God, Halloween is really starting to suck for kids. Can't even go out at night.
This so much. When I was a kid, my 'rents house used to get a ton of foot traffic from the trick-or-treaters. Our streets were in a suburban/semi-rural area, so we didn't have any street lamps (still don't), just the lights from the houses. Nobody had a problem with it.
Now they'd be lucky if they see over 5 kids on Halloween because apparently an adult escort and a couple of flashlights aren't enough now. It's depressing.
I'd also like to say that Halloween presents an interesting reversal, if it's the evangelicals' kids who are the odd ones out.
I suppose I would be more okay with celebrating these holidays if it were more inclusive than it is. As it is, no school marks Ramadan or Passover or Ganesh Chaturthi, it's always the Christian holidays that are celebrated, and the Christian kids who are included.
Yes, and I bet that if you went to.. fuck.. whats a decidedly not christian place.. the moon. You would find that they only celebrate Armstrong Day. And so only astronauts are really included.
And I say you then celebrate your own shit on the moon as well, and not give a fuck if anyone or everyone celebrates with you.
As a kid, I would've loved to learn about all the other holidays we don't celebrate. It'd have been fun I think. Unless my mom was the mother from wife-swap who foamed at the mouth about Pagan this and Pagan that.
Exactly the woman I think of. /shudder
But I mean hey, you gotta teach that wifes kids even if it aint fun for them, so they dont turn into mom.
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Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
Most of the places I've worked allow some measure of dressing up. My current job has a costume contest.
My workplace actually had a reversal. When I first started here 4 years ago, we got a mass email telling us to remember that we can't wear costumes to work, but we're welcome to wear silly socks to celebrate the holiday. This year and last year, at least (maybe the year before, can't remember) we've had costume contests.
But anyway, just to make sure I got this: Christians complaining about Christmas being taken away? Shut up stupid Christians. Non-christians complaining about Halloween being taken away? Leave Halloween alone stupid Christians.
For the record, I think banning "Pagan" costumes is stupid, but different people are obviously offended by different things.
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CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
No Feral, you see I'm from the antarctic and they don't.
Obviously dress codes exist here, but when I think "dress code" I think something that explicitly states a standard above casual. Which no, I cant say I've encountered any non-private schools in Nova Scotia that really do.
There is only one dress code in Antarctica: several layers of heavy coats.
I went to a Catholic high school with a uniform and even we got to dress up for Halloween and get candy from all the teachers. I don't really see a big deal here.
This isn't so much an argument as pretty much everyone here agrees that Halloween is not a religious thing and shouldn't be treated as such. It's about the candy and sticking it to the dress code. :P
Most of the places I've worked allow some measure of dressing up. My current job has a costume contest.
My workplace actually had a reversal. When I first started here 4 years ago, we got a mass email telling us to remember that we can't wear costumes to work, but we're welcome to wear silly socks to celebrate the holiday. This year and last year, at least (maybe the year before, can't remember) we've had costume contests.
But anyway, just to make sure I got this: Christians complaining about Christmas being taken away? Shut up stupid Christians. Non-christians complaining about Halloween being taken away? Leave Halloween alone stupid Christians.
For the record, I think banning "Pagan" costumes is stupid, but different people are obviously offended by different things.
I imagine angels were not banned. It says only costumes which could be interpreted with Pagan Rituals. They just played it on the radio again.
bowen on
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
Most of the places I've worked allow some measure of dressing up. My current job has a costume contest.
My workplace actually had a reversal. When I first started here 4 years ago, we got a mass email telling us to remember that we can't wear costumes to work, but we're welcome to wear silly socks to celebrate the holiday. This year and last year, at least (maybe the year before, can't remember) we've had costume contests.
But anyway, just to make sure I got this: Christians complaining about Christmas being taken away? Shut up stupid Christians. Non-christians complaining about Halloween being taken away? Leave Halloween alone stupid Christians.
For the record, I think banning "Pagan" costumes is stupid, but different people are obviously offended by different things.
Yes, mainly because they're the exact same situation. -Blank-ists trying to RUIN SOMEONES FUN by making something specifically -blank-.
