A Devil's Sabbath: Halloween on Sunday Troubles Some Across the South

[DarkPhenyx]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBIQ3MNC0E.html

NEWNAN, Ga. (AP) - Across the Bible Belt this Halloween, some little ghosts and goblins might get shooed away by the neighbors - and some youngsters will not be allowed to go trick-or-treating at all - because the holiday falls on a Sunday this year.

"It's a day for the good Lord, not for the devil," said Barbara Braswell, who plans to send her 4-year-old granddaughter Maliyah out trick-or-treating in a princess costume on Saturday instead.

Some towns around the country are decreeing that Halloween be celebrated on Saturday to avoid complaints from those who might be offended by the sight of demons and witches ringing their doorbell on the Sabbath. Others insist the holiday should be celebrated on Oct. 31 no matter what.

"Moving it, that's like celebrating Christmas a week early," said Veronica Wright, who bought a Power Rangers costume for her son in Newnan. "It's just a kid thing. It's not for real."

[Fenris]

1. Folks is fucking nuts.

[T Wolf]

2. Only Christian fundies want to impose their religion on others.

Yeah, Barbara Braswell, send your little granddaughter out on Saturday. After all, only Jews think the Sabbath is not on Sunday.

What a closed-minded bigot.

[IHateFundies]

34. she is a close minded bigot?

For sending her kids out to trick or treat on a Saturday?

[yardwork]

3. Halloween doesn't "celebrate the devil"

[Love Bug]

4. good grief

"It's a day for the good Lord, not for the devil," said Barbara Braswell, who plans to send her 4-year-old granddaughter Maliyah out trick-or-treating in a princess costume on Saturday instead.

Uh...well, if Halloween is for the devil (and I'm not saying it is), wouldn't that be just as true on Saturday? What stupid logic!

[Katarina]

13. Actually

if she thinks that way about Halloween why the fuck is she even encouraging her grand-daughter by celebrating it at all. Fucking hypocrites all of them.

[flamingyouth]

5. I love how it's okay to "celebrate the Devil" on Saturday night

So the kids can wear their costumes and get their candy. Ridiculous nutbags. :eyes:

[billybob537]

6. If Halloween scares you

DON"T look in the White house.

[shaolinmonkey]

7. Someone tell these people that our calendar is completely

arbitrary. Please?

[phantom power]

8. Sagan was right, these people live in a demon-haunted world

right out of the dark-ages. Like the Age of Reason never happened.

[RubyDuby in GA]

9. Someone shows up at my house on Saturday

and I'll mock your parents and tell you to come back tomorrow.
Damn retarded morans. This and the other thread about the black man being lynched makes me ashamed and mad to live in this dumb as hell state. See...I cuss like a drunken sailor who's just spent his last $10 on a disease infested crack whore when I get mad.

[napi21]

10. Veronica is obviously in Ga. I am too!

I've lived in 4 different states, and I never encountered so many locals who believe in this Satan association with Halloween as they do here! I even lived in SC, and we used to get 125 kids at the door on Halloween night.

What's with these folks?

[comsymp]

22. Well, the dateline IS Newnan...

in Beautiful, Metropolitan Coweta County~

/dated someone from there once

[lurkerguy]

11. I thought God created every day.

Therefore how is Halloween the day for the devil?

[FlaGranny]

12. If Halloween is celebrating anything

it is celebrating "spirits" - not the devil. I believe it's really a spin-off of All Saints Day.

Edit: I realize that anything associated with Catholics (All Saints Day)is considered "of the devil" by fundamentalists.

[Bridget Burke]

26. Actually, Halloween came before All Saints Day

November 1st is the old Celtic (possibly pre-Celtic) holiday called Samhain; it marked the beginning of the dark half of the year. Among other things, the dead came back for a visit. (Yeah, a few Things came around, too. The Old Religion was not 100% sweetness & light.)

The Roman Catholic Church, rather than abolishing the old holidays, decided to co-opt them. November 1st became All Saints' Day--for remembering those who've gone to heaven. November 2nd is All Souls' Day--for everybody else. Therefore, October 31st became "All Hallows' Eve"--or Halloween. It was not celebrated in the young USA--our Puritan founders even frowned on Christmas! But the Irish immigrants brought it over & it caught on.

The missionaries in Mexico moved the old Aztec days for welcoming the dead to November 1st (El Día de los Angelitos) & 2nd (El Día de los Muertos). Depending on where you are in Mexico (or Aztlan), there are sincere religious celebrations, private commemorations of loved ones gone before, and snarky gallows humor.



Our modern Halloween is a combination of all these traditions. With Dracula & Frankenstein thrown in for good measure.

[FlaGranny]

36. Yes, I knew that.

:-) And it's not the only one. How about Christmas?

[Bridget Burke]

40. You mean the Feast of the Unconquerable Son?

All hail Mithras!

