Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 8:09 am Post subject: Halloween, according to the Vatican.........
The Vatican attempted to put a brake on the growing popularity of Halloween yesterday, branding it anti-Christian and dangerous.
The condemnation follows criticism from Catholic bishops who this week urged parents not to let their children dress up as ghosts and goblins.
The Vatican spoke out on the eve of tonight's ritual which falls before the significant Catholic holy day of All Saints.
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI, pictured in the Vatican, has slammed Halloween as 'dangerous'
Halloween is largely a secular celebration which has its origins in an ancient festival marking the start of the 'darker half of the year'.
But in an article entitled The Dangerous Messages of Halloween, the Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano quoted liturgical expert Joan Maria Canals as saying: 'Halloween has an undercurrent of occultism and is absolutely anti-Christian.'
Father Canals urged parents 'to be aware of this and try to direct the meaning of the feast towards wholesomeness and beauty rather than terror, fear and death'.
L'Osservatore praised a church at Alcala de Henares in Spain which had decided to hold a prayer vigil on Saturday night and the Paris archdiocese's idea of having children play a lucky dip dubbed ' Holywins' instead.
Last night, another Catholic group, the influential Association of Pope John XXIII, joined the condemnation, calling it a 'great Satanic ritual'.
It said: 'We appeal to the whole Catholic community not to promote this recourse to the macabre and the horrific.
'All parents and all those that hold the values of life dear should know that Halloween is an adoration of Satan, which is carried out underhand through parties and games for children and adults.'
The Catholic Church in Italy has taken a dim view of Halloween celebrations for years.
Aldo Bonaiuto, head of the Catholic Church's anti-occult and sect unit, warned parents of the dangers to children and said the event 'promotes the culture of death'.
He added: 'Halloween pushes new generations towards a mentality of esoteric magic and it attacks sacred and spiritual values through a devious initiation to the art and images of the occult. At best, it gives a big helping hand to consumerism and materialism.'
I thought the catholic faith was fading....
I know so many who no longer practice the faith because of petty narrow rules they place on their followers
The hypocrisy between the way the two festivals of Samhain and Yule are treated by the Church is obscene, too. All Xmas customs are totally pagan - the tree, greenery in the house, the symbolism of holly and mistletoe, the shiny baubles, the present-giving, the star or fairy on the Tree, even Father Christmas - all have pagan origins, yet we don't hear a peep from the Church about those. I believe this is because the Church has managed a complete take-over of the 25th December, which was already an important mid-winter festival in quite a few pagan cultures already, celebrating the birth/rebirth of the Sun. It wasn't very difficult for the Church to redirect it into a celebration of the birth of the Son.
Samhain was another matter entirely, honouring as it does the death of the summer (which is what 'Samhain' means - 'summer's end') and honouring the memories of the ancestors as well as the loved ones who had gone to the Summerlands over the previous year. Samhain represents the dark half of the year, which is equally important as the light half, because without dark there can be no light, and it is, after all, nature's way of turning the wheel.
Christians are dualists, dividing everything into opposites: light and dark, male and female, good and evil; for them, light,male and good are all positives. Dark and female equate to evil in their minds. Just take a look at some of the quotes from the bible itself, and from medieval churchmen such as Thomas Aquinas - they're enough to make your hair stand on end. And it was such misogyny that allowed the bringing into being of that most evil of torturers' handbooks, the Malleus Maleficarum, which was endorsed by Pope Innocent VIII in his anti-witch Bull which was used as a preface to the Malleus when it was first printed in 1486/7.
Christians have always associated anything to do with the dark with evil, and 'sanitised' and Christianised all the other pagan festivals, and even the mythology of other cultures, especially the Celtic. Paradoxically, it is only because of the christian monks who first wrote it down on paper (or parchment) that so much of our own ancient myths have been preserved. Even so, much of the original has been lost, as the Celts did not believe in writing anything down, although many of the Druids were scholars who knew Latin and Greek. However, there are many glimpses into the Celtic mind from references that escaped the monks' censorship because they didn't realise its significance.
Samhain, however, seems to me to be the one important Celtic festival that the Church couldn't eradicate. Oh, they tried by trying to turn it into All Hallows Eve, which is where we get the name 'Hallowe'en ' from, followed by All Saints Day, Nov 1st. But they never seemed to be able to wipe out all the old country customs and traditions, enjoyed so much by so many. There seems to be something almost primeval in the human desire to celebrate and recognise the relevance and value of darkness to balance the light, to mourn the loss of summer and to prepare for the dark days of winter ahead. Fire is also a vital element of the season of Samhain, as it mimics the sun at a time when it is fast disappearing below the western horizon, and so begins the sympathetic magic which culminates at Yule, of encouraging the sun to return, bringing with it its life-giving and regenerating properties.
I believe the Church is very frightened of this festival because it represents the fact that it still cannot completely conquer people's enthusuasm for and adherence to it, and this is the reason why the Pope and all his minions are still condemning and demonising Hallowe'en customs today.
Now this is the sort of thing I would rather talk about.
Calm down dear!!
You'll end up with indigestion!!
But......the Pagans did invent everything, I know it to be true as I saw it in a meditation when my chakras were lining up nicely.
Plus, they reported it in The Sun so it ha sto be true.....doesn't it?!
_________________ Pagan Pride: The God and The Goddess Rock!
Calm down dear!!
You'll end up with indigestion!!
But......the Pagans did invent everything, I know it to be true as I saw it in a meditation when my chakras were lining up nicely.
Plus, they reported it in The Sun so it ha sto be true.....doesn't it?!
Actually I need to make an apology to you because I saw exactly the same thing when my pints were lined up
That's a stupid thing! Are they gonna ban reading fairy tales too?? _________________ Magic Is. That’s all, it just is. We don’t have to create it, we simply have to find it. But where do we look? Within, first, last and always; look within.
Argueing over who invented what in religion makes me laugh.
me too.
_________________ Magic Is. That’s all, it just is. We don’t have to create it, we simply have to find it. But where do we look? Within, first, last and always; look within.
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