I'm pretty okay with it, especially given that you could replace 'Halloween' up there with 'Christmas' and get the evangelical version of the argument.
School celebrations should err on the side of secular.
I agree with the secular bit, but should Halloween even considered to be 'religious' at this point?
From what I've observed for most people is that it's just an excuse to dress up in a costume, decorate their house, carve pumpkins, and stuff pillow sheets full of candy or get really drunk (depending on the age).
If there's a deeper meaning behind it than the above, let me know.
I guess it depends on who you think gets to define what is considered 'religious'. Halloween is certainly not religious from the perspective of mostly secular kids who like to dress up and get candy. There are religious groups who have defined it as a religiously significant day (albeit in a negative sense) in the context of their own religion. Does that then make it a religious festival?
Edith_Bagot-Dix on
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Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
Most of the places I've worked allow some measure of dressing up. My current job has a costume contest.
My workplace actually had a reversal. When I first started here 4 years ago, we got a mass email telling us to remember that we can't wear costumes to work, but we're welcome to wear silly socks to celebrate the holiday. This year and last year, at least (maybe the year before, can't remember) we've had costume contests.
But anyway, just to make sure I got this: Christians complaining about Christmas being taken away? Shut up stupid Christians. Non-christians complaining about Halloween being taken away? Leave Halloween alone stupid Christians.
For the record, I think banning "Pagan" costumes is stupid, but different people are obviously offended by different things.
Yes, mainly because they're the exact same situation. -Blank-ists trying to RUIN SOMEONES FUN by making something specifically -blank-.
Oh, I agree they're exactly the same situation. I just think it's utterly shocking that most of this forum is against the Christians in both situations.
I actually have to wonder if this didn't come about specifically as a way for these people to try and strike back at what they see as the marginalization of Christmas.
No Feral, you see I'm from the antarctic and they don't.
Obviously dress codes exist here, but when I think "dress code" I think something that explicitly states a standard above casual. Which no, I cant say I've encountered any non-private schools in Nova Scotia that really do.
An American public high school dress code usually prohibits a short list of objectionable clothing - skirts that are too short, bare midriffs, t-shirts with profanity on them, clothing associated with gangs (whether that association is justifiable or paranoid is a different discussion entirely), etc.
There's also typically a general prohibition against anything deemed too "disruptive" (or some similarly vague wording) which is its own can of worms.
Feral on
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
Schools are the last place to look for anything fun and unconventional. A public education in the United States is all about "the greater good". The last thing a school wants is to get sued or lose funding because someone got offended.
I like in the south in a county that I like to call the "mini bible belt" so "Harvest Festivals" at Halloween time has always been pretty common.
Also, when I was a kid, my mom would switch back and forth between thinking halloween was TEH EVIL about every other year.
So some years, sure dress up, get candy, awesome.
Other years, "EVIL HOLIDAY" turn off the lights all night and hide in the house, and don't you DARE get put on a costume!
And then yet other years, EVIL HOLIDAY, no going out, but yeah, lets hand out candy! And then my mom would dress up as a witch/ghost/scary lady , ... thing.
.....You know, In the past, I've always been kinda bitter about my halloweens, but now, in retrospect, I'm just reminded that my mom is kinda weird...
Yeah disruptive is the word mine used. For instance no spaghetti straps (not sure how that is disruptive).
Nothing as disruptive as a ghost in classroom or someone with their face painted though. Disruptive to the dress code on non-holidays, but on Halloween, no one cares. I was particularly sheltered from Christian ideals because I had no idea about Ash Wednesday until I was in the workforce. That was pretty shocking, I actually handed someone a wet-napkin because I thought they were just in one of the dirty IT places that we used to work at. Color me red.
bowen on
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
Schools are the last place to look for anything fun and unconventional. A public education in the United States is all about "the greater good". The last thing a school wants is to get sued or lose funding because someone got offended.