But let's not forget Saturnalia, either....while we throw another Yule log on the fire.

[UdoKier]

14. Oh brother.

I guess I had better reschedule my black mass and witch's brew fondue party...


:eyes:

[northzax]

15. if it bothers you that much, ma'am

don't participate. who really cares?

[klook]

16. Behold the face of SATAN!!

[MatrixEscape]

17. That was a nice old ...

article from the 18th Century. Amazing how they thought back then.

Oh wait, it was new?

[Chovexani]

18. My mom used to work with a Pentacostal nut like that

She was one of those types that spent way more time at church than at home with her family, didn't allow her daughters to wear pants only ankle-length skirts (which is funny, I went to high school with the youngest and she was the school slut...in a school with 5000+ kids that's an accomplishment). Anyways she and my mom were nurses at a VA Hospital and every year this woman would lose her damn mind around Halloween because some of the nurses used to pass out sugar-free candy. It was the devil's day and they shouldn't be "sanctifying it" (whatever the fuck that means).

Ironically whenever people saw her coming they'd hum the wicked witch's theme from the Wizard of Oz, cause I swear she looked like Margaret Hamilton's black doppelganger. :P

She was just a lovely woman. Whenever they had parties and stuff for the patients she never used to bring any food but her cheap ass would be the first one grabbing a plate. And she used to give out Chick tracts all the time...even though she took the fundieness to extremes my mom couldn't even deal with (mom is a born again fundie), I guess they were conspiring against me when my mom found out I was into Paganism. Crazy fundie lady even gave me a book by some Chick-affiliated person called "Wicca, Satan's Little White Lie". Funniest shit I've ever read.

[DarkPhenyx]

19. Have you seen the faux-Chick Tract about Yule?

It used to be out at electricsheep.com, but I don't think that site is up anymore. it was hysterically funny, and very pro-Pagan.

I envy your not living under camoflage as reguards your religion. I still am with my family. :-(

:on edit:

Found It!

http://www.e-sheep.com/Saturnalia

[Chovexani]

28. Oh yeah, that's a hoot!

Someone did a similar parody of the Chick tract about Dungeons & Dragons. The thing I like best about the parodies though is they always have a disclaimer that real Chick tracts are way funnier than the parodies could ever hope to be. :P

I'm the last person you should envy actually. :( My family does everything but lock me in the cupboard under the stairs (and sometimes I think they would if they could get away with it). I started practicing secretly when I was 15, 'cause I knew my family would flip out if I told them. Mom was cleaning and found the chest I kept my books and altar supplies in...threw it out. Probably $200 worth of stuff. I eventually managed to replace most of it, only to have her throw it out again. The second time was even worse because of the collateral damage--I've been working on a fantasy series for about ten years now, and she erroneously thought a stack of my beat up notebooks was "witch stuff" (of course, she never encouraged my writing because she thought it was stupid). I lost years' worth of maps, notes and brainstorming stuff and eight years later I am still trying to recover from it. After that happened, I wrote her a long letter explaining how much her actions and attitude hurt me. She never apologized for it but at the same time my beliefs have never come up in conversation since--it's an awkward, open secret that no one likes to talk about (this is how most things work in my family). Unfortunately my financial situation has me still living at home atm. I still do my meditations and whatnot but I haven't conducted a full blown ritual in years. Her house, her rules, I need to respect them. But it still hurts to not have the acceptance, or at least tolerance. Especially since I am also out as bi to everyone but the family. It's rough when you are basically the black sheep of the family and forced to stay in closet after closet just to maintain your own sanity.

[Behind the Aegis]

37. Free to be free

It saddens me that people cannot worship they way they wish, no matter where they reside. My family is Jewish, my mother converted when my parents married. My brother and I were 5 and 3, me being the oldest, when they married. Mom decided we would be raised Jewish and we phased out Christianity in our house. Eventually, I realized I was attracted to another way of the spirit. When I was about 23, I came out as a witch to my parents. (I'd already come out as gay, which was a hoot and half...not!)

I decided I was going to tell my mom first, and when I told her I no longer was practicing Judaism, she asked why and I said (this will offend some here), I found the power of Christ and accepted Him as my Savior. My mom went ballistic!! She was screaming in the phone and I finally told her I was kidding and really was a witch. She calmed down and said, "OK, that is cool!" I am still not real sure why she reacted so poorly to my "joke." But, on occasion, I will still tease her with it. My family is very supportive, they buy me supplies, ask about beliefs, and support my ways. My partner does as well and he is Christian.

I guess I was very lucky in that respect. None of them treat me funny or act like it is strange. My partner has even learned terms for witchcraft and will ask about some of the strange things I have around our home.

I wish you the best.

Brightest Blessings.

[pdx_prog]

31. OH yeah!

The bun heads were definitely hot to trot!.....lol

[slackmaster]

20. Christian Fundamentalists are always good for a laugh

:dunce:

[tom_paine]

21. The Witch-Burners are stirring

They are preparing for the New Dark Ages that seem to be rushing like a freight train for us.

