All Hallows Eve.

I quite agree, but then the same can be said of Halloween. People aren't really celebrating any pagan festival, but its children getting candy and having fun dressing up in costume.

 

I think we are both saying the same thing, then. I said that (regardless of the origin of the word "bonfire", people who light one these days are not necessarily driving away evil spirits. You said that the same can be said of Halloween. My message was written in response to these two sentences in your earlier post:

Actually, a bonfire is no different than celebrating Halloween. The tradition comes from another pagan tradition.
​

 

No, they are not really the same, Sopranette. Traditionally, in the UK Halloween was celebrated (if at all) with a few special games for children, and perhaps the making of a lantern from a pumpkin. "Trick or Treat" is now more widespread - it was hardly known here when I was a boy in the 1950s. Guy Fawkes Night originally commemorated the attempt of Guido ("Guy") Fawkes to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605. It is celebrated with bonfires, usually with a "guy" on top (an effigy of Guy Fawkes, made of old clothes stuffed with straw), and fireworks. Organised displays are becoming more popular now, mainly for safety reasons.

However, in the same way that "Christmas" seems to come into the shops earlier and earlier each year, the same has happened with Guy Fawkes night, with fireworks being set off for weeks before 5th November.

Sadly, both 31st October and 5th November are increasingly seen by some young people as excuses for loutish, even dangerous behaviour.

 

Thanks for the info, but we are definitely NOT anything catholic nor are we Protestant..

 

Since Christmas is the Christian replacement for the day set aside to worship the sun god, could we come up with A Christian replacement for halloween?

 

I just finished serving candy to the neighbor's kids.
I was dressed as a Blue M&M.

Goes to prove the old maxim:

You are What you Eat!

I've been eating lots of blue M&Ms lately :laugh:

Yum!

 

Are you a druid? That's funny, you don't look druish.

 

We celebrated Halloween tonight. My daughter tossed on a sheet with holes in it and went to a church festival as the haunted mattress (see Spongebob). Meanwhile, my son and I had hamburgers on the grill. My daughter won some bagels in the cakewalk and brought them home, so we celebrated with bagels and cream cheese. There's nowhere nearby to get lox, but I would have gotten some if I could have. I love lox and bagels with cream cheese, onion and tomato.

Except for the absence of lox, this is all in line with the traditional Druish celebration, right?

 

"Who are you?"

"Barf!"

"Not in here you don't mister! This is a Mercedes."

 

To avoid any misunderstanding, Sal, I did not refer to the matter of whether you are catholic, Protestant, or neither. I was simply replying to your earlier statement that 31st October is "not 'all-hallows eve' unless you're a druid." Sorry for any confusion.

 

No disrespect, but how is it "an alternative to the trick or treating" if it doesn't take place on the evening of October 31st?

Anyway, we got a permit to block off our major city street for the whole block (the chruch is in the middle of the block), requiring the rerouting of a public transit bus route and police support. We were given funds by a local hospital to rent four of those inflatable bouncy things for kids to go in, and had other game stations - ring toss, face painting, miniture golf, etc in between. We had a Christian band set up, and fed anyone who came by with their kids donated hot dogs (from Hatfield meats), Coke products (from the local Coke affiliate), and snack cakes (from TastyKake). There must have been 1,000+ people served. The Gospel was preached from a loudspeaker, and by folks talking in the crowd one-on-one with tracts. I spent most of the evening catching little ones coming down a mini-inflatable slide. Parents who thought they would have to go knocking on doors and worrying about what was in the candy or who would answer the door, spent a safe and happy time with their kids at the church in the name of Jesus. I heard nothing but positive feedback from neighborhood people I didn't know. And just that afternoon, the schools in the area were on lockdown because a robber who shot a cop in the face was on the loose. How great it was to offer the kids a safe place to be on the heels of that.

 

I guess that means I should lay off the rump roast.

 

:laugh:

the local Chinese restaurant here, replete with it's butchered English signs over the food, has one:

"Fried dumping."

npet....PLEASE don't eat there....

 

:laugh: That's pretty funny! It reminds me of a Chinese restaurant near where I used to live in Trenton, New Jersey. It was called "House of Shih". The problem is that the style of script they used for the sign made "Shih" look like a similar word.

 

Oh, GROSS.

Who would eat at the "house of shin?"

Wait.....you.....er.....nevermind.

 

Maybe they serve the Pu Pu platter...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pu_pu_platter

 

Oh, that was terrible, and I wish I'd thought of it first.

 

May the Swartz be with you!