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Post by Phalon on Nov 5, 2016 7:30:50 GMT -6
I've never read the books, or watched the movies either for the same reason - they hold no interest to me. The girls were never interested either, so it wasn't even a case of sitting through one of the movies just because they wanted to watch it.
I drilled it because it's interesting to me why the books were considered/are banned in some schools due to religious reasons; I ran the little library in the elementary school LX attended, the books were wildly popular (I think at the time, there were only two books published in the series, and maybe a third came out the last year I was there). There was never an issue from any of the parents complaining I had the books in the library.
Here's the Bible reference that every site I checked in the drill cites as a reason Harry Potter is unacceptable:
"There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.” —Deuteronomy 18:10-13
The message delivered on the sites ranges from gentle reminders to fire and brimstone, condemning the books, J.K. Rowling, and even Scholastic for promoting Satanism in schools.
The thing that's interesting to me is that witches - that is to say the followers of the Wicca religion - don't worship Satan or practice satanism. There is no Satan in the religion, or any evil gods for that matter, so therefore true witches (Wiccans) can't worship something that to them doesn't exist. Satan is a Christian belief.
The "biblical witches" are an invention of Christianity back in the days when the church incorporated some pagan rituals and beliefs into their doctrines in order to gain followers. Those that did not covert though and still practiced the old ways and worshiped the old gods were labeled witches and sorcerers who consorted with the devil. They were condemned, not because they actually were evil, but because they did not conform to the ways of the church.
It all boils down to terminology - a witch is someone who is a follower of the Wicca religion, whereas witchcraft (white or black magic) can be practiced by someone in any religion. Witchcraft is not a religion. Satanism, on the other hand, is considered a religion - one that derived from Christianity due to its belief in a Christian figure (Satan).
So to say that the Harry Potter books and movies glorify witchcraft is probably correct. To say that they promote Satanism is, of course, entirely false. To say that because J.K. Rowling is Christian, and because the characters celebrate Christmas, a Christian holiday, is the reason the the characters aren't satanic is also false due to the fact that the religion (and its alter-ego) believe there is a Satan.
It just kinda amazes me that an innocent work of fiction that has nothing to do with religion can be twisted into something that is deemed evil or satanic.
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 5, 2016 16:32:24 GMT -6
I tend to stay out of it. I don't fight/trash those who don't want to read/watch something for whatever reasons they might have. And I don't let anyone dictate what I can read/watch. I tend to believe that if you put blinders on others, you're leaving them vulnerable. Everyone should do their best to learn what they can and figure it out for themselves. Don't follow another human being. Only have Jesus as your example, if you believe in Him, and not other fellow Christians ... you never know who's faking it just to look good within the community, and who's the real deal. And even the real deal can be misguided, so still judge for yourself.
I believe the main reason for all the fuss, is to protect those who are susceptible to 'corruption.' Those who are weak-willed. We are supposed to be our brother's keeper. Not sure why, when _everyone_ is given free will. I don't like that I have to _appear_ sinless in all things, when I'm not sinless ... and I never will be. Why should I be held accountable for others seeing me as a sinner and thinking why bother being a Christian ... and yet I'm held accountable for my actions no matter that I was 'led astray' by following someone else. This all gives me a headache, so I just do me, and if someone makes a wrong decision from watching me, so be it. I got enough on my plate keeping up with my own sins, I sure can't take on those of others.
There's is a part of Jesus' story where He prays all night, and His sweat is _like_ big droplets of blood. I was raised to believe that Jesus sweated blood. And when I was in my 30s? maybe, I was reading the verse and I realized how it was worded. It didn't say He was 'sweating' blood, but that His sweat was _as_ big droplets of blood. A couple of times, when it was mentioned that Jesus sweated blood, I tried to make everyone realize their error. Didn't go over very well.
Other points I've tried to get across to them, where I get rolled eyes and closed ears, has to do with evolution. They always get in an uproar over how the caveman evolved from monkeys, and I tried to get them to realize that it doesn't matter whether or not cavemen evolved from monkeys, since we are _descended_ from Adam & Eve. Adam & Eve were _created_ whole and new, so why get all upset about what scientists have to say about evolution.
