OFFS
By Thoreau
My nephew’s school can’t call their party at the end of October a Halloween party. They call it a literature party (since most Halloween…um, I mean, end of October harvest festival celebration) costumes are based on characters in stories. Why do they have to do this? Because Halloween is apparently a religious holiday.
Look, I am well aware that many religions and cultures have had religious celebrations around the end of the harvest. I am aware that Halloween in particular has roots in various religious traditions, and that the Catholic Church celebrates All Saints Day on Nov. 1. Nonetheless, present context matters as much as historical context in determining whether a practice is religious. Whatever Halloween may have once been, whatever it may still be to some small group, the present practice of costumes, pumpkins, and candy is hardly religious.
I’m an ACLU member and everything, but I take religion seriously enough to believe that the thoughts and intent of the practicioner matter as much as the history in determining whether an act is religious. If you carve the pumpkin while thanking God (or Goddess) for the harvest, yeah, you’re engaging in some sort of religious act. If you carve a pumpkin because it looks nice and the kids enjoy candy and costumes, that isn’t religion. By way of analogy, I’ll support the ACLU in opposing the City Hall Nativity Scene, or the City Hall Christmas Tree with religious ornaments, but if they sue over a tree that has lights but no religious decorations, and ignore the fact that some kids (and adults) are having fun, I’m going to be all “Dude, have you been visited by 3 ghosts lately?”
What I’m curious about is who actually complained to the school and forced them to change the name of the party. This is California, so it could be that some Wiccan felt that hir celebration was being profaned. But the school is in suburban San Diego, so it could be that some Christian was upset that children were celebrating something with Wiccan roots. Either way, it’s worth noting that the person who complained succeeded only in changing the name of the party, but not in stopping the party. So that’s something.
Final thought: Since this is California, somebody should make some mischief and insist that they be allowed to have a Dia De Los Muertos celebration in the name of multiculturalism. It will be just as much fun and at least as scary.
I have to go take a shower now, because I feel like those Fox News viewers who get upset when they hear “Happy Holidays.”
Comment by max —
October 24, 2010 @ 6:37 pm
What I’m curious about is who actually complained to the school and forced them to change the name of the party.
It was probably a Fox viewer engaging in tit for tat: ‘Since I can’t have my religious holiday, we can’t have any holidays.’
I mean it would fit them to a tee.
max
['Resenttiment.']
Comment by joe from Lowell —
October 24, 2010 @ 7:15 pm
Samhain is a religious holiday. All Saints Day is a religious holiday.
Halloween is NOT a religious holiday.
Are you sure the real reason they don’t call it “Halloween” isn’t an objection to this non-religious holiday by religious people? There is a certain strand of Evangelical extremists who are strongly anti-Halloween.
Comment by Gene Callahan —
October 24, 2010 @ 7:41 pm
The whole “no religion in the schools” thing has always been a farce anyway. You really can’t educate children without conveying a religious view. What gets conveyed today is Secular Liberal Humanism (and by “liberal” I don’t mean American liberals, I mean what political philosophers mean, which is everyone from Nancy Pelosi to Ron Paul), whose sacraments include things like recycling, safe sex, and tobacco demonizing.
Comment by ajw —
October 24, 2010 @ 8:33 pm
Not a big expert on religion, but I knew a very conservative Orthodox Jewish family who had their kids dress for Purim rather than Halloween since the latter is a pagan holiday. I would expect equally conservative Christians to feel the same way (except for the Purim part, which is a bummer for them, because hamentashen rules).
Comment by kishnevi —
October 24, 2010 @ 8:50 pm
Amen, brother to comment 3.
A lot of evangelical/fundamentalist Christians view Halloween as a Satanic holiday, and consider trick or treating to be devil worship. So of course they would find it natural for the local schools to celebrate Satan’s special day, and complain loudly. Even if they send there own kids to church schools because the schools are over run by secular humanists. That secular humanists might have no intention of celebrating Satan does not of course occur to them.
Comment by dhex —
October 24, 2010 @ 10:00 pm
It will be just as much fun and at least as scary.
and cool candy to boot!
What gets conveyed today is Secular Liberal Humanism
if that’s a religion, then what ideology isn’t?
Comment by Thoreau —
October 24, 2010 @ 10:38 pm
It may very well have been a fundie complaining. My in-laws just said that the school changed the name because somebody argued that Halloween is a religious holiday. The in-laws didn’t know whether the complaint came from a fundie, a Wiccan, or an easily-annoyed atheist.
Anyway, the more important point is that one of my nephews is going to dress up as a ninja and the other is going to be Iron-Man’s sidekick.
Comment by Tesla Lives Again —
October 24, 2010 @ 10:50 pm
My high school chemistry teacher set up a “chemist tree” as a stand-in for a Christmas tree. Administrators decreed that a Christmas tree could be offensive to some, and therefore not allowed (this occurred in 2005).
Comment by Thoreau —
October 24, 2010 @ 10:54 pm
An even simpler explanation occurred to me: Nobody actually complained about Halloween, but in the process of examining some other matter with church-state implications, an overly-cautious lawyer or administrator decided to just go after all of the holidays as a precautionary measure.
Comment by Pham Nuwen —
October 24, 2010 @ 11:52 pm
What some others have said above. Most likely it was some religious groups that got their feelings hurt over the name “Halloween”.
Comment by Kevin Carson —
October 25, 2010 @ 12:18 am
“What I’m curious about is who actually complained to the school and forced them to change the name of the party.”
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8343692041411013720
Comment by Someone Who Doesn't Want to Lose His Job —
October 25, 2010 @ 9:58 am
I hope he’ll be War Machine and not Happy Hogan.
Comment by Someone Who Doesn't Want to Lose His Job —
October 25, 2010 @ 10:00 am
(Because a Jon Favreau costume would be the weakest thing ever.)
Comment by matthew h —
October 25, 2010 @ 10:11 am
I did once hear a rumor — never Google-chased it down — that in some place Santa Claus was required to be referred to as “Holiday Man”.
An odd question strikes this moment: who or what does or has Santa dress(ed) as on Halloween?
Comment by Someone Who Doesn't Want to Lose His Job —
October 25, 2010 @ 10:37 am
Probably Jon Favreau.
Comment by Thoreau —
October 25, 2010 @ 10:38 am
He’ll be War Machine.
Comment by Someone Who Doesn't Want to Lose His Job —
October 25, 2010 @ 10:42 am
Whew!!!!!
Comment by lunchstealer —
October 25, 2010 @ 11:41 am
“Fall festival” ugh.
Comment by Glaivester —
October 25, 2010 @ 7:55 pm
joe from lowell:
Samhain is a Real Ghostbusters villain.
Everyone knows that.
Comment by joe from Lowell —
October 26, 2010 @ 2:17 pm
Wow, Glaivester. My opinion of Glenn Danzig is down the tubes.
Pingback by Season of the Regulator - Reason Magazine —
October 29, 2010 @ 6:53 pm
[...] as "Fall-o-Ween," even as a "Literature Party." (Literature? A blogger at Unqualified Offerings explains: Most of the "costumes are based on characters in [...]