Related Information to Should The Mormon Church Sponsor Halloween

Should The Mormon Church Sponsor Halloween

I have a real problem with Halloween events sponsored by the Church -- or at least by the individual wards.

Doesn't it seem odd that we "Celebrate" a day devoted to witches and witchcraft, goblins, monsters, vampires, zombies, and other un-dead or evil creatures? And hold these activities on church property?

Last year, the day after the Halloween party at our ward building was a Sunday. When I went into the restroom, a young boy and his mother were in there. The little boy was crying because his mother would not let him wear his creepy spider ring that he had snuck to church in his pocket -- and which he had *received from some other church member, at the church, the night before during trick-or-treat*. He kept saying, "Why, mama?" Finally, she blurts out, "Because I said so!" and drags him out of the restroom.

Obviously a conflicting message to kids. But I feel a deeper uneasiness about it.

What do you think?

Roz.

Halloween Sponsor Church Mormon Should

That is a good topic. A debate can arise about what we deem as 'celebrating' since others still see Christmas as a pagan holiday. We can also bring in other costumes like the Easter bunny and Santa Claus which have nothing to do with Christ at all. So then we would have to say what is wrong... the monster, or that it has nothing to do with godliness?

Farseer, you may wish to post up a history of halloween with the druidic customs so we can determine its relevance compared to how it is seen today.

Should The Mormon Church Sponsor Halloween Studies Doctrine Mormon

I have problems with those practices as well; as you say, they have nothing to do with Christ. When it makes me uneasy or uncomfortable in my heart, I have to question whether it's a practice I should allow into my home.

That's something I hadn't thought of. I will look into it -- and not just for the board I really feel I need to make a decision about how to handle this before my daughter gets too much older.

Thanks, JB

Roz

Halloween Sponsor Church Mormon Should

Farseer this is a great topic. I don't think any wards or branches should sponsor Halloween (it's not even an official holiday in the USA, am I right?) they should let the parents to decide whether they want their children to participate on it. To use the good name of the Church and the property of the Church for those kind of things it's not appropiate in my opinion.

Halloween Sponsor Church Mormon Should

This really is a great topic because it makes one really think!  While it is not an official holiday in the US, it is to the kids.  They get dressed up in their favorite costumes and go out Trick or Treating.  Many have Halloween parties (adults included).  I went to one once where the winner of the best costume was dressed as Mary so it isn't all monsters and goblins.

At first "blush" I thought, "Oh, come on, you guys are making too much of this."  Then I stopped and really thought about it and now I am not so sure.  The thing is, in the US at least, most people don't think of Halloween in a spiritual or religious or anti-spiritual or anti-religious way.  The average person here probably has no idea the origins of the holiday.  It is just a fun time to carve pumpkins, have parties and go Trick or Treating.  So, at first I thought, that even though its origin had to do with allowing evil spirits one day to roam the earth each year on All Hallows Eve, the evening before All Saints Day, it no longer represents that to most people, so where's the harm.  

As I think further about that though, then the thought comes in of avoiding "even the appearance of evil."  

Since the origin is not a good one, should the Church sponsor activities for it.  Even though, I personally see no reason not to go Trick or Treating with my grandson or neices and nephews because to them and me it is just "a fun time to carve pumpkins and go Trick or Treating," maybe the Church should still not be involved in parties, etc., because some people are aware of the origins of the day and some people even celebrate it in with that origin in mind and they might think the Church does too.

Well, this topic has certainly got me thinking.  I hope others will give it some deep thought and share their views as well.

Should The Mormon Church Sponsor Halloween

Just a quick response here to a couple of things, I'm running out of "online time" here...

You are right, LDS_F, Halloween is not an "official" holiday here in the US.  But it is second only to Christmas in annual sales activity!

Tena, I agree with you that it seems pretty tame when our own church (or wards) sponsors activities.  But that's not how it's done in the rest of the USA or the world.

I have a lot of information gathered, and I need to condense it and make it sensible to post here.  More soon, I promise!

Roz

Should Mormon Church Sponsor Halloween

Well, as usual, I got way more than I bargained for in my research ;D

There are at lease two widely divided camps on the issue of Halloween, past and present, and one completely surprising opinion. Here's what I've found, in as brief a form as I can present it without losing some of the meaning. I'll save my conclusions for"¦ either the end of this post, if it's not too long, or in a separate post following.

First, the ancient Celtic, druidic, pagan observance was called Samhain (Pronounced soh-in, or variations of that), and was essentially a harvest festival. (And understand that they did not consider themselves "Pagans"; that was a designation given to them by the early Christians at a later time.) The final crops were in and stored, and the livestock had been retrieved from pasturage and corralled for the winter.

