By Pseudolos
With Paganism's best-known holiday upon us (Beltane runs a close second, though), the usual defamatory reports on Samhain and witches cropped up, some of which I'll cover here. Attacks on the holiday were unusually virulent this year - and it appears the Right has a new weapon to get Halloween banned from the schools altogether!
Defamatory Reports:
Where better to begin than at home? That leading publication of eclectic thought in our glorious Commonwealth, Kentucky Christian News, ran a whole page of misinformation on the holiday in their October issue. Heading the page was the testimony of a ``former witch'', Valerie Duffy. Duffy decries the practice of ``Harvest Parties'' for Halloween (just another attempt to Christianize the holiday, in my opinion), since it continues the celebration of ``Satan's feast day''. She believes children should not celebrate Halloween, but, rather, spend the evening praying to fight the forces of evil.
``Keep them aware that the fight isn't against occultists, non-Christians, Christians who feel differently than we do about Halloween, but against `principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places' (Eph. 6:12),'' Duffy says. She describes Samhain (which she pronounces ``sah-WEEN''; not the pronunciation I learned, but one I have seen before in Pagan literature) as an ``unholy Sabbath observed by occultists worldwide''.
``Human sacrifice was the featured attraction then and still is practiced today,'' she adds.
Valerie Duffy says she was introduced to the occult through a Ouija board at the age of four and pursued a ``lifestyle as a practicing witch'' until the age of 20, when she met ``the real Jesus Christ''. While most of the activities she lists are common to Pagans (divination, astrology, and spell-working), it is entirely possible she may have only encountered members of the seedier side of occultism in her youth. Duffy has begun Freedom Ministries, a ``counter-occult information service''. The only other info listed for her is a phone number, (removed at request of Valerie Duffy).
Below Duffy's article is another on Halloween - this one written by ``Grandma Maxine''. In a previous issue of this open-minded publication, ``Grandma'' suggested that Casper was Satanic, because he wasn't mentioned in the Bible! Apparently, children aren't the only ones who don't understand the difference between fictional characters in movies and real people. She describes Samhain as ``the lord of death and destruction''. Check out your Celtic mythology, Grandma! Samhain is a holiday, not a god! Is your god's name ``Christmas''?
Grandma continues with her history lesson: ``Priests, called Druids, went from door to door to find children and animals to sacrifice to this god. People tried to give them other treats so they would not take their children. When the priests took something living to sacrifice, a large hollow turnip with a light inside was left in front of the house to show that this family had given a sacrifice to Samhain.'' Shades of Passover! Caesar wrote that criminals were sacrificed, Grandma, or, in a pinch, innocent men, not children! Yes, the custom is barbaric by modern standards, but the point here is that the Druids didn't go door-to-door hunting for kids to kill. However, many scholars (like Nora Chadwick) say that there is too little archaeological evidence pertaining to Druidic sacrifice to support the theory of human sacrifice at all. The only Celtic myth referring to the sacrifice of children involved the Fomorians' (evil giants) demands that the human residents give over 2/3 of their first-born children to them. The Tuatha De Danaan ended this in the second battle of Moy Tura, which, by the way, took place on Samhain!
As for ``trick-or-treating''; in the folklore, fairies went from place to place on this night to trick humans, whom they resented for taking over their lands. People set out milk and food to appease them and gain their blessings for the coming year. People began copying the practice and went from house to house asking for treats! If they were refused, they would play pranks on the homeowners. These folks were the ones carrying the carved turnips.
``Grandma'' closes the article by claiming that ghosts are really demonic spirits who pretend to be the spirits of dead people and that witches have pet demon spirits who live in animals like black cats. She also says that witches cast spells, but even ``Grandma'' isn't wrong all the time!
``Grandma Maxine'' can be reached by writing Kentucky Christian News at: Mortenson Publishing Company, Lexington Green, Suite 600, 3191 Nicholasville Rd, Lexington, KY 40503. The publisher of KCN is Jack Mortenson, and the editor is Beverly Byrd, should you wish to express your opinion about this double slam on Halloween to the people in charge.
