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Thank you very much for your scholarship and sensitivity with regards to the ancient holiday of Samhain. Those of us in the Pagan community appreciate your honesty and compassion. I would assume, from the links on the site, that you are a Christian, in which case I must say that you are a true credit to your church and God. Again, thank you!!
Jim
I am a college student and I am very pleased to use you as a source for my speech I will be presenting on halloween. I do not plan a reprint but if I do it will be for about ten students and my instructor. I very much appreciate all of your research. Its been very hard to weed through all of the bulls**t links. I was originally planning to do the history of halloween, but now I am planning on showing the fallacies as part of it. To kind of spike it up a bit. If you have any more information that would be useful it would surely be appreciated.
Much Thanks
Ray McGee
Thanks
Andy Stover
I must say that I've read your article and some of the comments. I say kudos to your well done research, and I say jeers to those people who call themselves Christians and so recklessly denounce others for a day they celebrate in good, clean, fun. I am from the buckle of the Bible Belt, raised in a very conservative Christian up bringing. I love Halloween. It's my favorite holiday. Do Satanists hold Oct. 31 as a day of revel. They might. I don't know any Satanists. As far as I know, they might hold my birthday as a sacred day. I celebrate my birthday, does this condemn me to Hell?
One of the most amazing things to me about "Christians" and being one myself I can criticize them is they never look at themselves, it's always what's the matter with brother and sister so-in-so. I'm guilty of this myself, but I look at myself too. Another thing is some "Christians" have this mortal fear of things they call Satan worship. Why? The Bible says: Do not worry about those who can kill the body, but the soul. A mere mortal cannot kill your soul. That's a matter that the individual and Satan himself can do, and their are many, many, many ways of killing your soul besides Halloween. Some "Christians" need to look at the way they worship. The Bible puts forth the proper way to worship the Lord. Many denominations add and take away from this important guideline, thus committing sin, and thus worshiping in sin, and since sin is from the Devil, it could be said those erring people by their ignorance of proper worship practices and the Bible are worshiping the Devil.
That's gonna bring on the hate comments, isn't it?
In finale, a well done article, sighting things from both perspectives letting people draw their own conclusions. Mind you it is seemingly slightly biased toward the acceptability of Halloween, but not as biased as some of the sources quoted. As for those who think the encyclopedia is the foremost expert on knowledge, no person truly wanting to find out the whole truth of a subject would use one reference source to draw a conclusive discussion. To those who commented on the sole use of an encyclopedia, your thinking is flawed.
Kudos on the article, well done, give me a smiley face. If you post this letter please don't list my email address. I don't want a flood of email from ignorant, Right-wing, white sheet wearing, back water, hypocrites.
Please excuse any misspellings or gramatical errors, I didn't have time to edit in my fevered typing spree.
Thank you.
J.W.
Somewhere in Alabama.
I was reading through your website and I found it very insightful and challenging. I did appreciate the Bible quotations you offered.
I am Christian and I strive to follow God's Will in all areas of my life. I agree with you that the "horror of Halloween" has been blown way out of proportion by North American Christians. Unfortunately, this had lead to myths and lies about what Halloween is and it's origins.
I, personally, see nothing wrong with childrenn dressing up as their favorite animal, superhero, baseball player or whatever and walking from house to house collecting candy. I allow my son to dress and "trick or treat".
But, there are many, many aspects of halloween that I disagree with from both a personal and spiritual point-of-view. The first, and most obvious, is the excessive focus on things (I will loosely call) nasty and gory. By this I mean vampires, witches, dead things, skeletons, etc. I find this inappropriate and sick. I do not like to have my child exposed to these things.
Another aspect of Halloween I do not like is the occult emphasis on it. I know a woman who is a proclaimed Wiccan and she adores Halloween. I am also aware that Satanists and other groups like that also enjoy Halloween. For whatever reasons, I do not care. All I know is how they feel about that day and I (perhaps it's a spiritual thing) am repulsed by it.
