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a story re: ToT as an adult

*Barbie**Barbie* member
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The family that lived next door to my parents for most of my childhood were religious nutjobs. (As far as I know, it wasn't any specific branch of  Christianity - I think they started as Russian Orthodox, but they were well above and beyond anything I've seen otherwise. This was cult-level nonsense) They were always going on about how something or other was evil and they kept offering my mom videos on the evils of various things. E.g. my sister wore a troll doll shirt, and they gave my mom a video on how troll dolls were a type of devil worship. They had 3 kids. The two youngest kids used to write bible verses on the side of their house in chalk. They didn't send their kids to the local public schools because, evil - needless to say, they weren't super popular in the neighborhood. 

Of course, since Halloween was all about devil worship, they didn't decorate/give out candy/ToT. They would alternate between hiding in their basement and taking their kids to Chuck E Cheese. (No idea why that qualified as wholesome, Jesus-approved fun.)

My dad always said that one day, one of them would snap, and you'd see our house on the news with snipers on the roof, guns trained on the neighbors' house. 

Fortunately we never made it to that point, and they moved out sometime while I was a sophomore in college. 

Junior year of college, a bunch of friends and I were going to a house party on Halloween and had driven out to the mall near my parents' house to shop for costume stuff. We stopped by my parents' to bum dinner, and I was super excited to see that the new owners of nutcases' house were decorated for Halloween. 

I was like, I may never have this opportunity again, so I threw on my costume, ran next door and ToT at the house. My parents were amused. 
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Re: a story re: ToT as an adult

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    charlotte989875charlotte989875 member
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    That kind of adult ToT I would totally support. 
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    climbingsingleclimbingsingle member
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    I totally had neighbors like that too. I went to Catholic school and one year we had to sell chocolate bunnies for a fundraiser. I got an earful from the mother - I was maybe 10? I learned my lesson and never went back. My brother though went TOTing to their house one year and received a pamphlet about how Halloween was the devil's holiday and if you celebrated it, you'd be going to hell. 
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    artbyallieartbyallie mod
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    We reverse-ToT this year, as in went to my parents' house in costume to hand out their candy. Only got 14 kids, but one told me about five times how much she loved my Batgirl costume, so IMO it was worth it.
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    SaintPaulGalSaintPaulGal member
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    I love that you finally got a chance to trick or treat there!

    One of my closest friends from early elementary school came from a family like that.  They were very religious but mainstream when she and I met in kindergarten.  Then they got some sort of new, extremely restrictive philosophy.  By second grade there was a whole laundry list of things she wasn't allowed to do including coming to my annual Halloween party or even eating any candy around that season because it could be Satan's candy.  By third grade they pulled the kids out of school, and the next year they moved away so there would be no "negative influences of the past" (AKA friends) to corrupt their godly little darlings.  

    I still think about that girl sometimes.
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    short+sassyshort+sassy member
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    CMGragain said:
    On of the saddest things I saw in teaching was a young boy who shouted out that Halloween was Satan's birthday.  He wouldn't stop it, and became almost hysterical.  I had to send him out of class.  (I was a music teacher.  We sing holiday songs.)
    His mother called me to protest, and repeated the belief that Halloween was Satan's birthday.  I have no idea what church has this belief.  The Muslim and Zoroastrian parents had no problems with it.
    The mother then called the principal and vented about me teaching heresy and Satanism.  The principal was Mexican-American and Catholic, and had no sympathy for her.  The school had to get a court order to keep her off school property.
    I will never forget that poor child.

    The classy way to do it:  a 7th Day Adventist neighbor posted a sign on his front lawn-  "We do not celebrate Halloween.  Thank you, and have a safe evening."  He avoided confrontation without interfering with anybody's fun.

    All right.  All this talk about crazy religious people and their issues with Halloween had me turn to the mighty Wikipedia for answers.

    Halloween stems purely from Christianity.  Period.  It is the eve associated with All Hallows' Day and begins the 3-day observance of Allhallowtide.  Allhallowtide celebrates the dead, saints, and martyrs.

    Some experts argue that the Christians borrowed it from Celtic harvest festivals.  Which were pagan, but I personally don't associate "pagan" with "devil" or "evil".

    Other religions are torn on whether it is okay to celebrate Halloween, since it is a Christian holiday.  My favorite quote on that was a Muslim writer who said, "My daughter dressing up like a British telephone booth will not destroy her faith as a Muslim."  (Then I was secretly jealous of what a cute costume a bright red British telephone booth would be).  Judaism and Hinduism have their own days/festivals for observance of the dead,

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    climbingsingleclimbingsingle member
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    I will say that in my Roman Catholic school, we weren't really allowed to celebrate Halloween. Costumes on Halloween day were not allowed. I do remember some classrooms having Halloween decorations though, and doing Halloween themed crafts. But that's where it stopped. We were, however, allowed to dress up as our favorite saint on All Saints Day (haha. good times). 
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    banana468banana468 member
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    climbingwife said:
    I will say that in my Roman Catholic school, we weren't really allowed to celebrate Halloween. Costumes on Halloween day were not allowed. I do remember some classrooms having Halloween decorations though, and doing Halloween themed crafts. But that's where it stopped. We were, however, allowed to dress up as our favorite saint on All Saints Day (haha. good times). 
    Interesting.   Most of the Roman Catholics I know and (including those in my family) happily celebrate it.   Maybe they wanted to not run the risk of some of the devil - zombie costumes??