They just opened themselves to get sued by Pagans I guess then. Because it's explicitly banning Pagan Ritualistic costumes. I'd be pretty offended if a kid could come in as Jesus or the apostles but my kid couldn't come in as a witch or skeleton or something.
bowen on
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
I find this hilarious, largely because the idea of a harvest festival is probably far more 'pagan' than dressing up and going door to door for candy. Of course the whole thing is rediculous because pagan itself is so nebulous that it's basically a meaningless term in most cases and certainly is when the Christian nutters use it as nothing more than 'shit that makes me vaguely uncomfortable'.
The fact that schools are banning certain costumes... ok, I suppose, we already have dress codes in schools, they can dictate what children wear to school. The problem is that "Halloween" as a "holiday" doesn't really have any religious connotation to it. At least not anymore, maybe it did when it was first celebrated, but I don't think people actively connect it to it's pagan roots. And I'll agree that "Harvest Festival" is probably more pagan than Halloween to begin with.
The bigger problem I have with all of this is that there is enough pressure on schools from parents who honestly, genuinely believe that children who dress up as a witch - green face paint, witch hat, broom, etc. - are actively practicing witchcraft. And that they are probably teaching their own kids spells and magic that will send them to Hell. Apparently these parents have enough pull to change policies.
I didn't know that The Wicked Witch of the West was something people thought was a real thing.
Schools are the last place to look for anything fun and unconventional. A public education in the United States is all about "the greater good". The last thing a school wants is to get sued or lose funding because someone got offended.
They just opened themselves to get sued by Pagans I guess then. Because it's explicitly banning Pagan Ritualistic costumes. I'd be pretty offended if a kid could come in as Jesus or the apostles but my kid couldn't come in as a witch or skeleton or something.
I'm totally with you. And Pagan really just means "Not Christian", which I find pretty offensive as a non-Christian. I don't think this is the case with all schools, but it certainly seems like we're on the downward slope of getting rid of Halloween. Living in Kansas I'm in the middle of the Bible Belt, and I work in schools frequently for my job. I think most schools here will be celebrating Halloween, no silly Fall Festival or something. What they are limiting are gory costumes which contain weapons, blood, or are shocking. I don't have a problem with that at all, because if given the choice half an elementary school would dress up as pumpkins, ghosts or witches, and the other half would look like corpses from Saw.
Some kids view Halloween as a time to dress up, have fun, and get candy. Other kids see Halloween as a chance to expose others to their psychotic obsession with gore. Again, I know this because I work with kids who are the ones primarily responsible for this. Sadly, a few rotten apples spoil the bunch, and everyone has to step in line. Which, let's face it, is the public education experience.
No Feral, you see I'm from the antarctic and they don't.
Obviously dress codes exist here, but when I think "dress code" I think something that explicitly states a standard above casual. Which no, I cant say I've encountered any non-private schools in Nova Scotia that really do.
An American public high school dress code usually prohibits a short list of objectionable clothing - skirts that are too short, bare midriffs, t-shirts with profanity on them, clothing associated with gangs (whether that association is justifiable or paranoid is a different discussion entirely), etc.
There's also typically a general prohibition against anything deemed too "disruptive" (or some similarly vague wording) which is its own can of worms.
And this is why I asked.
In rural NS where I went to school, you didnt really have to worry about "gang clothes" and at the same time, I wouldn't concider "Dont show your privates or be purposefully offensive" as Dress Code exactly.
And to Sir Carcass, I think that it's not so much a backlash as it's fucking with whatever thing is closest at hand to fuck with, and that the forum doesnt side so much against the christians, as it does against the assholes. Just so happens that in North America we have an abundance of Assholis Christicus. Pardon my latin.
At my high school, you couldn't wear any pro sports logos or jerseys.
The reasoning was that the local gangs had switched from using primary colors to using sports logos to signify membership. So there was supposedly a gang that just wore Raiders stuff, a gang that just wore 49ers stuff, etc.
It was pretty much complete bullshit, but that's high school for you.
Feral on
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
Halloween is my second favorite holiday, after thanksgiving.
Candy when your a kid, vandalism and street brawls as a teen, and alcohol and sluts when you're in your 20s. Perfect.
