Actually, it's Celtic. It is meant to celebrate the return of the dead, and actually if translated is referred to as "day of the dead". Gifts would be left to the dead, for when they return, and friendly spirits would travel from the plain of death to that of the living. less

Thank you!

We have a family on our block who didn't "believe" in Halloween. (That was their option.) But, when my kids came home crying saying that one of the kids in this holier than thou family told MY kids "Halloween is the Devil's birthday. If you dress up and go Trick or Treating, you will go to Hell." I was NOT happy and didn't consider it a Christian thing for these children to be allowed to do.

Of course, both their daughters had babies in High School and one of them turned into a complete Goth. I saw her walking once down the street in an outfit that would be considered scanty by Eden Lingerie standards, with a coffin shaped purse and upside down crosses around her neck and telling my kids then she was a "vampyre." My Man and I agreed that never allowing them to PLAY on Halloween probably helped this child to want every day to be Halloween.

After raising three kids, I know that when something is "forbidden" you only make it VERY attractive to some children. The more "forbidden" the thing is, the more some kids tend to be attracted to the thing forbidden.

Restricting normal, socially acceptable behaviors rarely results in what parents think it will. Restricting birth control information results in unwanted babies, restricting playing on HAPPY holidays may result in that child spending the rest of her life catching up.

This is MY opinion alone. Mileage may vary.

As Bignuf says, it's secular holiday and it's PLAY. Halloween has no religious significance the way most Americans celebrate it the way it is. For those who DO celebrate Samahain, these people are pagans and have nothing to do with the Devil or Satan in any way. For them, it's an ancient holiday meant to love those who have died, and has no evil meaning whatsoever. less