And that goes for all the animals. They too were _created_, and did not _evolve_. And as for the 'Big Bang' ... just because God created the universe, it doesn't mean that there wasn't a huge BANG when it came into being. But you'd think I was Satan's minion trying to turn them away from God. So, I shrug my shoulders, and knock the dust from off my feet. (A Bible thing. You share the Word of God, and if you're met with rejection, you're supposed to shake the dust off your feet as you leave the people behind to go on with their lives as they choose.)
We had a beloved preacher at our Church years ago. He was a good man, thankfully, because the people would have followed him had he been another Jim Jones. He died in a freak accident and a good friend of his who was a preacher took over the Church. I thought it was too soon, and I didn't vote 'yay' or 'nay' ... but everyone else felt we had to keep the momentum going, to keep the numbers from dropping. Well, a few bad apples decided to be childish and left nasty notes. And then one member got up in front of the Church and used the Bible to discredit the preacher, and he resigned.
It was chaos. People used the fact that this Church member used scripture, so what he had to say had to be gospel. Uh. The _anti-Christ_ is going to preach the Bible! Are you going to follow him too? Doh! The members became divided, and about half left to find another Church. This is when I realized that people I've known all my life can turn on me in a heartbeat. Being related, distantly related, or a Church family my whole life didn't mean squat. If this is due to being closed minded, from others keeping you closed minded, I want no part of it.
Thankfully, I suppose, I've always been stubborn, following my own mind. One of my prayers is that God show me truth from fiction. That He not let me get caught up in anything that goes against Him. To have strength to stand up against those who are not doing His will. I don't want to blindly be like the Germans who murdered all those precious people. Anything I'm told in Church, or by Christians, or by anyone, I pray that God give me the wisdom to make the right choices, to follow the right path.
Not to say I don't make mistakes. I do. But I believe I'm open minded enough to one day realize my mistake and make changes in how I live my life. They say what goes around, comes around. And that goes for Christians as well. Ban books and one day the Bible will get banned. Stomp on people, and one day you will be stomped on, no matter what you believe. Sadly, it seems it's becoming Christian stomping time. And all Christians are being lumped into one stomping vat. I think it's inevitable. It happens all throughout history ... one religion always topples another, and reigns until another religion topples it. Around and around they go ... never managing to reign forever. Nor coexisting peacefully together.
Why can't we all just get along? We all have people we love, and don't want to see slaughtered by rivals. I believe in, "Live and let live." And I pray we can do that instead of continuing to stomp down those who don't live their lives to our standards.
Sorry for the rant. As you can see, this has been a sore point with me for a number of years now.
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Post by stepper on Nov 5, 2016 20:29:23 GMT -6
The reply to these will take more time, but I will reply.
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Post by Phalon on Nov 5, 2016 22:17:36 GMT -6
You should never feel you have to apologize for being impassioned about your beliefs. Faith is a very emotional and personal thing.
Mahatma Gandhi, who said that Jesus was one of greatest teachers humanity ever had, also said, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
Twisting scriptures in the Bible, as did the member in your church did to discredit the preacher, was a very unchristian thing to do. Unfortunately, there have always been, and always will be those who twist faith to suit their own needs, or suppress others.
Exactly!
Gandhi also said, explaining his religion, "Hinduism tells every one to worship God according to his own Faith or Dharma and so it lives at peace with all the religions." Smart man that Gandhi was.
This is a big issue for me, and one (of many) reason(s) I no longer identify with being Christian. I will preface what my beliefs are by saying I am in no way discounting Christianity as being a valid system of beliefs or am not knocking the religion in any way. It just does not totally work for me personally. I believe that faith is a personal choice, and that there is no right or wrong religion; one religion is not better than another, other than one religion might be a better fit to a person's personal beliefs. All religions, I believe, can and should coexist, I do not believe it will ever happen though. An individual's religious choice should not, and cannot be argued - and never should one faith be forced upon another, or someone be told they are not correct in what they believe. That's what I believe anyway.
I consider myself agnostic - I do not discount that there may be a God (or gods), but my morals and the way I live my life is based on what I believe is good or right, and not what the Bible tells me is the way I should live my life. I identity most with Humanism.
