Halloween: Family fun or Satan’s Playground? Essay -- Halloween Argume

Okay, I admit this time of year is a guilty pleasure of mine, with the changing of the seasons. The crisp cool days and evenings let you cook hearty healthy meals that fill the home with such sumptuous, delicious smells. It’s the time of year for hot apple cider, pumpkins and families that get together. Harvest time used to be a time when all the hard work of the year was being stored up for the long cold months of winter. We recently had the pleasure of hearing: â€Å"Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat.† Why do we say this? Where did this tradition come from? What is the reason for our dressing up, and the pumpkins that we carve? Who originally came up with this celebration and why? Let’s not forget the all-important slasher movies and TV specials. Although many people feel Halloween is not a holiday and should not be celebrated, I believe it is a holiday, because it is steeped in tradition, truly an American holiday, and a social revelry of merriment that everyone can enjoy. Murray Hope explains on Joelle's Sacred Grove Entrance website, that this ancient holiday celebration began with the Celts (people of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England) approximately in the 5th century BCE. After the occupation of the British Isle’s many of the Roman pagan ways were added to this celebration such as their Goddess of harvest, Pomona whose sacred fruit is the apple. It is believed that this is why we celebrate the festivities with apple cider, bobbing for apples and candy apples (Wolf). This all lasted until Christianity decided to convert all pagans, and incorporated many of their holidays into the churches calendar. Pope Gregory IV was the first to try combining pagan ways within the Church so he crea... ...ngest Holidays." Suite101.com: Online Magazine and Writers' Network. 28 Sept. 2007. Web. October 8, 2010. Schaadt, Robert L. "Bats and Halloween - The Vindicator: News." The Vindicator: The Oldest Continuously Printing News Source in South Liberty County since 1887. Web. 21 Nov. 2010. "Should Christians Participate in Halloween? - ChristianAnswers.Net." Christian Answers ® Networkâ„ ¢ (ChristianAnswers.Net): Multilingual Answers, Reviews, Ministry Resources, and More! [Home]. Web. 21 Nov. 2010. Skal, David J. Death Makes a Holiday. New York: Bloomsbury, 2002. Print. "Unusual Pumpkin Facts." Pumpkin Patch - Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Pumpkins! Web. October 8, 2010. Wolf, Spring. "The Pagan's Path ~ Witchcraft & Shamanism - The History Of Samhain / Halloween." The Pagan's Path ~ Education Network. 13 Oct. 2009. Web. October 8, 2010.