The Age of Reason is dying. The Enlightenment is dying.

The New Dark Ages are less than a century away, mostlikely.

[DarkPhenyx]

23. I'm expecting it to kick in right about the time...

...peak oil production really starts to sink in.

[tom_paine]

25. That would probably be a safe bet

They are already programmed by Goebbels v2.0 to kill us without remorse (we are evil non-humans and not Real Americans, don;t you know?), and this doevtails nicely with the Evangelical mindset.

All they need to know is that they won't be investigated nor prosecuted, just like in the 40s and 50s in the South.

Excpert we are all the (RACIAL EPITHET REDACTED)s this time around.

[Technowitch]

27. Only if we let them.

Light a candle against the darkness, friend.

[Technowitch]

24. I am a practicing Wiccan

And we deal with this kind of shit all the time. Even in places that are presumed to be 'enlightened' or 'progressive.'

The really hilarious thing is that most of the so-called Christian high holidays were literally stolen from us. Think that Jesus guy was actually born on December 25th? Show me in that Bible thing ANYWHERE where it lists that date or anything close to it.

Nope, the other name for that date -- Yule -- is ours, signifying the Winter Solstice.

And Easter? Sorry, but that's our Beltane, the celebration of fertility. (Why else all those rabbits and eggs and other symbols of fecundity?)

Again and again, our holidays were grabbed by the Church and turned into their holidays -- only they usually didn't quite excise all of our older traditions.

The day we call Samhain (pronounced 'sow-enn') is the transition between autumn and winter, the "time between times" as we sometimes like to call it. Part of the reason for the costumes and such is that our faith believes that the veil between this world and the spirit realm is thinnest on that night.

The Christians, of course, took it, made it childish, and instead made it merely the prelude -- All Hallows Eve -> Halloween -- to their 'All Saints Day'.

One of the things I find so amusing is the depth of the ignorance of many of these Christians, regarding the origins, symbology, and meanings of their own practices and beliefs.

[Chovexani]

30. Merry meet and welcome to DU

Hi there. :hi:

Silly isn't it? Whenever fundies work themselves into a lather about Halloween I always laugh at them. They really just don't have a clue.

My mom's born again and goes to one of those big ass megachurches. The pastor even speaks at Promise Keeper rallies. :puke: Anyway they don't call their Easter service "Easter" they call it...wait for it..."Resurrection Sunday". :eyes: Because "Easter" is a Pagan word (which they are right about).

Here's what I don't understand though. If they don't use the word Easter because it's Pagan then why on earth do they still follow the astrological method of figuring out when it is?! (something about a certain number of Full Moons after such and such and when one sign transitions into another sign) Isn't that Pagan too? Hey, they're big into "science", why don't they just figure out the day that it happened? When I bring this up with Mom (usually when she is trying to drag me to church for this), she says that the meaning of the day is the most important thing. Then why change the name?!

Trying to follow fundie logic really makes my head spin. :crazy:

[Technowitch]

32. And Merry Meet again, Chovexani

Actually, I've been around a while, lurking for my first several months, then posting only sporadically. Lately I've been more active, so those 170+ posts is somewhat misleading. ;)

You're right, in that they do still use astrological means for determining Easter. In fact, a lot of their other holidays slipped away from ours, because their calendar was so flawed to begin with -- but they're close enough to find the original congruence unavoidable.

Like I said, I think a lot of these Fundamentalists are simply comfortable in their ignorance, mistaking it for 'faith'.

Long ago though, I found what I think is the hallmark quality differentiating those who really do have faith: They don't get angry and enraged when questioned or challenged upon it.

I've had the good fortune to meet a number of Christian folk like that -- and they're the ones who also take the "love thy neighbor" golden rule far more seriously than those who point to Old Testament passages as justification for killing people. Particularly when that Jesus guy said to stop it already.

Love & Light,

[Walt Starr]

33. Bright Blessings!

Practicing Wiccan here for more than two decades!

[Technowitch]

38. Glad to meet you, too, Walt!

Practicing for roughly two decades, myself. :D

[Walt Starr]

41. Yeah, "more than two decades" sounds a heckuva lot better than

"Over a quarter century"

:evilgrin:

[Zhade]

29. Hey, uh, fundies? It's fictional. Get over it.

BOO!

Silly fearful nitwits.

[randome]

35. Celebrate Halloween in style, my friends!

Sacrifice a Republican to the Dark God of Liberalism. That'll teach 'em!

[tnlefty]

39. I was getting ready to decorate my house and then received the edict

from the 'powers that be' in my neighborhood that Halloween will be celebrated on Sat. My decorations are boxed up to be put away and we won't be doing Halloween this year just as we didn't participate the last time this crap happened. We'll be off doing something else.