Halloween and Harvest Celebrations
I found myself really annoyed during my education classes a couple of weeks ago. We were discussing the differences between "punishment" and "logical consequences." I know this is a really lame thing to be talking about in a graduate level class, but no one ever said you had to be a brain surgeon to be a teacher. Actually, if you're a brain surgeon, you're probably too busy to be a teacher. Furthermore if you're a brain surgeon, you probably wouldn't insult your own intelligence by sitting in on education classes. I digress. We were discussing the difference when some of us remarked that there is actually no difference at all between a punishment and a logical consequence (at least the kind we were talking about.)
The example given was a food fight in the cafeteria. A punishment, according to our book, would have been detention or suspension, or something like that. A logical consequence on the other hand, would be to make them clean up the cafeteria after lunch for the next week. At this point we argued that making them clean up the cafeteria is actually a punishment, though a very logical one. The professor, being unable to do otherwise, agreed with us, but then informed us that we don't call it punishment because punishment is bad and this is good. I guess this makes sense if you are an education professor.
Many of my more conservative, truth-based readers (okay, I realize only like 3 people are going to read this, and probably all 3 of them are conservative and truth-based) are rolling their eyes in disgust at the mockery of education that that educational discipline has performed. I join them in my disgust, but I unfortunately must point out that I see the same principle apply in the conservative Christian anti-Halloween, pro-Harvest party world.
Many Christians reject Halloween because it has pagan roots, ghosts, ghoulies, goblins, etc. Fair enough. I do not plan on supporting or denying causes to or to not celebrate Halloween - completely not my point. My problem is these same Christians often attend and force/allow their children to attend Harvest parties at their church.
Call me crazy, but aren't Harvest Parties like the exact same thing as Trick-or-Treating?
On Halloween you dress up in funny or scary costumes.
At Harvest Parties, you dress up in funny or religious costumes.
On Halloween you get a lot of free candy or give kids a lot of free candy.
At Harvest Parties, you get a lot of free candy or give kids a lot of free candy.
Trick-or-Treat takes place on a specific night around Halloween.
Harvest Parties usually take place on the same night as Trick-or-Treat.
On Halloween children go from neighbor to neighbor to get candy.
At Harvest Parties, children go from church member to church member to get candy.
At Halloween, people bob for apples.
At Harvest Parties, people bob for apples.
Halloween, as it is celebrated in America, hardly resembles any known pagan holiday.
Harvest parties (H.P.'s from here on out) do not resemble any known holidays.
The list could go on and on, but the point is this. If Christian-ese was a real language, Halloween would translate almost perfectly to Harvest Party. They are the same thing.
It therefore does not seem to follow any good logic that a person should reject Halloween and support H.P.'s. I don't know if Harvest Party'ers are trying to trick us into thinking that H.P.'s aren't about Halloween, but they're not doing a very good job at it. Everyone knows that H.P.'s are the Christian version of Halloween.
Brief break for an analogy. If atheists invented a late December holiday that they called snow parties, where they decorated evergreen "snow" trees, opened snow-presents, sang snow carols, baked snow cookies, and had a giant snow dinner with their families, do you think anyone in the real world would be fooled? They're celebrating Christmas!
Back to my point. It is not logically consistent to reject Halloween because of Christian ethics and then go on to attend a Harvest Party. If one is bad, both are bad, because they're the exact same thing.
One could argue that Harvest Parties don't celebrate pagan gods and rituals
My 2 counter-arguments.
1. NewsFlash - Trick-or-Treat is about candy. It has always been about candy. It will always be about candy. I have a sneaking suspicion that when Halloween was actually a scary pagan thing in Europe, that parents did not send their kids out to go collect candy from the witches that were probably looking to eat children. I think it much more likely that Trick-or-Treat came about after everyone realized that Halloween as it used to be celebrated is no longer relevant.
2. What pagan culture doesn't have some kind of Harvest Celebration? Many cultures are happy to celebrate the sperm/rain watering mother earth to produce her crop-children. This is extremely pagan (and it makes me want to use an umbrella).
