Halloween and Religion

[nomaco-10]

I was talking to a neighbor last night and she mentioned she hadn't bought her candy yet and it was a must do on her lunch hour today. She asked me was I going to give out candy, and I said of course I am, I do every year (I get a real kick out of the little hobgoblins in their costumes). "Good", she replied, C and M close their door and shut their lights because they do not give out candy. We live in a section of small row houses and my good neighbor and friend to my left was sent to Qatar for four months (she always decorates and and gives out big gobs of candy, she even puts her labrador and chiuauaua in costumes, we always had alot of fun). "Why", I ask, to which she replied, it's against their religion (some sort of fundie church, not Jehova Witnesses).
C&M are a joyless, young couple. They are pasty white from a lack of sun, they have no visitors, they rarely leave the house, they don't want children and they don't like pets in the house. When invited to grill out get togethers, they refuse to eat any of the covered dishes others bring, they have an extensive video library of Seventh Heaven and Touched by an Angel, C is majorly OCD and M plays the trombone in the church band. Why does it not surprise me, they have a bush* bumber sticker on their car.

[wtmusic]

1. Without suggesting that the religious are all joyless

at least you get candy...

[Loonman]

2. That's lame

I can't see Jesus sitting around without having fun.

[bif]

3. Why don't J-Wits celebrate Halloween?

because they don't like strangers on their porches bugging them!

[DarkPhenyx]

5. *ROFL*

Kinda like the Telemarketing Exec's who put their numbers on the "Do Not Call" list?

[MountainLaurel]

4. Grew up with that

Had a fair number of kids in elementary and middle school who weren't allowed to wear costumes on our party day because Halloween was a celebration of Satan and anti-Christian influences. :eyes: Same with people giving out candy.

Then, there were my psycho inbred neighbors who dyed all of their daughters' hair green because serial killers were looking for blonde-haired virgins to kidnap and murder. Except they died it using Kool-aid, and it wouldn't wash out out. Their hair was still green for St. Patrick's Day.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. Fundies being opposed to Halloween

is an entirely recent phenomenon.

I first heard of it when my niece (now 18) was in grade school. When I asked her what her class was doing for Halloween, she said they couldn't celebrate it because some parents said that it was devil worship.

When I was in grade school (late 1950s), NOBODY felt that way. There were some kids who were kind of fundamentalist in their outlook, but when Halloween arrived, everyone came to school in costume, and in the afternoon, after pumpkin cupcakes and cider, we worked off the sugar high by marching around the neighborhood en masse. It was mapped out so that we went to the boundaries of the attendance district and passed by the Halloween parades from other schools. We'd cheer for the other schools and move on.

It's sad that so many kids today are denied these harmless little traditions.

I've asked myself why the fundies are like this, aside from being extremely literal minded. When I think that their leaders are also opposed to Harry Potter, the Wizard of Oz, and other works of fantasy, I have to assume that they don't want young fundies exercising their imaginations, because that leads to (horrors!) Thought.

[supernova]

7. Being humorless

must suck. :eyes:

The people who don't recognize the darker side of the human condition (including all the things that go bump in the night on Halloween) are the first to pop and not be able to deal when they have a problem.