Banning my holidays ...

[Darth Mandarb]

It's been awhile since I started a topic in here like this ...

But I heard something on the news this morning that just pissed me off.

A school principle, up in the Boston area, has banned the celebration of Halloween at his school.  He feels it might be offensive to some religious groups.

All right ... this is getting RE-DAMN-DICULOUS.

My mother's school (she teaches 1st grade) has already banned her from putting up Christmas decorations.

The city I live in doesn't allow businesses to put up Christmas decorations.

All of this ... because some other religions complained about it. 

If you don't celebrate the same religious holidays, stop whining about others that do.  I have never seen something from another religion specifying something to do with one of their holidays that offended me.

My opinion:

The reason this really pisses me off is because in trying so hard not to offend other religions ... I am being offended.

How is this freedom of religion?

Does anybody (Christian or non-Christian) have an opinion on why this practice should be acceptable?

It should be noted that I'm not overly religious ... but I was raised Christian and celebate the Christian holidays.

I plan on putting a LOT of Christmas decorations in and around my office, and if anybody complains I will say, "doesn't your religion preach tolerance of other religions?  GET THE HELL OVER IT!!  Oh ... and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!"

[Babar]

Hahahaha...first time I've seen Halloween being celebrated as a Christian holiday. Which religions does Halloween offend?

[Darth Mandarb]

Hahahaha...first time I've seen Halloween being celebrated as a Christian holiday. Which religions does Halloween offend?

That's kind of what I was thinking ...

But apparently it's being labeled as such.

The report wasn't very specific about the "who" was being offended.  I'd love to know.  Then I would dress up as a demon and scare the crap out of them.

[veryweirdguy]

I agree wholeheartedly.

Think if the situation were reversed, if a Christian complained at...say...some Hanukkah decorations in an office (admittedly a relatively popular religion I've chosen there, first that sprang to mind), saying they were offensive in some way, it would be the Christian who would be attacked for his comments, and would be accused of denial of expression, so why is the reverse not true?

*sigh* This society. It's supposed to be all about religious, or racial, or sexual equality, but frankly people have it all wrong. In my opinion, equality is about accepting differences between cultures, but in cases like this people seem more intent on ignoring differences.

I'm gonna celebrate what I can. I doubt anyone will ACTUALLY be offended if I put up some Christmas decorations, it's just more protection of what could (but never will) be said among extremely religious groups.

This year a group of friends & I have considered celebrating EVERY holiday possible (be it Christmas, Divali, Thanksgving, Mardi Gras, Chinese New Year or even International Talk Like a Pirate Day) just for the hell of it anyway. Not neccessarily a celebration of our beliefs, but more a celebration of accepting the beliefs & customs of others.

[Pumaman]

Now now, we all know you can put up Christmas lights, just so long as you call them "Festive decorations of a luminous nature".

[InCreator]

That's ridiculous, pathetic.

It's not holidays, it's a modern fashion of being boneless.

This omfg-ffs-i-hope-i-didn't-offend-anything/anyone mentality.

It has infected forums here too, for example.
People have no opinion anymore. No position in any question, no like/dislike-things. Everyone is very ready to flame anyone who is not tolerant enough to any kind of stupidity, but if it comes to personal opinions, the crowd goes quiet.

Soon, we have no personalities. And we accept whatever crap world throws at our faces.

---
While being atheist, I'd still raise a hell of a riot, if anyone tried to mess with Christmas, for example.

[esper]

Babar, technically, Halloween is ALWAYS a Christian holiday.. it is All Halow's, or All Saint's eve. However, Christian groups get upset because it is based on Samhain, the Celtic pagan celebration of the god of the underworld. However, when my Christian (I'm Christian too, but one of the only "think-for-yourself" Christians that exist) friends get on me for dressing up to celebrate "The Devil's Birthday," I gently remind them that Halloween is actually a minor pagan holiday, and Yule, the celebration that the Catholic church turned into Christmas, is the highest pagan holy day of the year, and in times past (and still among certain cultic groups) requires a human sacrifice, whereas Halloween does not. The only Christian holiday in existance that did not come from pagan bakgrounds is Thanksgiving.

[Squinky]

I think halloween is wrong because chimpanzee's have sex with elephants and drink human blood on that day.....

[Redwall]

Thanksgiving is an American holiday, not a Christian holiday...