I did enjoy reading your website on the history of Halloween but I do not think we can ignore what it has become in our modern day. We need to protect ourselves and our children from inappropriate, harmful and, even, evil influences. I do think you neglected this in your article. I think halloween can be enjoyed by parents and children alike, without the addition of the gore, blood and skeletons. We need to stay close to our children and make sure they are only exposed to the good things this life has to offer. Much of what Halloween has become is not good. That just means parents have an extra duty so their children can still enjoy it.
Thank you,
Mike
On the other hand, I am a spirit-filled Christian, and God does tell us to stay away from even the appearance of evil. Halloween appears evil from many aspects, so I'm going to stay away from it, and when I have kids, they won't have anything to do with it. That doesn't mean that I'm going to judge other people who trick-or-treat or practice other Halloween festivities. I'm just going to do what i think God would want me to do. But thank you for your research; it has been very informative. My husband and I are children's ministers, so this may prove to be very useful. Thank you, and may God bless you richly!!!!!
Amber, Mississippi
http://albanach.org/apologetics/halloween.html
Thanks for allowing me to vent!
Julie
Regarding trick-or-treat, I grew up in the Detroit, Michigan area. When my friends and I went from door to door on Halloween ca 1939 - 1945, we all used the phrase: "Help the Poor," to ask for treats. I didn't hear "trick or treat" until I moved to Chicago.
David Norman
Our church does Judgment House for Halloween, but we don't show mothers killing children or women dying from abortion. The point of it is not that you go to hell because you are "bad," you go to hell if you reject Jesus. And we do it the week before and the week of Halloween as well as that night, so if kids want to go trick or treating on the night itself, they are free to do so. Our Fall Fest, which many churches have as "Halloween alternative," is in September.
The Halloween-bashing has gotten out of hand recently (last 15-20 years or so). When I was a kid, I hosted a Halloween party for my SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS and no one questioned it or thought a thing about it. (I was in a REALLY conservative interdenominational church at the time.) And I recieved Halloween-themed tracts. These were good tracts talking about there being a real Satan and a real Savior: Satan Tricks, Jesus Treats. Charles Schultz, a very gentle Christian, had The Great Pumpkin. Was he evil? Hmmm.
I am a pretty conservative Christian (denomination Nazarene, former Baptist, 6 1/2 years working in the Episcopal church) with very strong Irish roots, both Protestant and Catholic. And Halloween to me has never been anything more evil than malicious vandalism (like some kid taking the treat basket from my porch and leaving it empty in the ditch like happened tonight!!). I wish some people would just get over it.
God bless.
Ann McGarity-Williams
ahaha, are you seriously ignorant enough to think that something like code can't be gotten at? that is pathetic, by making your site public your code is public. personally I would like to know why you took so much care to hide something such as code.
What led me to your site was my investigation of the information that my daughter was given in the Christian school she attends. According to her teacher, Halloween was originally a pagan holiday and began when fathers raped their daughters. When the daughter's baby's were born, they were sacrificed on an alter.
I can find credible references to the possibility of human sacrifices, but nothing definite, and certainly nothing about incest! Have you heard this particular story before, or something like it? I'd be interested to hear whatever your research might have uncovered related to this.
Thanks again for your factual coverage; all too rare, on this particular topic!
Chris C.
The incest/sacrifice story is a new one on me. It may have grown from the urban legends about organized satanist groups of the late 20th century and so-called "breeders" kept for the express purpose of making babies for sacrifice. So far, these stories have proved groundless.
Andre C.
I've had about 3 years of gaelic language classes and have sung for the past five years with the Victoria Gaelic Choir. In Scots gaelic much of the formalism is frozen in 4-6 century Irish via the Scot invaders fleeing Columcile mac Felim's acts of murder and depradation against early Irish christians. When he converted himself, he vowed to convert 7 times the number he had killed. The word Samhain has a standard pronounciation. The inserted "h" lennites the m and makes it silent here in mid word. At the beginning of a word mh or bh is like a soft v. All of the vowels in gaelic are always pronounced. To handle the repeated "a" sound before and after mh, the mh takes on a soft "w" sound. When n is doubled as "nn" it becomes drawn out and nasal. The ending to the word is pronounced een-ny(uh) so the whole word gets pronounced SAwaeenuh with the stress per usual on the first syllable.
