Friday, November 4, 2011

Hallow-never-been

I have never been to a Halloween party. I did get invited once, but it was cancelled a week before it was meant to happen. 

However, looking at other people’s pictures on Facebook and reading their accounts on Twitter got me thinking a bit, which is generally not a good thing. 

Non-Muslims generally do not celebrate Eid or Ramadan. This is mostly because Eid and Ramadan are Islamic holy days reserved for celebration by Muslims only. 

Non-Hindus also do not celebrate Diwali or any of the other Hindu holy days and festivals. This is mainly because we’re not Hindu. 

A lot of non-Christians celebrate the Christian feast days like Easter and Christmas, but only because they get some loot out of it. Personally I can do without both. I choose not to celebrate either one because I’m neither a Christian, nor am I after any loot. 

Now that I have covered that, let me get to the topic at hand: Halloween. 

A lot of people out there “celebrate” Halloween. They do it for the trick-or-treating, or they do it for the dress up parties that go along with it. Either way, they celebrate it for one reason or another, but not the true reason. 

I did some research though. Some of it came from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft, some of it from the internet. From this research I had learned that Halloween is actually a Wiccan holy day called Samhain

According to my research “Samhain is one of the Greater Sabbats and if probably the witches’ greatest holiday... For witches, this holiday has a rather different tone than it does for the population at large. Samhain, rather than being a festival of sugar overconsumption, is a profound spiritual event. It marks the death of the Lord and also the start of a new year.” *

Since this is such an extremely holy day for Wiccans, why do the non-Wiccans think they can encroach on it? Why can Wiccans not be afforded the same respect that Muslims and Hindus get. 

It’s one of their holy days for gods’ sake. I choose not to celebrate any religion’s holy days, because to celebrate the holy day would be an acknowledgement on my part that there is some validity in their beliefs. I choose not to celebrate Christmas, because then I tacitly agree to the birth of the baby Jesus. By celebrating Easter, I agree with the whole crucifixion mess and whatever else came after that.

So, all you people that celebrated Halloween this year: You just tacitly agreed that there is some merit to Wicca and witchcraft. I guess you feel like a right bunch of chops now, don’t you? 

* The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft. Pg 177

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