[Tuomas]

I might argue with Halloween and Thanksgiving being Christian holidays since both of them are only celebrated in America, am I right? Yes, some of us try to sell stupid costumes, but no-one ever gets the day off for either of them. And as far as I recall, there are Christians in Europe too... I know I'm one.

And I know Father Christmas lives in Lapland, in Finland and he doesn't wear red and white COCA COLA colours, nor does he give out gifts. Or he wouldn't before other culures ruined our pagan holiday. how do I know this? Let's say, it's a VERY old tradition and here I'm on Russia's side. I truly hope there will never be Halloween here even though we tend to copy everything from America because it doesn't belong here, more, it doesn't fit here.

[Pet Terry]

I might argue with Halloween and Thanksgiving being Christian holidays since both of them are only celebrated in America, am I right?

No, you're not.

[Kweepa]

I blame the teachings of Star Trek.
The captain always bends over backwards to observe the customs of visitors, no matter how ridiculous.

Personally I'll be celebrating Festivus this year.

[Tuomas]

Well. It appears I was wrong... Seems it's somewhat anglican... well, I still concider myself Christian not celebrating them, so... nor does most of the European Catholics according to what Petteri linked. Therefore I still don't find it a *Christian holiday* if a minority of Christians celebrate a pagan holiday... Tat is why I don't find the midsummer day Christian holiday either!

[veryweirdguy]

Personally I'll be celebrating Festivus this year.

We tried celebrating Festivus last year, on the 23rd (?) I believe.

It didn't end too well...not that you'd expect it to I guess.

[Vel]

...and this is where the myth of freedom of religion in the US is torn to pieces.
In my humble opinion, if the official religion in a country is say, babamity, babamic holidays should be celebrated publicly. If, say, the mamamic folowers don't like it they don't celebrate. As simple as this.

[Huw Dawson]

Pro's of Halloween:
1)Costume Parties
2)Interesting Candy
3)Horror Films
4)Fun costumes (and oodles of fake blood)

Con's of Halloween
1)Moronic Teens running racket's consisting of "give us 10 quid each and we won't throw eggs and/or rocks at your house" and doing it to every single house in the local area. (With non-existant costumes btw)
2)4 or 5 year olds knocking on doors (with costumes) two or three weeks early.
3)Children walking around in the countryside (often 4 or 5) alone or without ANY adults with them. Especially with it getting dark at 4pm most days.

Halloween is a good time to stay indoors and have a party/sleepover. Some people just exploit it into stupid ways.

Sort of Edit: Just to back what Vel said, you can simply say "This is a christian country. You can't stop me celebrating a national holiday."

[IM NOT TEH SPAM]

The town I live in currently has a bunch of people (not a majority, and not too many thankfully) who don't celebrate halloween because of religeon.  I never considered Halloween religeous, that's just plain stupid.  Otherwise we'd have an excuse to not be at school on that day. I do know that they planned on banning Halloween costumes in all of the schools in the district, but in one school too many parents complained, so they are allowing costumes.  (The new superintendant is a moron, he's from maine or something and thus believes that a foot of snow in Long Island is "a light powdering".  Thankfully I won't have to bother with him anymore...)

[SSH]

I think what the anti-halloween people object to is the glorification of witches. Now many of you won't beleive in witchcraft, but "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist". Christmas and easter may occur at the same time as pagan festivals, but then my birthday is the same day as Drew Barrymores, it doesn't mean I've posed for playboy...

Although admittedly, Chistmas seems to be a festival of mammon these days and easter a festival of chocolate.

Personally, what I object to most is that by refusing to indulge trick-or-treaters for a holiday that goes against my personal beliefs, I get eggs thrown at my windows. Now THAT is religous intolerance

And Darth, the use of public money to fund religous/pagan celebrations is the issue, you know.

[IM NOT TEH SPAM]

No, it's not... nobody I've met who doesn't celebrate (I should look up the spelling of that...  ) has any kind of pagan reason, or seems to care about the corporate exploitation of holidays.  They say to me "It insults the hindu religeon", though I can't see any reason why it would do that.  The only reason not to like Haloween is the dumbasses who egg and toilet paper houses, a completely valid yet unreligeous reason.

[edmundito]

Isn't halloween like some kind of pagan holiday that has nothing to do with any modern religion?