My church doesn't really acknowledge it, but I always dress up. Its not that its against Holloween, its just not like.....you know what I mean?

Many churches will not, it's true. But I think they've taken the idea of it as Satanic to an extreme level. My church takes it in a different light. I believe it all depends on how you perceive it.

We dress up is costumes, decorate our house, carve pumpkins (and other autumnal vegetables) and hand out candy. There's nothing inherently evil about Hallowe'en.

I can agree with you on much of that harold. But unfortunately not everyone sees it that way. Much of it stems from the Druidian era of Ireland.

I don't think it really matters. Most people use Halloween as a chance to get free candy, not worship Satan. :/

I would love to agree whole-heartedly, Fuyu, but it is deeper than that.
I loved it completely as a child, but learned the hard truth behind the darker side of the holiday when I was in my late teens.

My church does not really acknowledge halloween either, and they are not against it either, it just is not really an imprtant holiday to the church.

the way i think about halloween has a lot to do with the way i think of harry potter. to me, it is, as someone above me said, how you perceive it. just because i dress up or go get candy (i don't now, because im 17, but i used to) doesn't mean im promoting satan. it means i'm having fun on a holiday. but yes, some people are worshiping satan, and for them, it's wrong. i read the harry potter books, but when i buy them and read them, it's not like i feel like im paying my money to satan-worshipers, or reading them as a "how-to" book hoping i can do magic. i'm reading a story for entertainment. if we really want to see halloween as an evil thing we should ignore or hate (or harry potter as the same thing), then there are a lot of things we need to ignore. disney movies have witches, soap operas have witches, superheroes have powers unnatural to people of earth. i mean, it depends on how deep you want to go into these things. i don't think it's wrong to celebrate halloween, it's wrong to celebrate it as a devil's day. just observe it as a time to have fun and get candy, and don't think of it as worshiping satan, then i think it's ok. God meant us to enjoy life, and lots of these things are tests to me. if we can observe halloween or read fantasy stories and still believe and know right from wrong, i think we're all the stronger in faith :)

im not trying to get anyone mad by the way, and i didn't mean any of that in a mean way. i love all of you as brothers and sisters in Christ! :)

its just another chance to have fun- im not christian,, i dont really know why im looking at this spot- i actually think tha religion is the main cause of war in this world,, people cant accept others views and obviously rather preach and push their beliefs on others than actually practising the beliefs.

That's a good distinction, fitzdude, that you make between religion and faith.

I don't agree with a religious attitude about any holiday - that is must be celebrated or must be avoided because that's what's appropriate or the going practice - but I can see avoiding Hallowe'en (or even Christmas - I have friends who have problems celebrating Christ's birth so close to the Winter Solstice) if it is a reasoned choice for yourself, arrived at in prayer and based on faith. If you would stumble over something, you should avoid it to maintain your faith. But that doesn't mean that everyone should avoid it, or that it would be a stumbling block for anyone else.

I think Halloween is for weeners LoL JK I was just making a joke, but I do think that it is evil, I never celebrated Haloween before because me and my parents are Christians. But when my mom was little she didn't know any better so her and her sisters and brothers were celebrating it( really they were just getting candy) but as soon as they found out how evil it was and the witchcraft of it they all stopped, well some of them did.But if you think Halloween is just about getting candy then you are wrong, you can get candy from the store all the candy you want, but Halloween is full of evil justlike the devil, an I believe the devil wants people to celebrate Halloween because to him it means turning people away from God. Sorry to everyone who is probally mad at me, but everyone was posting their opinion and I thought I should post mine too, and for those of you that probally think that I don't know what I am talking about believe me I do, my father is a preacher so I learn alot of stuff from him.Now I do get pumpkins and stuff like that, but I'm not celebrating Halloween, I'm just celebrating autumn! Sometimes we even go to this church by my old school, where they have games, candy, music, and contests for the best costumes( nothing evil). One year I went as an angel and then another year I went as a pop-princess!

its just a fun holiday to dress up as anything we want

Well, my church does do the halloween thing. They decorate it every year and encourage trick-or-treaters. I think it's nice that people can be so accepting of one another even though we have differences of opinions.

If you go to check what does everything in halloween mean, I think you'd avoid it completely. It's hard to believe that the long past traditions of the druids are so well conserved now. You who see it as an "inoffensive holiday" should search for information of the origins of halloween. In my opinion, you can't say "I'm not worshiping Satan, I'm just having fun" when you're disguised as a demon or any other monster...

I don't think that you can just ignore where a holiday / custom / belief came from. Origin does matter. for example, would you eat a piece of candy you foung lying in the gutter? Yes, the candy itself is not bad but look where it came from.

It's the same with many so-called "harmless" customs. I've read several times that these things should be left up to individual's perceptions but what about God's perception? How does he feel if people claiming to serve him, follow a holiday that is deeply rooted in ancient pagan beliefs?

I think majordork put it well that religion is one thing, spiritual faith like christianity is different. mankind, in itself, is the reason for war. religion is not the full reason for war. it is greed, selfishness, and sin that has brought about war, and everyone is guilty of that. war isn't just with guns in the middle east, it is even started in the streets and called 'riots.' that, too, is a war in itself.

I think, like most things in life, it's about your motives and intentions behind it. I have celebrated Halloween (not the devil) every year since I was a child. Never have I thought of it as a celebration of Satan, even if that's where it originated. The days of the week are named after pagan gods and such, that doesn't keep me from calling today Sunday or Saturday. Playing cards were originally based off of Tarot cards. Does that mean I'm rejecting God by playing a game of spades?
I just think we need to remember that with everything we do, God sees our heart. If Halloween is just our families way of having some fun, eating candy, playing games and dressing up goofy, God sees that.

chathlics are awsome

to me halloween is dressing up and getting free candy.:) i dont think of it as a bad holiday if you dont treat it as one.

I don't celebrate the original meaning but what's wrong with dressing up and getting candy? It's harmless in my opinion. But I do not like it when people dress up as the devil. But cany is fine!