Seems to me then that if we just got the kids drunk we could skip all this crap and just let em be sluts. I don't think christians mind being fruitful and multiplying.
At my high school, you couldn't wear any pro sports logos or jerseys.
The reasoning was that the local gangs had switched from using primary colors to using sports logos to signify membership. So there was supposedly a gang that just wore Raiders stuff, a gang that just wore 49ers stuff, etc.
It was pretty much complete bullshit, but that's high school for you.
I think this topic has illustrated that it's Highschool for US, but not so much everyone else.
I'm pretty okay with it, especially given that you could replace 'Halloween' up there with 'Christmas' and get the evangelical version of the argument.
School celebrations should err on the side of secular.
I agree with the secular bit, but should Halloween even considered to be 'religious' at this point?
From what I've observed for most people is that it's just an excuse to dress up in a costume, decorate their house, carve pumpkins, and stuff pillow sheets full of candy or get really drunk (depending on the age).
If there's a deeper meaning behind it than the above, let me know.
I guess it depends on who you think gets to define what is considered 'religious'. Halloween is certainly not religious from the perspective of mostly secular kids who like to dress up and get candy. There are religious groups who have defined it as a religiously significant day (albeit in a negative sense) in the context of their own religion. Does that then make it a religious festival?
I don't think it makes it a religious festival, in its present incarnation. Correct me if I'm wrong, though.
Halloween, iirc, used to be something of a religious/harvest festival way back when, but at this point it has been commercialized and secularized (is that a word?) to the point that it barely resembles the original holiday.
From my experience, the people who view Halloween as a religiously significant day in the negative sense are the same people who pull Timmy and Susey from Biology for a week or two because the teacher is going over Evolution. In other words their beliefs are on the fringe of the general populace's beliefs and, while we should respect these beliefs as far as they warrant it, we shouldn't be cowed by them because they aren't representative of the general whole.
Though this is coming from someone who lives in California. The South or Heartland could be different. I don't know. Also, there's probably something wrong with me having this view and I welcome someone pointing it out to me.
What I'd be interested to know is where the objections are coming from.
It looks like it's been generally assumed (based on the letters and other documentation available) that pagan symbols are being colored as evil, and the evil largely comes from a Christian source and maybe to a lesser degree from other religions or secular distaste for paganism. Okay.
But who is actually behind these policies? Does it appear to be the parents of a particular district who are demanding that their children not be subjected to pagan costumes? Does it appear to be the school board making these decisions, and then not having them openly contested because of things like 'disruption' or 'otherness'?
Certainly I can see parents getting flustered, but I suspect the members of the school board actually making the decisions might be getting missed in all this.
Schools are the last place to look for anything fun and unconventional. A public education in the United States is all about "the greater good". The last thing a school wants is to get sued or lose funding because someone got offended.
They just opened themselves to get sued by Pagans I guess then. Because it's explicitly banning Pagan Ritualistic costumes. I'd be pretty offended if a kid could come in as Jesus or the apostles but my kid couldn't come in as a witch or skeleton or something.
I'm totally with you. And Pagan really just means "Not Christian", which I find pretty offensive as a non-Christian.
[Warning: incoming semantics rant!]
The problem I have with this whenever it comes up is that Pagan means 'non-Christian' but it doesn't just mean non-Christian. It can mean anything from worship of the Christian Satan (which is more or less accepting a Christain view of reality, which is why it basically doesn't exist) to any kind of worship that isn't easily categorized to non-religious activities that have any kind of tenuous link to some kind of religious tradition (like yuppie yoga studios - seriously). It also refers to pre-Christian religions in Europe, and to people who like to pretend they follow or emulate that stuff today - and even these people, who call themselves pagan, have no idea or agreement whatsoever what it means.
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Deebaseron my way to work in a suit and a tieAhhhh...come on fucking guyRegistered Userregular
At my high school, you couldn't wear any pro sports logos or jerseys.
The reasoning was that the local gangs had switched from using primary colors to using sports logos to signify membership. So there was supposedly a gang that just wore Raiders stuff, a gang that just wore 49ers stuff, etc.