So, if you're completely against Halloween. Fine. But don't pretend that going to a Harvest Party isn't going to Halloween. If you have to have some kind of harvest celebration to thank God for His blessings, I think there's something coming up in November that you'll love.
The example given was a food fight in the cafeteria. A punishment, according to our book, would have been detention or suspension, or something like that. A logical consequence on the other hand, would be to make them clean up the cafeteria after lunch for the next week. At this point we argued that making them clean up the cafeteria is actually a punishment, though a very logical one. The professor, being unable to do otherwise, agreed with us, but then informed us that we don't call it punishment because punishment is bad and this is good. I guess this makes sense if you are an education professor.
Many of my more conservative, truth-based readers (okay, I realize only like 3 people are going to read this, and probably all 3 of them are conservative and truth-based) are rolling their eyes in disgust at the mockery of education that that educational discipline has performed. I join them in my disgust, but I unfortunately must point out that I see the same principle apply in the conservative Christian anti-Halloween, pro-Harvest party world.
Many Christians reject Halloween because it has pagan roots, ghosts, ghoulies, goblins, etc. Fair enough. I do not plan on supporting or denying causes to or to not celebrate Halloween - completely not my point. My problem is these same Christians often attend and force/allow their children to attend Harvest parties at their church.
Call me crazy, but aren't Harvest Parties like the exact same thing as Trick-or-Treating?
On Halloween you dress up in funny or scary costumes.
At Harvest Parties, you dress up in funny or religious costumes.
On Halloween you get a lot of free candy or give kids a lot of free candy.
At Harvest Parties, you get a lot of free candy or give kids a lot of free candy.
Trick-or-Treat takes place on a specific night around Halloween.
Harvest Parties usually take place on the same night as Trick-or-Treat.
On Halloween children go from neighbor to neighbor to get candy.
At Harvest Parties, children go from church member to church member to get candy.
At Halloween, people bob for apples.
At Harvest Parties, people bob for apples.
Halloween, as it is celebrated in America, hardly resembles any known pagan holiday.
Harvest parties (H.P.'s from here on out) do not resemble any known holidays.
The list could go on and on, but the point is this. If Christian-ese was a real language, Halloween would translate almost perfectly to Harvest Party. They are the same thing.
It therefore does not seem to follow any good logic that a person should reject Halloween and support H.P.'s. I don't know if Harvest Party'ers are trying to trick us into thinking that H.P.'s aren't about Halloween, but they're not doing a very good job at it. Everyone knows that H.P.'s are the Christian version of Halloween.
Brief break for an analogy. If atheists invented a late December holiday that they called snow parties, where they decorated evergreen "snow" trees, opened snow-presents, sang snow carols, baked snow cookies, and had a giant snow dinner with their families, do you think anyone in the real world would be fooled? They're celebrating Christmas!
Back to my point. It is not logically consistent to reject Halloween because of Christian ethics and then go on to attend a Harvest Party. If one is bad, both are bad, because they're the exact same thing.
One could argue that Harvest Parties don't celebrate pagan gods and rituals
My 2 counter-arguments.
1. NewsFlash - Trick-or-Treat is about candy. It has always been about candy. It will always be about candy. I have a sneaking suspicion that when Halloween was actually a scary pagan thing in Europe, that parents did not send their kids out to go collect candy from the witches that were probably looking to eat children. I think it much more likely that Trick-or-Treat came about after everyone realized that Halloween as it used to be celebrated is no longer relevant.
2. What pagan culture doesn't have some kind of Harvest Celebration? Many cultures are happy to celebrate the sperm/rain watering mother earth to produce her crop-children. This is extremely pagan (and it makes me want to use an umbrella).
So, if you're completely against Halloween. Fine. But don't pretend that going to a Harvest Party isn't going to Halloween. If you have to have some kind of harvest celebration to thank God for His blessings, I think there's something coming up in November that you'll love.
posted by Andy at 1:19 PM
2 Comments:
Shameless plug :)
http://www.theopedia.com/Halloween
Feel free to shamelessly plug that site any time.
Very good information.
My church is actually celebrating Reformation Day next week.
Maybe I'll dress up as a monk for Halloween/Reformation!
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