I mention Mahatma Gandhi specifically because he is the indirect reason I started to question my faith in Christianity probably when I was in my early twenties. Gandhi - one of the greatest nonviolent peacemakers the world over - according to some Christian demoninations, is in hell because he did not accept Jesus as his savior (or in Catholicism, which I was raised, resides in purgatory until Jesus deemed him worthy to enter Heaven). Faith, not acts, grant a person salvation. So Gandhi, (Hindus, Buddists, Native Americans, and those that practice faiths other Christianity), pretty much are destined to rot in hell. Hitler, on the other hand, though his faith is debatable (he claimed to be a Christian, and used the claim to influence people, but what he actually believed remains unknown), resides in Heaven; if he was lying about his faith, really doesn't matter - it is just to illustrate what made me question my faith when I was younger. There are plenty of others who commit atrocities who are granted salvation according to the idea that salvation is granted through faith. Simplistic maybe, but I just could not at the time, and still can't wrap my head around this. Xena Sis, a devout Christian, and I have discussions about this all the time. Her faith says no - there is only one God, and one Savior - Jesus Christ, and one must accept this to be granted salvation in Heaven, therefore, in her faith, Gandhi, unless he accepted Jesus as his Savior, is in hell.
The thing is, why can't people who have faiths other than Christianity reach salvation based on what their own religion teaches, whether it be a paradise in the afterlife, or reincarnation. That is a rhetorical question - I am not looking for an answer, because I believe there is no answer.
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Post by Phalon on Oct 15, 2017 22:13:40 GMT -6
Since the day was dark and rainy yesterday at work, and few customers ventured in, we of course, did a whole lot of talking and telling stories. 'Tis the season, and the gloomy weather was perfect for stories from Halloweens past, and the stuff we did as kids. One co-worker couldn't believe the other two of us used to kick around in cemeteries for fun. We were like seriously? Some of the best stuff happens in cemeteries! My cemetery-loving co-worker told us, that growing up in Chicago, he and his friends used to sneak into the Mount Carmel Cemetery at night to visit the Italian Bride's grave, and to see if they'd see the woman dressed in white. The way he told the story is that she was a woman who, in the 1800s, died while giving birth to her stillborn child. She was buried in her wedding dress with the child in her arms, and for years afterward, her mother had dreams in which her daughter begged to be unburied. Eventually, the mother had her daughter exhumed. The dead woman appeared exactly as she did the day she was buried years earlier, though the child in her arms had completely decomposed. The hem of her wedding gown was tattered and dirty. It was said she roamed the cemetery at night, searching for her child. She was reburied, this time with a large marble statue of her in her wedding gown, with a photo of her in her casket at the exhumation, looking as fresh as a recently dead woman could look. Unlike the story I mentioned in the other thread about Dunn's tomb that was legend in our small town when we were kids, the story of the Italian Bride is all over the Internet. Some of what my co-worker said is urban legend - like the wedding gown being tattered and dirty - but the rest of it is well-documented. www.orderofthegooddeath.com/the-italian-bride-of-chicago
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Post by Phalon on Oct 22, 2017 7:58:01 GMT -6
For future reference, I thought I'd stick everyone's favorite movies from Facebook Whoosh that are Halloween traditions; it's easier, I think, to pull up a post in a thread here, than to dig back to find an old post in Facebook (though I can't be sure, because I've never tried it on Facebook), and because some of the movies I've never seen, but would like to in the future. In no particular order of ranking....
Constantine Sleepy Hollow Van Hesling Coraline The Corpse Bride Hocus Pocus Trick r Treat Jeepers Creepers I & II Practical Magic Halloween Halloween H2O Boogeyman Darkness Falls Bram Stoker's Dracula Shutter Island The Descent The Fog Zombieland World War Z Night of the Comet Tales of Halloween The Purge I & II Gerald's Choice The Babadook
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Post by Mini Mia on Oct 23, 2017 17:34:35 GMT -6
Warm Bodies
Halloween -- Halloween 2 <---- I prefer the original 1 & 2 versions.
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Post by Phalon on Oct 25, 2017 5:58:43 GMT -6
Oh, I meant to add "Warm Bodies" to the list, but since it was in a different FB post, I forgot.
I watched a few movies over the weekend, or at least parts of them (I always seem to miss the beginnings). "The Pit and the Pendulum" is a favorite from back in my high-school days (long story that involves my friends, the Bob Newhart Show, and a bottle of Myers dark rum) - and, of course, I love Poe.
Another old black and white movie I saw, this one for the first time, was "The Black Sleep", which was essentially Bela Lugosi's last acting role. Though it wasn't supposed to be, it was good, campy fun - over-acted, and melodramatic.
