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WHAT A GREAT HALLOWEEN 2006!

Everyone looked incredible, creative and sexy! Here's some pics from that event.

The Spirit of Halloween: Devil or Saint

By Leonard Pickel, Editor of Haunted Attraction Magazine

“Christian Conservatives” are quick to denounce what they see as attacks on Christmas, but are much less open to other people’s right to celebrate Halloween. For decades, Halloween has been denounced as a “Pagan” Holiday and that those who celebrate “All Hallows’ Eve,” are “Doing the work of the Devil!” While still other Church organizations host Haunted Houses as fund raisers. What is the truth about Halloween? Who created the holiday and why do we celebrate it today?

Samhain
Our search begins over 2,000 years ago with a Celtic fall fire festival called “Samhain,” (pronounced "SOW-in"), which simply meant “summer's end.” The Celts, (pronounced 'Kelts"), celebrated Samhain much like we celebrate New Years today, in remembrance of family and friends who had died during the year and with a bonfire, (fireworks of the day).

The Celts where considered “Pagan because they worshiped more than one God, but their religion did not believe in a “God of Death,” or a “Devil.” The Celts believed that after death, everyone went to the same place Tir nan Og., a land of eternal youth and happiness.

A time between the new and the old year, but part of neither, it was believed that during Samhain the veil separating the world of the living and this world of the dead was at its thinnest, which made it possible for evil spirits to briefly cross over and return to their old homes. Fearful of being visited by the ghosts of past occupants, villagers would dress up in costumes to scare the spirits away. They would also leave food and other “treats” at their door so spirits, would not bring bad tidings to the family. A lighted candle inside a hollowed out turnip with a face carved into it, was also used to scare spirits away.

Samhain traditions included telling of the future. The first person to bite an apple floating in a tub would be the first to marry in the coming year and when peeling and apple, the longer the unbroken apple peel was, the longer their life was destined to be.

As Christianity spread throughout Europe, Pope Gregory the First issued an edict to missionaries. Rather than obliterating native beliefs and customs of the Celts, the pope suggested adapting them. If the people of an area worshipped a tree, then consecrate it to Christ and build a Christian Church around it. This brilliant concept quickly added numbers to the Christian faith, but old traditions die hard and the celebration of Samhain continued. To combat this, Christian “Holy Days” were purposely set to coincide with Pagan celebrations. Christmas was assigned the arbitrary date of December 25th because it corresponded with the Celtic Mid-Winter celebration of rebirth and November first was declared “All Saints’ Day,” (the most “hallowed” day of the year.) The evening of October 31st became known as All Hallow e'en ("the evening of all the holy ones"). Over time the space and punctuation was dropped and became Halloween.

Despite the bait and switch, some Samhain traditions of continued. Play-acting the part of evil spirits to be appeased, the children of Ireland would dress up as evil spirits and go from house to house demanding a “Treat,” or they would perform an unwelcome “Trick” on the home owner. Frustrated by people continuing some of the Samhain traditions, the church increased the rhetoric against All Hallows’ eve. They branded the Celts as evil practitioners of "witchcraft" and began Halloween’s association with the devil.

Once the church associated Halloween with Pagan rituals, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. October 31 became known as "The Witches' Sabbath" by witch hunters and eventually European witches began celebrating October 31 as one of their four great Sabbaths held during the year. Practitioners of the old religion began associating medieval Satanic elements with Halloween traditions.

1000 Years Later
During the Potato Famine, 1845-1850, over 700,000 Irish immigrates fled to the Americas and brought with them Halloween traditions of costumes, trick-or-treat, and Jack-o-lanterns. Unfortunately, they also brought the “tricks” with them in the form of the early American Mischief Night, also called Goblin or Devil's Night. Most of the mischief was practical jokes, but sometimes Halloween was used as a cover for criminal activity and in 1939 over 1,000 windows were broken in Queens, New York.

Always up for a party, people of the Victorian era (1837-1901) massed together everything Halloween. An adult holiday, costumed party goers would move from house to house for cakes, games and adult beverages. The Victorian sense of the macabre introduced decorations in the form of black cats, skeletons, witches, bats, skulls, devils Dracula, the mummy and Frankenstein that can be found in antique stores today. It was this imagery of witches and Devils that furthered the Church’s crusade against Halloween, forgetting entirely that they created this “Holy day of the Dead” in the first place.

In the late 1940’s the Boy Scouts and other community organizations redirected the sometimes deviant behavior of young people during the holiday and redefined Halloween as a children's holiday by formalizing the custom of Trick or Treating for candy. A change in American Architectural tastes after World War II caused the abandonment of many old Victorian style mansions, and these houses stood vacant in many cities. To keep children from playing in these rotting abandoned building, parents told them tales of mass murderers and violent ghosts that lived in such places.

The advent and availability of the automobile marked the death of the “Tunnel of Love,” amusement ride, previous the preferred dark and semi-private place for young couples to “get acquainted.” This gave rise in the late 1960’s to the October seasonal walk-through “Haunted House.” A charitable fundraising activity, these theatrical presentations have become huge multi-attraction events across the country operating weekends in October, with some Halloween Events opening as early as mid September.

The truth about Halloween is that it is a Christian holiday and has nothing to do with the Devil. Barely acknowledged in most countries, Halloween is a distinctly American phenomenon, a melding of religions and customs from 2,000 years of rich tradition and celebration. Halloween today is a time of fantasy and community. It is the only day of the year that you are encouraged to become something you are not without ridicule or judgment by others. Nearly 5 billion dollars is expected to be spent on Halloween this year, and people spend the money on themselves in the form of home decorations, costumes and even a little extra candy. Still an adult party holiday, Halloween inspirers the imagination of children of all ages, it provides the opportunity to visit or meet your neighbors through yard decorations, parties and Trick or Treat!”

In the rush to political correctness many schools are opting for a “fall festival” rather than celebrating Halloween. But isn’t a Fall Festival closer to the Pagan tradition of Samhain than celebrating the evening before All Saints Day?