Trick Or Treat!!!
Soundtrack: “Into The Void” by Nine Inch Nails

So, I also posted this over at the Genesis blog, but I decided to post it here as well. It's about Halloween and how people who think it's Satanic are dumb. More or less.

Hi, I'm Toph. Today marks the start of a new blog I will be writing dedicated to culture and how it relates to the elemental life.

So what does this mean? It means I am going to look at cultural events and trends and examine how they fit into this whole Jesus thing. Yes, I just said Jesus. I don't intend on dumbing things down for anyone. You should know that this blog is going to be from my point of view and contain my opinions, so you may be offended regardless of whether or not you subscribe to any kind of Christian theology. I'm not here to be judge and jury, though, so please do not expect retarded commentaries like "God hates fags" or anything like that. It's not in my nature.

Today is All Saint's Day, also known as All Hallow or Hallowmas. Which means that yesterday was Halloween. Yes, the day that most American children get dolled up in costumes of varying types and are unleashed upon the cringing masses. Yesterday my housemates and I ran out of candy within a couple of hours, which worked out anyway because it was Tuesday night and that means the Pretty Boy School of Public Speaking. Don't fret if you do not know what that means, I'll explain that in an upcoming blog.

So where am I going with this Halloween thing? Well, I am glad you asked. Halloween is hotly contested in the Christian world. There is one camp that says it's a harmless holiday that no longer resembles the Pagan holiday it shares a date on the calendar with. Others say that since it was derived from the druidic day of Samhain, it is intrinsically evil and should not be celebrated. And then there are the people who don't even care.

Let me throw some history your way. Halloween originated as a Pagan harvest festival among the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain with Irish, Scots, Welsh and other immigrants transporting versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th century. The term Halloween, and its older spelling Hallowe'en, is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the evening before All Hallows' Day. "Ah, yes," you are thinking to yourself. "He mentioned that in the first sentence of this blog. But I still don't know what it is." All Hallow's Day is the day in which many cultures honor the memory of the saints who have gone before us. By saints I do not mean the canonized Catholic saints, but the saints of God, which is all believers. So while it originated from the ancient harvest festival known as Samhain, Pope Gregory IV changed that when the date of All Saint's Day was moved from the middle of May to coincide with the old superstitions and further assimilate Celtic culture into Christian culture

So what does this mean as far as deciding how to celebrate this creepy holiday? Absolutely nothing and absolutely everything. See, here's the thing... Samhain and Halloween are completely different holidays. Regardless the obvious close association between the two holidays and the lingering Pagan traditions that came from Irish culture, Halloween is a night of celebration. Kids and adults alike have the chance be the imaginary, or sometimes real, character of their choice for a single night. It is a chance for us to come to terms with our morbid curiosity and watch our fill of cheesy and sometimes not so cheesy horror films. But most of all, it is a celebration of life.

I think of Halloween as a part of All Saint's Day. So do Mexicans who celebrate Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. That is what it is. and it is a way for us to pay tribute to our ancestors who have passed. Sure, trick or treating is fun and Halloween has definitely turned into a huge commercial holiday. But people who skip Halloween because it's Pagan should stick with their convictions and skip Christmas and Easter, too. Because those two holidays are Pagan holidays too. Burn your Christmas trees, folks, and forget about the presents. And let's not decorate Easter eggs, either. Yes, Halloween is another sad example of how hypocritical fundamentalist crackpots love to make controversy out of something harmless. I pray that they find no more victims. And I also pray for them, for they know not what they do.

Well, I'm done. Let the hating start, people. Because I have a hankering to shower the love of Jesus on anyone who dares get snippy with me. And I will do it, I'm not even kidding.