Bruce Campbell had a role in the other one I watched - "The Woods" - and oddly enough, this one wasn't overacted. Predictable, but creepy.
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Post by Mini Mia on Oct 27, 2017 21:51:38 GMT -6
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Post by Phalon on Oct 29, 2017 5:24:49 GMT -6
LX dressed as a zombie bride once for Halloween during high school...or maybe she was a corpse bride? Either way, her makeup was fantastic, done by a friend of hers who was in the drama club. We pieced together the costume out of old cheap lace curtains I found at the thrift store, and other set of sheer curtain panels. She was covered in lots and lots of flowy fabric, that by the time Halloween was done, was covered in mud - it rained that year. I still have it - never washed it - and sometime dress up a mannequin as a skeleton bride for one of the Halloween yard props.
That's one thing I really miss about the girls being older - helping them make their Halloween costumes. Although, BP is dressing up this year - she's going as Mia Wallace from "Pulp Fiction".
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Post by Mini Mia on Oct 29, 2017 20:22:20 GMT -6
My niece also shared the images on Facebook. They're beautifully done. She had dressed up for a school dance, I believe. She turned 12 recently ... soon to be a teenager. Now, THAT is very scary.
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Post by Phalon on Oct 30, 2017 4:35:28 GMT -6
Ah, yes...scary times ahead. Scary times, indeed!
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Post by Mini Mia on Oct 30, 2017 17:59:07 GMT -6
I'm just the Great Aunt though, so I don't have to get as much of the attitude and her parents and grandparents. I just sit back and snicker behind my hand.
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Post by Phalon on Oct 31, 2017 11:53:34 GMT -6
You all have a while yet....they usually, from my experience, don't get that unsurly teenage girl attitude until around 15.
Zombie brides, dead brides, skeleton brides....you know that got my mind churning. Just finished the outside decorations. I used BP's red rag-top convertible (it's a beater, and Hubs couldn't pass it up; we split the cost with her), and pulled it up in the front yard. Inside, driving is the skeleton chauffeur; in the back seat are the bride and groom skeletons, hugging. A few strands of strobe lights on the dash, and in the rear window will hopefully light up the inside. The trunk has the typical "Just Married" sign hanging from it....only "Married" is crossed out in a slash of red "blood", and underneath "Buried" is scrawled in....and in front of "Buried" in dripping blood red, is "Un". Exclamation point in dripping red. Oh! and there's a bloody leg from the knee down hanging out of the trunk, and a chain with skulls (instead of tin cans) dragging from behind. A ghoul dressed in flowing black and purple rides on the rag-top.
Three skeletons fight for the bouquet nearby.
Texted pictures to LX who said, "You are the most clever witch mom ever; your humor is so dark." This was after she texted me this morning, "Happy Halloween, Witch Mom."
Witch Mom? Kinda like that.
Porch is decorated, but other than that, I'm not doing the graveyard scene this year - weather is supposed to be nasty, and clean-up with just the car will be easy-peasey.
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Post by Mini Mia on Oct 31, 2017 20:02:39 GMT -6
Good to know. It would be nice if she skipped it altogether. Ha!
Hope you post images on Facebook.
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Post by Phalon on Nov 1, 2017 5:03:56 GMT -6
Ha! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!
Unfortunately, none of the pictures I took with my camera at night came out good; the strobe lights in the car, and purple and orange lights on the porch railings, made everything blurry. Only two came out - the one I posted of the pumpkins on FB, and one of the 'just married' sign. I took a couple with my phone during daylight after I finished decorating - but like everything on Halloween, it's at nighttime when everything comes to life.
I had fun passing out candy - and playing "tricks" on both the kids and the neighbors. I had a lot more candy than usual because the event at work was rained out; I had made close to 100 treat bags of candy for that, plus everything I bought to give out at home. And I have tons of Halloween props that I didn't use outside, and lots of gourds and ornamental corn I brought home from work.
So......
I'd ask a group of kids to "please do me a favor. I borrowed this from the neighbor" and sent them next door with a "bloody" shirt with instructions to "Tell him I'm sorry, but I couldn't get the bloodstains out."
or...a cup of sugar with eyeballs in it. Or a "helping hand" or a number of other things from my Halloween box of plenty.
Then there was, "Do you want to play a little Halloween joke on the neighbors?"
I'd pass out gourds with the candy, and tell them to give them to the lady next door, telling her, she's "simply gourd-geous" - loud enough for me to hear. I'd also hear giggles and laughter coming from next door.