    One of the nicer things about Facebook is looking at the family kids dressed up.
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    climbingsingleclimbingsingle member
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    banana468 said:
    climbingwife said:
    I will say that in my Roman Catholic school, we weren't really allowed to celebrate Halloween. Costumes on Halloween day were not allowed. I do remember some classrooms having Halloween decorations though, and doing Halloween themed crafts. But that's where it stopped. We were, however, allowed to dress up as our favorite saint on All Saints Day (haha. good times). 
    Interesting.   Most of the Roman Catholics I know and (including those in my family) happily celebrate it.   Maybe they wanted to not run the risk of some of the devil - zombie costumes??

    One of the nicer things about Facebook is looking at the family kids dressed up.
    Definitely everyone (meaning students) celebrated it. But the school didn't seem comfortable with it celebrated. I remember letters going out reminding parents to not send kids in costume on Halloween. 
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    DrillSergeantCatDrillSergeantCat member
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    @VarunaTT I love you for saying this. There are so many holidays that Christians appropriated and I used to roll my eyes at my exSIL who would not allow her children to read Harry Potter, but they could hunt Easter eggs. Like...what? They can't read Harry Potter because witchcraft, but they can participate in the pagan tradition of a Christian-appropriated holiday? 

    Don't get me started on Christmas...
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    HeffalumpHeffalump member
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    SaintPaulGal said:
    I love that you finally got a chance to trick or treat there!

    One of my closest friends from early elementary school came from a family like that.  They were very religious but mainstream when she and I met in kindergarten.  Then they got some sort of new, extremely restrictive philosophy.  By second grade there was a whole laundry list of things she wasn't allowed to do including coming to my annual Halloween party or even eating any candy around that season because it could be Satan's candy.  By third grade they pulled the kids out of school, and the next year they moved away so there would be no "negative influences of the past" (AKA friends) to corrupt their godly little darlings.  

    I still think about that girl sometimes.

    Wow.  That is really, really sad.
    �
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    TrixieJessTrixieJess member
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    climbingwife said:
    I will say that in my Roman Catholic school, we weren't really allowed to celebrate Halloween. Costumes on Halloween day were not allowed. I do remember some classrooms having Halloween decorations though, and doing Halloween themed crafts. But that's where it stopped. We were, however, allowed to dress up as our favorite saint on All Saints Day (haha. good times). 
    We always dressed up for Hallowe'en. We had a parade and went around to other classrooms for candy. We would go to the library and the librarian would read ghost stories and we would decorate pumpkins. We would go to church on All Saints' Day.

    Our parishes were run by Jesuits which tend to be a bit more lax so that might have been why. Our teachers would dress up too, except the older nuns, but they were a bit stick in the mudish. 
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    *Barbie**Barbie* member
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    We had a kid in our 5th grade class that was a JW - his mom came in and pulled him out mid-Halloween party, making a big deal about how could the school expose her kid to this evil?

    She kept him home for the Christmas party.

    I know JW don't celebrate these holidays and birthdays, but the reaction was so over the top, it definitely got him branded as the weird kid. (he already wasn't overly popular, but this made things worse). I always felt bad for him. 
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    banana468banana468 member
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    VarunaTT said:
    Um, it's not a purely Christian holiday.  Samhain was first on 10/31, to celebrate the changing of the seasons, the start of the new year, etc. in ancient Ireland.  Rome comes a conquering and their version of Christianity comes in (which was basically co-opt all the local stuffs into Christianity for assimilation purposes).  

    Then we get Puritans coming to America. And because Puritans ruin everything, even up to modern day, that's where we find no celebration b/c of rigid "fun is the devil's business" type rules.  

    Found a pretty good historical overview on History.com (which is much better than the actual channel b/c it deals with real history instead of reality shows)

    http://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween
    Good point. 

    My argument was just that the Christians who claim it's not a holiday or that it's bad to celebrate it have an argument full of cheese holes.   
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    MesmrEweMesmrEwe member
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    Great way to introduce yourselves to the new neighbors!!!
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    kimmiinthemittenkimmiinthemitten member
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    I dated a divorced JW who wouldn't come to our Halloween party because of his religion....but did drink, was recently divorced and dated me.  We didn't last long after that. 

    I believe, in school, his parents just kept him home those days. 
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