AIBU to find this halloe’en display’ offensive?

I saw this on Facebook. 😂😂

I haven’t seen anything as gruesome as described above here (UK) but some of the “displays” in the US that I’ve seen online are truly horrific.

Thought I'd just share this from my daughter

American import we can well do without!

Body bags and overflowing graves are not things to entertain ourselves with. There are realities in the Beirut and Gaza tonight.

There is such a thing as pornography of brutality.

witzend maybe your neighbourhood is full of nice people and fun for your family but a lot of us are living near gruesome scenes, would you little grandkids be happy and excited to see these horrible nightmareish gardens and houses

Tizliz

This was posted on our local FB page, not sure about it 🤫

As long as no-one goes digging in the local churchyard!

You accept one atheist non-believer's opinion that Hallowe'en is not an ancient festval? It is one of the four important Celtic 'quarter dates'. The others are Imbolc, Beltaine and Lughnasadh.

It's true that Halloween superstitions grew out of Samhain and later, Christianity made Samhain into All Souls Eve.

Then the festival became an occasion for infants' games. Now the festival celebrates sheer nastiness and brutality. Time to stop!

Kitty wrote:

"I’m not keen, but my grandsons love it all, the more gruesome the better."

So what? Do you permit your grand children any potentially dangerous activity ? Or do you stop and think before you let them do and see anything they choose.
Maybe you don't think that children can lose their innocence by hideous events being normalised and made fun of.

I haven’t seen anything like what the poster describes, those people are warped and it should be taken down. Get local paper involved.
Round here its just good gun for the children.

It's completely lost its meaning

Halloween means Holy - it's the evening before All Saints' Day when hallowed souls are remembered.
Some of them may have been tortured or killed for their beliefs but that is not what we are supposed to remember.

It's also mixed up with the pagan festival Samhain when the souls of the dead visited us but traditionally not in a menacing way.

Truly abhor it- our neighbour with a young boy (5) have dug a grave in front garden with bony plastic hands and feet coming out of- but worse, have hanged lots of plastic human figurs from branches of the big lime tree. Just sick- hate it.

I have never been a fan of halloween. My chidlren did not get involved except for a bit of apple bobbing.

To my Gdcs, and to dds before them, Halloween is just an exceedingly fun occasion when they dress up and go around the neighbourhood after dark collecting sweets.

Nothing ‘dark’, let alone Satanic about it.
Gdd1 (9) has been heard to say that it’s absolutely the most exciting day in the whole entire year - except for Christmas.

Incidentally, I used to think that the origin of Halloween was a pagan festival, but this year I saw this blog post by an atheist historian saying that’s not true.

//every October we see supposed rationalists parroting pseudo history about the “pagan origins of Halloween”, with no sign of any fact-checking, let alone engagement with scholarship. In fact, the claim that Halloween is “pagan” is largely a nineteenth century myth.//

historyforatheists.com/2021/10/is-halloween-pagan/

I believe it’s become a favourite festival for Satanists, though, and I think the way it’s been celebrated lately (body bags etc) has become repulsive.

Midnightblue

Actually I don’t think I am being.
I am pretty relaxed about Hallo’e’en generally, and I am not easily shocked, but I have noticed it’s become more and more focused on violence these past few years, not only by teenagers, but by some parents of young children.

I’ve just walked past a house where the owners have put a ‘scarecrow’, dressed in full hazmat suit, performing a ‘post mortem’ on another scarecrow lying on a table, which is covered by a blood stained sheet. The owners of the property have taken up some flags from their garden and dug a ‘grave’.

Hanging upside down either side of their front door are 2 full size human shaped objects, tightly wrapped in black plastic.

I know it’s on their property, but it is put up for public consumption, otherwise they’d have set it up in their own living room.

TBH, I feel a bit upset, (to my own surprise) that anyone would think it’s ok to think up, find it funny, and display this. If I had children to care for, I wouldn’t walk them past.

Just interested to see what other grans think

I agree with you, Midnightblue, I think it’s horrible.

Mibs children of 4,5,6 hopefully aren’t seeing or playing violent video games but they may be living next door to a ‘body’ being tortured in the garden with a black plastic bag tightly bound around the victims head and body How many little kids could try and copy it ? most houses have black plastic bags in their kitchen ???

Ava25 I don’t agree about it always being like this yes, there have been axes and blood in a cartoony sort of way but this is the first year (certainly around here) I ve seen bodies tied up in bags hanging upside down from windows It was always been about ghosts and ghouls and witches with a bit of blood and coffins thrown in
This year it’s seems more about killing and torture
I m no killjoy but this is not something to put in children’s minds at all it has become an adult day with VERY adult content
…and then we wonder why younger and younger children are seeing killing as the way to solve problems

I hate it so much when gamers get blamed for all the ills in the world, just in case some of you don't know, gamers raise a LOT of money at various points throughout the year for charities worldwide and the majority are decent hard-working nice folks ( how else would they be able to afford to play!)

AreWeThereYet

Oreo

Not sure if that ship sailed in the 70’s AreWeThereYet as I was only a young child then and Halloween was quite low key, and no kids I knew were allowed to watch anything violent on tv.

Oreo We watched violence on TV in the 70s - even in cartoons, western films, war films, crime films. None of them as violent as the films are now, of course, and not so much gore.

The first computer games aimed at the public were released in the 70s - nearly all of them involved shooting things and killing things to increase your score. Even then I remember discussions on whether children were affected by violent films and games. I would have been in my teens then.

Erm, Texas Chainsaw Massacre film, 1974.. and there were plenty more!

It's been like this for a very long time it is nothing new. The rise of the VHS video tapes of horror films in the 70s and 80s, kids were dressing up as the killers in these films. It's one day out of the year. I say let people do what they want.

Very bad taste in my opinion.
I have 3 pumpkins on my doorstep.

GrannyGravy13. Can I make a correction? All Hallows Eve is a Christian tradition, November 1st being All Saints Day, celebrated from 8th Centuary. The pagan festival is Samhain, a much older festival that celebrates the end of Harvest and the beginning of Winter, on October 31st and November 1st. Over time the two have merged, resulting in the tacky, tasteless Halloween we see today.

I’m not keen, but my grandsons love it all, the more gruesome the better.