It was pretty much complete bullshit, but that's high school for you.
Nah, Ah! They gave me temporary tattoos laced with LSD. too!
Also, girls were blowing dudes in the back of the bus to earn different color friendship braces.
Middle school in the early 90s was fucking, REAL, man.
My daughter's school (which is a charter) doesn't celebrate Halloween or let kids dress up because a couple religious groups bitched about it.
Instead, every year they have a "continent party" which always falls right around October 31. Each room picks a continent, and then learns about it in the run up to the party. Then, during the party, every kid dresses up as an animal from that continent. Then the kids go from classroom to classroom sampling treats, brought in by parents, that are native to somewhere in the respective continent.
"Religious groups" are retarded.
ElJeffe on
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At my high school, you couldn't wear any pro sports logos or jerseys.
The reasoning was that the local gangs had switched from using primary colors to using sports logos to signify membership. So there was supposedly a gang that just wore Raiders stuff, a gang that just wore 49ers stuff, etc.
It was pretty much complete bullshit, but that's high school for you.
Nah, Ah! They gave me temporary tattoos laced with LSD. too!
Also, girls were blowing dudes in the back of the bus to earn different color friendship braces.
Middle school in the early 90s was fucking, REAL, man.
Every time I see a grade schooler with a bunch of silly bands I'm going to yell "Slut!"
RocketSauce on
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
edited October 2010
Am I wrong for thinking that we should become MORE tolerant over time, not less?
No Feral, you see I'm from the antarctic and they don't.
Obviously dress codes exist here, but when I think "dress code" I think something that explicitly states a standard above casual. Which no, I cant say I've encountered any non-private schools in Nova Scotia that really do.
An American public high school dress code usually prohibits a short list of objectionable clothing - skirts that are too short, bare midriffs, t-shirts with profanity on them, clothing associated with gangs (whether that association is justifiable or paranoid is a different discussion entirely), etc.
There's also typically a general prohibition against anything deemed too "disruptive" (or some similarly vague wording) which is its own can of worms.
And this is why I asked.
In rural NS where I went to school, you didnt really have to worry about "gang clothes" and at the same time, I wouldn't concider "Dont show your privates or be purposefully offensive" as Dress Code exactly.
And to Sir Carcass, I think that it's not so much a backlash as it's fucking with whatever thing is closest at hand to fuck with, and that the forum doesnt side so much against the christians, as it does against the assholes. Just so happens that in North America we have an abundance of Assholis Christicus. Pardon my latin.
When I was in middle school, Dickies brand clothing was banned because it was 'gang clothing'.
So I guess only gangbangers were allowed to be comfortable.
Also, people that are anti-Halloween are probably just one of those people that got coal in their bag.
Am I wrong for thinking that we should become MORE tolerant over time, not less?
I'm a little confused. Do you mean we should tolerate the belief of some parents that, if their kid puts on a cheap polyester costume, carves a pumpkin, and puts candy in a sack on October 31st, they're worshipping satan and engaging in a devious 'pagan' holiday? To the point that we remove celebration of it from public schools for fear of offending this small fringe group of people?
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Deebaseron my way to work in a suit and a tieAhhhh...come on fucking guyRegistered Userregular
At my high school, you couldn't wear any pro sports logos or jerseys.
The reasoning was that the local gangs had switched from using primary colors to using sports logos to signify membership. So there was supposedly a gang that just wore Raiders stuff, a gang that just wore 49ers stuff, etc.
It was pretty much complete bullshit, but that's high school for you.
Nah, Ah! They gave me temporary tattoos laced with LSD. too!
Also, girls were blowing dudes in the back of the bus to earn different color friendship braces.
Middle school in the early 90s was fucking, REAL, man.
Every time I see a grade schooler with a bunch of silly bands I'm going to yell "Slut!"
Bad idea, dude. She could be a sociopath from playing murder simulators like GTA.
My daughter's school (which is a charter) doesn't celebrate Halloween or let kids dress up because a couple religious groups bitched about it.