Animals were slain to cull the herds, as well as sacrificed as offerings to the gods. The two schools of thought cannot agree on whether or not human sacrifices were performed; there appears to be "Little direct archaeological evidence" of this practice. (Nora Chadwick, "The Celts" (Harmondsworth,1982), p. 151) It was a time of preparing for the long, cold winter months, which were occupied with handicrafts, tanning hides, spinning wool, etc.

It was also a time for divination of coming events for the new year, marked on November 1. (For instance, bobbing for apples would determine who would marry in the coming year.) During the time between the "Death" of the old year and the "Birth" of the new, the "Veil between the worlds" was at its thinnest and spirits walked the earth - good and evil. It was also a day of the dead, a time when it was believed that the souls of those who had died during the year were allowed access to the land of the dead. Folk believed that they could commune with their beloved ancestors on this night. Since this night belonged neither to one year nor the other, Celtic folk believed that chaos reigned.

The Druids were the priests of the Celtic peoples. They passed on their teachings by oral tradition rather than committing them to writing. When they perished, most of their religious teachings were lost. "There is comparatively little trace of the religion of the Druids now discoverable, save in the folklore of the peasantry, and the references relative to it that occur in ancient and authentic Irish manuscripts are, as far as present appearances go, meagre and insufficient to support anything like a sound theory for full development of the ancient religion." (W.G. Wood-Martin, "Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland" (Port Washington, 1902), p. 5)

Along comes Christianity. The church maintained that the gods and goddesses and other spiritual beings of traditional (Pagan) religion were diabolical deceptions; that the spiritual forces that people had experienced were real, but they were manifestations of the Devil, the Prince of Liars, who misled people toward the worship of false idols. The spirits of Samhain, thought to be beloved ancestors, were now said to be something far worse: Evil. This proclamation did nothing to deter the folk from their revelry on Samhain. And so the church instituted All Saints Day, or the All Hallows Day (With Samhain being the day before and therefore All Hallows Even or Hallowe'en), in order to counteract the pagan celebrations.

It didn't work. The original harvest festival of the Druids became a festival of Christian dead, and over time (Centuries!) has evolved into something unrecognizable. There have been satanic influences, witchcraft, demons, monsters, and lesser devils, etc., stirred into the mix.

Different organizations offer spectacular Haunted Houses, which are scarier every year, in the name of fundraising. Costumes and some celebrations become ever more hideous and monstrous.

Our church, other Christian churches, and some public and private schools will sponsor parties and carnivals in the name of "Safety," because of the horrid acts by some people of poisoning or otherwise tampering with the treats handed out to kids on Halloween. Within our circle of church friends, the costumes are tame - princesses, space men, cowboys and cowgirls, Elvis, biblical characters and the like. From that safe vantage point, Halloween seems a harmless enough pastime.

But how many Halloween mornings have you seen the streets littered with smashed pumpkins, houses and cars vandalized? Perhaps our observance of Halloween is tame, but not everyone sees it that way. And the original Celtic/Druidic festival was nothing like what we do today, and was nothing truly evil. In fact, there is another completely different viewpoint I'll detail in the next post....

Should Mormon Church Sponsor Halloween Mormon Doctrine Studies

I'm not sure who this person/organization is, but they believe that the Druids are one of the lost tribes of Israel.

"False teachings, by later religions, have accused the Druids of human-sacrifice but no human sacrificial-remains have ever been found at Druid sites; only animal bones, most of which, like at Jerusalem, were lambs.

The true Druidic teachings came from The Torah, which taught about the coming of Yesu (Jesus) and so when the true teachings of, and about, Jesus, came to the British Isles, the majority of the Druids accepted them with open-arms.

Later when the true teachings of Jesus were corrupted by people calling themselves christians, many of the Druids broke away from christianity and reverted to their old religion."

I found this to be particularly fascinating. There really aren't any notations or proofs as to why this person/organization thinks this way; there is nothing to back it up, in other words. But it surely seems logical.

He/they go on to say that Stonehenge, while perhaps not built by the Druids, was certainly used by the Druidic priesthood as a temple.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My conclusions: The original Celtic and Druidic festival was really a harmless celebration of the harvest time, the turning of the new year. These were a peaceful, intelligent, resourceful people, and potentially one of the lost tribes of Israel.

Unfortunately, these harvest celebrations turned into a hodge podge of unholy rituals through the progressive corruption of Samhain and All Hallows Day.

What we and other modern Christians observe is just one of the facets of the ancient Samhain -- where Faeries walked about playing tricks if they didn't get treats. (and probably some mischievous people as well). Our celebrations are harmless enough, in my opinion.

But.... there are others out there who celebrate in evil and twisted ways. I sure would not want to be included in those groups, or seen to be associated with them, simply by observing the holiday. And I don't think the LDS church should sponsor those types of activities. We as individual members should decide for ourselves and our families, according to our own judgment.

In my opinion, of course.
Roz

PS -- JB, thanks for suggesting the research. it's fascinating reading!