Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Festival of Fears

http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/newsletter/2007/oct25.html

[Christianity Today] 30 Oct 2007--According to New York Newsday columnist Ellis Henican, just about everybody is protesting Halloween this year: "Interest groups left and right—Christian, Muslim and Wiccan—are finding new reasons to be outraged about Halloween. Fundamentalist Christians warn the celebration promotes devil worship. Prudes and feminists say the costumes have gotten too risque. Civil-rights groups complain that too many Halloween ghosts resemble lynching victims. Even the witches feel aggrieved …"

Protests are nothing new, but if history teaches us anything, we shouldn't expect them to stick. As Ellen Feldman once noted in American Heritage magazine, "Halloween is a plastic holiday … mauled and molded to fit the needs of each generation."

No comments: