothing is wrong with it. It is pure fun.

magickbean · Post by **magickbean** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 4:55 pm

If there is such a thing, I am extremely "pro" Halloween

There is more than one dimension to my love for Halloween..

On the one hand, it is a very special day in the Pagan calendar - it is the Pagan new year! The 31st of October represents the end of the year, a time to reflect and give thanks, a time to make resolutions and prepare for the year ahead. And of course, a time to honour those that were lost during the year. Seasonally, it is also time to pay respect to the death of the Summer and prepare for the long dark Winter ahead.

On the other hand, it is day/night of FUN!

A time to dress up and have parties, to decorate the house with ghouls and pumpkins, to eat lots of treats and play games and bake cakes and be silly and free .. for one night, no matter how old you are, you can BE your inner child - you can be whatever you want to be and it's all accepted. If that's a bad thing, then I don't wanna know what's RIGHT.

HalloweenGeneral · Post by **HalloweenGeneral** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 7:53 pm

Theres nothing wrong with Halloween. I am methodist and we all enjoy it. We really dont celebrate it but we do dress up and decorate and eat candy and all that. The only thing wrong with halloween is the uptight people who think that there IS somthing wrong. Of course there is also the fact of the dipsticks who go around on Halloween night and paint peoples houses and cars and do other forms of vandalism, I mean I roll and soap and stuff like that but thats just paper and soap nothing permanent like, its harmless fun and pranks pulled on people I know. There is also people that think they can abolish Halloween, but as long as I am living I will fight mentaly, polliticaly, and physically for what I believe is harmless fun. People think they can controll all that, but they cant and wont be satisfied untill they realize that you just cant do it. You can take it out of schools and like they are trying to do to religion in school and say its not appropriate,and that it may offend people, well screw them ! My religion is my religion and my holidays are my holidays, THATS MY RIGHTS....sorry I am kinda gettin carried away, I dont like a few of our local and national goverment choices right now, and my school is really p*ssing me off right now by taking away our fall festival and our Halloween parade/parties so that sucks, well I feel better by getting that off my chest, thanks for listening.

ooga_booga · Post by **ooga_booga** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 12:34 am

There are just too many morons who are determined to ruin it for everyone else, like kids who think they can do whatever they want and do things like set buildings on fire, and of course it's a lot easier to make up stupid rules and ruin it for the rest of us than actually try and punish the people who do these things.
And then of course there's the religous fanatics who see all the ghost and devils and scream "OmGWtfbQb sAtaNic11!!!1" and don't actually bother to look up halloween's history, and if they do they whine about how the Roman church allowed, and even encouraged its celebration (well if the Roman church allowed its celebration, then wtf are you complaining about?)

I B Howlin' Wolfman · Post by **I B Howlin' Wolfman** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 4:58 am

Even posting a topic titled "What is wrong with Halloween" seems to give the one's who are trying to keep the spirit of Halloween down, some sort of acnowledgement. In effect, it automatically puts the people who love Halloween on the defensive.

I've seen this kind of topic before. I percieve it as a fatal flaw that can bring a whole group down. When I see the same thing asked about roller coaster tycoon, Someone titled their topic... "Is RCT Dead?" (Sorry to keep bring up that video game, but it was, at one point, the biggest thing in my life for about 10 years.)

It wasn't long before others took that cue as a statement, rather than the question. Sure enough RCT started to loose it's following. The community became less & less active. Forums began to close and the activity behind a bustling community, began to falter, and collapse. Rome, (it seems) had collapsed within a single year's time.

I belonged to about a dozen forums. I was active, but the forums began to close. But each one of them had that same question posed to it's members. "Is it dead?". It's more powerful as a subliminal message than you may imagine. The question appears, then the forum dies. It may take a few months, but all it took was to plant the tiniest seed of doubt.

People actually do think like this... "Someone noticed that the activity is waining. I don't want to be part of a community that is dying, so I'll do something else."

I think of this when I see the question "What's wrong with Halloween?" I see it as the same cruel seed that I believe crushed a thriving community, that I believe could of gone on for years and years.

The fact is, Nothing is wrong with Halloween. The same question could be generated to Christmas, Thanksgiving and a truckload of other holidays.

Might we ask, "What's wrong with Christmas?" I can make a Santa's list about what's wrong with Christmas. How people go into extreme debt to celebrate a holiday. Mortgage homes and go into near mental breakdowns, fall into deep depressions and even commit suicide. I see this year after year. But does this happen durring Halloween?

Let's consider the stress factors. People have heart attacks most often around the Christmas holiday, than any other time of the year. Wives are having the husband's families over for the holiday, and they want to make a good impression. The stress is too great for some people to bear. They snap. and have a relapse. Does this happen durring Halloween??

Does anyone experience a big let-down after Halloween?

Does anyone know of anyone who parties so harty durring Halloween, So much so, that they have to check into a Betty Ford Clinic to clean up?

Crime goes up during Christmas, moreso than Halloween. Ok, lets be reasonable. When was the last time someone robbed a haunt at gunpoint??? The thing is, Halloween is much more down to earth than a lot of people realize. So when people like us make a big todo over Halloween, we're labled "oddballs".

But, if we go goo goo for Christmas, it's ok.