My favorite though, and the kids' favorite - give them each an ear of corn, send them next door; when the neighbor opened the door, scream "We are the Children of the Corn", drop the corn on the porch and run. ..and then of course, come back to my house and I'd give them enough candy for both houses.
It was too funny...the kids had a lot of fun being in on the "trick", and during the lulls in trick-or-treaters, the neighbor would bring back the stuff to me, so the game could be played over again.
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 1, 2017 18:27:12 GMT -6
Sounds like you and your neighbors had a blast.
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Post by Phalon on Nov 12, 2017 9:29:10 GMT -6
Nearly two weeks since Halloween, and still the devious little trick-playing continues...
My boss, whose house is next to the nursery, out in the country, gets only 2-4 trick-or-treaters on Halloween, one of which is the neighbor, and the others are her grandkids; she always has a ton of candy left-over. This year she gave out Reese's peanut butter cups - not the snack size ones, but the full-sized two-to-a-package ones. Though we're closed for the season, she'll come into the office to do paperwork for an hour or so a day - and every day she will deviously leave a pack of Reese's in my lunchbox while I'm out on the grounds, working. How evil she is, knowing I can't resist! Sometimes, if she sneaks them in after lunch, I haven't found them until I got home, and made my lunch the next morning - at least then, I can pawn the peanut butter cups off on BP.
Yesterday evening though, I was looking forward to something sweet, and went to look in the lunchbox for my Reese's. It was empty! Now, that is evil!!!
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 12, 2017 21:26:10 GMT -6
I'd say it's time to pay her a trick.
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Post by Mini Mia on Sept 30, 2018 20:48:34 GMT -6
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Post by Phalon on Oct 1, 2018 7:00:21 GMT -6
Hey, it's the Imp!!! I'd recognize that ghoulish head of hair anywhere.
I always forget the artist's name, and it took me quite a while this morning to find it - Brian Froud, highly respected artist known for his mythic creatures. He also was the conceptual designer for the movies "The Dark Crystal" and "Labyrinth", and worked with Jim Henson on many other projects. While working on "The Dark Crystal" set, he met his wife, Wendy Midener - who created Yoda for the Star Wars movies.
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Post by stepper on Oct 1, 2018 15:47:39 GMT -6
I used to be rather Froud of his work - including "The Dark Crystal".
You'll be relieved to know I'm not that back - but I couldn't resist the pun.
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Post by Phalon on Oct 2, 2018 4:43:31 GMT -6
<Sigh.>
Now, you've gone and done it. The Imp is vain enough as it is, but now she's strutting around, slinging her hair this way and that (giving it whiplash in the process), and gazing adoringly into the mirror.
Why? She's a Froud Imp.
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Post by Phalon on Oct 20, 2018 5:13:49 GMT -6
I thought I'd play a little Halloween prank on Hubs...or rather, a little prank involving a Halloween prop, which sort of backfired on me.
LX's Hellion kitten, about six months old and not so small anymore, is a long, lanky black cat. Hubs did not want another cat in the house at first, and it took some convincing - he is a sucker though, a softie at heart, because it was only temporary until the kids moved, he agreed. How could you deny a kitten, the last of a litter and the one nobody wanted probably because it was black, a home? The kitten became his little buddy.
The day after LX, the Boyfriend, and their Hellions moved, I was at the store browsing through the Halloween section. There was a life-sized black cat prop with the same green eyes that seemed to bore into your soul just like the Hellion's did....and like the Hellion, it was the last one left, sitting on the shelf by itself. I had to have it.
When I got home, thinking I'd trick Hubs, I put it sitting in a basket on the kitchen table where the Hellion used to sit constantly...although he was not supposed to be on the table at all! My little joke worked - when Hubs came in, he did a double-take. "Whoa...for a second, I thought it was the Hellion!"
Unfortunately, my prank worked a little too well - I did the same thing when I saw the thing. Every. Single. Time. Even though I knew it was there, whenever I'd walk into the room, or even already be in the room and turn toward it, just for a second I'd think it was the Hellion once again sitting on the table where it's not supposed to be.
When I got home from work the next day, Hubs was in the kitchen getting dinner ready. The plastic cat was still on the table, except its soul-boring green eyes weren't staring at me when I walked in. It cracked me up - instead of just moving the cat to a less assuming out-of-sight-out-of-mind place, Hubs shrouded it with a dishtowel. And there it has sat all week...until yesterday.
