Russian Orthodox Church opposes Halloween

[emad]

MOSCOW. Oct 30 (Interfax) - An official representative of the Russian Orthodox Church has cautioned the people of Russia against celebrating Halloween. "It is not without reason that Orthodox believers and many clergymen have long been saying that this holiday is more than strange," said Vsevolod Chaplin, deputy head of the external relations department of the Russian Orthodox Church.

"When people turn to evil forces by way of a joke, when they praise them and flirt with them, it reflects on the fate of the person, because it teaches him that evil is acceptable," Chaplin said.

"And only over time does the person begin to see that any sin, spiritual or bodily, is destructive, that communication with evil forces may bring temporary gain, temporary success, but will eventually make the person unhappy," he said.

"Walking with a demon in life can only lead one to tragedy, unhappiness and self-destruction,' Chaplin said.

http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.html?id_issue=5667415


Clearly, they did not see fit to mention that it's TRICK or TREAT for Russian oil giant Yukos at the moment......

[Some Moran]

That church is retarded anyways...

The Russian Orthodox Church is so fucking backwards that it's hard not to laugh. Hell, they consider using the Gregorian calendar immoral, even though the Julian calendar is less scientifically accurate AND created by a non-Christian.

[bleedingheart]

1. Funny how the Russian Orthodox church endorsed such monsters

as Ivan the Terrible in the past but don't like Halloween...

as an aside...based on what some of my Aussie friends have told me the US is unique in its door to door trick or treat stuff..

[emad]

2. Tell that to my 16yr old! Trick or treat in North London is

so endemic, people board up their houses and head for the hills just like in a twister warning...

[bleedingheart]

5. that's funny....

in our neighborhood if you don't want to participate in the festivities you turn off your outdoor lights until its over.

You may also get egged and have toilet paper in your yard as a result..

This year we will have a bonfire and some cider for the adults.

[Maeve]

3. The Beggars Night business started in the 1920's & 30's

As an attempt by civic groups to bribe the kids out of pranks. Before that, it wasn't an organized matter at all. The movie "Meet Me in St Louis" shows more of a traditional Halloween--kids running around, throwing flour in the faces of people they didn't like, etc.

I think one of the big problems for the Orthodox is that it's not a culturally Russian holiday and doesn't fit their calendar the way it does the European/Celtic POV. (Fits right into the All Saints/All Souls and Day of the Dead celebrations)

[emad]

4. 31 October is universal pagan festival - samhain eve - and

banned by Russian Orthodox Church as it obscures their own derivations of the pagan year

[Maeve]

6. Again, Samhain is Celtic

Irish for "Summer's end", more or less. The Russians aren't Celts, so they would have a quite different cultural bias.

[emad]

8. The Russian pagan religion owed its roots to the Celtic, which

in turn was linked to pre-Ramses II Upper Egypt goddess worship, particularly that of Ma'at.

There's some stuff on it in the British Museum

[bleedingheart]

9. I find all that stuff so fascinating

my mother is Lithuanian and that language/culture is so different from the slavic cultures around it.
Their language is closer to that of India and they also followed a more celtic ancient religion...in fact they were the last in europe to be christianized according to what I have read... they didn't fall under the cross until the 1400's or so

[papau]

10. The Brit Museum spins a bit - the German Knights brought some

Celt like stuff to Western Russia - but the Slavs were certainly not from a Celt pagan background before that point - and the area was already Orthodox - more or less - before the Knights (actually my memory says the expansion north was about the time of the knights).

Given the habit of invaders losing their own culture after a few (100 ? :-) ) years and fitting into the prior culture, I wonder what was the pagan culture of the area around 100 BC.

[Scott Lee]

12. Are you sure?

I think these folks would beg to differ....

http://www.celts.ru/

[Maeve]

13. Um, yeah. Did you read that site? They like Celtic music, etc.

Actually, I'd like to hear "Cead mile failte" said with a Russian accent...

[bleedingheart]

7. some of my cousins are orthodox and I recall that

it was always awkward for them to visit us during christmas because their parents hadn't even purchased a tree yet....

As always...to each his own...

...but personally I will celebrate anything!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. Well, Halloween isn't actually a Russian holiday

I bet it's been imported for commercial purposes (as Christmas has in Buddhist/Shinto Japan) by major stores as a sales gimmick.

It's sort of as if U.S. retailers decided that Americans should start celebrating the Japanese festival of O-Bon and sold a lot of merchandise in connection with that.