The ghoulishness of Hallowe’en?

I am giving a Halloween party for my grandchildren and some of their friends. Yes, there will be an element of shrieking and shivering, but there will not be anything ghoulish or truly frightening. We shall hang artificial spider webs from the rafters in the lounge – I do hope that will not be the day the agent comes round to inspect the house – and have food with names that create a frisson and a giggle. We shall play noughts and crosses in the garden with green and white squash, have a [plastic} spider race by blowing with straws, a colouring competition (age appropriate) with harmless and unalarming pictures. It will be a couple of hours of light-hearted nonsense for ages three to eleven and the plan is that everyone goes home having had fun and plenty of slightly unusual things to eat and no one has nightmares. P.s. I make mean edible witches brooms with pretzel broomsticks and slivered sliced cheese for brushes, tied on with chives and the monster bones are made of meringue.

It is the back page of the section of the newspaper called 'Saturday', or .Week End'. I think they changed it recently, but one or the other. DH buys the Saturday DT intermittently. Only on weekends when he thinks he will have time to read it.

Oh thanks MOnica - I’ll have to check that out in MILs paper tomorrow - I like him

Yup, he can be read on the back pge of the DT on Saturdays and the advice he gives is thoughtful and caring.

Thank you Jalima

Er........Graham Norton is a agony uncle?!

www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/it-wrong-celebrate-halloween

Apples and pumpkins are part of Hallowe'en because it was when the Celts celebrated the harvest.
The various Roman, Celtic, Christian festivals have all been combined over the years for pragmatic purposes - ie the Christian church using the dates of pagan festivals to encourage people to change over to Christianity.

annie ! I was just pointing out that if you thought 7th Century was living in the past the Bible was even older!

Aw, so it didn’t win the Booker Prize , that’s a pity

Well the Bible itself is pretty much from the ancient past!

The 7th century , that really is living in the past is it not

Extra prayers for the dead are very much still practiced around halloween in many christiam churches so variations of Halloween IS part of the christian faith for many christians.

This may be QI for some of you.

www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/halloween_1.shtml

Halloween in not part of the Christian faith .

May as well bring up witch trials . Most of us have moved on

So back to the prior post about halloween being anti-christian . It can't be. The Church joined in and adopted its own variations of it.

I am not interested in that, I am speaking of the Christian Church now not hundreds of years ago.

For those who are grieving I promise you All Souls Day is to pray for the dearly departed .

I can only speak for the Anglican Churches I have and do worship in, Churches have a book for All Souls Day where one can write the name of a loved one who has died . Anyone wishing to do this if your local church is open in the day they may have a book for names to be written in

But you actually are Annie. The reason why extra prayers to the departed were added to the Christian calender at this time is because people believed that messages could more easily be sent and received between our world and the spirit world at this time of year.

The church added its own variation of that to the church's calender because it is easier (when conquering/converting natives) to adapt and adopt their traditions than to eradicate them.

No I am not speaking of zombies or thinning of the veil, the latter is not part of the Christian faith.

Living dead? What you mean zombies?

Thats not whay the thinning of the veil means lol

I am not speaking of older traditions, I am speaking of Christian Services and contacting the so called ‘living dead’ has nothing to do with prayers for the departed

It was a custom to enter graveyards on Holloween looking for the living dead .

No part of the services on All Saints Day or All Soul Day speak on the living dead

I am speaking of services in the Anglican Church

Halloween, all saints and all souls are all part of the same thing. And are modified from older celebrations such as Samhain.

"Halloween or Hallowe'en (a contraction of Hallows' Evening),[5] also known as Allhalloween,[6] All Hallows' Eve,[7] or All Saints' Eve,[8] is a celebration observed in a number of countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It begins the three-day observance of Allhallowtide,[9] the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed.[10][11]"

Right.

Because the christian callender isn't at all superimposed onto older celebrations/traditions...

They are not connected and not the same celebration

All Saints Day and All Souls Day are part of the Christian Calendar, no connect with spirits .