I walked in after work and Hubs was getting dinner ready. I did a double-take, "Whoa...for just a second, I thought the Hellion back." Hubs had needed a dish towel.
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Post by Mini Mia on Oct 20, 2018 14:59:50 GMT -6
That's how it goes sometimes.
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Post by Phalon on Oct 31, 2018 7:26:52 GMT -6
Time to go full throttle with the decorating. I've had bundles of cornstalks framing the porch, gourds, pumpkins, the metal crows and cat-in-the-moon silhouettes, and my wooden witch 'fortunes told' sign out for weeks. Added my new 'tombstone' concrete cross and skeleton last week, and put up the orange and purple strands of lights on the porch railing on Monday (which I've wanted to do weeks ago, but every time I actually had time, the weather wasn't cooperating). All the rest of the stuff goes out today. LX is here to help; it's been forever it seems, that we've spent Halloween together - it's both of our favorite holiday.
Last night the girls and I carved a dozen pumpkins - most of them are just luminaries to line the front walk. I used Hubs' drills and various sized bits to make the holes - which he willingly provided, and I'm glad we started after he went to bed! I'm sure he'd have been rolling his eyes and complaining if he had seen his tools covered in pumpkin goop!
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Post by Phalon on Nov 1, 2018 5:32:58 GMT -6
It was the perfect night for Halloween. Temperatures were in mid-50s, no wind, no rain...and no trick-or-treaters. I shouldn't say "no" - there were some, but not nearly as many as in years past; we probably got 50 or so kids. We noticed after a while that all the kids were either very young, or teenagers - very, very few in the 8-12-year old range, which are the ones who are the most fun. They're the crowd who really gets Halloween - the ones you can joke with, and who interact more than the others. The little kids, although cute as can be, don't understand what's going on, and the teenagers are too busy for the most part trying to act nonchalant to engage in silliness.
We guessed the lack of kids in that perfect Halloween age-group was due to all the "Trunk-or-Treat" events put on by churches and other groups. Too much stimulation for the youngest ones whose parents usually just take them to a few houses anyway, and the teenagers probably aren't welcomed at such events. But for that mid-range age group - how easy is it for a parent to pull into a parking lot, set their kids free, then open up their vehicle trunk filled with candy for other kids - pretty danged easy one-stop-shopping. How fun is it for kids to roam a parking lot, trick-or-treating from car to car - not very fun, we decided. Although granted none of us has ever done it; "Trunk-or-Treating" wasn't a thing when the girls were little, it seems though that is takes all the adventure out of it. LX, reminiscing back to when she was a kid, said that the candy was secondary - the fun on Halloween was the thrill about being out after the sun went down, going door-to-door in the dark to decorated houses; it was spooky and magical. There's no magic in a lit parking lot full of cars."
It was still a fun night though - the little kids were so cute, and the teenagers costumes were elaborately creative.
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 1, 2018 16:39:57 GMT -6
I think parents' peace of mind wins over the fun. It's a shame there are always people that ruin it for the rest of us. Too much selfishness, laziness & mental sickness in this world.
(Mental sickness is not necessarily mental illness. You can be sick of the mind and not be mentally ill.)
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Post by moonglum on Nov 2, 2018 2:17:43 GMT -6
The British have never really 'got' the whole Halloween thing. I think it is very much an American tradition. True, we get a few callers and the supermarkets fill the shelves with 'spooky' novelties but the other night we had just one knock on the door. It is a similar thing here with age-groups. It is the very young that get dressed up and do the rounds with their parents, no teenagers at all.
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Post by Phalon on Nov 2, 2018 5:08:25 GMT -6
I read an article last week about somewhere in England - London maybe? - about how signs that said something to the effect of 'trick or treaters not welcome' were selling at quite a brisk rate. Trick-or-treating is not an American 'invention' - it's been around in some from or another for centuries (in England during the 1600s, Guy Fawkes Day was an early form of the tradition). Here's quite an interesting article about the History of Trick or Treating: www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-trick-or-treatingBut you're right Moonglum, Trick-or-Treating in its current form, is an American thing - and here's a clip of how it all started, depicted on one of my favorite television shows, Drunk History (as always, Drunk History comes with a warning about the use of 'swear' words): "The Mother of Halloween"
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