Instead, every year they have a "continent party" which always falls right around October 31. Each room picks a continent, and then learns about it in the run up to the party. Then, during the party, every kid dresses up as an animal from that continent. Then the kids go from classroom to classroom sampling treats, brought in by parents, that are native to somewhere in the respective continent.
"Religious groups" are retarded.
That's a pretty neat way to have costumes and treats while keeping it educational, though.
So kudos to your charter school.
Feral on
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
Am I wrong for thinking that we should become MORE tolerant over time, not less?
I'm a little confused. Do you mean we should tolerate the belief of some parents that, if their kid puts on a cheap polyester costume, carves a pumpkin, and puts candy in a sack on October 31st, they're worshipping satan and engaging in a devious 'pagan' holiday? To the point that we remove celebration of it from public schools for fear of offending this small fringe group of people?
Am I wrong for thinking that we should become MORE tolerant over time, not less?
I'm a little confused. Do you mean we should tolerate the belief of some parents that, if their kid puts on a cheap polyester costume, carves a pumpkin, and puts candy in a sack on October 31st, they're worshipping satan and engaging in a devious 'pagan' holiday? To the point that we remove celebration of it from public schools for fear of offending this small fringe group of people?
I feel like even if you call it "harvest festival" kids will still be dressing up and teachers will still be giving candy. And "harvest festival" food tastes awesome.
I don't know, i guess I just don't see this as a huge deal because we weren't allowed to have costumes that flaunted the dress code anyway. You could wear weird clothes, but bare midriffs, super short skirts, t-shirts with offensive language and things like that were still off limits. I just remember a lot of guys dressing in drag or fake blood and makeup to look like zombies and a lot of girls wearing tight clothes with animal ears and whisker face paint or angel wings.
Getting rid of all costumes is pretty bogus though.
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Oh shit, don't forget Diwali's coming up!
Lot more affirming than that Christmas Tammuz bullshit.
This so much. When I was a kid, my 'rents house used to get a ton of foot traffic from the trick-or-treaters. Our streets were in a suburban/semi-rural area, so we didn't have any street lamps (still don't), just the lights from the houses. Nobody had a problem with it.
Now they'd be lucky if they see over 5 kids on Halloween because apparently an adult escort and a couple of flashlights aren't enough now. It's depressing.
Exactly the woman I think of. /shudder
But I mean hey, you gotta teach that wifes kids even if it aint fun for them, so they dont turn into mom.
My workplace actually had a reversal. When I first started here 4 years ago, we got a mass email telling us to remember that we can't wear costumes to work, but we're welcome to wear silly socks to celebrate the holiday. This year and last year, at least (maybe the year before, can't remember) we've had costume contests.
But anyway, just to make sure I got this: Christians complaining about Christmas being taken away? Shut up stupid Christians. Non-christians complaining about Halloween being taken away? Leave Halloween alone stupid Christians.
For the record, I think banning "Pagan" costumes is stupid, but different people are obviously offended by different things.
There is only one dress code in Antarctica: several layers of heavy coats.
I went to a Catholic high school with a uniform and even we got to dress up for Halloween and get candy from all the teachers. I don't really see a big deal here.
This isn't so much an argument as pretty much everyone here agrees that Halloween is not a religious thing and shouldn't be treated as such. It's about the candy and sticking it to the dress code. :P
I imagine angels were not banned. It says only costumes which could be interpreted with Pagan Rituals. They just played it on the radio again.
Yes, mainly because they're the exact same situation. -Blank-ists trying to RUIN SOMEONES FUN by making something specifically -blank-.
I guess it depends on who you think gets to define what is considered 'religious'. Halloween is certainly not religious from the perspective of mostly secular kids who like to dress up and get candy. There are religious groups who have defined it as a religiously significant day (albeit in a negative sense) in the context of their own religion. Does that then make it a religious festival?
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Oh, I agree they're exactly the same situation. I just think it's utterly shocking that most of this forum is against the Christians in both situations.
I actually have to wonder if this didn't come about specifically as a way for these people to try and strike back at what they see as the marginalization of Christmas.
