Opinion: Pros and Cons of celebrating Halloween
Editor’s Note: With Halloween right around the corner, we asked two of our staff to take a stand for or against the holiday. Read on for what our Animation Curator and Assistant Editor see as the pros and cons of the holiday.
Juniors Harley Watkins and Savannah Hovis pick out pumpkins to carve for the holiday.
Adam Kelly, Animation Curator
Out of all the holidays people celebrate, Halloween is the most debated and fought over. The date of Oct. 31 scares people for all the wrong reasons. It can be an extreme issue for Christians, but it doesn’t have to be.
The way people celebrate Halloween has changed over the past centuries, but it still has roots to the past. Its origins trace back to European tradition with Celtic, Roman and Christian culture mixed in.
During these times, people would celebrate the Celtic festival Samhain, where they would wear costumes like we do today. For these people, this day marked the end of summer and symbolized the time of cold that winter would bring.
The people of the towns would also light fires to ward off ghosts from their land. They would make animal sacrifices to their Celtic deities hoping they would keep the ghosts away.
People believed ghosts would return from the dead on this night because they thought the living and dead converged at this time. The night before Oct. 31 was called All Hollows Eve and the day after came to be what we now call, Halloween.
While preachers and parents argue that Halloween is an evil holiday that celebrates death, its origins merely observed and fought to keep it away. Although there was more of a focus on our souls and where they went after death, the way people celebrate Halloween has gone to the other side.
Tradition changed in the late 1800s when people decided to center the holiday around community by having get-togethers instead of focusing on ghosts and witchcraft. Americans began going to houses asking for food or money, creating what we call trick-or-treating today.
Nowadays, it celebrates the fun side of the holiday with candy and costumes. Adults and kids alike enjoy dressing up as characters seen in movies or TV shows. People love to get together and celebrate the scary side of life.
Halloween is celebrated across the world because there is a universal fascination and love for all things scary. People love to be scared. This is indicative by ticket sales with horror-based films as well as haunted houses and corn mazes. Adrenaline is an interesting feeling that people like to have occasionally. They love to feel the rush because it’s something different from their daily routine.
When celebrating Halloween, or any holiday for that matter, it’s important to distinguish what is based off of culture and tradition and what can be harmful to us.
Deuteronomy 18:10 says, “Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium who consults the dead.”
As Christians, our perspective on the holiday needs to be observant and protective, but not to the point where it isn’t celebrated at all. It’s not an issue to skip Halloween altogether. But there isn’t a problem celebrating it either, as long as you don’t cross the line of what God speaks of.
Getting involved with witchcraft and the spiritual world is dangerous, but the way most people celebrate Halloween is fine.
No holiday is inherently good or bad. They all have origins that trace back to a past that honored or celebrated something similar or different in current times. People celebrate for different reasons, and that’s okay. We aren’t a better or worse person for celebrating Halloween.
Overall, the main thing to keep in mind is how and why you are celebrating Halloween. Instead of being haunted by the past, take the opportunity to make memories with your friends and family that you can look back on.
The views and opinions expressed on in this article are soley those of the original author. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of The Vision NGU or North Greenville University.
Jazmyne Boozer, Assistant Editor
Photo Courtesy of Unsplash
Everyone’s favorite spooky holiday is peaking its zombified head from its yearly grave. That’s right, Halloween is next week. And although most would find this to be an exciting time, there are plenty of people who see right through this holiday. Behind its candy mask and charming costumes lies a darker and more annoying side to Halloween. This is for the cynics out there who hate this devilish holiday.
1. It’s Scary
This holiday is not for the faint at heart. From Happy Death Day to The Mummy horror movies, they make our hearts race to dangerous levels. Let’s not forget that on this day there will be plenty of haunted houses, creepy corn mazes and graveyards to conjure up fear. From eerie costumes to gory scenery, Halloween is not festive holiday.
2. Trick-or-Treating gives you cavities
It is a known fact that sugary candy gives you cavities. Dentists are the only humans who should love this holiday, as their business booms after October 31. As college students, we have our fair share of unhealthy food; from pizza to burgers and the like, I think our bodies would thank us for skipping out of the treats. Don’t give your dentist any more business than what he/she already gets.
3. You’re giving away perfectly good food
Going back to No. 2, if you are going to buy that sugary sweet-stuff, at least buy it for yourself. You are slowly crippling the youth by passing on the potential cavities and sugar off to them. Not only this, but “big candy” profits off of this holiday.
4. Pranks and “Bag Snatching”
This holiday tends to bring out the inner demon of all its participants with pranks and bag snatching. While you are out trick-or-treating, you have to constantly be on the look-out from those ratty ‘ole bag snatchers, those kids who lie in wait in the bushes and wait for the perfect opportunity to run up and snatch your hard-earned bag of candy. Pranks run rampant on Halloween; from toilet papering a house or car to water ballooning a mean neighbor. Not to mention that according to statistics, on the Huffington post, crime rates spike Halloween night. Should we really be celebrating a holiday that glorifies vandalism and pranks…probably not?
5. Death Rates Increase
Halloween increases your chances of dying. No really….According to the Republican Herald, Halloween has the highest rate of pedestrian fatalities. Due to drunken driving, indulging and crazy parties…this puts those who don’t do these things in danger. Halloween=increased chance of death…enough said.
6. Oh…and it has its roots in paganism
Whether you want to accept it or not, Halloween is a pagan holiday deeply rooted in evil traditions. Halloween, or All-Hallows as it used to be called, was a celebration in which the Celts would take animals and sacrifice them to their pagan gods. These Celts would celebrate this as a way to talk to the dead as they believed this was the day the worlds between the dead and the living blurred. On the night before New Year’s Day, the Celts would conjure the spirits of the dead to bring good fortune. Druids, or Celtic priests, would take animals on an altar and slaughter them for these spirits. They could then use the skins of the animals they slaughter as costumes. This is where we get the long-standing tradition of dressing up.
Now, considering all of this…should we continue to celebrate a holiday that glorifies ghouls, mischief, sorcery and paganism? Probably not
To watch the true roots of Halloween click here
The views and opinions expressed on in this article are soley those of the original author. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of The Vision NGU or North Greenville University.