Attacks on the Holiday:
The fundies have a new trick themselves: unable to get Halloween celebrations banned on the basis of the holiday's so-called Satanic roots, they have turned to borrowing a page from the liberals' handbook: invoking the First Amendment!
They almost succeeded in Los Altos, CA this year. In the latest chapter of a running battle between parents wanting religious aspects in school celebrations and one wanting them removed, a group of conservative Christians persuaded the school board that celebrating Halloween in class parties would be celebrating a religious holiday, and thus should be forbidden.
``Teaching about Halloween will fall under the guidelines of teaching about religious beliefs and customs,'' the school board president, Phil Faillace said on October 11. ``And school time may not be used to celebrate Halloween, just as it may not be used to celebrate Easter, Yom Kippur or Ramadan.''
The board did an abrupt about-face six days later, after more than 800 parents and students attended the school board meeting in support of the holiday. Their argument was that the holiday had lost its religious aspects and had simply become a fun holiday for kids. Some also voiced the opinion that a relatively small group was actually seeking to censor the educational program.
Only a few people present supported the ban at the 4-hour meeting. They argued that the emphasis on witches and the macabre could offend some Christian parents and students who see such things as Satanic and to be avoided. In the end, the board decided to reinstate the Halloween celebrations, but allowed students to opt out if it offended their religious beliefs, as they can with sex education and saluting the flag.
The new reasons used to justify the banning of Halloween are not only being used in Los Altos. The idea has been making the circuit around Religious Right circles (for example, the CUUPS-USA list recently carried a message from someone who had seen Pat Robertson make the same claim on the 700 Club October 27th), so we should probably expect members to parrot their leaders. I would be more willing to take the argument at face value if I didn't know that these were the same people wanting to install Christian prayer in the schools by labeling it ``student-initiated''! The First Amendment is only being invoked by the Right here so a small group of people can get rid of a holiday they don't approve of.
There is another point that needs to be noted underlying the flap over Halloween, however - something very interesting. Perhaps the most telling comment in the reports from Los Altos was made by Terry Roberts, who was in favor of the ban. She said she was worried because there were ``15 to 20 thousand witches in the Bay Area. I`m sure there are some in the audience.''
The Christians are finally admitting we are a real religion with real adherents. By using this ``new weapon'' to get rid of a mostly secular holiday, they are actually giving us some of the public credibility we need! Awareness of Paganism and the New Age as a legitimate rival to Christianity has increased in the fundamentalist community in the last 5-6 years. Books like How to Protect the Environment Without Worshiping the Earth have begun appearing in Christian bookstores. People like Grandma Maxine decry the film Pocahontas (KCN `s July issue) because of its implication that Nature is divine - ``dangerous'' New Age ideas in her opinion (she needs to review her Stoicism and Neoplatonism if she thinks these ideas are ``new''!) Over the summer, a lecture was given in Woodridge, NC on the most effective ways to argue against New Age philosophy when dealing with its adherents.
This acknowledgement can be turned to our advantage. As a religion with public recognition, our First Amendment rights will be more likely to be upheld. Our claims of harassment on religious grounds will be taken more seriously by the police and elected officials. Taking custody of children away from Pagan and Wiccan parents will become harder.
More curiosity about what Pagans really do will be generated, giving us new opportunities for public education. The majority of our appearances in the media have been spent in denying our status as a Satanic cult; in the future, we will be able to discuss our ideology instead. Whether one agrees with the Los Altos decision or not, the advantages such situations offer outweigh the disadvantages. The public support for Halloween offered by the Los Altos residents was also heartwarming, even if most of them felt the holiday had become a secular one. Perhaps a day will come when all religions can be celebrated with none being imposed on the public; in the meantime, such support is greatly appreciated.
Sources:
Rowan Moonstone's ``Origins of Halloween'': an excellent source of information on the holiday with a detailed bibliography.
Caesar's Conquest of Gaul
Kentucky Christian News - July, October `95 issues
The San Francisco Chronicle
The San Francisco Examiner
Reuters News Service
The Southern Baptist Press