An American public high school dress code usually prohibits a short list of objectionable clothing - skirts that are too short, bare midriffs, t-shirts with profanity on them, clothing associated with gangs (whether that association is justifiable or paranoid is a different discussion entirely), etc.
There's also typically a general prohibition against anything deemed too "disruptive" (or some similarly vague wording) which is its own can of worms.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Also, when I was a kid, my mom would switch back and forth between thinking halloween was TEH EVIL about every other year.
So some years, sure dress up, get candy, awesome.
Other years, "EVIL HOLIDAY" turn off the lights all night and hide in the house, and don't you DARE get put on a costume!
And then yet other years, EVIL HOLIDAY, no going out, but yeah, lets hand out candy! And then my mom would dress up as a witch/ghost/scary lady , ... thing.
.....You know, In the past, I've always been kinda bitter about my halloweens, but now, in retrospect, I'm just reminded that my mom is kinda weird...
Nothing as disruptive as a ghost in classroom or someone with their face painted though. Disruptive to the dress code on non-holidays, but on Halloween, no one cares. I was particularly sheltered from Christian ideals because I had no idea about Ash Wednesday until I was in the workforce. That was pretty shocking, I actually handed someone a wet-napkin because I thought they were just in one of the dirty IT places that we used to work at. Color me red.
They just opened themselves to get sued by Pagans I guess then. Because it's explicitly banning Pagan Ritualistic costumes. I'd be pretty offended if a kid could come in as Jesus or the apostles but my kid couldn't come in as a witch or skeleton or something.
The bigger problem I have with all of this is that there is enough pressure on schools from parents who honestly, genuinely believe that children who dress up as a witch - green face paint, witch hat, broom, etc. - are actively practicing witchcraft. And that they are probably teaching their own kids spells and magic that will send them to Hell. Apparently these parents have enough pull to change policies.
I didn't know that The Wicked Witch of the West was something people thought was a real thing.
I'm totally with you. And Pagan really just means "Not Christian", which I find pretty offensive as a non-Christian. I don't think this is the case with all schools, but it certainly seems like we're on the downward slope of getting rid of Halloween. Living in Kansas I'm in the middle of the Bible Belt, and I work in schools frequently for my job. I think most schools here will be celebrating Halloween, no silly Fall Festival or something. What they are limiting are gory costumes which contain weapons, blood, or are shocking. I don't have a problem with that at all, because if given the choice half an elementary school would dress up as pumpkins, ghosts or witches, and the other half would look like corpses from Saw.
Some kids view Halloween as a time to dress up, have fun, and get candy. Other kids see Halloween as a chance to expose others to their psychotic obsession with gore. Again, I know this because I work with kids who are the ones primarily responsible for this. Sadly, a few rotten apples spoil the bunch, and everyone has to step in line. Which, let's face it, is the public education experience.
Didn't you know that when you level up in D&D the spells you learn actually go into your head and work in real life?
And this is why I asked.
In rural NS where I went to school, you didnt really have to worry about "gang clothes" and at the same time, I wouldn't concider "Dont show your privates or be purposefully offensive" as Dress Code exactly.
And to Sir Carcass, I think that it's not so much a backlash as it's fucking with whatever thing is closest at hand to fuck with, and that the forum doesnt side so much against the christians, as it does against the assholes. Just so happens that in North America we have an abundance of Assholis Christicus. Pardon my latin.
Candy when your a kid, vandalism and street brawls as a teen, and alcohol and sluts when you're in your 20s. Perfect.
The reasoning was that the local gangs had switched from using primary colors to using sports logos to signify membership. So there was supposedly a gang that just wore Raiders stuff, a gang that just wore 49ers stuff, etc.
It was pretty much complete bullshit, but that's high school for you.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Seems to me then that if we just got the kids drunk we could skip all this crap and just let em be sluts. I don't think christians mind being fruitful and multiplying.
I think this topic has illustrated that it's Highschool for US, but not so much everyone else.
I don't think it makes it a religious festival, in its present incarnation. Correct me if I'm wrong, though.
