Christianity stole all of its holidays from the pagans. There is nothing holy about any of these holidays. Most are just fertility ceremonies. You think Easter has any thing to do with Christ? Hell no. Those bunnies symbolize fertility and getting it on.
Getting it on, good. Fertility bad. Use birth control
There is no "should." As atheists and agnostics we get to celebrate anything we want to! So create that fun, clever costume that will scare and offend your religious friends, spoil the neighborhood kids with candy and eat all the leftovers!!!
Halloween doesn't even remotely resemble the original traditions and rites that started it. Many Christians find it Satanic and themselves don't celebrate. Halloween is all about partying till you lose your candy corn and dressing as slutty nurses and doctors and cops and cats. There's nothing there that promotes beliefs in spirits... unless you're talking about the alcohol spirits.
why not its time to dress up as something you are not. Have fun!
Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts.
In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III adopted / adapted the festival as a time to honor all saints; soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween.
Here in England we have the bonfires on November 5th to commemorate the ritual burning of Guido Fawkes ... more next week on his demise
from the mythological to the catholic to the political. I live in America and am relatively poor so I shop at various "dollar stores". These stores are soon flooded with cheap ornaments made in China, worse yet they start trying to sell this stuff in September!! This is the only thing that irritates me about hallows eve I just wish they would let it be a normal holiday. It gets even worse come Christmass there is no escaping the music everywhere you need to go
@ZetaBrononski totally agree with you about the commercialisation of holidays and the range of plastic rubbish we are expected to be eager to buy.
The shops over here are already full of christmas junk
The retailers promote pseudo holiday enthusiasm to sell a lot of junk. Christmas is the apiothesis of potlatch, when we are guilt tripped into giving each other presents. The proper agnostic & athiest holiday should be the Winter Solstice, on 12/21, or perhaps New Year's,, a secular holiday,when we renew our committment to our world view for another year, & don't buy a lot of junk
I celebrate Halloween, put up decorations, hand out candy. I celebrate Christmas/New Years, buy presents, get together with family. Does not mean I need to believe in any "higher power" to do those things, tradition.
Most of the fun bits of the major old holidays are Pagan and were corrupted by Xtians.
Agnostics and atheists can celebrate or enjoy anything they wish. If they think Halloween is fun, there is no reason why they shouldn’t join in, we all know it’s all just hokum don’t we?
Do we? Hokum that involves belief in ghosts, spirits, demons, etc is presenting a religious world view. It is true individuals must decide for themselves whether to participate in this "hokum", but I believe principled agnostics & atheists should come our like Cotton Mather against it.
@Remiforce It’s up to each of us do do what we think is right for us. Personally I’ve never found it fun, but I would never tell anyone else not to participate in Halloween activities if they want to. We atheists don’t have any rules which we have to follow..we don’t have a uniform belief in anything because we’re skeptics about ghosties, ghoulies and things that go bump in the night. Taking part in what I describe as hokum doesn’t authenticate it in any way, or legitimise a belief in the spirit world.
Halloween is fun! It also marks the harvest. For me it harkens the beginning of year’s end. Here in Mexico, we celebrate Dia de los Muertos. Day of the Dead. Dry traditional, a lot more fun and the ofrendas or altars are creative and emotional.
Your use of the word should is puzzling.
Who or what is going to stop us??
The terrible Atheist Police, who regulate behavior by atheists
@Remiforce Are they all holy zombies?
A fundamentalist nutcase I’d worked with described his family hiding in a room furthest from their front door … with a single light on - reading bible passages ‘until it was over.’ ..don’t know how I kept a straight face hearing that…
I’ve always felt drawn to it because the religious appeared upset by it.. Little to do with it anymore, I’ll smile at how elaborate some get decorating and celebrating whatever it’s become
One way to keep the parasitic rugrats from the door
Celebrate what ever you want. Live your best life! Have fun. Be happy now!!
I am atheist. Halloween is just party time with costumes, candies, happy kids so I'm all for it. I don't know of anyone who celebrates it as a religious holiday, or pays respect to spirits, demons etc...
Halloween is a day to dress up and have fun. No one actually takes it seriously. I didn't even know what it was intended to "celebrate" until I was am adult in college. Being atheist doesn't mean you can't have fun, but the opposite! We actually get to enjoy life much more, because we don't waste or limited time on Earth on religious BS but do what we enjoy instead!
Like most, if not all, Christian celebrations were stolen from ancient pagan rituals. The pagan rituals corresponded with the times of the lunar cycle and seasons of the year. Christmas was and is a ancient pagan ritual celebrating the season of year and the lunar cycle. Christ was not born in December, no one would have had the population traveling during the dead of winter.
Christ, if such a person existed, was probable born in March, which makes him a Piscean. The early christian sign was 2 fishes, the sign of Pisces. Sheep fold, have little sheep, in the spring, which is when the shepards would be tending them. The shepards would not be freezing their bippies off in December. Also the comet that is said to be the "star" that guided the wise guys appeared in March
Should atheist buy and/or read books on Greek mythology?
Sure, You find them in the fiction section
It depends on what you mean by "celebrate." I personally do not believe that on this one night all the souls or demons come out and I do not leave them food to pacify them with in hopes they will leave me alone. As the only one in my household today I do not pass out candy to children who come to my door. It was fun when I was young but today I am an "A-Halloweenist." Those with families and children are free to think differently. I do not want to get together a guidebook on what atheists should or should not do. Once you do that you will end up with rules and having meetings and "we believe" lists hanging on walls somewhere.
Rules & meetings & lists hanging on the wall. Should we change Agnostics & Atheists into A.A.?