What Is Halloween? .:PatchouliMoonsong:.

Good day, USMers. I hope wherever you are, you're not turning into an icicle like I am right now. Fall's definitely on it's way!

It has come to my attention that not everyone here understands the meaning behind Halloween and as it is my favorite holiday (and also a religious holiday to me), I have decided to educate on the subject.

Satanists do celebrate Halloween, but it did not begin as a Satanic holiday. In fact, Halloween existed long before it had any relation to Satanism. It started as a Catholic holiday centuries ago called All Hallows’ Eve, or All Saints’ Day.

Fun fact: Halloween is called Halloween because it is a contraction of All Hallows’ Eve, which is why it used to be spelled as Hallowe’en.

The founder of Satanism decided roughly 50-60 years ago the three major holidays Satanists will celebrate: Satan’s birthday (which is not Halloween as many think), Walpurgisnacht on April 30, and Halloween, the latter he included mostly as a joke because the holiday was associated with bad things and, therefore, Satanic.

So just because Satanists do their thing on Halloween, that doesn’t mean the holiday is Satanic, especially since the holiday has existed long before Satanism has. There are some Satanists who celebrate Christmas because to some people (including myself), Christmas has become too commercialized and monopolized to be considered a celebration of the birth of Christ anymore. Same with Easter. To many, it’s no longer about Christ rising on the third day after his death, but about dying eggs and eating chocolate bunnies and going on Easter egg hunts. Does that mean these holidays are suddenly Satanic, too? Absolutely not.

In Wicca, October 31 is Samhain and Samhain is the Wiccan New Year. This day is dedicated to honoring the souls of those who have passed on and celebrating the new souls being born into the world. It’s a lot like Dia de los Muertos in Mexico, at least from what little I know about Dia de los Muertos. What a lot of Wiccans do, they leave an extra space at the table with food and drink as offerings for the deceased and later, the food is discarded by personal preference. I dump the food outside for animals to eat.

But to a lot of people, Halloween is about taking the kids trick-or-treating, getting candy, dressing up in costume, horror movie marathons, haunted house attractions, and the like. It’s a fun little holiday that’s meant to be, well, fun! I don’t know about you guys, but I’m going to be dressing up in the usual sugar skull makeup, having a slumber party with my sister, and watching horror movies while pigging out on pizza with her twenty (actually eight) cats.

I hoped this helped clarify things and I hope everyone has a fun, safe Halloween. :)

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