Cheers,
Tark
I am planning on teaching Halloween history to Homeschoolers in the arkon/canton/cleveland area of Ohio and found your article to be very intriguing. I was hoping to reprint a copy to have at the 2 days of activities to present a list of facts versus folklore/mythology. In hopes that the kids (ages 6 to 12) could see the difference between the two (fact and fiction). I will of course be citing your site for the parents to ponder over and bring some of your arguments down to the kids level of understanding.
Thank you for your dedication to bringing the facts of the holiday out to everyone on the web...I will of course be looking into some of the references you site to fully understand what you have written.
Sincerely,
Heather McClure, Education Coordinator
Crown Point Ecology Center
PO Box 484, 3220 Ira Road
Bath, Ohio 44302
You have a very interesting essay on Halloween posted on your website. Its author is listed as W.J. Bethancourt III. Can you please help me get in touch with him? I would like to ask permission to use his essay as a resource for my English Composition Class that I teach at Ivy Technical College.
Thanks,
Anita l. Clyburn
Thanks again!
Amanda
Bernardo Samano
My students learned a great deal reading your essay and I have to admit that I did too. I used to think I knew something about the Christianization of the old Pagan holidays until I read your essay. Some of my students even mentioned in class that they had never heard of the Celts before! I only wish I knew what they studied in history class throughout junior high and high school because it surely wasn't European history. Thanks for putting it out of the internet for me to find and thanks again for giving me permission to use it in my English Composition class.
Sincerely,
Anita L. Clyburn
Adjunct Instructor Ivy Technical School
Terre Haute, Indiana
My name is crystal and I just got done reading your web page and I want to THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!
I just became a true Christian and started learning about god and Jesus and I have doubts, but I am trying to have faith. Anyway a girlfriend gave me a video tape and it was saying that you can not be a Christian and celebrate Halloween. Well Halloween is my Favorite Holiday, I am 31 years old and October 31st starts I start the day dressed up, and I love it!!!! I was really glad to hear and read everything on your website, I am printing off a copy and giving it to my girlfriend that thinks Halloween is evil..
Thank you again,
Crystal
I hope I'm writing to Mr. Bethancourt III who has the website on Halloween, Myths, Monsters and Devils. I'm writing to ask permission to print the information that's on the website. My husband, who is a retired Methodist minister of 46 years, and I facilitate a study group from our church. We meet monthly and usually study and discuss a chapter of scripture. However, this month we agreed to research and discuss whether it was right for us, as Christians, to celebrate Hallween. To find your website that had such rounded well-referenced information and history was such a relief. Most everything else I've found written about Halloween was from such fundamental viewpoints. I cannot agree with such conservative distorted views. Surely, our living and loving God has a sense of humor since we human beings can make such mountains out of molehills! I'll be one in the group "chuckling and shaking my head in amusement" if not laughing out loud and pointing!
Thank you for the endless hours you invested in gathering this information and its presentation that the rest of us benefit from. God bless.
Barbara G
Austin, TX
Thank you again.
Sincerely,
Jarred L. Harris
Thank you,
Cecil Green
Student Ministries Director
My name is Dana Sword, and my husband and I are the Youth Directors at our church, Lamb Blvd Missionary Baptist Church. I was trying to download your page on the history of Halloween to a CD to use as a tool for a lesson. Upon trying to copy the page to CD, I was given a message box stating I had to seek your permission.
So then, I'm asking if I may have your permission to copy your webpages to a CD to use in our youth lessons to help educate our youth group on the true origens of Halloween.
It's my husband's, as well as my own, desire to teach our kids the truth about Halloween. We want them to have the benefit of knowledge over rumor in their life decisions.
Your site is outstanding, and we were thrilled to find such a well put together site!
Thank you so much for your time.
In Christ,
Dana
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