All Hallow's Even or Sowin or however you like to say it is very popular in my household, it runs a close second to Christmas. Anyone else big fans for the biggest masquarade of the year?

-TC

I celebrate a Norse holiday around Halloween.

So I guess you can say I celebrate the traditional spiritual religous holiday around the more commercialized holiday too.

I like the commericialized holiday too with the costumes and candy.

In the past Halloween was a way for people to travel and to interact with each other in villages or towns.

It was a celebrated civic act of being acquainted with each other.

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Deutschland Das Nationalbewusstsein!

55th Stanza.
Wise in measure should each man be;
but let him not wax too wise;
seldom a heart will sing with joy
if the owner be all too wise.

Havamal~

Today we drink tomorrow we die.

Be weary of the machine so you don't become one yourself.

Halloween is probably my favourite holiday of the year, although Yule and Ostara are also major events at my place. I usually dress up to hand out candy, and hand out as much as I can reasonably afford -- To children and adults alike.

My house is very popular on October 31.

As a Satanist, it's my second best holiday (my b-day being first!)
I love dressing up cute (gonna be Wonder Woman this year) Last year I was a pumpkin! I love handing out candy where I work in the mall. You see a sea of little kids all adorable having a blast! Always reminds me of my childhood. On the private side, I do some Satanic rituals and a Tarot spread for the year. And I celebrate day of the dead for my father the next day too.

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You are the place where I find shelter left out in the cold.
You are the Hell in helter skelter

I revere the Goddess of death because as Autumn is the death and transformation of nature in symbolic meanings I understand that in the Goddess of Death over mortality.

The Goddess of death being Hel.

I also revere my ancestors or people in my life I have known who are dead.


The Goddess Freya is worshipped on this day as she is the Goddess of mysticism in revealing esoteric wisdom to those who pray to her on this day too.

I also worship the Norns on this day ( The Three Goddesses of fate.) and I pray for a better year after the cold winter.

__________________
Deutschland Das Nationalbewusstsein!

55th Stanza.
Wise in measure should each man be;
but let him not wax too wise;
seldom a heart will sing with joy
if the owner be all too wise.

Havamal~

Today we drink tomorrow we die.

Be weary of the machine so you don't become one yourself.

We do celebrate Samhain, and usually we pay special tibute to our ancestors on that day. Usually we don't wear costumes, however. Often, I officiate a small wiccan meeting...this day is the new years day for wiccans.

This is a big one in my house. My wife especially loves Halloween. We sent off decorations and candy, creepy stuff, to our grandchildren and our 21 year old son in College (for his dorm room). And the neighborhood kids don't miss hitting our door that night! The candy flows!

Not a religious holiday at all for us. Just a cultural one. --Steve--

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That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 255)

I think that Halloween has bad influences on little children. Some children get so engrossed in halloween activities that they take on the very persona of the masked character they portray. Plus, when I was little, people use to steal my candy while I went trick or treating and made me cry!

Love,
Madeline

How about if young ones are taught that this is a time to celebrate, a time to be together with loved ones, and a time to give honor to your ancestors? My kids are now on their own, but neither got the impression that Samhain was a time to become wicked and evil, nor that it was a time of getting candy (any more than Christmas, or Yule, is a time of strictly giving and getting gifts...it is actually a celebration of the shortest day of the year, a time when there is a beginning of new life and when days will start getting longer before spring starts. Yes, the Pagan's did start the habit of gift giving, but that isn't what Yule is about.)

Well I think that from a Christian perspective it is wrong. The bible tells to separate ourselves from the world, its traditions and way of thinking. But thats the Christian view and I am uncertain what your faith is, but you are entitled to your belief.

Love,
Madeline