Halloween, iirc, used to be something of a religious/harvest festival way back when, but at this point it has been commercialized and secularized (is that a word?) to the point that it barely resembles the original holiday.
From my experience, the people who view Halloween as a religiously significant day in the negative sense are the same people who pull Timmy and Susey from Biology for a week or two because the teacher is going over Evolution. In other words their beliefs are on the fringe of the general populace's beliefs and, while we should respect these beliefs as far as they warrant it, we shouldn't be cowed by them because they aren't representative of the general whole.
Though this is coming from someone who lives in California. The South or Heartland could be different. I don't know. Also, there's probably something wrong with me having this view and I welcome someone pointing it out to me.
It looks like it's been generally assumed (based on the letters and other documentation available) that pagan symbols are being colored as evil, and the evil largely comes from a Christian source and maybe to a lesser degree from other religions or secular distaste for paganism. Okay.
But who is actually behind these policies? Does it appear to be the parents of a particular district who are demanding that their children not be subjected to pagan costumes? Does it appear to be the school board making these decisions, and then not having them openly contested because of things like 'disruption' or 'otherness'?
Certainly I can see parents getting flustered, but I suspect the members of the school board actually making the decisions might be getting missed in all this.
But what the heck? Our generation(Gen X) has the parental reigns right now.
We're more tolerant than this!
[Warning: incoming semantics rant!]
The problem I have with this whenever it comes up is that Pagan means 'non-Christian' but it doesn't just mean non-Christian. It can mean anything from worship of the Christian Satan (which is more or less accepting a Christain view of reality, which is why it basically doesn't exist) to any kind of worship that isn't easily categorized to non-religious activities that have any kind of tenuous link to some kind of religious tradition (like yuppie yoga studios - seriously). It also refers to pre-Christian religions in Europe, and to people who like to pretend they follow or emulate that stuff today - and even these people, who call themselves pagan, have no idea or agreement whatsoever what it means.
Nah, Ah! They gave me temporary tattoos laced with LSD. too!
Also, girls were blowing dudes in the back of the bus to earn different color friendship braces.
Middle school in the early 90s was fucking, REAL, man.
Instead, every year they have a "continent party" which always falls right around October 31. Each room picks a continent, and then learns about it in the run up to the party. Then, during the party, every kid dresses up as an animal from that continent. Then the kids go from classroom to classroom sampling treats, brought in by parents, that are native to somewhere in the respective continent.
"Religious groups" are retarded.
Every time I see a grade schooler with a bunch of silly bands I'm going to yell "Slut!"
When I was in middle school, Dickies brand clothing was banned because it was 'gang clothing'.
So I guess only gangbangers were allowed to be comfortable.
Also, people that are anti-Halloween are probably just one of those people that got coal in their bag.
I'm a little confused. Do you mean we should tolerate the belief of some parents that, if their kid puts on a cheap polyester costume, carves a pumpkin, and puts candy in a sack on October 31st, they're worshipping satan and engaging in a devious 'pagan' holiday? To the point that we remove celebration of it from public schools for fear of offending this small fringe group of people?
Bad idea, dude. She could be a sociopath from playing murder simulators like GTA.
That's a pretty neat way to have costumes and treats while keeping it educational, though.
So kudos to your charter school.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I mean the exact opposite.
Yeah, that's what I figured.
Reading comprehension fail for me :oops:
There's a backlash going on at the moment. The people who aren't happy with increased tolerance are going well... a bit insane.
I feel like even if you call it "harvest festival" kids will still be dressing up and teachers will still be giving candy. And "harvest festival" food tastes awesome.
I don't know, i guess I just don't see this as a huge deal because we weren't allowed to have costumes that flaunted the dress code anyway. You could wear weird clothes, but bare midriffs, super short skirts, t-shirts with offensive language and things like that were still off limits. I just remember a lot of guys dressing in drag or fake blood and makeup to look like zombies and a lot of girls wearing tight clothes with animal ears and whisker face paint or angel wings.
Getting rid of all costumes is pretty bogus though.