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Halloween Lore and Legends
CellarDweller:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on October 31, 2017, 10:09:30 am ---When I visit my dad, we usually stop for a Dunkin Donuts coffee on Sunday mornings on our way home from church. This past Sunday when I went into the store to get the coffee, I noticed that they had Halloween-themed doughnuts. I thought "the Spider" was cute. It was one of their ordinary doughnuts with orange frosting. On top of doughnut they had a chocolate Dunkin' Munchkin, with stripes of black frosting over the orange to represent the spider's legs. ;D
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on October 31, 2017, 10:09:30 am ---Commonly this time of year there are reports of some religious fundamentalist or other wanting to cancel Halloween. Anybody see anything like that this year?
If the teacher allowed her religious beliefs to interfere with her evaluation of your work, she should have been ashamed of herself.
I used to know a Wiccan who considered this the High Holy Day.
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I think that they still consider it a Holy Day. I have a few friends who are Wiccan, and they tend to mark the day with a ceremony.
Jeff Wrangler:
Today is the feast of All Saints. Tomorrow is Dia de los Muertos.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on October 31, 2017, 10:09:30 am ---Commonly this time of year there are reports of some religious fundamentalist or other wanting to cancel Halloween. Anybody see anything like that this year?
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I don't think religious fundamentalists hold the power to "cancel Halloween" period. But kids in many schools, Minneapolis schools for example, are not allowed to wear costumes -- not even non-scary ones -- to class on Halloween because of people with religious objections.
--- Quote ---If the teacher allowed her religious beliefs to interfere with her evaluation of your work, she should have been ashamed of herself.
--- End quote ---
I know! And think about it -- we're talking about someone who also was an academic and a journalist in the 1970s. Back in them days I didn't even know there were such a thing as religious fundamentalists outside of Southern things like tent revivals or snake handling or speaking in tongues. But in Minnesota, in that era, on a college campus? I doubt she was anything more extreme than a devout Lutheran or Catholic.
Within just a few years, I had met fundamentalists here. They weren't college instructors, though.
--- Quote ---I used to know a Wiccan who considered this the High Holy Day.
--- End quote ---
Yup. I once did a package of stories about Wiccans (and the European witch persecutions -- not quite connected, but at least somewhat related).
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on November 01, 2017, 10:08:49 am ---Today is the feast of All Saints. Tomorrow is Dia de los Muertos.
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I believe this to be the result of one of those compromises between pagans' holiday to honor the dead (Samhain) and Christians' preference for giving things a Christian overlay. Like the way Christmas shares symbolism with winter solstice and Easter with spring solstice. They're related to seasons and to planting and harvest cycles. Those early European Christians were good at finding those kinds of compromises. At least, back in them days, some of the time ... >:(
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on November 01, 2017, 10:41:26 am ---I don't think religious fundamentalists hold the power to "cancel Halloween" period. But kids in many schools, Minneapolis schools for example, are not allowed to wear costumes -- not even non-scary ones -- to class on Halloween because of people with religious objections.
--- End quote ---
Of course they don't, but some of them make a fuss; it seems to me it's similar to the fuss made about "the War on Christmas," just coming from a different place. >:(
--- Quote ---I know! And think about it -- we're talking about someone who also was an academic and a journalist in the 1970s. Back in them days I didn't even know there were such a thing as religious fundamentalists outside of Southern things like tent revivals or snake handling or speaking in tongues. But in Minnesota, in that era, on a college campus? I doubt she was anything more extreme than a devout Lutheran or Catholic.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, I once worked with a devout Catholic who objected to Halloween.
--- Quote ---I believe this to be the result of one of those compromises between pagans' holiday to honor the dead (Samhain) and Christians' preference for giving things a Christian overlay. Like the way Christmas shares symbolism with winter solstice and Easter with spring solstice. They're related to seasons and to planting and harvest cycles. Those early European Christians were good at finding those kinds of compromises. At least, back in them days, some of the time ... >:(
--- End quote ---
Yes. But, at the risk of sounding prejudiced against Roman Catholics (OK, I admit I am sort of prejudiced against the Roman clergy), in later days the Catholic Church was particularly good at that kind of syncretism; they felt they could win more converts if they allowed the natives to adapt some of their pagan customs to Catholic Christianity. I mention this because I think it's particularly applicable to Dia de los Muertos. I seem to recall reading somewhere that customs associated with this holiday go back to pre-Christian Mexico.
As a matter of fact, this sort of syncretism even appears in Margaret Coel's "Wind River Mysteries" novels, which take place in the present day on the Arapaho Reservation in Wyoming. Some of the stories feature one of the main characters, Father John O'Malley, a Jesuit, allowing Arapaho customs to be used in addition to the Roman Catholic Mass as part of funeral ceremonies.
At least in North America, anyway, I think Protestants were far less tolerant of this combination of native and Christian customs. For example, I'm thinking of the Puritan clergyman the Rev. John Eliot, who was a missionary to the natives in Massachusetts, who required his converts to give up all of their native customs.
Not braggin' on the Protestants here, just sayin.'
Jeff Wrangler:
So, what does Halloween have in common with Valentine's Day and Easter?
The day after, any leftover candy goes on sale. ;D
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