The scary side of Halloween

Halloween is the only time of the year when the zombies who have allegedly been slaving away killing virtual enemies come out to play.

Although I don’t celebrate Halloween in any form, I wanted to find out what the attraction is. Dressing up like ghosts, zombies or other scary figures never intrigued me.

It is also known as All Hallows’ Eve and All Saints’ Eve and is celebrated by many non-Christians around the world, and for some reason this celebration made its way to South Africa.

It is widely believed that many Halloween traditions originated from ancient Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain; that such festivals may have had pagan roots; and that Samhain itself was Christianised as Halloween by the early Church. Some believe, however, that Halloween began solely as a Christian holiday, separate from ancient festivals like Samhain.

Halloween activities include trick-or-treating (or the related ‘guising’), attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.

In many parts of the world, the Christian religious observances of All Hallows’ Eve, including attending church services and lighting candles on the graves of the dead, remain popular, although elsewhere it is a more commercial and secular celebration. Some Christians historically abstained from meat on All Hallows’ Eve, a tradition reflected in the eating of certain vegetarian foods on this vigil day, including apples, potato pancakes, and soul cakes.

Halloween is also on the list of Satanic holidays, when followers of any race, age and sex have to partake in sexual orgies, associations with demons, and animal and/or human sacrifice.

Now that I know more, I will definitely never, ever partake in this day.

What about you?

Until next week, take care of one another.