I'm sorry, but I have to put my paw down... Halloween could never be any worse than Christmas.

ooga_booga · Post by **ooga_booga** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:18 am

That's a very good point, I B! We should share that with everyone!
I'm being sincere, btw.

uncletor · Post by **uncletor** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:05 am

Talk about co incidence...
we were at the chinese restaurant the other night...a bunch of us "ex radio" and "still in radio" types (being in radio is like The Spice Girls...no matter how long you've stayed away, SOMEONE always wants a reunion..) ..we were solving the world's problems catching up on our kids and opinions...and Halloween came up..I was telling them about you guys and what I was planning for this year...and one lady who is very fundamentalist started in like she always does about how it is a worship of Satan and EVIL.....you've heard it before, so I have I, so I was just SMILING and waiting for the lips to stop moving so I could pay attention again.
And this guy who joined the group from well, let's say Manila...started in..said how the only thing he could see WRONG with halloween was the fact that American style trick or treat was paving over the old style celebrations that were in a lot of Asian countries...he didn't think it was NECESSARILY bad, but was kind of sad to see the old customs go by the boards...like the Jews and the way even they got paved over by Santa Claus...but he started to ruminate that MAYBE Halloween was a BETTER holiday...after all, he said, if he gave out TWO packs of Doritos, he was a hero and made the kids REALLY happy..he was POSITIVE he couldn't make kids any happier if he doubled their CHRISTMAS loot...How you could go DOOR TO DOOR at Halloween but at Christmas you'd risk probably getting SHOT if you tried to revive Wessaling (the custom of singing songs and asking for a drink going door to door..) He thought people on the whole were HAPPIER at Halloween from what he had seen, and more social...

I let him run with the ball...

Now, to answer a point brought up earlier...yeah, I've seen PLENTY of post Halloween let down..we get it every year here..and we work our way through it...my own modest contribution is a series of movies you can watch that will keep you in the mood, but are NOT necessarily Hallloween, so you can watch them and not have folks say;"Oh, C'MON...It's OVER..."

magickbean · Post by **magickbean** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 12:23 pm

I wholeheartedly agree with you, Wolfman - except the part about the post-Halloween let down........ I suffer that quite badly, I'm afraid

But hanging about the forum will help with that and the nice thing is that over here in the UK, straight after Halloween we have Guy Fawke's Night on the 5th of November - where everyone has huge bonfires and fireworks and we spend all night out in the cold with the smell of burning wood eating hot dogs and drinking tea .. or beer!

I B Howlin' Wolfman · Post by **I B Howlin' Wolfman** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 12:37 pm

Oh, any excuse to drink tea, eh?

Same here, only it involves beer.

magickbean · Post by **magickbean** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 12:41 pm

lol I know, I know.. I'm so stereotypically British! I LOVE tea

Nostalgiascape · Post by **Nostalgiascape** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 4:51 pm

I B Howlin' Wolfman wrote:Even posting a topic titled "What is wrong with Halloween" seems to give the one's who are trying to keep the spirit of Halloween down, some sort of acnowledgement. In effect, it automatically puts the people who love Halloween on the defensive.

I've seen this kind of topic before. I percieve it as a fatal flaw that can bring a whole group down. When I see the same thing asked about roller coaster tycoon, Someone titled their topic... "Is RCT Dead?" (Sorry to keep bring up that video game, but it was, at one point, the biggest thing in my life for about 10 years.)

It wasn't long before others took that cue as a statement, rather than the question. Sure enough RCT started to loose it's following. The community became less & less active. Forums began to close and the activity behind a bustling community, began to falter, and collapse. Rome, (it seems) had collapsed within a single year's time.

I belonged to about a dozen forums. I was active, but the forums began to close. But each one of them had that same question posed to it's members. "Is it dead?". It's more powerful as a subliminal message than you may imagine. The question appears, then the forum dies. It may take a few months, but all it took was to plant the tiniest seed of doubt.

People actually do think like this... "Someone noticed that the activity is waining. I don't want to be part of a community that is dying, so I'll do something else."

I think of this when I see the question "What's wrong with Halloween?" I see it as the same cruel seed that I believe crushed a thriving community, that I believe could of gone on for years and years.

The fact is, Nothing is wrong with Halloween. The same question could be generated to Christmas, Thanksgiving and a truckload of other holidays.

Might we ask, "What's wrong with Christmas?" I can make a Santa's list about what's wrong with Christmas. How people go into extreme debt to celebrate a holiday. Mortgage homes and go into near mental breakdowns, fall into deep depressions and even commit suicide. I see this year after year. But does this happen durring Halloween?

Let's consider the stress factors. People have heart attacks most often around the Christmas holiday, than any other time of the year. Wives are having the husband's families over for the holiday, and they want to make a good impression. The stress is too great for some people to bear. They snap. and have a relapse. Does this happen durring Halloween??

Does anyone experience a big let-down after Halloween?

Does anyone know of anyone who parties so harty durring Halloween, So much so, that they have to check into a Betty Ford Clinic to clean up?

Crime goes up during Christmas, moreso than Halloween. Ok, lets be reasonable. When was the last time someone robbed a haunt at gunpoint??? The thing is, Halloween is much more down to earth than a lot of people realize. So when people like us make a big todo over Halloween, we're labled "oddballs".

But, if we go goo goo for Christmas, it's ok.

I'm sorry, but I have to put my paw down... Halloween could never be any worse than Christmas.

No offense, but...bit of an over exageration. My only purpose in this topic is discussion. It doesn't empower the haters, it just gives us a chance to get thoughts on our mind out into the open. Certainly a topic like this isn't a "fatal flaw" that will cause the end of anything. It certainly isn't planting the cruel seed to our destruction.

I B Howlin' Wolfman · Post by **I B Howlin' Wolfman** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:17 pm

It's just an opinion. That's all. Don't take it so badly.

Look, even the smilie guy is getting happier already!

Nostalgiascape · Post by **Nostalgiascape** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 12:28 am

You did have me thinking though, honestly. Even though I obviously don't read into it like that, maybe you're right. Maybe others do. I am going to unstick this and I have an idea for a more possitive and useful thread to submit and stick through October.